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Diet change: Low carb high fat update22.02.2015

It's been 2 months since I've started a new lifestyle of eating a low carb high fat diet. I haven't stuck to it 100%, but I've still noticed a few changes in how my body's responding.

The first thing I noticed was that I wasn't getting as hungry between meals. Usually I'd just make it to the next meal before starving. Eating a higher fat diet appears to have me feeling fuller for longer, I'm snacking less while eating the same amount during meals.

A contradictory observation is that my weight has increased marginally, by about 3-4%. This could just be due to the lack of training I've been doing, but it's still interesting to note. If I can't get myself back down to race weight within a few months then I'll attribute the gain to this change in diet.

Speaking of training, I'm finding that on this sort of diet, my short, high intensity efforts have suffered whilst I find my longer, steadier rides have improved. Again, I'm also not sure how much of this can be attributed to my change in diet, but it makes sense as carbohydrates are a more instantaneous source of power, whereas the release of energy from fats is slower.

Finally, the hardest aspect of this diet would be staying away from the carbs. I really like my fruits, breads, cereals and potato. All of these foods are high in carbs and should normally be avoided on this sort of diet. However I've found myself sneaking in some fruit during the day, and rice/potato for dinner, totalling around 3-4 serves of carbs. I should probably avoid these serves, but for someone like me, there are more gains to be made in training. I'm not quite serious enough to stop eating foods I enjoy to try for the marginal gains that could be had from this diet. If you're not a big fan of these foods it'll probably be easier for you, but since they were my staple beforehand I'm struggling to cut them out of my diet completely.

So there you have it, on this diet I'm feeling fuller, for longer but have noticed some weight gain and a drop in maximum wattage, but can sustain just below threshold wattages for longer. The weight gain and the wattage drop could be due to my lack of training, only time will tell.

If you have any questions or comments let me know below, thanks for reading 🙂

Comments

  1. rider says:

    are the results in? are you sticking with this diet? were you able to drop your 3-4% wt gain this year, and if so, how did it happen?

    • istigatrice says:

      Hi,

      Thanks for your interest. I’ve been a bit busy so haven’t been able to write a follow up post. I’ve modified my diet slightly, under some advice which I was curious about. I’ve been taking in carbs 15 minutes after a cardio session, under the claims that it improves recovery.

      Some quick comments on this diet – sticking low carbohydrate, except for this window I do find it much easier to recover from hard days in the saddle – I’ve been able to do 3 or 4 hard days in a row, which is something I haven’t been able to do with the same efficiency before. I’m not sure how much of this is due to placebo/body adaptations, but my impressions are good. I’m planing to go do a 4-8 week block high carb (not restricted to a 15 minute window) so I have some sort of control to compare against.

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