Title says it all. Over the last few months, I’ve been transitioning to a more “natural” carb-based diet (I know, using the term liberally here…) but have leaned out considerably and have generally felt very good. Honestly, I used to pretty much take down 2/3 box of pasta every night during big training blocks but would always feel really heavy and bloat-y; I gotta say that I love this new nimble feeling that seems to come with my modified diet (assuming I use the restroom before I ride, lolz). Basically, I end up consuming probably 10-15 servings of fruit and lord-knows how many vegetables per day as well as lean meats and nut butters to round out my nutritional profile.
Anyways, just looking for experiences on this sort of thing. Some folks have cautioned me about the amount of sugar and fiber but I’m no nutritionist so I don’t really know…
I gave up all foods with added sugar, grains, pasta, most legumes. Basically the whole30 diet. I train upwards of 15-16 hours a week, sometimes more in the summer if IM training. Successfully did 2 IMs eating this way. I do have a few caveats though so I’m not 100% strict. My advice is the following:
Eat lots of potatoes, especially sweet potatoes. I eat them every day. Starchy vegetables are a must. Also, don’t be afraid to eat an insane number of vegetables overall. You’ll naturally eat less carbs so you have to make an effort to replace what you burn.
Eat lots of fruit. I’m partial to apples and bananas.
During longer workouts, break from the diet for sports drinks or gels. Anything over 2.5 hours I’ll eat some gels. No pre-workout or post-workout crap though. Just go back to real food when the workout is over.
Every so often (maybe once a month), screw the diet and each a bunch of crap for a day. Be sure to go right back to the diet afterwards
I recommend that your one cheat is beer.
Agree with the previous poster that it will be tough at first. Having less sugar in your diet is hard at first. Also, the amount of fiber you’ll be eating may be hard to adjust to at first. But the more strict I am eating this way, the better I feel.
I’ve been essentially no grains, no sugar for approaching 3 years now. I do throw in a cheat every now and again. For me it’s pizza, never been much of a beer drinker. For me it’s been great. Never felt better. Lots of fruits and veggies.
I had a blood test and then wanted to change my diet and see the impact on my blood 6 months later. I was concerned with cholestrol. My total cholestrol was 178 and the doctor said it was in the normal range. I asked if people in the normal range get heart attacks and he said yes, so I asked why is that normal? In places like rural China, the cholestrol is nowhere near as high so I ignored the “normal” and cut out all animal products. I ate a lot of rice, grains, vegetables and other carbs.
6 months later my cholestrol was down to 138 but my blood sugar went way up. Then I tried a different approach. I ate meat but only free-range and small amounts. I ate more natural fat (cream, butter, almond butter, avocados, eggs, cheese). My carbs were just leafy green vegetables and other vegetables. I eliminated bread, sugar, pasta, rice, beer, alcohol).
The result was a dramatic loss in body fat, far higher energy and my blood sugar drooped into an excellent range and my cholestrol level is still below 140.
If I eat a lot of carbs I find I get headaches and my body fat goes up so I avoid them. The result of a higher natural fat diet means I eat far less and have lost all cravings between meals. It worked out well for me.
My diet is very heavy in veggies and fruits. My only significant source of non-veggie-carbs is from home-ground grains that I cook into porridge (think Bob’s 12 grain or something). I find that I need some bulk to make my tummy happy and that solves it. I don’t eat bread, pasta, crusts, etc., unless it is a cheat. I get my proteins primarily from raw nuts, fish, and red meat. For some reason I don’t eat much chicken. No real reason, other than I just never buy it.
Breakfast @ 5:30
Porridge with fresh fruit and soy milk
8oz fresh squeeze OJ (we have a tree)
Coffee
Snack @ 9
2 Eggs cooked on the stove with olive oil
Snack 2 @ 11
Carrots & Hummus
Snack 3 @ 1
Tomatoes and olives
Real lunch (after a workout)
Varies, but usually has cooked veggies and fish or tuna or chicken or something
Sometimes on rice, but pretty rarely
Afternoon snack @ 4
Nuts
Dinner
Salad with over a dozen veggies
Homemade salad dressing
On Fri, Sat, Sun I cook up a meat thing
All of this goes out the door when I eat out. I’m not a sweets person. I do like beer. As a matter of fact, I like brewing my own because it is yummier. And I can control what grains I use and what I use for the malt or substitute it with honey or something.
I went low carb, replaced all grains with veggies, learned to love veggies more than anything. I would pile my plate high with broccoli etc.
6 months or so later I noticed I was getting weird stuffy nose and sore throats.
Long story short I had given myself a bacterial overgrowth from all the veggies! Perfect environment for them.
I was producing no stomach acid due to H Pylori, therefore I was getting reflux at night due to slow production of acid and slow food breakdown.
Eventually solved with HCL and digestive enzymes, but it wasn’t pleasant!
Yup. I have Crohn’s Disease. Haven’t had pasta in about 4 years. Bread maybe once every 1-2 weeks. Still do brown rice most days, but not too much. Lots of fruits/veggies/nuts/fish/lean meats. I dropped a few pounds very quickly once I stopped with pasta and bread- I was thin to begin with so only about 4 pounds or so. Other than the weight loss the most noticeable thing was that I just felt better. It’s unlikely I would ever have done it if not for my Chronic illness- so I tip my hat to you.
Can I ask if anybody has tried quitting grains for an extended period and really not noticed much difference? I’m fairly happy with my body composition, energy levels, etc and eat a fair amount of grains. I do tend to naturally cut down on them at times when I’m not training much, but if I’m doing a lot of training then I get through quite a lot of bread, eat pizza fairly regularly (like once a fortnight or so), and have beers most weekends.
I could probably cut most of the bread and pizza, and at least some of the beer could be swapped for wine if I really thought there was a tangible benefit to doing so. It seems whenever there’s a thread or article like this then most or all of the people commenting are extolling the virtues of quitting grains, or else dismissing the idea without having tried it.