GrooveTime!group - CLOSED!!! (Page 141)

The best time to actively pursue weight loss is in Foundation/Base, Preparation/Build or perhaps Transition. However sometimes we need to use Transition to recover and rebuild so weight loss does not contribute tot that. DEFINTELY do not try to lose weight during Peak/Specialization (4-6 weeks prior to racing). Many people decide they have to be a certain weight in order to compete or perform at their best. But what ends up happening, a lot of times, is that the caloric restriction needed to achieve that body weight conflicts with the increased caloric intake they need to support their activity level. As a result, workout quality diminishes, recovery suffers, and fitness erodes. Instead of getting faster, you start suffering from small, nagging injuries and losing power.

(Carmichael does not reference how many calories to restrict, but other sources I have read recommended 100-200 calories per day reduction to SAFELY and PERMANENTLY reduce weight. The slower you lose the weight the easier time your body has to ‘shrink’ and if you are significantly overweight, you will have far less ‘excess/sagging skin’ after weight loss).

Science shows that the common belief that excess dietary carbs are stored as fat may not be entirely true, or at least shows that less carbohydrate is stored as fat than previously thought. Studies show that when glycogen tanks are only partially full, carbohydrate will be stored as glycogen until your muscle stores are completely replenished. When glycogen tanks are full and there is still more carbohydrate available, or if excess carbohydrate is consumed, you burn less fat until the excess carbohydrate is burned off. Even at rest, your body can down-regulate the oxidation of fat in the presence of excess carbohydrate. This means you use the extra carbohydrate to fuel normal bodily functions rather than storing it as fat.

While the mechanism is different from what was previously believed, the end result is the same. Since overeating carbs reduces fat oxidation, you end up burning less fat than normal for a given period of time. This means that less of your already-existing fat stores will be broken down, and possibly that more of the fat you consumed in the previous meal will be stored as well. As a result, you may end up gaining weight. The important distinction is that the weight gain is the result of reduced fat oxidation AS OPPOSED TO the conversion of carbohydrate to fat.

This has important implications for the way we perceive the relationship between carbs and fat. When we believed the usage of fat and carbs at rest were mainly independent of one another, it was easy to blame carbs for significantly contributing to fat storage. Now that overeating carbs has been shown to reduce fat oxidation, it’s clear that the carbs themselves are not the problem, but rather then problem is not burning off ENOUGH carbs during the day.

When a high carb meal is consumed, fat oxidation only decreases when you already have FULL glycogen stores. After activity, you continue burning fat to supply energy for normal activities as you store the glucose in your post-exercise meal. Athletes, therefore, should not fear carbs because an athlete’s activity level leads to glycogen depletion. The carbs you eat will then be stored as glycogen, and if you eat more than is needed to fill the glycogen tanks, most of the excess will be used to fuel normal daily activities and will not be stored as fat.

There is no doubt that people who stick to a low-carb diet can lose weight, but their weight loss has less to do with carbs and more to do with behavior and physiology.

- Initial Weight Loss is Due to Lost Glycogen and Water Weight

When you stop eating carbs you burn through all of your stored glycogen reasonably quickly. May take a sedentary person 2 days to deplete their energy stores, and an athlete less than one day Glycogen stores 3X its weight of water with it, meaning one gram of glycogen is worth a total of 4 grams of body weight. The majority of the initial weight loss (4-6 pounds) people see with a low-carb diet is due to glycogen depletion and water loss. This does not mean a person is necessarily dehydrated, because the water lost was the water stored within the muscle with glycogen. Water content in other tissues and in the blood may remain normal.

Of concern to athletes is the fact that in the first few days of carb deprivation, during the transition from burning stored glycogen to producing ketones (byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy, your body creates as much glucose as it can from skeletal muscle proteins. Your muscles are broken down to supply amino acids, which the liver then uses to produce glucose. Over the course of a few days, muscle-protein loss contributes to initial weight loss, but it also robs you of power and muscle mass that you worked so hard to gain.

This can be spun to the benefit of either the high or low-carb community. The low-carb community points to the less-filling nature of carb-rich foods as the reason people eat portions that are too large, and in some cases, they are correct. Some sweets and crackers lack both the fiber that make fruits and vegetables more filling and the caloric density that makes starches more filling. When your carbs come primarily from sources that are QUALITY carriers, however, you don’t have trouble feeling full after eating appropriately sized portions.

The best time to actively pursue weight loss is in Foundation/Base, Preparation/Build or perhaps Transition. However sometimes we need to use Transition to recover and rebuild so weight loss does not contribute tot that. DEFINTELY do not try to lose weight during Peak/Specialization (4-6 weeks prior to racing). Many people decide they have to be a certain weight in order to compete or perform at their best. But what ends up happening, a lot of times, is that the caloric restriction needed to achieve that body weight conflicts with the increased caloric intake they need to support their activity level. As a result, workout quality diminishes, recovery suffers, and fitness erodes. Instead of getting faster, you start suffering from small, nagging injuries and losing power.

(Carmichael does not reference how many calories to restrict, but other sources I have read recommended 100-200 calories per day reduction to SAFELY and PERMANENTLY reduce weight. The slower you lose the weight the easier time your body has to ‘shrink’ and if you are significantly overweight, you will have far less ‘excess/sagging skin’ after weight loss).

Science shows that the common belief that excess dietary carbs are stored as fat may not be entirely true, or at least shows that less carbohydrate is stored as fat than previously thought. Studies show that when glycogen tanks are only partially full, carbohydrate will be stored as glycogen until your muscle stores are completely replenished. When glycogen tanks are full and there is still more carbohydrate available, or if excess carbohydrate is consumed, you burn less fat until the excess carbohydrate is burned off. Even at rest, your body can down-regulate the oxidation of fat in the presence of excess carbohydrate. This means you use the extra carbohydrate to fuel normal bodily functions rather than storing it as fat.

While the mechanism is different from what was previously believed, the end result is the same. Since overeating carbs reduces fat oxidation, you end up burning less fat than normal for a given period of time. This means that less of your already-existing fat stores will be broken down, and possibly that more of the fat you consumed in the previous meal will be stored as well. As a result, you may end up gaining weight. The important distinction is that the weight gain is the result of reduced fat oxidation AS OPPOSED TO the conversion of carbohydrate to fat.

This has important implications for the way we perceive the relationship between carbs and fat. When we believed the usage of fat and carbs at rest were mainly independent of one another, it was easy to blame carbs for significantly contributing to fat storage. Now that overeating carbs has been shown to reduce fat oxidation, it’s clear that the carbs themselves are not the problem, but rather then problem is not burning off ENOUGH carbs during the day.

When a high carb meal is consumed, fat oxidation only decreases when you already have FULL glycogen stores. After activity, you continue burning fat to supply energy for normal activities as you store the glucose in your post-exercise meal. Athletes, therefore, should not fear carbs because an athlete’s activity level leads to glycogen depletion. The carbs you eat will then be stored as glycogen, and if you eat more than is needed to fill the glycogen tanks, most of the excess will be used to fuel normal daily activities and will not be stored as fat.

There is no doubt that people who stick to a low-carb diet can lose weight, but their weight loss has less to do with carbs and more to do with behavior and physiology.

- Initial Weight Loss is Due to Lost Glycogen and Water Weight

When you stop eating carbs you burn through all of your stored glycogen reasonably quickly. May take a sedentary person 2 days to deplete their energy stores, and an athlete less than one day Glycogen stores 3X its weight of water with it, meaning one gram of glycogen is worth a total of 4 grams of body weight. The majority of the initial weight loss (4-6 pounds) people see with a low-carb diet is due to glycogen depletion and water loss. This does not mean a person is necessarily dehydrated, because the water lost was the water stored within the muscle with glycogen. Water content in other tissues and in the blood may remain normal.

Of concern to athletes is the fact that in the first few days of carb deprivation, during the transition from burning stored glycogen to producing ketones (byproducts of fat metabolism) for energy, your body creates as much glucose as it can from skeletal muscle proteins. Your muscles are broken down to supply amino acids, which the liver then uses to produce glucose. Over the course of a few days, muscle-protein loss contributes to initial weight loss, but it also robs you of power and muscle mass that you worked so hard to gain.

This can be spun to the benefit of either the high or low-carb community. The low-carb community points to the less-filling nature of carb-rich foods as the reason people eat portions that are too large, and in some cases, they are correct. Some sweets and crackers lack both the fiber that make fruits and vegetables more filling and the caloric density that makes starches more filling. When your carbs come primarily from sources that are QUALITY carriers, however, you don’t have trouble feeling full after eating appropriately sized portions.