Reintroducing carbs

Triathlon Forum
1

I have struggled with weight (body composition, fat) most of my life. About 10 years ago I was 300 lbs and triathlon has been a huge part of my fitness journey. I still yo-yo some; 210s is technically still not very lean for my height but that’s where I feel good and most of my PRs have come. I had a back injury and a bout with depression and got up into the 250s last year.
I tried the Maffetone - carb restricted, quality fats - diet and that got me back to the 230s but then I stalled. Also I noticed a major performance effect - all through base phase training I was fine with very low carbs and many fasting workouts. But once I went into TrainerRoad’s build phase, with a lot of efforts over threshold, I was really struggling to hit the targets - and reintroducing carbs has improved this to such a degree I am thinking I need to repeat my FTP test.

So I’m convinced that overly restricted carbs is not my long term best - I need to reintroduce some carb foods strategically.
I do have a problem with craving carbs once I start eating them.
Maffetone didn’t have me measuring serving sizes or counting intake, but I know that if carb foods are on the menu I will need to get back to my fitness pal or some other means of balancing energy intake vs. energy output.
In the past I’ve done better with whole grains and mixing proteins and fats in rather than eating an all-carbs meal or snack, so I know that’s part of the plan.

I’d appreciate suggestions about how to reintroduce carbs and carb heavy foods in a way that will help my training and allow me to continue with weight loss.
Also if you have any insight about what triggers cravings, or how to deal with cravings when they occur, please share.

2

If you’re open to a drastic change I recommend checking out the book The Starch Solution by Dr. John McDougall. He makes a very solid argument for a plant derived starch-based diet and I’ve never been more lean or more energetic since starting it. Complex, low sugar carbohydrate sources are actually very filling and can give you the ability to eat until you are satisfied and not cause weight gain.

Good luck with everything!

3

sugar triggers cravings, so I’d avoid sugars and go with things like sweet potato, brown rice…

congratulations on losing so much weight!

4

Congrats on losing so much weight!

Re: carbs, I went to a nutritionist a few years ago that has a number of high performing athletes on her client list. Her advice was to replace the carbs & protein immediately after working out (with chocolate milk, endurox, other similar 4:1 carb/protein drink) in order to replace glycogen stores and promote immediate recovery. Normally, you would then include some carbs in your post-workout meal (leaning towards complex) but if you have a goal of losing weight, you should instead eliminate the carbs from this meal. Completely eliminating carbs during and immediately after training can hinder your performance.

Good luck!

5

Last year I lost 55 lbs (from 205). I’m also borderline Metabolic Syndrome (or WAS before the weight loss). As such, a low carb / low GI diet was recommended by my Doc at that time. Back then I wasn’t doing any training (for unrelated reasons). I basically ate about 10-20% calories from carbs…mostly whole grain, very low sugars. I averaged an 875 cal/day deficit during the weight-loss period.

In October of last year I started back on the training regimen, but continued with the low-carb plan—I was still trying to refine my body comp a bit. It worked fine while I was on the zone1/2 only approach to just getting back into shape, and being able to SBR for more than 30 minutes. However, like you…once I began adding tempo/threshold work, and my CTL exceeded about 50…I began to really struggle with recovery. I was “constantly” fatigued, and it would take 48-72 hours to recover from a single FTP workout.

So, I started adding whole grain carbs back to my meals. Things like Brown Rice, Whole wheat pasta, 11-15 whole grain breads, rolled oats, etc. My own approach is to eat about 1.2 g/kg or protein daily, 20-30% from good fats, and the remainder from carbs (based on daily needs). While adjusting body comp, I try and keep my deficit to 4-500 cal/day or so. Anything more aggressive than that, really starts to take its toll on me.

I try and keep my meals pretty evenly split through the day. I don’t want to eat a small breakfast and a giant dinner.

Finally, for workouts exceeding the 90-120 minute mark: I will either take 250 cal/hour with me (techno fuel—bars, gel, whatever), or eat a big meal before I go. When I return, I will consume a recovery drink (chocolate milk) of roughly 1/3rd of the calories expended. Then I return to a normal meal plan (whole grains, etc) for the remainder of the day. For shorter workout, I don’t do anything special—maybe just slightly larger meals (more carbs).

I think you’ve got a solid plan…never eat “just” carbs as a meal or snack. As I said above…I keep my workout nutrition separate from my daily meals. My own experience with sugary things as snacks is that they are self-perpetuating. So, I just generally don’t. In fact, I don’t really snack…on the rare occasions that I do, its typically nuts (pistacios being my favorite).

6

http://www.vespapower.com/ofm/strategic-carbohydrates/

Have a read of that.

My strategic carbs are generally some sweet potatoe with dinner or some rice at lunch drowned in coconut cream.

The key is to find an amount that let’s you reach the higher levels required at the high intensity training without tipping over the line to rely on carbs all the time.

Good luck.