CrossFit on a Low-Carb Primal or Paleo Diet page 2

[iniQuity]

iniQuity,

THANK YOU for taking the time to respond letting me know about Matt's retraction to his article. I found the podcast where he discussed his experience. In a nutshell, he finished with:

“Don’t do that.” “If you are going to burn carbohydrate, eat carbohydrate.” He recommends starchy stuff like yucca root, peeled potatoes for this. “If you are going to do high-intensity exercise, you should eat the carbohydrate that goes along with it.”

I updated my blog on this topic if anyone is interested:
CrossFit on a Low Carb Paleo or Primal Diet | Low Carb Learning

Direct link to the source podcast where Matt discusses his experience is here: The Paleo Solution | Paleolithic nutrition, intermittent fasting, and fitness (starts at 44:07)

Of course, this doesn't truly ANSWER anything. Matt says that you need carbs to do CrossFit. Okay...how much? That still remains a mystery to me. In the meantime, I indulged in a serious treat tonight (ice cream) in anticipation of a 1.5 hour condensed personal training session tomorrow morning, and will make sure to eat a large sweet potato either before or after each WOD this week that I do. I plan on doing 3x per week. Wish me luck! : )

Again - iniQuity - thank you for letting me know of this. You may have saved me some serious side effects.

mark
Low Carb Learning

No problem, I'm glad I was able to. I attempted going pretty low carb and upping exercise myself with bad effects, as a result of reading that article but before hearing the podcast. You should write to Rob or someone on his team to update that article.

With regards to how much carb to eat, you should just experiment, because the number depends on many things including your activity level, age, physiology, etc, no two people will be the same here. Also depends on your goals, of course. As far as when to eat the carbs, also don't think it's a huge deal, just make sure your body is well fed and nourished and it will respond to exercise.

[mark2741]

Thanks again. About once every 2 months, I get an itch to grab a pint of Ben & Jerry's "Everything But The..." ice cream and treat myself. Last night I figured would be a good time to satisfy it : )

I had a combined Fundamentals session this morning from 8:30 to 10. I felt pretty good and although I was sweating like crazy and at the end was pretty winded, I feel *right* now - a little sore (good sore), but energized.

I won't be eating Ben & Jerry's again anytime soon but I will start making a point to add a sweet potato/bananas more and go from there.

Thanks again!

mark
Low Carb Learning

[not on the rug]

Don't trust that article, it irks me that it was never updated by Lalonde himself said on a podcast that going low-carb and keeping up crossfit eventually caught up with him and he bottomed out hard. According to the podcast he had to eat two pints of ice cream after a workout once because he needed to get his sugar up quick. I can't remember what podcast it was, but if you do a search for one with lalonde on it, a few months after this article it was one of the topics. They really should make a note on it, it's very misleading as is.

If you ENJOY eating low-carb (don't care not to eat much fruit, don't care for rice, etc), then make sure to carb refeed every now and then. If you're somebody that LIKES to eat starches daily (or you don't want to cut down on fruits, etc) then just eat conscious carbs everyday to fuel your performance.

i think it was an old robb wolf podcast from a while ago. if i remember correctly, matt had to run in tothe ben and jerry's in harvard square and gobble down all that ice cream to basically keep from croaking.

on a side note, i've been having success in cycling my carb intake to one day of high carb and then one day of low carb. high usually is about 150-200 grams and low is about 50 grams. i don't do crossfit, but my training tends to be just as intense/if not more intense and of all the carb methods, this one has worked out the best for me in terms of muscle growth/fat loss, and not having a negative impact on my performance