Branne

LCHF - Only eat when hungry, right? Immediately after high intensity rides/sessions - I'm never hungry. My first hunger signals starts about 1hr-1.5hr afterwards. So, so should one wait and ignore the proverbial immediate post exercise "recovery window"...? It's well documented that hard exercise suppresses appetite. There are obviously reasons for this. Good enough reasons to NOT eat until hungry? I came across an lchf based article saying that the body takes a lot longer then we think to absorb and use the nutrients we give it during training. It was basically saying that if you are doing hard session in the morning, what is important is what you ate for supper the day before. Not what you snacked on just before session. Furthermore, it recommended that no need for immediate recovery snack just after session. Wait until hungry. The body mechanisms to deal with muscle recovery and "over heating" was mentioned as some of the reasons why appetite is reduced. But basically hormones regulating appetite. Any thoughts on this? (I'm still "forcing down" some post exercise carbs)

Short answer, I don't... Was thinking exactly along the same lines. I was contemplating various strategies to fill up on glycogen. In the end I decided to back off on high intensity training week before race and eat LCHF as per normal and rely on body to "stock up" on LC foods. That's why I was quite apprehensive before long hard race, but went really well. If you have any other strategy please share!

Short answer, I don't... Was thinking exactly along the same lines. I was contemplating various strategies to fill up on glycogen. In the end I decided to back off on high intensity training week before race and eat LCHF as per normal and rely on body to "stock up" on LC foods. That's why I was quite apprehensive before long hard race, but went really well. If you have any other strategy please share!

I found this article useful for racing on lchf: http://profgrant.com/2014/03/04/how-to-win-the-ironman-on-lchf/ "Race day nutrition Here’s the big change made. The race fuel wasn’t fat, it was 20 gels and 1.5 bottles of coke on the bike leg. On the run he started with a handheld gel bottle holding 4 gels. At the halfway he collected another bottle but ended up not using that and went to a combination of coke and water after that. Remember as you read below that carbs, especially in the rapidly absorbed form such as gels, boost blood sugar and insulin production. Insulin turns off fat burning and promotes glucose burning. Bevan had discovered, for himself at least, that once he was well fat adapted, that when he was riding at around 270 W power output then the extra gels didn’t end up dialing down his fat metabolism. He was still around 50% fuel by fat and 50% by carbohydrate. We feel that the whole Kreb’s (fuel) cycle in the body was spinning fast enough and fuel utilisation was high enough that insulin wasn’t being secreted in massive amounts to dial down fat burning and promote glycogen only fuel use. This isn’t what you see in non-fat adapted athletes. Nor is it what you would see in Bevan at rest. This was a key discovery as he could get the performance benefits of the carbs whilst still maintaining the fat burning that he had developed through his LCHF and mainly fasted long aerobic training work."

My strategy would be to try and remain LC "as much as possible" until race starts. If "adapted", burning more fat for fuel can be a major advantage, thus that's what I'm trying maximize. I feel that suddenly eating carbs BEFORE race could diminish that advantage. Once racing and immediately post race/stage is where I would use high GI carbs. We all respond differently and have to find what works best, but that would be my start.

It all started with the Fat shake... As I embarked on my journey into the Banting world, my biggest apprehension with this eating plan concerned breakfast. I was 100% committed to Oats for breakfast. Nothing else would do. All other meals of the day could be whatever BUT breakfast HAD to be Oats. So after having spotted the Fat Shake in Real Meal Rev. I thought I’d give it a bash (with some reservations, I might add…). Before my first long slow Sunday ride on LCHF I went for a search and got the ingredients together as per recipe (double fat Woolies cream, full cream milk, coconut cream and butter) blitzed it in the blender and just downed the whole lot - it's a huge shake! The indulgence of this fat shake just propelled me firmly into the land of LCHF. Those ingredients together, I mean the combination of those saturated fats - outrageous / preposterous! I could imagine the Cardiologist-Fraternity getting hold of this recipe and make some panic-stricken phone calls with the paranoia-pitch turned up high to all its members – simply put - Loved it! I then jumped straight on my bike, armed only with fat shake and water and set off. Thought I’d be likely to throw up along the way, but felt surprisingly good. Had one coffee stop with a cappuccino 2hrs into the ride, not because I was hungry nor needed it, but to be social with my riding “carbo-buddies”. Then rode another 2.5 hrs. Got back home more than 5hrs later – not hungry whatsoever. But I was feeling GREAT! Full of energy! Started fixing things around the house, family probably thought I was on drugs! About another hour I started to get a bit peckish. The Fat Shake for me was such a significant change / shift in eating relating to cycling, that’s why I felt this / fat shake was my defining moment entering the Banting scene. After this breakfast, there was no going back. Who need oats?

Just like to share my experience with my lchf journey so far... Background: after laughing at "crazy lchf people" for years, including my sister, I was convinced by my "medical contacts" that I should give lchf a try. For me I was looking at cycling performance first and foremost. Health and weight loss WAS secondary. Last year I was racing with Elite and Subvets groups depending on race and mostly finished with front bunch. So be able to perform hard racing with lots of high intensity "anaerobic attacks" was a prerequisite for this eating plan for me, otherwise straight back to carb insanity land... Training on Lchf: so starting this year I took a break from racing and been on a "strict" lchf diet for about 3 months. My training consists of either low intensity endurance, always less than 180-age HR or HARD intervals LT/Aerobic at least twice a week. Endurance low intensity rides done on water only on bike. But often coffee and nuts before. Most of my training happens early morning. If longer than 3hrs a "fatshake" was consumed - fatshake- I could substantially digress at this point, but will keep focused For the interval training I always have a cappuccino just before session. I'm a coffee addict, and thus have invested in my own fully manual monster machine at home, that make Eskom nervous in the morning when I power it up... Use caffeine wisely is my motto! Then, as I start the interval session I indulge myself with a large teaspoon of raw honey. Then I go HARD. Appr. 20min of high intensity time and 1hr in total. As I complete the last interval I down 100-150ml of full cream milk. Subsequent to that, I will only eat when I get hungry, which can take 45min-1hr after session. This is the sequence that seems to work well for me, but I'm still working in that... It took me about 3-4 weeks to feel I was being able to go really hard on the bike and recovery being at least as quick as before lchf. Racing on lchf: this weekend was my fist race on lchf. I was worried about high intensity issues. I knew it would be hard road racing with constant attacks and breakaway attempts, for 150km. My strategy, after carefully looking into it, was to not carbo load PRIOR the race at all. Eggs and bacon and loads of butter 4hrs before race with lots of salt and lemon-water to drink. But once 20-30min into the race, I had Gu's every 40min. I rode in "Subvets league" category with some pretty strong guys in the line-up. The race started with 2 "anaerobic red line" (at least for me!) attacks in the first 10-20min. After that my carbs were ingested continuously. "Train low-race high" - I suppose. Straight afterwards I had 1/2l of full cream milk with 1scoop of leftover recovery powder from last year and some nuts and Droewors. After my first Gu in race I really felt a bit strange. Lightheaded perhaps... But it went away quickly. Felt a bit "sugar-hangoverish" afterwards but nothing serious. Race went really well! Was with the front bunch the whole way to the end. Never once got close to be dropped by the top team guys. No high intensity "issues". It is very hard to compare to pre lchf, but I judged myself to be at least at the same "racing fitness level" as per previous high carb diet. One thing I noticed though, my heart rate was A LOT higher than I've ever seen in a race before. I had some peaks with HR above what previously was my max! (Measured at SSISA) Notes: this way of eating/diet seems to work for me in both general day to day living, working, training and so far racing (N=1). I feel good on it, all bloating, gas and constant hunger has disappeared. I have more energy during work throughout the day I seem to sleep a bit less but better...? I simply LOVE eating REAL FOOD I wouldn't have dreamt of a couple of months back! Butter, bacon, fat off chops, chicken skin and CHEESE! Did I say cheeeeeese? Man is it good to tuck into DOUBLE-cream ANYTHING! As Noakes said about Banting, it's not for everyone. And some of my friends, both high performing cyclists and other athletes, just never felt ok on it, even after giving it some time. But for others it seems to really work... My 5 cents worth...