Has anybody researched this combination?

I’ve just started a LCD to shed some weight and improve control of HbA1c. Commuting home last night (10 miles off road) I felt very drained. Not sure if it was the 31deg C or riding without carb’s on board.

Any experiences / advice much appreciated.

I am not a scientist but…

You’ve just started the LCD. Your body will probably need a little time to adjust. 31C will not help matters at all. Who has advised the diet?

As above especially if your diet has been high in carbs.

Just finished Fast After 50 by Joe Friel. In it he describes changing to a low carb diet to control middle age spread and finding he felt bad for 3-4 weeks until his body got used to it. Once it did he said he was able to train with greater intensity than before.

I am a scientist* ha ha ha ha

not sure I would do a LCD if I had type2 diabetes though – The control of your blood sugar is diet controled and you might have issues with side effects. You should consult your doctor and see what they advise.

you’re probably better controlling your calorie intake and doing more exersise. its not as efficient for loosing weight in the short term compared to LCD but its certainly going to be safer for someone like you.

*disclaimer I’m a structural biologist and its been over 10 years since I published in the metabolic research field.

How low is low?

I have been following a low carb diet for a few years now.

Basically just cut out heavy and starchy carbs. No pasta, bread, potato or similar.

Eat a lot of veg and eat low GI fruit like strawberries etc. So I get my carbs from them.

It took a couple of weeks to get used to it but I got a lot benefits from it.

Low carb diets are basically against what is the current dietary advice and cause a lot of debate.

gobuchul – <50g per day.

Can’t imagine <50g per day is going to play nice with cycling – especially until your body adapts to burning fats better.
Once your body adapts you should be able to manage easy paced rides, but i can’t see how hard rides are going to work. You are basically starting every ride semi ‘bonked’.
50g is ~200kcal ~=15mins of hard effort on the bike.

Depends what you call Low Carb as others have said and also how crap your pancreas actually is.

I follow a carb controlled diet these days, low carb around less than 50g a day and I feel terrible, medication and BG goes to pot.

Keep it between 50 and 100g a day with top ups on the more active days and it’s much better. I still have off days where things just don’t work and I have no energy but most of the time I’m improving and it’s OK. Not the fastest or fittest though.

I’m on a mix of Sitagliptin, Metformin and Gliclazide and currently running with an A1C between 50 and 60 usually. Day to day readings are stable as is my weight (could so with shedding another stone though)

I’m pretty much of the opinion that I discuss these things with the nurse\GP and follow their advice. I don’t pay attention to any internet twattery. While I can admit that the low carb thing will work for some people, the side effects of diabetes are too serious to put in the hands of some moron at the other end of a keyboard (including me).

So far the evidence suggests following my nurse\doctor advice has mostly worked. Except statins, it took a while to proove they were doing me more harm than good but the nurse was more than happy to go with the experience I had as long as I least tried 🙂

That’s fairly low.

You may need time to adjust. The heat isn’t going to help either.

Watch your fluids as well, I tend to drink fresh orange juice mixed 10:1 with water, find it easier on my stomach than plain water.

I will also eat an apple, pear or similar when out, helps me.

IANAD.

That’s pretty extreme – I thought most low-carb diets were around 150g a day?

I think some knackeration is to be expected on that, especially in your circumstances and given the heat.

Personally I wouldn’t radically change my diet without consulting the doc first. Substituting processed carbs for more slow-release stuff – brown rice, oats etc while leaving them at 40% of your total calories might be a good start.

especially until your body adapts to burning fats better.

can you clarify this for me – the body uses fat as its number one energy source, its geared up to burn fat to sustain life. How does it start to burn fat better?

This isn’t an argument, I’ve curious as to the reason behind this statement.

When you get 5 minutes, Google Tim Noakes LCHF Diet, I dropped 15kg over 6 months and while it took me a few weeks to get used to low carbs, my energy levels improved massively over time.

I have been Paleo for three years and race Expert. I’m not super low carb but the body can adjust to burning more fat at higher intensities, effectively ‘sparing’ glycogen. I still use homemade gels for racing and hard training rides, but can happily do low and medium intensity rides without needing to eat.

It took me 4 weeks before I felt normal and about a year to get to the state I now enjoy. The ‘carb flu’ is a bugger, but it’s worth hanging on! Try the Paleo Diet for Athletes or the Paleo Solution for more info.

Poah – the body burns fat and carbs during exercise, the higher your intensity the more the percentages favour carbs.

can you clarify this for me – the body uses fat as its number one energy source, its geared up to burn fat to sustain life. How does it start to burn fat better?

Because of reduced amount of insulin in the body – the hormone that is responsible for fat storage/usage

AFAIK when you follow a low carb diet it enables the body to use more of these fat stores whilst increasing your basal metabolic rate

http://www.dietdoctor.com/fix-broken-metabolism-exact-opposite

can you clarify this for me – the body uses fat as its number one energy source, its geared up to burn fat to sustain life. How does it start to burn fat better?

This isn’t an argument, I’ve curious as to the reason behind this statement.

As a few others above said, the body will gradually switch to burning carbs as exercise intensity increases.

Can’t tell you about the exact biology behind it, but can tell you the training theory.

Riders have been doing long steady distance rides since forever which work by depleting the pool of carbs available, and eventually teaching the body to burn higher % of fat for any given intensity.
More recently, fasted rides (pre breakfast, only fuelled by protein and/or coffee) have taken this a step further.
Eating <50g carbs per day replicates these training examples 24/7 essentially giving the body a crash course in learning to burn a higher % of fat as fuel.

In a similar position here… Type 2, and want to shed a few more Kgs.
I’ve got Tim Noakes’ books, and very tempted to give it a go..

A guy who rode the 300km Mighty Corinthian and wrote about it on road.cc said:

Keto Way

I was very pleased with my fuelling strategy – aka ‘eat normal food’. In fact, I ate the same calories that I’d normally do in the breakfast-lunch-snacks period – about 1500 calories’ worth. So where did the other 8,500+ calories of energy come from? Why wasn’t I a glycemic-coma-riddled corpse halfway up Kirkstone? How come I finished strong, hopped off the bike, had a salad and a beer, then hung around for another three hours cheering and chatting without a hint of tiredness or cramp?

Six weeks before, I’d finished a 100km ride around flattish Hampshire, hit the wall hard and spent the next three hours lying on a bed sipping orange juice and eating white bread. I can only put it down to Keto Adaption and burning fat. If you’re interested, the go-to source of wisdom on Keto for sporty types is The Art and Science Of Low Carbohydrate Performance – it’s a fiver on Amazon.

Having weighed the pros and cons (cost, faff, missing old favourite foods), made the decision to change my diet permanently, and seen the benefit first-hand, I’ll never go back to the days of funding the carb-loaded sports food military-industrial complex.

Because of reduced amount of insulin in the body – the hormone that is responsible for fat storage/usage

you are not adapting the body to use fats better, it already knows how to.

insulin and blood glucose cause an increase in malonyl CoA, the rate limiting step inhibitor of fatty acid oxidation. This also causes an increase in fatty acid synthesis making you fatter. Reduce the glucose you reduce the insulin and blood glucose levels thus having less malonyl CoA and more acetyl-CoA meaning more fatty acid oxidation thus making you thinner.

This may be a stupid question, but my Mum said theres no such thing as a stupid question so…

Is a LCHF diet compatible with a vegetarian/vegan(ish) diet? Is it possible?

I’ve pretty much cut out meat other than the occasional bit of fish, dont really go for eggs, dont drink milk.

I normally ride 200-250 miles a week, pretty comfortable riding 70 miles on the road fueled by 3-4 bananas and a peanut butter/jam sandwich.

Essentially Ive been doing the opposite with high carbs/low fat, and feeling good because of it. But always open to new ideas.

Did Keto for Lent (don’t ask) and never felt better but my cardio did suffer but I am sure it would of improved if I had stuck with it.

Got a couple of mates who are Type2, follow LCHF diets and race Ironman tri with good success. It does take a while to adapt, they’ve both said 6 to 8 weeks initially with performance improving beyond that.