Hi.

I'm hoping I can get some advice from the serious exercisers out there.

Here is my situation:

I'm currently in induction, and I plan to return to my sport (roller derby) later this month after a 2 month break. Roller derby practices are long (2 hours plus) and very intense. Pre LC - I often found myself with deep belly hunger after practice.

I've been reading some of my books on sports conditioning and nutrition (solid stuff written by medical professionals that I trust) and they all say the same thing - Low Carb is good for weight loss and wellness, but not for endurance athletes because you need some carbs to fuel your movement.

I see my options as:

1) Maintain low carb and dive back into practice. (I'm worried I'll "crash" from a lack of fuel)
2) Hold off returning to my sport until I am further into maintanence (this would be a real bummer!)
3) Eat a very small amount of complex carbs prior to practices only, then maintain LC otherwise. (I'm worried I'll throw myself out of ketosis)

Appreciate your thoughts on this. I estimate I have 2-3 months left on inducation before I move into OWL.

Why not try option 1 and see what happens.

Maybe try eating some high fat food just before your work out. Plenty of calories there.

Chances are that option 2 will lead to a bad result, and it is doubtful option 3 will work. The kind of carbs the athletes go for are mostly starch, despite calling them complex carbs.

I am not sure there is enough real world experience with low carb and this kind of extreme short term exercise to know what the real answer is, despite what those who think they know are saying.

It's interesting to note that a fair number of football players eat a high fat diet rather than a high carb diet during training camp, which is not far off from what you are doing.

What I ended up doing was upping my carbs alot, but trying Intermittent Fasting. The carbs help fuel my workouts (not as intense as roller derby - Crossfit type stuff and distance running) but the fasting keeps me in ketosis most of the day. I went through alot to get to this, though - you'll have to tweak around alot, I think.

Thanks guys. Bob, I'll try your advice first, and will let ya'll know how it goes. Intermittent fasting doesn't sound very attractive to me, but it's good to know what your experience was and I'll keep that in mind as another option!

Appreciate the thoughts.

Well, I think option 1 is the way to go. I am an endurance athlete marathons and training by running up to 70 miles per week. I manage so much better on a low-carb diet than I ever did with carbs. The trick is to up your fat intake before training, maybe allowing a good hour for digestion to kick in before beginning - basically what Bobiam was saying. If you are in ketosis (which you can check with some of those sticks) you will be efficiently turning fat into energy. A bit of an advert for my blog... but that is exactly what it is about: http://www.manv2.com

I have no experience trying LC and extreme exercise. It was just a suggestion based mostly on listening to a TV show about some NFL players at training camp.

The thing is that there is very little research on LC and this kind of thing. A lot on high carb, but I can find almost nothing on LC and serious exercise. My guess is that like a lot of things the assumption or the conventional wisdom has been taken as gospel so there is not much research in the area.

If LC does not work for you, try something different.

My experience over the years observing folks here is that people who like low carb because it controls their blood sugar swings have more energy doing endurance sports while low carbing/high fatting. Those, like me, who have very good insulin response and normal blood sugars, feel like heck. My husband who has hypoglycemia and whose fasting blood sugars run too can run and do sports on zero carb - if he ate carbs, he would just crash into a stupor.

I've found that snacking on some nuts during long intense workouts keeps my energy level high.

Hey there,

Look at my forum in regards to SWAT Training while on LC/ZC. Its pretty intense and Ive been pretty much keeping up with it daily. Hope to read you soon.

DDD

Sensible advice. Mixing some salted nuts with unsalted means you replace what you sweat out too, without dehydrating yourself. 50/50 mix is good.

Very true and this exemplifies what many of us believe, that no diet is perfect for everyone. I have treated nutrition as another form of exercise, in as much as one must experiment. Trial and error is the way to go.

Since I started this thread, I figured I'd check back in and let ya'll know how it has been going for me.

I've had two longer bouts of exercise in the last week, one of 90 minutes, and one of 3 hours. I'd describe them as moderate intensity.

In both situations, I had a nice LC snack beforehand and got well-hydrated, and experienced no fatigue or "bonking" from lack of fuel. I found that a small handful of brazilnuts about 30 minutes prior to exercise worked well. If anything, I felt LESS hungry after exercise on LC than in my previous high carb diet.

In short, it doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem for me to exercise vigorously on LC. I do think I'll end up increasing my calories a tad on heavy exercise days (from my pre-exercise snack), but I won't be increasing carbs so I think I'll be fine.

I go back to regular roller derby practice starting next week (2 hour practices, full intensity) and I'll let you know if I make any other discoveries.

Thanks for the advice all!

Hi guys.
Just thought I'd let you know I did what I would hazard a guess is a pretty good test. I ran the Oslo Marathon 2010 on extreme low-carb (20 g or less per day in the last four months) with success!

No problems with lack of energy. I snacked on protein pancakes made with whey power, eggs and baking powder spread with butter and peanut butter.

It worked!


NathanB,
http://www.manv2.com

I am glad you guys have found a solution to staying LC while engaging in the activities you enjoy.

I went for a five and a half mile hike Sunday. I guess I was so excited about it that I forgot to eat lunch before I went. I did not eat until afterward, about 5:00 pm, and did not have any hunger pangs at all.

I ate a normal (for me) breakfast about 9 am.

No hunger, but a little bit of muscle soreness. Been a very long time since I hiked that far. It felt good though.

I see you've figured it out but honestly your body will tell you what you need. I tend to need some carbs so my blood sugar doesn't bottom out (I get low on LC) and I don't worry about carbing up (a bit, not a lot) because I will burn it off so fast it won't have time to really mess me up.

If you start having issues, try some lower carb fruit or some Wasa crackers with cheese in addition to the nuts.

F