Primal eating for athletes? page

[Kaizen]

Well I know there are certain carb limits to follow to try to burn fat and such. Well I remember reading the Paleo diet and Joe Friel has a small part in the book explaining how he switched his "trainees" to eating Paleo. So with that being said, if someone wanted to eat Primal yet was into triathlons and fairly intense athletic ventures, wouldn't the carb requirements be higher? Obviously getting these carbs from fruits and veggies still. I'm not an endurance athlete by any means, but I'm fairly active and I'd like to work out pretty intense at times. I just love it. So I suppose I'm asking, does anyone here do the Primal eating lifestyle and up the carbs with good results?

[Acmebike]

All my cycling events last year (up to 7 hour ATB races) were on zero carb. Works better to run off the fat beneath my skin. No bonk, no surge and crash. I hit my local Crossfit 3 x a week and am normally fasted 14-18 hours before a workout, and day to day am sub 20 g carbs anyway.

[Kaizen]

Zero carb huh? No veggies then? I could hit 20g of carbs per day, but honestly I wouldn't want to. To me I just wouldn't see that being a lifestyle change.

[Acmebike]

Yup, as an experiment on myself, I went zero carb/meat only for the spring and summer. Pemmican fueled my ATB races just fine, did not miss the carbs! And currently I exist between zero and 20g of carbohydrate any given day, veggies, nuts only. Glad for the zero carb test run, it re-focused my Paleo eating and activity.


I'm actually transitioning back to zero carb, as winter means less produce available and lots of local sourced game and beef in the freezer.

[Kaizen]

Eh personally I don't like eating that much meat. So going zero carb for me wouldn't be very enjoyable. I'd be more likely to go lower meat and higher veggies and fruits than the other way around. Glad to know it works either way, but I want to experiment eating more carbs (from veggies fruits and nuts) and lower carb. I like working out often, and pretty intense. So for me I just want to know a happy medium where I don't have to count carbs, or anything, but still have a healthy active lifestyle.

[rphlslv]

Are there any benefits of going zero-carb? Besides weight loss...

[Acmebike]

Benefits to zero carb other than weight loss? My experience on the zero carb test had me gain 15lbs of muscle, lose zero body fat, so I GAINED overall by quite a bit! During the same time period, my seasonal allergies resolved, my sperm count went up (having our first kid in April! YAY!), my energy levels in events stays level and reliable, my joints aches vanished, breathing is improved, loads of improvements.


But I am fully aware that my improvements also can be attributed to the complete elimination of grains, legumes, processed foods etc! My current thinking to staying very low on carbs has to do with preventing the diseases of aging, the production of Advanced Glycating End products, and all the troubles that seem to be so common in late age (bone loss, Alzheimer's, MS, Parkinson's, arthritis etc.....)


Since the body can and will generate it's own glycogen from protein, zero carb intake, doesn't mean zero carbs in the body. So I am certainly not opposed to some low carb intake daily from good sources, leafy greens, cruciferous veggies, some nuts, minor dairy, and that is how I eat currently, high fat, moderate protein, very low carb.


But as winter clamps down, animal sourced foods are more abundant.

[chima_p]

It would seem through peoples expereince here that if you are doing a crossfit type workout and getting enough protein VLC seems to provide all the energy you need. Increasing carbs seems to offer no advantages.


If you are lifting weights to failure or near failure it would seem that increasing carbs does offer an advantage in both recovery and the actual lifting.


You will get different answers from everybody here.


For me, I can't lift at the intensity I like when I am under 50g of carbs and I am sore/tired all the time. Over 150g though I start to get ravenous all the time. I just need to eat and at that point it does not matter what.


So I keep carbs around 75g except for the 2 days I go to the gym I up it to over 100g but below 150g.