Comments on: Transitioning to the Paleo diet http://www.njamworld.com/2009/10/14/transitioning-to-the-paleo-diet/ Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:28:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Lessons learned: low-carb diet for endurance exercise http://www.njamworld.com/2009/10/14/transitioning-to-the-paleo-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-410 Lessons learned: low-carb diet for endurance exercise Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:04:40 +0000 http://www.njamworld.com/?p=306#comment-410 [...] first was a question on one of my old posts from someone who wanted to know how I dealt with the problem of being glycogen starved while [...] [...] first was a question on one of my old posts from someone who wanted to know how I dealt with the problem of being glycogen starved while [...]

]]> By: Ammi http://www.njamworld.com/2009/10/14/transitioning-to-the-paleo-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-380 Ammi Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:58:50 +0000 http://www.njamworld.com/?p=306#comment-380 I suppose I took a rather roundabout route to being low-carb since the first real attempt involved a massive "carb-up" day once a week (cyclical ketogenic diet style), usually on one of my biggest weight training days. As a result I probably wasn't glycogen starved at all when training for the first month or so of being low carb while my body quietly adjusted itself to burning fat instead. Even now I still have a slight carb spike just before heavy weights training sessions (I was having a bowl of yoghurt and stewed fruit, now I have a small baked sweet potato). I took a slightly different approach to adapting for endurance training - I carried on taking carb sources (dried fruit, bananas etc) on long rides (3+ hours) but also started doing fasted 2 hour rides first thing in the morning once a week (and tried to do the first hour of longer rides without eating anything). The first few fasted rides were hideous - the last half hour or so we were crawling along feeling horrid - but the benefit of cycling is that it's easy to dial it back when you hit that point and spin very gently to get yourself home. After a few weeks of that it got much easier. I found my body adapted to fat burning very quickly because it had to. It was well worth the investment in those couple of bike rides. If you're prepared to take a risk of poor training for a couple of weeks then I think the payback in long-term adaptations is worth a few weeks of set back in the training. I suppose I took a rather roundabout route to being low-carb since the first real attempt involved a massive “carb-up” day once a week (cyclical ketogenic diet style), usually on one of my biggest weight training days. As a result I probably wasn’t glycogen starved at all when training for the first month or so of being low carb while my body quietly adjusted itself to burning fat instead.

Even now I still have a slight carb spike just before heavy weights training sessions (I was having a bowl of yoghurt and stewed fruit, now I have a small baked sweet potato).

I took a slightly different approach to adapting for endurance training – I carried on taking carb sources (dried fruit, bananas etc) on long rides (3+ hours) but also started doing fasted 2 hour rides first thing in the morning once a week (and tried to do the first hour of longer rides without eating anything). The first few fasted rides were hideous – the last half hour or so we were crawling along feeling horrid – but the benefit of cycling is that it’s easy to dial it back when you hit that point and spin very gently to get yourself home. After a few weeks of that it got much easier. I found my body adapted to fat burning very quickly because it had to.

It was well worth the investment in those couple of bike rides. If you’re prepared to take a risk of poor training for a couple of weeks then I think the payback in long-term adaptations is worth a few weeks of set back in the training.

]]> By: Andy http://www.njamworld.com/2009/10/14/transitioning-to-the-paleo-diet/comment-page-1/#comment-376 Andy Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:04:21 +0000 http://www.njamworld.com/?p=306#comment-376 Interesting, you essentially came to the same conclusions as Robert Atkins- shock the body into burning fat by eating a very restricted carb intake. In the first two weeks of Atkins, he recommends no more than 20g of carbs a day from salad greens or low starch vegetables. The eventual aim of Atkins is to find your critical carbohydrate level - i.e. the amount of 'clean carbs' you can eat without weight gain. How did you solve the problem of being glycogen starved when training? That for me is the biggest concern with a low carb diet Interesting, you essentially came to the same conclusions as Robert Atkins- shock the body into burning fat by eating a very restricted carb intake. In the first two weeks of Atkins, he recommends no more than 20g of carbs a day from salad greens or low starch vegetables. The eventual aim of Atkins is to find your critical carbohydrate level – i.e. the amount of ‘clean carbs’ you can eat without weight gain.

How did you solve the problem of being glycogen starved when training? That for me is the biggest concern with a low carb diet

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