Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.
Can I clarify. are you asking for training advice post a cancer diagnosis or training using a low carb approach??
There has been lots written on the latter. Is there something special in relation to your cancer and needing to cut out sugar, or is this something you have read??
I am an MD but not in this area. I would just be advising that in the interim you need to be taking things super easy as once you start radiation therapy things can get a little unpleasant.

Unfortunately I have some experience with head and neck cancer and receiving radiation (35 rounds) and 7 cycles of chemo (Cisplatin) and can tell you what I experienced and impacts on training. Let me know if you want to talk.

Simply what I have been reading / YouTube and talking with friends in relation to sugar.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

I did the same as TLC13 almost 7 years ago. I was never very big on sugar, carbs guy. Which I know is basically sugar. I had stage 3 throat cancer from HPV, damn prom date! Not a sweets guy and into 7 weeks of chemo and radiation the final two weeks and about three weeks after I could not train at all. I was too sick, also went thru a weird phobia stage. Had to sleep at the edge of the bed and had to have the bedroom door open. It was winter and I hated the dark too. Well past the from my oncologists farewell stage, you’re cured and I won’t see you again.Did mess with my thyroid and I do have to do swallowing exercises daily. Life is good!

How have you modified training diet since?

I have been eating GU training now for 10 years, so guessing I will need to make a change moving forward. Dont plan on racing anything long for the next 12 months anyways

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

I tend to like solid food. Kind bars, Cliff bars and fig bars are my go to. Also water bottles with a tiny bit of gatoraide mixed it. I’ve been told sugar is the growth fuel of cancer and told by my radiation oncologist that he has never seen a case of HPV cancer ever return after being treated. True or not I don’t want to know.

Receiving same information here as well. Ok so the general move away from gels and switch to solid foods, got it!

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC6375425/

all non fiber carbs need to be cut out too.

My GF who had gone through cancer 4 times and works at a concer center in a hospital says your system should have a nutritionist to guide you through your recovery. Different kinds of cancer may require a different diet.

You should do what they say to do.

Very underwhelmed but nutrition advice getting at hospital.

I don't generally trust what one person has to say so like hearing different thoughts then forming my own conclusion.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Every cancer is different. I have brain cancer. I went through 33 radiation treatments and 18 months of Chemotherapy. Chemotherapy was 5 days on and 15 days off.

For radiation I would drive myself to and from. About an hour after treatment I would sleep for hours. The only exercise I could do was walking the dog for maybe 30 minutes. On the weekends when I had no treatment I would exercise up to one hour. Only using water. No gels or sports drink.

After radiation and during my five days of chemo I could exercise up to 30 minutes. Water only for hydration. About the fourth of fifth day of chemo I was worn out and would just sleep. A few days after the 5 day treatment and during the 15 day rest period, I was back to exercising up to an hour using only water for hydration.

I learned that I could not exercise long but need to be consistent and not go hard. Exercising less than one hour my body was fine just using water.

After all that was over I built back up to 50% to 70% of my old training volume. No more Ironmans. I've only done a few half's since. I now train up to 10 hours per week. I mainly keep most of my workouts to less than one hour using water as the only hydration source. I do one or two rides per week up to two hours max. In the long rides and races I use Tailwind, Spring energy or organic honey stinger gels. The less sugars and ingredients the better.

As far as my diet is concerned I try to eat as little processed food as I can. The less ingredients the better and Organic if it is available. Grassfed meats. Fruit and vegetables with every meal. I only drink water and unsweet tea. I don't eat out very much anymore but don't worry if I can't stick to it when traveling or over at someone else's place. I drink red wine and IPA's in moderation. One glass of water for every alcoholic drink. I haven't had a sweet tea or coke in over five years.

Clean up your food and use water as much as possible for hydration and you will be fine. Good luck.

This is a real person with real cancer asking for real advice. Get this crap out of here. Not the time to play troll games.

If you were by some small chance being sincere, the paper indicates that research is so early as to not have reached any meaningful clinical direction.

Was trying to be sincere.. the glass is not always half empty. All non fiber carbs eventually break down to glucose, , sugar much faster but that is essentially the fuel source for most cancer cells

Suggesting a ketogenic diet for the OP is not what'd call a glass half-full approach to "cancer."

Even the no-sugar approach doesn't have super strong clinical evidence. Though enough that I'd do it myself in his situation.

If you're going to take in high quality fruits you're going to get sugar; I can see cutting fruits being smart. Eliminating anything with "added sugar" sounds reasonable. I currently dont eat red meat, chicken, or pork.

So much information out there but hard to sorta through it all.

Up to this point blue zone diet and all the diet information from "Chris beats cancer" has made the most logical sense to me.

Applying this to training would mean eating real food while training and staying away from traditional gels or mixes?

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

I'm not a health professional of any kind, so very hesitant to give any advice.

But what I'm reading from "the science" is that sustained high-glycemic diets are the ones that may be problematic. While the occasional gel wouldn't cause sustained changes in blood chemistry, if you're going all-in (and why not go all-in), yes, I'd avoid typical gels and sports drinks.

Doctor here but not an oncologist. So this isn't medical advice.

This is more like a front porch conversation between people who care but haven't met in person yet.

Sorry about your diagnosis. Sounds like surgery went well.

Cancer isn't one thing; it's many things. We know nothing specific about your situation.

You are on a journey. Hard to know where it will take you.

Nothing wrong with wanting to optimize your health in advance.

Cutting down or cutting out sugar? Sure, why not. Worst case scenario, you feel tired and slow and cranky.

Just be ready to change the plan if needed. Like, if chemo makes your guts so unhappy that real food is intolerable, then be at peace with Gatorade and Ensure. And when you feel better, don't feel guilty about enjoying pizza and ice cream.

I hope your journey includes none of that.

I hope that training and sports nutrition remain the top agenda items.

Best wishes.

All the best Brendan..thoughts and prayers are with you..stay strong

Skratch Labs clear hydration mix has 50 calories, 13 grams carbs and 4 grams of sugar per serving. Skratch Labs sport hydration mix has 80 calories, 21 grams carb and 19 grams of sugar per serving. Skratch Labs has nine to thirteen ingredients depending on flavor.

For comparison Tailwind has 100 calories, 25 grams carbs and 25 grams of sugar per serving. Tailwind has seven or eight ingredients depending on the flavor.

So how is your treatment going? What nutrition plan have you been using?

1 week to go! Nutrition has just been whatever I can get in. Still working out 7-10 hours a week. Run almost every day, will have to finally cut swimming Doctors have said not to be but I dont listen well.

Still trying to figure out how to do a ketogenic diet once I start more full time training in a few weeks. Have not really been able to connect with any endurance athletes that training of a ketogenic diet (60-100g of carbs a day).

Thanks for checking in!

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

Check out the Human Performance Outliers Podcast with Zach Bitter. There are a couple episodes there on low carb with endurance athletics.

In my experience, as your body adapts to low carb, your bodies fat oxidation rate will improve, enabling you to more effectively burn fat for fuel, and significantly decreasing your need for carbs.

I am amazed that you are training through the hell of chemotherapy. Keep fighting and staying strong.

Curious as to why your doctors do not want you swimming. Assuming it is an immunity thing. I never attempted to swim during Chemo so never asked.

I will def check that out! Thank you.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz