Ready to go full lo carb & training for a marathon. Tips please

Here is a copy of a recent comment I did on a post over at Jimmy Moore’s regarding low carb

Hi whitehorse,

Thanks for your very interesting post. Nice to see that you’re looking after yourself and that you have quite a worthy goal ahead of you.

I read through most of your post nodding to myself until I got to the last part where you said you’ll be working out on an empty stomach which in essence means that you’ll be following what is in effect an intermittent fast. Now if that is done properly that can be a very effective way of losing fat because fasting increases the resting energy expenditure while at the same time decreases insulin levels thus allowing the fat that we’ve got stored in our  body to burned for fuel.

The other thing fasting does or  intermittent fasting in particular does is that it encourages the body to produce human growth hormone which is one of those brilliant hormones that burns fat while at the same time helps our body to build muscle.

Now as an athlete you’re going to need protein and that needs to be high quality protein and the general consensus is that is should be eaten within less than an hour after you finished training.

As a dedicated organic fellow, I would encourage you to get that quality protein from meat but many athletes, although I hate to say it, seem to get positive results using whey as well.

The other great thing about intermittent fasting from an athlete’s point of view is that our body will naturally preserve any muscles that we’re using.

I know there is a lot of concern in low carb circles about our bodies’ consuming our muscle tissues if they’re not given enough protein or fat for energy but that’s only partly true as yes, the body will break down other tissues but it won’t break down active muscles as in those being exercised.

This is actually quite a fascinating and surprisingly effective way of reshaping or sculpturing your body if you prefer and I think the best thing I can do is give you a link to find out more about it. The most readable information I found so far is on Mark Sisson’s blog called marksdailyapple.com. He goes into this in quite some detail and I think you’ll find many of the answers you’re seeking there.

Hope that helps,

Mark