Maybe a strange question: I have a friend who has to seriously avoid sugar and most carbs in his diet due to a yeast infection. It’s a pretty complicated illness and there are some very serious health effects if the infection takes off.
Well, this guy is getting more and more into running workouts, but finds that his energy is really suffering due to lack of carbs in his diet.
Does anyone have any suggestions for any type of gels, energy product, or even a food in general that could boost his energy level, even for a short period of time to get through a 30 - 60 minute workout?
I’m a diabetic, so I eat very few carbs as a result. During long workouts or races, a low carb diet becomes a bit of an issue. But I’m training for my second ironman in two years, and I think I’ve finally got the nutrition thing worked out for me.
I eat one Cliff shot block every twenty minutes for any race or workout longer than ninety minutes. I’ve been experimenting with different nutrition choices over the past year, and I’ve been testing my blood sugar regularly to see the impact of different foods while training. If I eat one shot block every 20 mins, my blood sugar is in the normal range (ie: non-diabetic). Anything more than that and my levels are too high.
The Cliff shots are mostly organic content and easily digested and absorbed. They taste good too.
If it’s only a 30-60 minute workout he should skip the carbs all together. If he is doing workouts of that length I would recommend starting at a time when his blood sugar is good to begin with and then just eat regularly before and after.
For me, my blood sugar is actually most stable first thing in the am. Even though I’m not that well fueled, I have no problem with short workouts at that time. When I try working out after work it’s much more difficult for me to figure out when/what to eat to feel OK during the workout.
I dealth with a similar issue, but sounds like a milder case, a few years ago. However, I was not exercising regularly at the time.