Leave diet, not carbs, at home

By Ray Buck, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

Posted on Wed, Feb. 25, 2004

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/8035948.htm

Marathon running is synonymous with carbo-loading. So what if you're on the Atkins Diet?

Do you bacon-binge? Cheddar-load? Is it enough to skip the bun on a double-bacon cheeseburger?

In other words, what if you haven't seen a bagel in six months and your carbohydrate-rationed body now finds itself entered in the 26th running of the Cowtown Marathon on Saturday?

"Truthfully, I think you'd be in trouble," said Fort Worth Runners Club president Frank McGinty, who said he has run 52 marathons.

Two things are fairly consistent about marathon running: Your body needs energy, and your body needs fuel.

Buddy, can you spare a carb? simply is not acceptable language around the start of a 26.2-mile race.

"If you burn 100 calories per mile, then you're going to burn about 2,600 calories during a marathon," said Jim Newsom, team and training coach who co-owns the Fort Worth Running Company. "And where's that going to come from? Carbohydrates."

OK, the message has been sealed, sent and delivered, but not necessarily received by those who swear by the high-fat, low-carb Atkins Diet.

The basic premise is that carbohydrates are the first to metabolize. Therefore, if your body isn't taking in carbs, it will burn fat.

That might work as a source of weight loss for the weekend warrior who plays a round of golf for exercise. And certainly for someone who spends one or two hours per week on the treadmill.

But running a marathon puts demands on the body's inner workings that can only be explained by an expert.

Hitting the wall

Nancy Clark, a Brookline, Mass., sports nutritionist and author of two books -- Food Guide for Marathoners and Sports Nutrition Guidebook -- makes it clear that she's not a proponent of the Atkins Diet for anyone, much less a marathoner.

"Marathon runners rely on their glycogen storage. Glycogen is made only from carbohydrates: pastas, bagels, cereals ... [and] those carbohydrates get stored in your muscles," Clark said. "When a runner depletes his or her glycogen, that's when he or she hits the wall."

That happened to Newsom at the 1991 Cowtown Marathon.

"Typically, toward the end of a marathon, if you have gone out too hard, you'll burn up all your glycogen, and your system is left with nothing but fat," said Newsom, now 61. "And once you start burning nothing but fat, you slow down two to three minutes per mile, even though you're running just as hard as you were before. Unfortunately, I've experienced it."

This is why marathon runners ingest large amounts of pasta, breads, cereals and bananas beginning around lunchtime the day before a race.

Then, that morning, a bagel and maybe an energy bar usually will suffice for what is one of the most grueling tests of endurance in all of sports.

"[But] if you're on the Atkins Diet and trying to run a marathon, you deplete muscle glycogen, which never gets replaced," Clark said. "Because you're not taking in carbs, your muscles don't have the fuel to function. ... They just stop. Your body lacks stamina and endurance. Basically, it's no fun to run."

To turn a cold shoulder to carbs is the antithesis of what most marathoners consider to be a dietary code of survival.

"If foods high in carbohydrates are fattening, then why aren't marathon runners fat?" Clark asked, rhetorically. "Carbs aren't fattening. Calories are fattening. Lack of exercise is fattening."

Local marathon runner Michael Polansky, who operates Polansky Race Management, has been a vegetarian since 1979. Carbs come easily.

Of his 21 marathons, Polansky posted his best time (3 hours, 5 minutes) during what he considered a "training run" to the Cowtown Marathon about 12 years ago at Houston.

Said Polansky: "I didn't carbo-load or anything for that race."

Perhaps what is ingested before a marathon is more inexact science than hard-and-fast standard.

Twizzler, Gummy Bears

Or perhaps it's the big picture that is most important to keep in mind.

"You can fuel your body with Coca-Cola, which will get stored as glycogen," Clark said. "Or you can fuel your muscles on marshmallows and Twizzlers and Gummy Bears, but your health is going to catch up with you."

Leave it to the experts to spoil a good sugar party.

So what would really happen if an Atkins dieter tried to run a marathon?

"Me?" said McGinty. "I'd probably get sick."

"Wait a minute, you're forgetting something," Newsom said. "To run a marathon, you have to have been training for a marathon, which means you'd already have done 18-, 19- and 20-mile training runs on the Atkins Diet."

To talk the talk, the answer here may be to walk the walk.

"There are people who walk marathons, or do them at a very, very slow pace," Clark said. "So, it's conceivable that someone on the Atkins Diet could endure the marathon by burning primarily more fat than carbohydrate.

"But for the majority of distance runners, the Atkins Diet will take its toll."

Cowtown Marathon

Saturday, starting in Sundance Square

Marathon and three-person marathon relay: 7:30 a.m., Second and Houston streets; Cost: $55; relay is $20 per runner

10K: 8:15 a.m., Second and Throckmorton streets; Cost: $22

5K adult race: 8:15 a.m., Fifth and Commerce streets; Cost: $22

Bombay Kids 5K: 9 a.m., Fifth and Commerce streets; Cost: $22

Web site: www.cowtownmarathon.org

Food for thought

Day before a marathon

Marathon runner: Giant bowl of buckwheat pasta with marinara sauce. Side dish of quinoa or rice with vegetables. Two whole wheat or pumpernickel dinner rolls. Large glass of water. Two bananas or a bowl of in-season fruit for desert.

Atkins dieter: One 16-ounce rib-eye steak with bacon bits, mushrooms and crumbled bleu cheese. Generous serving of roasted vegetables with butter. Tossed green salad with Caesar dressing (no croutons) and one-quarter cup of black walnuts. Low-carb beer.

Morning of a marathon

Marathon runner: Several hours before race: One low-fat bagel, dry. One glass of guava juice. About one hour before race: One teaspoon of peanut butter or an energy bar with a few swallows of water or energy drink.

Atkins dieter: Three-egg vegetable and cheese omelet, topped with extra melted Monterey Jack. Four strips of thick-sliced bacon. One glass of water. One cup of coffee with real cream and artificial sweetener (preferably Splenda).

hello, I did a half marathon (13.1 miles) recenlty and I did not carbo load. I finished rather easily.. I had packedtwo snicker bars in my pocket. At the end
of half marathon I had 1 and 1/2 bar left..I did drink some ( a cup or two) powerade & water...

If you just use carb as fuel.. you gonna get lactic acid buildup after some time..(that threshold) fat metabolism does not lead to lactic acid buildup and hence no muscle ache.. my pet theory.. ( hey it is true..)

That is just silly, badly researched crap. The muscles of LCers who exercise a lot learn how NOT to need so much glycogen, and how to rely on FAT as a primary fuel.

What utter drivel that carbs are absolutely required to run a marathon. Have NONE of those people ever heard of glycogen-sparing?

I think LC marathoners would have an advantage over carbers because there's a heck of a lot more stored fat on the body than stored glycogen!

I agree, Neeam, those poor, sore carb-loaders! LOL

Dr. Trager, who has taken over at Atkins Nutritionals, is an Iron Man Triathlete. I forget how many times he's competed, but I'd say that goes to show you don't need carbs to perform!

If you ask a high carb consumer if carbs are needed, the answer is always yes. They should have talked to some low-carb marathoners for a different viewpoint. When I changed from low-fat/high carbs to low-carb, I feared hitting the wall due to running out of glucose. I have never bonked in the year and a half since I began low-carbing. I had previously bonked three times on high-carb diets when I didn't consume enough carbs during the exercise. I believe my body burns more fat and saves the glucose for when it is really needed.

Couldn't agree with you more, Dodger! When I first started running on LC, even though I'd been exercising fairly regularly, I got the WORST muscle soreness. After a couple of weeks, though, nuthin', even when I pushed myself. My muscles' endurance power just skyrocketed, and it took longer for my cardio-pulmonary system to catch up. If I were using just my body's stored fat (if only I could and my heart and lungs could keep up), I could run for days without running out of fuel. There's not a carb-loader in the world who could do that without a lot of extra fuel along the way.

I think what the article is trying to say is that it is possible to do marathons on Atkins, however you will have to pace yourself and won't finish as quickly as you would have had you been using carbs for fuel. In other words, fat is an inefficient energy fuel source (well duh! thats why the diet works so great... it takes forever to burn fat therefore it keeps you full longer) and if you are really really really trying to be a performance runner, the atkins diet is probably not a good idea. I agree with this assessment.

The Atkins diet is great for most levels of physical activity, and by all means you can compete in and complete marathons on Atkins if you pace yourself. However if you are really really trying to train yourself to be a top runner, depleting your glycogen and giving yourself no quick fuel is just stupid. Remember, there is no such thing as bad food - there are only bad ways to use food. Guzzling pasta and bread and sugary sodas/drinks: good idea if you are going to use that energy shortly. Not a good idea if you are gonna sit down on the couch and watch Seinfeld. The quick fuel will only turn to fat via insulin, and leave you hungry shortly after.

The only problem I have with the article is it's written with this undercurrent of bullsh*t which is trying to give people the impression that regular people will feel sluggish and tired on Atkins. We all know that is blatantly untrue. Regular people get an incredible energy burst on Atkins, because for the first time their energy distribution is on an even keel. You would have to be doing a ridiculous amount of exercise to have problems with a fat-based metabolism. Really now, what percentage of the population exercises like that... .0001%? Come on.

Considering the high-carbers say low-carbs suck on excercising, because they lack carbs, and some low-carbers report having sort of limitless energy ... I can safely say, we don't know Jack Squat.

High-carbers have their view based on similar dogma (eat carbs till you are "full", can't do anything without carbs) as nutritionists have about fat. Scientific studies about it? Fat chance.

Interestingly, and unsurprisingly, some studies I've seen about low vs med fat have shown improved stamina for the higher fat groups. A marathon is all about _saving_ those carbs. If your body is used to running high on carbs, it ain't saving them, it is USING them. Hence, hitting the wall.

Now as for people chronically "low" on carbs (should say with normal levels of carbs, current highcarb eating is the abnormality), fat is used much more. Hence, carbs are saved for when needed.

Again though, it is just speculation: they have their view, yet anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. I've read a few reports on triathlon/marathon participants, and how they've managed to get their best ever results and still feel good on finish after being lowcarb for long enough.