Strength thru Starvation

[dmuja]

 

Ok, it may well be old news - I know the "warrior diet" uses a related concept for one example - but anyway in this case its more about "endurance thru glycogen depletion."

 

Please discuss yr thoughts and or experiences on this..

"The theory is that depleting glycogen during specific (Low Intensity Long Duration) exercise (training) bouts allows the body to become more efficient at utilizing fat (during performance/events)..."

 

http://www.trifuel.com/training/health-nutrition/low-carbohydrate-training

 

In other words, you eat a ultra low carb diet for endurance training, eat a higher carb diet for intensity/strength training, then when the big day comes you will perform better because you use your relatively massive fat stores rather than your precious glycogen stores for fuel.

 

Of coarse Ive been taught and have mostly followed the usual theory that "sport is fueled by carbohydrate" - typically recommended at 60-70% for athletes. But in the past year I was determined to get my weight (fat) down with all the performance benefits that entails. One benefit I did NOT foresee (got me curious) was that endurance levels were not only NOT harmed but actually increased on this lower carb "higher" protein diet.

 

When I switched to a 50/25/25 diet (50% carb, 25% prot, 25% fat), stepped up my LILD cardio to 1.25 hrs X 4 days/wk, and dropped my calories to 1900 per day I not only lost significant weight but my stamina increased as well (granted however, this could be due as much to less weight I am carrying as it might be to the increased utilization of fat stores).

 

And related to this...

 

I read recently that Peter Croft (aka superman) was known to eat 500-600 calories per day while moving for days at a time - during training. My guess (duh) is that this helped develop his ability to use fat stores for energy in line with the theory above.

 

So does anyone here starve themselves or practice glycogen depletion (ketogenic) diets durring training?