I begin tomorrow. Eeek!

DonPendergraft

I've been studying, reading and lurking for some time now. I'm between big races. I drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of chocolate ice cream and other carb rich goodies today. But is finally time. I've learned so much from you all and I'm now ready to take the plunge. Tomorrow will be my first day! All positive thoughts and prayers appreciated. I'm very excited to see what happens!

KarlaYP

Once you are fully in you won't miss those things at all! Welcome! Awesome group here!

GrannyMayOz

All the best Don. I think we're all positive that you're going to love it, and see benefits.

sweetteadrinker2

Success is never final and failure never fatal, we're all a work in progress, except maybe Goat Welcome!

spush

Nice to see you Don, all the best for your journey.

cindytw

You will feel a lot better! The biggest thing is once you are adapted, no more hitting the wall in a race!

RisiM

Good luck, it's surprising how many things you can still eat

kristenlarkin

Good luck, give it two weeks before deciding if you like it or not. It will take about that long for your body to get used to it. Chicken or beef broth and lots of water is suppost to help with "carb flu" so make sure you have that on hand. After your body gets used to it, you'll love it.

DonPendergraft

cindytw wrote: »

You will feel a lot better! The biggest thing is once you are adapted, no more hitting the wall in a race!

That's going to be awesome. But I'm just wondering what to do about my 4 hour run this afternoon? Just don't eat? That's one way to burn off the glycogen I suppose! I bought some olives. Maybe they will work? I feel like I’m starting over again. I guess I am!

wabmester

Do you have a heart-rate monitor? If so, maybe you could do a little study on yourself and post the results for us. In theory, as you become fat adapted, your O2 needs and heart rate will decrease during exercise.

GrannyMayOz

See how you go on the run Don. I wouldn't recommend running 2 hours away from home in case you find the 2 hours back too hard. It will take time to fat adapt and most people find that exercise is tiring during the adaptation period. I knocked myself backwards by not just taking a break and then starting again a couple of weeks down the track. But you're fitter and younger, and male, so your experience may differ from mine. I tend to take runs circling my local area so that I can easily bail out, when I have problems

Kitnthecat

Welcome Don, best of luck ! This may seem daunting at first, but it is well worth the effort, and will likely feel like the easiest eating plan ever once you get into it.

Teneko

Good luck, Don! Hydrate hydrate hydrate.
You may find it helpful to take double the amount of water you usually use on a run. Add one of those no carb electrolyte packets to one of the bottles.
I've used the following:
Oxylent
ElectroMix (from the makers of Emergen-C)
Gaspari Nutrition Aminolast (the Orange Mango from bodybuilding.com is awesome!)

All of the above options are zero carb.
Before your run, you might try having a tablespoon or two of coconut oil.
Also, might want to pick up some bone broth to sip on before bed.

Good luck!

-T.

DonPendergraft

Thanks for all of the great advice! Today I'm going to do a 5 mile MAF test (any Maffetone fans?) then run another 10. It will be on the track so easy to punch out early if needed. No breakfast on Sunday's but for lunch I had an avocado, some cheese and 3 bacon/egg/cheese cups. I will bring some olives for the run. I've managed expectations and will after today take it fairly easy until I adapt.

Bonus question: do I back out the fiber in an avocado for my daily carb count?

Kitnthecat

I personally aim for under 20 g total, not net carbs, so will usually plan for those avocado carbs. I guess it depends on what you want to do. I bet each of us might have a little different strategy.

Teneko

Personally, I have my "goal" set for 16g of carbs in MFP, and try not to go over that TOTAL. It helps in planning. Today, though, I see that my TOTAL carbs is over 16g, but my NET is much lower, so I am not stressing it too much. I have MFP set to track both carbs and fibre next to each other, so it makes it easy for me to mentally filter it out.

I initially started with my total carbs and protein higher, but found those ratios weren't working out very well for me. Your body may be different. Some people can tolerate a lot more carbs and still be in ketosis. I, apparently, am not one of them.

-T.