Low carb diets.

[Joat-Mon]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/diet/interviews/taubes.html

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4362041487661765149

Very interesting stuff.

[Rosi]

Bear in mind that most of the advice is geared towards average, basically sedentary people and not performance athletes.

[Joat-Mon]

Good point, we need a certain amount of carbs to be able to train properly. I do a desk job so tend to keep my carbs pretty low during the day. I guess it's about finding the right balance that suits you.

[Rosi]

I like John Berardi's take on the whole carbs / fats / protein thing - he explains it pretty well in grapplers guide to sports nutrition.

To be honest, I find the anti-carb lobby a bit tiresome with their bleating that all the evils of the world are due to too many carbs. Somewhere in there, buried in all the rhetoric they do have a point, but usually it gets massively oversimplified and used as a crutch by people who want to replace apples by bacon in their diet and lose weight.

The problem with modern diets isn't one single element - it's the combination of carbs AND fats and lack of quality proteins and vegetables. But the media prefers a soundbite, so the simplistic explanations get passed on and people get into this whole redundant fats vs carbs debate.

[Smiler]

Hi Rosi, just applying the Pareto Principle to your last comment, the problem with modern diets definately isn't one element, but from my readings if I was to put one element forward as providing 80% of the problem I would generalise by saying its:

Refined, processed, simple carbohydrates - sugar

Just a thought!

Smiler

[MikeyL]

For me personally, a low carb diet has worked fucking brilliantly. It has also made me understand how 'some' carbs are good for me pre/post training but im fine without them for the rest of the day

[Nak-Muay]

I was once about 86kg-88kg and I went low carbs
i.e. I only ate tuna & chicken, cottage cheese, vegetables and apples... literally that was all I ate for about 6 months.

June 2006 - Dec 2006
After 6 months I'd lost 12kg and was happily sitting around 75kg, training MMA 2-3 times a week. At this point I was feeling fitter, then I started to train more (about 4-5 days a week) and would feel really weak all the time.

Dec 2006 - April 2007
Within another 3 months I was down to 70kg but felt shit all the time, literally training was tough to get through, but because it snuck up quite slowly I just presumed I was not quite as fit.

April 2007 - July 2007
At 70kg... I was training for a fight and felt like absolute shit so my coach looked at what I was eating and went mental. In the end he gave me loads of carbs, pasta and stuff like that. I had wayyyyyyy more energy and could train properly again, I ended up losing 5kg in 3 months!

Conclusion (in my opinion)
Low carbs is good for 'the average Joe' who wants to lose weight really, really quick. As long as you are prepared to do 30-60 minutes cardio 5 days a week, eat literally just protein and vegetables whilst doing it. You will lose weight at a rate of 2-3 pounds a week for 3-6 months... A lot of people will find they feel 'in a daze' whilst doing it... So I'd not recommend it if you are serious about MMA.

As soon as you want to train MMA / Boxing / Muaythai at a competitive level you stand NO CHANCE in making gains in my opinion on low carb... Carbs are energy... without energy you can't train properly... that's that.

March 2008 - May 2009

I became anaemic at some point during the year, but it had nothing to do with my diet (stomach ulcers and shit annoyingly) so I had to be careful with my diet making sure I got enough iron, etc. So I've eaten pretty much the same thing for the last year and maintained my 65kg body pretty easily, my energy levels are fine:

Breakfast - Cereal with Milk - 300 calories
Snack - 2 Apples - 150 calories
Lunch - 2 Bread Rolls, 200g chicken, 50g prunes, 50g apricots - 650 calories
Snack - 2 Bananas - 200 calories (90 minutes before training)
Dinner - Rice & Chicken & Peas - 600 calories (45 minutes after training)

Total - 1900 Calories

[MikeyL]

I agree, you wont make gains, but I found it useful for losing fat.

[Rosi]

Hi Rosi, just applying the Pareto Principle to your last comment, the problem with modern diets definately isn't one element, but from my readings if I was to put one element forward as providing 80% of the problem I would generalise by saying its:

Refined, processed, simple carbohydrates - sugar

Just a thought!

Smiler

Trouble with the pareto principle is that 20% of the effort might get you 80% of the results (although maybe only 80% of the time...?), but the remaining 20% is the difference between winning and losing to a competitive athlete :p

[Smiler]

That's where I used to go wrong with my diet...I ate the 20% chocolate that gave the 80% fat...

[Malcontent]

Unrefined, unprocessed, wholegrain carb sources are where it's at.

Bake your own bread!!

[Baz]

In my experiance, low carb is good for average dudes tryna lean up, but if your an athlete looking to train and compete at peak performance you need some carbs in there, obviusly your carb intake needs to come from the right places and be controled else your gonna gain body fat.

[Young Sexton]

I try and get around 100g of carbs with every meal, and eat 6 times a day. This always leaves me feeling like i have loads of energy. Maybe if im not training that day i will only have 80g with every meal.

[Smiler]

Hi,

I wouldn't cut out carbs for anything over a day...your body will crave them...

Its worth bearing in mind that when you cut out carbs your body will release water...giving the appearance of rapid weight loss.

Then you come off the diet, eat carbs, for each g of carb its something like 3g of water retained by the body, so you get rapid weight gain as your body re-adjusts...

Lots of stuff on the internet that explains why a low carb diet may not be good for you...

Smiler

[Smiler]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9232552?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsP anel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedreviews&logdbfrom=pubmed

Dug this up from crossfit...just posted and nicely relevent...lets stay off the low carbs if we want athletic performance then!

Smiler

[Duchman]

Pretty common knowledge/sense...... i'm every time more amazed people, people need so more confirmation. If you need to burn energy, you need to supply the body the energy.

I just care about looking good (and i'm almost as good looking as tom baxter, bold statement i know) so i cut out carbs and leaned UP

[Rosi]

I just dug out my e-copy of "gourmet nutrition deserts" for some ideas... here's what Berardi has to say about carbs (my emphasis):


The whole low-carb/high-carb debate is a little misunderstood in my opinion. The rule is basically this: carbs only if you deserve them. Meaning, have you been exercising? And how much? [...] the general rule is the more and harder the exercise, the higher the total caloric intake and the higher the percentage of carbohydrate in the diet.