Low Carber sets Ultramarathon World Record

[borofergie]

So I've participated in several discussions on these boards about the benefits of low-carb for endurance athletes, and suggested that "carbo-loading", although useful for some people, wasn't necessarily the best stratergy, and that "fat-loading" might be more effective.

Well it turns out that a low-carb/high-fat athlete won the "Western States 100mile Endurance Race" (probably the most famous endurance race) this year, breaking the record by over 20 minutes. Apparently he's not alone - more and more endurance runners are turning to low-carb as an effective method of fuelling:

Steve Phinney says that more and more endurance athletes are choosing low-carb, high-fat. They’re choosing this diet both to get over digestive problems that hit in such a demanding event, and to win the race, and win it BIG!

http://www.meandmydiabetes.com/2012/08/ ... lek-study/

Makes all the NHS whinging about "having to eat carbs to fuel your brain" look pretty stupid, don't you think?

 

[hanadr]

I'm still waiting to acost a dietician to ask about the deficiency symptoms of a low carb diet. You know, like Kwashiokor[sp?] if you don't get enough protein :?
Hana

 

[Sid Bonkers]

Makes all the NHS whinging about "having to eat carbs to fuel your brain" look pretty stupid, don't you think?

Why Low-Carb Diets are Terrible for Athletes - http://anthonycolpo.com/?p=1535

 

[dawnmc]

That thing by colpo was stating no carb not low carb, so the title was mis leading.

 

[borofergie]

Makes all the NHS whinging about "having to eat carbs to fuel your brain" look pretty stupid, don't you think?

Why Low-Carb Diets are Terrible for Athletes - http://anthonycolpo.com/?p=1535

Well it seems that Tim Olson has proved Colpo wrong doesn't it - at 21 min record at the Western States 100 mile?

What more validation do you need?

The reason we were particularly interested in a 100 mile race, and particularly in this race, is that increasingly, among what are called ultra endurance athletes, there is greater appreciation among some of them, that they perform better when they cut way back on their carbs. They find they do much better that way than if they follow the traditional very high carbohydrate fueling practice called “carbohydrate loading.” So this race is now composed of a heterogeneous mix of runners, some of whom follow the traditional high carb racer’s diet, and some of whom have switched over to a low-carb strategy.

 

[Robinredbreast]

“Nah coach, I haven’t touched any underage girls since the player counseling program last year”. :thumbdown:

After reading that, I didn't read anymore :sick: RRB

 

[dawnmc]

Actually Jodie Marsh eats low carb, lifts heavy and is a veggie.

 

[borofergie]

Tim Noakes - ultra-runner and author of the running bible "The Lore of Running" has also gone low-carb, and suggests that everyone do the same (runners or not):
www.discovery.co.za/email_za/mailers/pd ... noakes.pdf

Of course, if you'd rather listen to the word of a body-builder, that's entirely up to you.

 

[phoenix]

Course not world record.. it's not possible to have one in a trail race.

In one of the comments Tim Olsen clarifies what he eats, it isn't a high carb Michael Phelps type diet but it doesn't sound ultra low carb by any means.
I

do stick to a low arb diet which I believe helps tremendously. I took out grains over a year ago. I still have some carbs like sweet potatoes, but I try to eat them before a big run or race. Basicli I eat lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts and meat. I start each day with some hazelnut butter, then I go for a run and one back and make a green smoothly with fruit and kale. Lunch and dinner normally consist of vegetables and chicken or venison. I’m also not entirely strict on my diet, somedays I’ll have sushi with rice or some tacos with corn tortillas. Overall I try to eat a balanced diet and keep the carbs as low as possible.
On race day, I use Vespa which is an amino acid supplement about every 2hrs and a 100cal gel pack ( I like Cliffs vanilla gels) about every hour. Being on a low carb diet helps me to efficiently burn fat as my fuel. The few cal an hour I use allow me to run as fast as I can.
I hope this answers some questions.
Feel free to follow my blog where I talk about my nutrition pretty openly. I plan on writing a nutrition article soons

Phinney doesn't clarify what he ate during the race but Olsen does.

http://www.irunfar.com/2012/07/laughing ... eport.html
Sierra Mist (a canned drink which contains sugar)
Gels (which may be the gels he mentions above ;24g carb and could include the EFS shots he links and mentions on his blog
which are 100g carb)
Vespa which seems to be made from honey and amino acids 5g carbs.
recovery drink : 60% carb

Reading through his blog I think that he probably eats a very natural diet and doesn't seem to eat wheat . He cetainly uses fast carbs to refuel during races .
The normal amount of carbs advised during long distance running seems to be about 60g an hour don't know how much his intake compares to others ( I must be an ultra low carber because I take 15-20g an hour in runs up to 7hours!)

As the body has a limited capacity to store carbs all ultra marathoners utlise body fat for a great deal of the fuel during a race. The body becomes more able to oxidise fat through endurance exercise . I think they mostly do it very effectively hence if you look at pictures of them they are very lean.

edit because I seem to have got rid of what I thought I had written!

 

[Grazer]

As this is a low carb success story on the low carb diet forum, i cant see the need to try and find fault. It sounds pretty low carb for someone running 100 miles to me.

 

[xyzzy]

Presumably many of these athletes have sports nutritionists recommending what regime to follow so why would they recommend a regime that doesn't have a chance?

A quick look around brought me to the article below which seems to offer a reasonably balanced view. As far as I can see it says the high fat route may well work for endurance sports but also points out an even better strategy maybe to eat high fat for a few weeks prior to an event then carb load for a couple of days before. It would certainly seem that high fat regimes aren't simply just discounted because they have the words "high fat" and "low carb" in them and therefore should never be considered or should be undermined or derided.

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/sports-nutrition-should-athletes-use-fat-or-carbohydrate-as-fuel-631

As an aside the article also mentions studies done on athletes which show their cholesterol levels improving on high fat diets.

 

[borofergie]

What you are describing xyzzy, is the standard carbo loading. Deplete your glycogen reserves for a couple of weeks before the race, then load up on carbs just before it.

This let's you store more glycogen in your muscles.

The alternative approach is to "fat load" in which you don't carb up before the race, but become proficient at fat burning. You have less glycogen in your muscles at the start of the race, but you use it up slower (because you are burning fat instead).

The latter approach is what the low-carb endurance athletes are using. Obviously you still need to top up your glycogen stores in a hundred mile race. But these athletes aren't glugging down 10000kcal of energy gels during the race, just to keep going.

 

[phoenix]

And another alternative is a Cordain style Paleo diet. HIgher protein than fat.
https://www.trailrunnermag.com/health/d ... n-approved

I'll be at this weekend in October.
http://www.google.com/translate?u=http% ... =fr&ie=utf
It's a brilliant weekend with people running one or more trails with distances from a couple of K for children to over 100km of hilly rugged terrain. (I'm out of training so this year I'm just doing the 9km women only race, I did a longer one last year )
The feeding stations on the longer races have all sorts of different foods from gels and energy drinks, dried fruits, almond paste to bread and cheese and sausage.

The nutritional advice suggests an intake, in training of 6 to 8g of complex carbs per kilo per day which is the same as that suggested in xyzzys link. They also suggest that you eat as much sea food as meat and lots of fruit and veg.
I eat about half of the amount of carbs suggeste and have 'run' distances up to 50k :ie completed ; the great thing about trails is that almost no-one runs the steepest hills. I don't think that makes me a particularly low carber; but then again I'm not an elite runner and I'm expecting to be at the back end rather than the front end of the race.
Interestingly they suggest 4 reasons that people fail , one of which is not eating enough calories, the other not understanding the role of fat and cutting it too much.

 

[xyzzy]

What you are describing xyzzy, is the standard carbo loading. Deplete your glycogen reserves for a couple of weeks before the race, then load up on carbs just before it.

This let's you store more glycogen in your muscles.

The alternative approach is to "fat load" in which you don't carb up before the race, but become proficient at fat burning. You have less glycogen in your muscles at the start of the race, but you use it up slower (because you are burning fat instead).

The latter approach is what the low-carb endurance athletes are using. Obviously you still need to top up your glycogen stores in a hundred mile race. But these athletes aren't glugging down 10000kcal of energy gels during the race, just to keep going.

Interesting... I will read some more as it all quite intriguing. I think my opening comment is still valid in that any kind of pro athlete and importantly their coaches etc. aren't going to let them do a nutritional regime that would be obviously and patently unsuccessful. The whole point would be to find a regime that helps you win.

 

[Dillinger]

“Nah coach, I haven’t touched any underage girls since the player counseling program last year”. :thumbdown:

After reading that, I didn't read anymore :sick: RRB

Eh???

 

[Robinredbreast]

Makes all the NHS whinging about "having to eat carbs to fuel your brain" look pretty stupid, don't you think?

Why Low-Carb Diets are Terrible for Athletes - http://anthonycolpo.com/?p=1535

dillinger, if by writing 'eh' and you are asking why have I written that :?: It is from the above http as quoted by Sid. Am I the only one to have read the quote, as I said, after the underage girl comment, I didn't want to read anymore :shock:
I am one of the people who suffer from diabetic related eye problems and I read it perfectly well. I hope this answers the 'eh' and you now fully understand. RRB

 

[IanD]

dillinger, if by writing 'eh' and you are asking why have I written that :?: It is from the above http as quoted by Sid. Am I the only one to have read the quote, as I said, after the underage girl comment, I didn't want to read anymore :shock:
I am one of the people who suffer from diabetic related eye problems and I read it perfectly well. I hope this answers the 'eh' and you now fully understand. RRB

Agreed, Robin - the way that article started off it obviously was not making a scientific contribution to the discussion.

 

[Robinredbreast]

dillinger, if by writing 'eh' and you are asking why have I written that :?: It is from the above http as quoted by Sid. Am I the only one to have read the quote, as I said, after the underage girl comment, I didn't want to read anymore :shock:
I am one of the people who suffer from diabetic related eye problems and I read it perfectly well. I hope this answers the 'eh' and you now fully understand. RRB

Agreed, Robin - the way that article started off it obviously was not making a scientific contribution to the discussion.

Thank you Ian, I was thinking that I was the only one that read this article Not appropiate, to me anyway :thumbdown: With best wishes RRB

 

[phoenix]

That's the problem with the author. (Colpo)
I agree I hate his style and some of the things he says. His style creates a lot of antagonism and online 'enemies' from all 'sides' of the dietary spectrum. Neverthess , if you can get over that part he does address the science.
I went on to Dr Katherine Morris's site ( she's a GP, ex mod on here and proponent of low carb ) I was somewhat surprised to see his fat loss bible in her list of books .
He's written a good article about calories, and the evidence from metabolic wards.
edit : missed word

 

[Dillinger]

Makes all the NHS whinging about "having to eat carbs to fuel your brain" look pretty stupid, don't you think?

Why Low-Carb Diets are Terrible for Athletes - http://anthonycolpo.com/?p=1535

dillinger, if by writing 'eh' and you are asking why have I written that :?: It is from the above http as quoted by Sid. Am I the only one to have read the quote, as I said, after the underage girl comment, I didn't want to read anymore :shock:
I am one of the people who suffer from diabetic related eye problems and I read it perfectly well. I hope this answers the 'eh' and you now fully understand. RRB

Ah, ok - I see, I couldn't see anything like that in Borofergie's link so was puzzled. I didn't realise that you were referring to another link. I agree; Anthony Colpo writes like a jerk.

Best

Dillinger