Fat Loading Diet Prior to Carbo Loading for a Marathon

dewd2

I am reading "The New Rules of Marathon and Half Marathon Nutrition” by Matt Fitzgerald and I am considering doing his high fat diet leading up to the carbo loading portion of my training. I am 100% anti-fad diet guru nonsense but...

This looks interesting to me. I am willing to give it one shot and see what happens. I can't find many reviews from folks who tried it. This one seems to confirm that it works.

Has anyone tried this? Did it help?

MobyCarp

Haven't tried it. The old school, retired marathon runners tell me that back in the day, they'd protein load for 3 days then carb load for 3 days before a marathon. I haven't really tried that; my last iteration, I concentrated on 3 days of carb loading and managed to run the full course in the rain. Before the carb load, I ate my normal moderately high protein, moderately low fat, don't worry about carbs diet.

dewd2

So I've been doing some more reading... It seems I never really looked into carbo loading and just accepted that it was the correct thing to do. Turns out it may not be as advertised...

It seems that carbo loading helps tremendously with runs more than 90 minutes if you do not also eat carbs while running. If you do, then it makes no difference. Of course I'm having a hell of a time finding evidence to back this up. I think I need to hire a trainer, dietitian, and a scientist.

Now this will bug me until I find the truth.

GiddyupTim

I have heard the same thing about carb loading.
People used to do it back in the day because they didn't have Gu.
Now that we have Gu (or whatever) things are different. One Gu during a marathon supplies you with the same amount of energy as carb loading the days before.
I believe it is the sports gels too that are the reason we don't talk about the "wall" so much any more. It's not the obstacle it once was.
And, just an FYI, in case you eat during a race: There was a study recently that compared sports drink to banana, using cyclists in a lab, pedaling for 75-km.
These researchers had previously established that the cyclists performed better if they drank sports drink or ate banana than they did if they just drank water.
In a more recent study, they had the cyclists do the same thing, and they drew blood throughout, and for a couple of days after.
What they found in this study was that the banana had the additional benefit of also blocking the production of prostaglandins, which are inflammatory cytokines.
What that means is that, if you ate the banana, you had less inflammation.
The sports drink provided energy, but did not do this.
The researchers focused on the idea that the banana, therefore, might result in better, faster recovery. But it occurs to me that it might also mean a bit less discomfort during the race itself too.
Anyway, if you are thinking of eating some fruit during the run anyway......
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0194843

Orphia

dewd2 wrote: »

So I've been doing some more reading... It seems I never really looked into carbo loading and just accepted that it was the correct thing to do. Turns out it may not be as advertised...

It seems that carbo loading helps tremendously with runs more than 90 minutes if you do not also eat carbs while running. If you do, then it makes no difference. Of course I'm having a hell of a time finding evidence to back this up. I think I need to hire a trainer, dietitian, and a scientist.

Now this will bug me until I find the truth.

If you find out, let me know.

I'm sure your trainer, dietitian, and scientist will all have different opinions.

If you carb load, or if you don't, you still need carbs during runs longer than 90 minutes.

Even the Keto ultramarathon poster boys eat carbs on ultras.

Vladimirnapkin

From my long history of long distance running, how I eat is infinitely less important than how I trained. Also, Gels are amazing.

MobyCarp

Vladimirnapkin wrote: »

From my long history of long distance running, how I eat is infinitely less important than how I trained. Also, Gels are amazing.

This. How I eat will affect how well I survive running a marathon. How I train dictates whether it's worth lining up at the start of a marathon at all.