The Paleo Diet for Athletes (20 page)

*
Carbohydrate calories are consumed primarily in Stages I, II, III, and IV.

Now that we’ve laid out the general outline for eating relative to exercise throughout the season, let’s see what the menu might look like for a day in the life of a serious athlete.
Table 6.4
provides a breakdown of calories by source and recovery stage.
Table 6.5
provides further detail on the athlete’s food choices on this same day.

TABLE 6.4

An Example of Daily Caloric Breakdown During the Build Period for a 150-Pound Athlete Doing a 2-Hour Workout While in a 15-Hour Training Week

TABLE 6.5

Food Choices Relative to Exercise for a Day in the Build Period for a 150-Pound Athlete

As can be seen from the examples in these tables, our hypothetical athlete focuses on appropriate recovery foods throughout the day. Before, during, and in the 30 minutes immediately following exercise
(Stages I, II, and III), his food choices are intended to replace carbohydrate used in exercise and provide protein to prevent loss of muscle. In Stages IV and V he concentrates on eating foods that encourage a lower RER and shift blood pH levels toward greater alkalinity to preserve bone and muscle tissue. He also includes foods such as nuts and fish that are rich in omega-3 oils to reduce the risk of inflammation and protein for continuing muscle recovery.

BODY WEIGHT AND PERFORMANCE

Endurance athletes intuitively understand that their body weight has an impact on performance. Some find it necessary to shed excess weight, especially fat, in order to perform at a higher level. Here we will examine the known effects of weight and how the Paleo Diet can help in managing yours.

The Effects of Gravity and Heat

Nearly all endurance sports are affected by gravity. Any time there is vertical movement the combined weight of your body and equipment detracts from performance. Going up a hill while Nordic skiing or on a bike requires overcoming the force of gravity. The lighter you and your equipment are, the faster you will climb it. It’s the same for running uphill. But running has the added burden of dealing with gravity even when the course is flat due to the small vertical oscillation associated with running technique.

The sports in which gravity has little effect are swimming and any activity involving strictly horizontal movement on flat terrain, such as riding a bike, ice skating, or Nordic skiing.

When riding a bike uphill, every extra pound “costs” about 1.5 watts of power whether due to a heavy bike or excess body weight. An extra pound slows a runner by about 2 seconds per mile. Even a few ounces can
be significant in a closely contested race. That’s why companies that make running shoes, bicycle equipment, skis, and other sports gear are always seeking to reduce product weight. It’s also a good reason for endurance athletes to maintain their body weights at a low yet healthy level.

There’s another downside to carrying excess body weight. The more weight you carry, the more likely you are to be affected by heat and humidity. The bigger the athlete, the more of a problem heat is. A few years ago Frank Marino and associates at Charles Sturt University in Australia had men of different sizes run 8-mile time trials on a treadmill on three separate occasions. The only thing that changed on the three runs was the room temperature, which was either cool (59°F), moderate (77°F), or hot (95°F). In the hottest condition the bigger athletes slowed down by about 12 percent compared with their pace in the coolest temperature. The smaller runners experienced very little change and far outperformed the bigger ones on the hottest run. Their times were about the same on the cooler runs. Why is this? More heat is produced by larger athletes and they have a harder time dissipating it, so more is stored. This factor has the potential to cause overheating and a slower performance.

Reducing excess body weight has the potential to pay off with better race performances. But there’s risk associated with such weight reductions. If you lose muscle, especially the muscles that are used to propel you, you are likely to perform slower. And if too much fat is lost, your health may well be compromised. The trick here is to avoid becoming too lean while also maintaining an effective amount of muscle. The Paleo Diet, especially in Stage V of your training day (see
Chapter 4
), is an excellent way to accomplish these body composition changes.

Weight Management

In the final analysis, decreased body fat is the result of both exercise and a targeted eating program. But, of the two, the more effective way to lose body fat is by changing your diet. Training more hours every week without replacing all of the expended calories has a positive result when you step on the scales, but the changes will be quite small. On the other
hand, changes in your diet are likely to produce much greater losses of excess weight. When a slight increase in exercise workload and dietary change occur simultaneously, the benefits are multiplied.

Realize, however, that you don’t necessarily have to change anything about your training. You may be at a high workload now and so adding more is likely to be counterproductive due to increased fatigue and reduced workout quality. You may not even need to reduce your caloric intake. Many athletes experience a change in body weight by merely adopting a Paleo diet. Others find that they need to also reduce the amount of calories eaten daily, usually by a small amount, to see a positive change in weight.

When first adopting the Paleo Diet, wait a couple of weeks to see how your body responds. If you start with a complete reversal of your old diet to Paleo, you may well find you are frequently tired and don’t recover as quickly following hard training sessions. This is a sign that your body is going through some changes. Be patient, as it takes a couple of weeks to adapt. If making the change during the last few days prior to your race, it’s best to make rather small dietary adjustments to Paleo over several weeks instead of going “cold turkey.” In this case your weight may not change at all until after your race season ends. That’s all right, as weight loss and final race preparation are not generally a good combination. This is why we recommend making such a change early in the base (general preparation) period.

When immediately switching from a high-carb to a Paleo diet, there may be a rather rapid loss of weight, especially if you are in the base period of the season, when the emphasis is on dietary fat with a reduced carbohydrate intake. The rather rapid drop in weight at this time is primarily due to the loss of water, which is stored along with glycogen. Your body may give up some its glycogen stores along with its stored water in the first few days after the dietary change. As your body adjusts to the change, your glycogen stores will be replenished and water weight will return to normal. You can rest assured that subsequent reductions in weight will predominantly be the result of excess fat losses.

When you are trying to lose weight, energy intake must be adequate
to meet the demands of training in order to continue producing positive changes in fitness. The greatest concern must especially be shown for the volume and timing of carbohydrate and protein. Glycogen stores must be maintained and adequate protein provided for the repair of exercise-damaged tissues. The body also needs a balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, the “essential fatty acids,” for long-term health, which is an important component of the Paleo Diet. Each of these demands is met by following the guidelines for eating relative to exercise as described in
Chapters 2
,
3
, and
4
.

Eating a higher-fat and higher-protein diet than you may normally eat probably raises two key questions: Will I gain weight? Will I train and race as well? Let’s address these issues.