Thanks, Trib. Cyclists have to be ultra sensitive to the amount of glycogen in the body and glucose in the bloodstream, because you need carbs to burn the fat. The fitness experts seem fond of saying that “fat burns in a carbohydrate flame”, and while the passage you posted suggests that there’s a fundamentally different way to burn fat that doesn’t involve carbs, I’m skeptical (but open minded). A vigorous multi-hour workout can easily drain the body of glycogen. When you hit that point you’re said to “bonk”, and the workout is over. You really just can’t go on until you get some sugar in your blood as a “fire starter”. So I am very familiar with being in a state where my body runs out of carbs and can only burn fat. The whole game of endurance cycling is to manage your limited glycogen and glucose stores very carefully so you can burn the fat as long as possible, refeuling with just enough carbs along the way so the fire doesn’t go out.
I happened to hear of the “Total Wellbeing Diet” this morning, which turns out to be almost exactly what I’ve been doing. It is described as a “protein-plus, low fat diet”. The big difference is that I burn a lot more calories per day than they talk about. It seems to me that the macronutrient mix needs to be adjusted if you will be burning a lot of calories every day aerobically.
I think I’ll stick with my “protein plus” plan for another few weeks until I lose another 3 lbs, and will do some more reading about the AD between now and then.
The big thing that is addressed by the AD that is NOT addressed by the other diets is how to maximize muscle gains. If I can gain muscle without gaining fat on the AD, I’ll give it a try. The timing would be right to try it in the cycling off-season, so I won’t need to be as concerned about running out of glycogen 30 miles into a 60 mile ride.
thanks,
pedaler
