Here is the video recording of our first webinar. Sorry for the audio (and video) issues, but bear with us, everything clears up nicely after about 4 minutes. Show notes are below. We weren’t able to cover everything I had on the agenda and in my notes, so you’ll actually find more info in the outline below. We’ll be doing a Part 2 on this topic. So let me know your questions!

 

Show Notes

I’m seeing so much confusion! What to eat, what “diet” to follow, how many macros, and so forth—let’s get back to the basics and quit the diet mentality…

A couple recent questions sent to Endurance Planet:

  • “I am so confused, Tawnee. Didn’t you used to always tout low-carb ‘fat burning’ diet? Wasn’t that a huge issue you talked about on the podcast?”
  • “I am a bit confused as well. Seemed like high-fat low-carb is not the way for endurance female athletes? I just switched over to low carb high fat (LCHF) and have been feeling better than ever but am confused about this new info now. I thought the goal of a fat adapted athlete was not to feel hungry all the time. I can finally go hours without eating during a competition but maybe I’m doing more harm than good?”

Answer: It’s not black and white! In some cases low carb (LC) is good. In some cases avoiding LC is good. It depends on the individual. So today we hope to determine your needs. For example it’s not just about going low carb and staying there, it’s about finding health and it’s a process. Many people indeed need to cut back on the carbs and sugar (it’s an addiction) and go lower carb, while getting over the fear of fat and eating more fat. This teaches you how to burn fat for fuel, avoid constant hunger, avoid diabetes, disease, etc. Nothing wrong with that. But if you stay chronically low carb this is what can lead to problems, so at some point healthy carbs should be incorporated especially if 1) you’re a female and 2) you’re an athlete or exercising a lot (7 hours a week is a lot technically). On the flip side, if you’ve come to fear carbs and are chronically <100 g a day even when you’re exercising a lot then this can be problematic for hormones, energy, performance, metabolism, and even health—it’s time to bring back in some carbs. It’s rare I see chronic keto diets work out well. It can, but it’s rare, so I’d rather promote healthy lifestyle techniques and not “how to follow a diet,” as keto is.

At the end of the day we all want to land in one spot: moderation.

The thing is, moderation ain’t sexy. But in our camp, we’re going to make it hot!

 

  • Definitions
    • Keto
      • <50g/day, generally
    • Low carb
      • 50-100g/day—may be ok on sedentary days
      • It gets tricky: if exercising a lot, LC could even be <200g/day if you’re burning that much energy
    • Moderate carb
      • 100-300g/day—you can still be a fat burner with this level
    • High carb
      • 300-700g/day—only on “special” days i.e. race day, etc.
    • The truth? You can be all of these at some point and probably be ok, assuming no medical condition. In fact, the goal is to be able to handle all of these! Be fat-adapted enough to not rely on carbs (you don’t get hangry); but also have a well-primed system and healthy metabolism to tolerate more carbs and even heavy carb days if you so choose. If you stay chronic keto, or 10% calories from carbs, this can induce insulin resistance, the very thing you probably were looing to avoid with LCHF! Note: chronic is key. Going LC to lose weight or going keto on occasion may be ok for some.
  • What are your carb needs? It begins with where you are at today, right now!
    • This is why it’s tough to generalize on a podcast—so let’s make it about you. And feel free to ask questions at the end about your situation.
    • When should you eat fewer carbs?
      • Sugar-addicted (you know when you are a cookie monster), eating more than 300g/day every day, can’t function without food, constant cravings, daily energy spikes and crashes, bloating, gas, gut issues, sleepy after meals, brain fog, insomnia or poor sleep, inability to lose weight, abdominal fat, high fasted blood glucose, low energy, family history or diabetes or heart disease, inflammation, pain, etc. If you wake up and no matter what you are starving this is an easy sign.
      • Women: Horrible PMS, PCOS.
    • When should you increase your carbs?
      • If you’ve tried going LCHF and had initial success but now feeling “flat” and like you don’t have the extra gear.
      • If you have high cortisol or taxed adrenals (diagnosed adrenal fatigue or you think this may be the case).
      • If you have health issues like hypothyroidism, AI, HPA axis dysfunction
      • Also: insomnia or poor sleep, inability to lose weight, abdominal fat, high fasted blood glucose, wired but tired, low energy, inability to function as you once did, etc.
      • Women: loss of menstruation, hormonal imbalance, etc
    • What’s with the crossover symptoms?
      • Any time you are out of balance and lacking homeostasis your body will try to tell you that—too high carb or too low carb when it’s not appropriate will sometimes lead to similar symptoms often. It’s like with HR—if something’s up then HR may be too high or too low than your norm, and either way we see that HR readings aren’t normal, something’s up (overtraining?) and need to intervene to regain balance.
  • How to determine your carb needs
    • Health—current, past and future
    • Sex—females automatically need more IMO, but you also want to stay away from refined carbs and refined sugar even more than men. Quality matters.
      • Carb needs vary with cycle (1st phase vs. 2nd phase).
      • Recovering from amenorrhea? Eat “all the food” as they say to send the right signal that body can be fertile and is safe.
    • Activity/exercise—if you’re sedentary and don’t exercise much you can get away with fewer carbs more often. If you’re a hard-hitting endurance athlete, you better have those carb refeeds.
    • It will vary—we’re always changing. In time of recovery you often just need more calories, carbs and fat, for example.
    • “Sugar detox”—if you are in need of switching to less reliance on carbs just a warning that there’s often a transition period that can have yucky symptoms, this lasts 2-3 weeks then you come around. It’s not the focus for today but worth mentioning.
  • Don’t forget calories!
    • Another big mistake with LCHF is going low calorie either unintentionally because you’re so fat-adapted, or because you’ve cut out so many foods you’re just eating less due to less variety.
      • Fat-adapted is not an excuse to not eat!
    • The occasional low calorie day is no big deal, and even planning some days where you’re in a deficit is ok if weight loss or weight maintenance is a goal – but must be used in moderation and chronic low calorie is not healthy for the body nor sustainable, especially when combined with low carb!
    • For example, emerging research shows just 1-2 full-day fasts per month give all the health benefits you want/would need. It’s not something to be overdone.
  • Is carb cycling the answer that solves all problems?
    • Refer to the article I have on LPC giving extensive detail on this subject. What it does:
    • Avoids pitfalls of too low carb
    • Carbs to support health and exercise
      • Minimum effective dosage rule
    • But low carb enough to avoid sugar reliance/addiction and promote good health
      • You don’t want to be a glucose machine, you want to be a fat machine
    • Promote and maintain fat-burning—with carbs!
      • Timing of carbs, and cycling
      • Have your cake and eat it too
  • The inverse relationship of carb and fat
    • On HC days, eat less fat
    • On LC days, eat more fat
    • Research tells us that it’s actually BAD to douse your high-carb meal in fat (don’t to avoid the BG spike)—the body still recognized this as the cheesecake effect, a term borrowed from my friend Tommy Wood.
    • This also keeps us in good calorie balance. I also see people gaining weight or having trouble with less carbs, etc, because it’s calories that are out of whack (and/or quality).
  • “But what if I feel SO GOOD on low carb?”
    • I can almost guarantee that high and good feeling is temporary. I only know a few who are rocking (chronic) keto, and most end up having to reincorporate more carbs—usually once it was “too late” and they realized things were going south. Be proactive.
    • Very low carb is actually a stress—it’s a false sense of feeling good. My take here? Get tested (hormones, adrenals) to see what your situation is. I can offer these tests, and I don’t recommend doing this just via blood. Maybe you already feel crappy, so more reason to test. But if you feel good we should test to see if what you feel matches reality—often they don’t and more carbs are needed. Not just carbs, sometimes it’s stress or something else. I don’t want to straight up vilify LC or keto.
    • You feel good but did you know… Chronic low carb can mess up your metabolism? When cells are running on fat (fatty acids) they don’t want to uptake glucose in order to save it for places have to have glucose, like in the brain. This is peripheral and it’s a smart thing for the body to do to keep us alive because the brain needs glucose, if glucose is low, it’ll hoard whatever’s there for the brain. Thus the brain will stay insulin sensitive, meanwhile the rest of the cells/muscle don’t.
      • This may be ok if you’re keto forever, but as soon as you eat sugar/carbs it can lead to issues. And after what we’ve discussed today there’s a good chance most of you don’t want to always be keto for many reasons, hormonal health, performance, etc.
      • The take home is: Yes, use your LC/keto to lose weight or regain health, but don’t stay there forever! And if it sounds appealing to go LC just because then really ask why—nothing is without consequence.
      • If you’re an athlete your better off adopting carb cycling not saying “hey, I’m going LC.” You may need to in the beginning when you’re sugar-addicted and signs of metabolic syndrome (BG dysregulation) but don’t stay that low.
    • There’s good news—if LCHF/keto is working well for you now and you’re certain health is good (again: get tested, don’t guess) then just do the carb cycling and still be in keto at times. Best of both worlds.
      • I’d advise tracking this on MFP to begin, or at least planning out your LC phases.
  • Next Time: Clearing Up Carb Confusion Part 2
    • Answering more real-life questions
    • Carbs needs for males vs. females, athletes vs. non-athletes
    • Should women avoid LCHF?
    • Carbs and menstruation