In a nutshell – very probably, once individualised to the athlete.
Low carbohydrate high fat (LCHF) eating is in no-way a recent diet fad – as I’ll very briefly cover – and is not really a recent athletic diet – there are many more prominent athletes now advocating (or even ‘coming out’) LCHF, notably Dave Scott in the triathlon world. However, Mark Allen had adopted the LCHF diet when he won, and went on to win his 6 IM World Championship titles (the first one beating the famous win over Dave Scott himself), along 8 times IM World Champion Paula-Newby Fraser.
The fad-diet could actually be considered the use of carbohydrates as a nutritional source, especially for athletic performance, and especially with the dominance of the sports ‘nutrition’ commercial interests promoting carbohydrates as the essential fuelling strategy for performance.
A very potted history shows that this reliance on carbohydrates is relatively recent – only in the last 60-70 years have national nutritional guidelines changed to promote carbohydrates – and this came about purely for commercial reasons, not health. These commercially driven guidelines (basically to secure income for vast gains to the businesses involved in wheat and corn production) changed the medical teaching into a way of eating that has created the world-wide epidemic of T2 diabetes, obesity and cardiac problems.
Back to the world of sports performance, and another potted introduction to the way the body fuels itself (in general and when extended to exercise): the key to this is to understand that carbohydrates are not an essential nutrient for the human; ie we can live without eating any carbohydrates. However, when carbohydrates are eaten, your body will produce glucose and insulin.
Glucose is the simplest form of food that your body can easily convert and use as energy, so it will be chosen over any other energy source. The insulin is produced to process the glucose now in your bloodstream by taking it around the body.
As the glucose is being used as a primary source of energy, body fat (and even the thinnest of us have plenty of fat reserves to sustain several days of activity) is not needed. For someone eating a diet high in carbohydrates the body will use glucose as the main form of energy.
On the other hand, lowering carbohydrate intake will, if lowered to around 50g or less per day, introduce a state known as ketosis – this is a natural process that humans have evolved to help survive during low levels of food availability. In ketosis, the body produces ketones by breaking down fats in the liver, and once established a properly maintained keto (LCHF) diet occurs by removing carbohydrates.
However, to replace these carbohydrates and produce ketones, we don’t starve, we replace carbohydrates with fat, and as humans have evolved to adapt so well, ketones become the main source of energy for our activities. This is often referred to as being ‘fat adapted’ and requires the individual to have adapted to use ketones as the source of fuel, rather than what is often thought to be the case with the occasional morning run without eating breakfast for example.
In this fat adapted state, I can personally attest to it being very easy to not eat breakfast, have a 3, 4 or even 5hr bike ride with no carbohydrate and still be fine, with no bonking, and maintain a good, consistent intensity, based on power.
The problem with all of this is that we have been indoctrinated with the sports science and medical research that all points towards carbohydrates being the athletes source of fuel – but as many athletes have clearly demonstrated (but often not made public) this in not the only way. The fact that there are many athletes now adopting a LCHF diet is proof that is does provide an endurance athlete in particular the ability to perform well over long distances and periods of time – and at a high intensity. There is no way Mark Allen could have achieved what he did in beating Dave Scott without working at a high intensity.
Going back to the opening comment: Is there something in the LCHF / Ketogenic diet for endurance athletes? – very probably, once individualised to the athlete.
Training effectively at higher intensities is the part that individuals need to tailor – but this is no different to learning how to fuel with carbohydrates generally. Once fat adapted, each individual must learn how their body reacts to training and whether 50g of carbohydrate works or whether more can be introduced to maintain a high level of performance.
There are an increasing number of scientific studies supporting the LCHF / ketogenic diet for athletic performance and, very significantly for ‘curing’ many of today’s health problems such as diabetes and even through to cancer.
For anyone interested read the excellent books “The Art and Science of low carbohydrate performance” by Dr J Volek and Dr S Phinney and more recently “What the Fat? Sports Performance: Leaner, Fitter, Faster on low carb/healthy fat” by G Schofield, C Zinn and C Rodger, or contact Martin for more information on how to adopt a healthier nutritional lifestyle.
source : http://triathlete-europe.competitor.com/2016/10/06/something-lchf-ketogenic-diet-endurance-athletes#T6hqwILCWgQTOXHR.99
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