Low carb diets.

[Joat-Mon]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...ws/taubes.html

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...41487661765149

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

[Smiler]

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