What scenario is best for fat loss

keith57

Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) is working well for me this winter season. No need to snack, never really feel hungry. I do some intermittent fasting too (5:2). I started LCHF properly around late October 2016.

Body fat in my mind is basically stored energy for leaner times. So you need to stop eating to burn your fat stores. It can take a while to become used to this, a number of weeks, to wean yourself off the carb addiction and become fat adapted.

It really does work too. Over the Christmas period I tried (as an experiment) a really long ride without eating on the ride itself. This was 200km for the Festive 500. Fuelled by a breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomato, black-pudding, avocado and sausage! I rode with no issues whatsoever. Felt strong the whole way, no bonking at all, all very strange, like most riders I was used to eating very regularly on any long ride. To feel strong for the whole ride was very interesting I thought. The emergency carbs I had with me weren't needed.

I no longer crave any carby things like cake, chocolate, bread, etc, which is great. Lack of any hunger pangs at any time means it takes no willpower to cut down on eating, this seems to happen naturally. No need to count calories either.

Beer is out, too many carbs - but red wine (and spirits) is fine

I'm 5' 10" and can easily hover around 10st 4lb. Around June 2016 I was creeping towards 12st. I'm really pleased with this reigieme so far, especially with my improved speed up the hills

Loads of athletes are training like this now as far as I can tell. No need to overdose on carbs all year round. The All Blacks for example are LCHF most of the time, but will have some carbs before matches, but not afterwards or at any other time. It's noticeable how lean they have become as a team over the last few years. Read about it here: https://ruckscience.com/blogs/learn/the ... nning-diet

Sky do something similar if you read between the lines on reports of their training activities.

Key point is to be 'metabolically adaptive' and become more insulin sensitive so you can fuel off carbs and stored body fat.

Many people seem to be carb addicted (tending towards insulin resistance) and can't access their fat stores too easily. You'll know if you're carb addicted as you'll be hungry a few hours after a carb rich meal and will want to eat more carbs again.

Colleagues in the office where I work all seem to be like this. Huge 'healthy' breakfast of sugary cereal, toast with marmalade, coffee with sugar, fruit juice (mainlining sugar again). 2 hours later they're having sugary fizzy water out of a can and a doughnut or similar. They then spend the rest of the day grazing on family bags of M&M's, etc. :shock: Lunch is often a carby sandwich followed by crisps and a chocolate bar, with sometimes a 'healthy' fruit juice again. If they have a yogurt it will be a healthy 'low fat' one with loads of added sugar!

In some of the other forum threads here, riders openly admit to their carb addiction and seem very reluctant to even contemplate any other strategy. 2 gels and a bar every hour on every ride seems ridiculous to me. Overindulging on carbs all year round might lead to health issues later in life too, even for leanish athletes ...

Off to Calpe at the end of the month for a week of hard riding in the sun. Not exactly sure yet how to eat while I'm out there. Hotel has fantastic food, so any option will be easily available. Planning on riding the 1st few days LCHF to see what happens.

(For general background I'd recommend reading Jason Fung on Intermittent Fasting and Tim Noakes on LCHF, though there are lots of others too)

Alex_Simmons/RST

Diet fadism is worse than training fadism.

charlie_potatoes

Keith57 wrote:

Overindulging on carbs all year round might lead to health issues later in life too, even for leanish athletes ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39292389

sloppyschleckonds

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Diet fadism is worse than training fadism.

Eat to get lean, train to improve power.

I've never understood people 5/10/20kgs overweight giving out diet advise.

mamil314

Come on , Shloppy, coach has to know his business, not lead out in the field.

Alex_Simmons/RST

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Diet fadism is worse than training fadism.

Eat to get lean, train to improve power.

I've never understood people 5/10/20kgs overweight giving out diet advise.

lol
I'm a coach, and not presently an active athlete.

My advice applied equally to me when I was aspiring to athletic ambition, and worked pretty darn well I might add. Not many leg amputees have set a national able-bodied cycling record.

simon_e

SloppySchleckonds wrote:

I've never understood people 5/10/20kgs overweight giving out diet advise.

So a GP, a dietitian or a university lecturer couldn't possibly know what they are talking about because they happen to be over an arbitary BMI. But if they lost enough weight they would become credible?

Does that also apply to any ex-pro cyclist who is no longer obsessed with his or her weight and w/kg?

While there are plenty of snake oil sellers out there, I think that forum 'armchair experts' are far more likely to unquestioningly repeat stuff they've seen or heard, trumpeting opinion as fact when they don't know what they're talking about. Those who argue with the greatest certainty often are the biggest bullshitters IME.

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

Not many leg amputees have set a national able-bodied cycling record.

I bet you had one of those e-legs with a 3D printed battery compartment an' everything. Did a UCI commissaire scan you for a motor?

svetty

DFTT.....