Regardless of your goals as an endurance athlete, the common denominator of all athletes is their drive to be in the best physical shape possible and feeling good about it. Due to their heavy load of training, it’s vital that they match their diet to the intensity of their training. The tricky part is when body composition gets confused with fitness. Here we’re going to look at endurance athletes and the ketogenic diet.
But even with that in mind, it’s hard to ignore the attractiveness of today’s trendy diets. Like the controversial Keto diet that is still the focus of many around the world.
The proponents of ketogenic dieting tell us it is the best diet ever. And it’s easy to see why with all of the stories of rapid weight loss, decreased cravings, lower appetite, improved insulin and HDL cholesterol (the good stuff), and especially the improved endurance in aerobic activities. It all sounds very appealing. But there’s another side to the story. The ketogenic diet is labeled a medical diet and it comes with some serious risks.
Should Keto be part of your plan if you’re an endurance athlete in training?
What is the Keto diet?
The ketogenic diet, “Keto” for short, is a weight loss diet that’s been making headlines for many years touting the ability to improve an athlete’s body composition and performance. Keto is a low-carb, high-fat diet that was originally developed to reduce children’s epileptic seizures.
The Keto diet restricts your carbs to under 50g/day (+/- 5% of the USDA’s daily allowance). That’s about half a cup of oats and one medium-sized banana. The rest of the calories come from fat and protein, 75% and 20% respectively.
By reducing the number of carbohydrates consumed by our bodies also reduces the amount of glucose in our blood, our body’s preferred fuel. Being on a Keto diet puts us in a state of ketosis where our bodies use ketones for fuel. When there isn’t sufficient glucose available our livers will produce ketones from our fat stores, this is ketosis.
Low carbs and long training sessions
How does a low-carb diet affect endurance athletes considering their energy requirement for both training and on race day? Supporters of the Keto diet like Dr. Phil Maffetone who is a leader in modern medicine and has worked with Mark Allen, a Hawaii Ironman champion six times over, believes optimal athletic performance can be achieved with Keto’s fat-burning ability. Dr. Maffetone tells us our aerobic system can be maximized in a low-carb environment and it also increases our ability to use fat during strength and endurance training. This also leads to more stable energy levels, less stress to our GI system, and leaner bodies.
Is your Keto curiosity heightened?
Are you ready to give the Keto diet a try? Keto guides suggest dramatically shifting your macronutrients to cause increased oxidation and ketosis. There’s typically a two to four weed transition period with the end goal of consuming:
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- 50g of carbohydrates per day
- 65% to 80% of your calories from fat
- 0.6g to 1.0g of protein for every pound you weigh
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Keto is a challenging diet. It can be difficult to create satiating meals with the correct proportions of macronutrients required by the diet. The majority of this diet is comprised of animal proteins and leafy vegetables with an occasional piece of fruit.
Keto flu
During the transition period from your standard diet to a ketogenic diet, you will most likely feel some symptoms like:
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- Headache
- Fatigue
- Low levels of energy
- Extreme hunger
- Difficulty sleeping
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These symptoms during the transition period have been coined “The Keto Flu”. It will pass fairly quickly. Drinking a lot of water helps.
So, what should you be eating?
It takes quite a bit of effort and time to research the right portions for your personal goal. Obviously, there are a lot of keto recipe books on the market. This is great, once you know what to do with all that information.
Wouldn’t be nice if you were provided with a complete meal plan based on your specific activity level, body weight, and food preferences?
Thanks for the update.