Lost all my strength and it has cost me $400,000! page

[cwodavids]

Hi

Thank you for taking the time to look at my post. I know the title seems a tad melodramatic, it is however completely accurate due to the loss in pension, I didn't even look at the lost wages.

I have recently breezed 2 days of gruelling selection to become an Officer in the Royal Air Force, the final hurdle was to run 1.5 miles in 11:36 - Easy, complete 19 pushups in a minute - Easy... Except it wasn't, I got to my third pushup and I realised I was in big trouble. I ended up completing 18 and failing the whole selection process as a result.

As I am currently serving in the RAF I have a six monthly fitness test whereby I have to complete a Bleep Test at level 9.10 (easy), 19 pushups in a minute (easy), 32 situps in a minute (easy). The last time I completed this test was in Nov 12 and I managed my pushups in around 35 seconds. I ate completely paleo for the last month or so prior to then.

Is there any particular reason that Paleo eating will cause such weakness? I really need to get to the bottom of this as I am absolutely shell shocked by what happened as I haven't failed a fitness test in my 11 year career. My current job requires me to be fit and the implications are pretty severe for me now as my boss will not be impressed when he eventually catches up with me.

Failing any reasons for the lack of strength, are there any ideas on how I can build my strength very quickly in both my pushups and situps as I just managed to get my 32 required?

Any help/advice would be greatly received as I have been in a daze and have been unable to think of anything else for the last 4 days.

Thanks

[eKatherine]

You haven't said anything about what specifically you are eating or how long you have been paleo. Have you been losing weight? More information would be necessary before anyone could make an intelligent guess at what's going on.

[cwodavids]

I have been Paleo for around a year, I eat normal Primal Blueprint foods (not sure what exactly you would like to know) and I haven't lost any weight in months as I am 84 - 85 kgs and 6`2" which seems to be my equilibrium.

[eKatherine]

Just my guess that if this is an unusual performance for you, it's not the diet, because you haven't changed anything. You could have been coming down with something.

[little vase]

How many grams of carbs a day? What's an average daily food intake look like?

[sbhikes]

The one-month mark on a low carbohydrate diet is usually about when your body flushes all the excess water out of its system, along with a lot of sodium and potassium. So get some salt and potassium in you if you want to stay low carb or else try adding more carbohydrates, (like potatoes and bananas) to your diet.

[Neckhammer]

Do some strength training so that when the test rolls round your actually getting stronger rather than just getting by.

If you wanna build up your push ups and sit ups.....then do push ups and situps daily.

[Winterbike]

Don't go low-carb. Train more. Sleep more. Don't cheat. Done.

[anna5]

Just my guess that if this is an unusual performance for you, it's not the diet, because you haven't changed anything. You could have been coming down with something.

The fact that he hasn't changed his diet isn't an argument in this case - there can be an accumulative effect.
But, of course, it can be a coincidence, or yes, it can be what many people suspect - too low-carb diet.
We just don't know and he should check everything.

[not on the rug]

eat. and train.

paleo/primal isn't low carb. then again, there are some low-carbers on here that can bang out hundreds of pushups. you could probably eat mcdonalds every day and do 20 pushups and 32 situps in a minute. sounds to me like you weren't keeping up on the physical part of this thing and are trying to blame it on your way of eating. you said in 1 post that you ate completely paleo for a month. then in another post, you said you've been paleo for a year. which is it?