Author: Mark Wolff

Health, Physiology, Nutrition, Chemistry / Blood Chemistry Professional, Coach, Mentor and Human Being on a mission to help others live to 100 like a 20yr old.

#TheFitnessFreak #HealthyLiving
IG: @wolffmark

Categories
Nutrition Performance Training

3 SURE WAY’S NOT TO HIT THE WALL DURING RACING OR TRAINING

In the world of endurance sport the term “Hitting the Wall” or ‘Bonking” is quite common among athletes. Most of us have experienced it at some time or another and then others quite frequently. To explain what “Hitting the Wall” is in short is the point at which your muscle and liver glycogen stores are completely depleted. It leaves one feeling fatigued, in a world of hurt and pain with absolutely no energy or will and desire to continue. Its not a pleasant experience and certainly a moment we would rather not be in.  You see the human body has two main fuel tanks, glycogen and fat. Glycogen which is mainly stored in the muscle and liver has around 2000 calories of fuel while our fat stores contain around 40 000 Calories of energy. If you think about it in logical terms burning off around >1000 calories of glycogen fuel per an hour of exercise is not going to not last you very long. During exercise though a combination of fuel tanks are used BUT this is dependent on intensity, time and type of fuel consumption. To really understand this Click Here to watch my explanation of fuel tank usage in detail.Everyone fears hitting the wall, BUT I am going to advise you how to prevent it ;-).

1. TRAIN PROPERLY
I always say train as you are going to race. Over time, this will adapt the body and work the muscles holistically enabling you to cope with the distance and the terrain on the day. Ensure that you incorporate the same speed work in your training that you will be racing at and make sure you do the necessary hill and speed work as well! Ever heard of the expression “train hard race easy”? This takes weeks of preparation; so don’t leave it to the last minute!

2. PACE YOURSELF CORRECTLY
Too many egos cause havoc. Don’t push yourself over your limits to prove a point. Race at the pace you have trained at! It is important to make sure not to race at a faster pace than your body can cope with because the minute that happens you will start depleting your glycogen fuel rapidly. This could result in the inevitable bonk that will hit you when you least expect it.

3. TRAIN YOUR GUT (NUTRITION)
Make sure you fuel properly! Basically you need to understand what is required from a nutrition perspective on the day to ensure your energy levels are topped up and carry you through the event. You need to prepare for this in advance, as its not something you can decide to leave for the week of the event. Nutrition preparation needs to begin way before the event. Weeks in advance of the event you should have a proper fuelling plan in place and stick to it on the day. 

I have given you three major ways on how not to bonk, but I am going to expand on the nutrition training and explain where your focus needs to be. Whether a race snake or a weekend warrior there are considerations to meet your needs.

FUEL CAN EITHER GIVE YOU ENERGY OR ROLLER COASTER YOU AND DEPLETE YOU, SO YOU NEED TO CHOOSE WISELY.

The 3 main points on proper fuelling is:

  1. Keep it Simple
  2. Take in controlled amounts to achieve the greatest result (DO NOT OVERDO IT)
  3. Plan, Test, Use.

WHETHER YOU ARE DOING A 3HR OR A 6HR EVENT YOUR FUELING NEEDS TO BE CORRECT.
Of course, the way a race snake fuels in comparison to a weekend warrior is very different and each method needs to work according to what you want to achieve.
The pace and time you are going at will ultimately determine the type of fuel you require. I see way too many cyclist or runners going at lower to medium intensities and they start to fuel themselves with very high intensity fuel. All this does is creates havoc with the system, causing dreaded spikes, crashes and very often leading to symptoms of digestive discomfort and nausea.

There is no one fix all fueling approach and no matter what anyone tells you what to take and how to take it, you need to look at fueling from your own unique requirements. Many supplement companies advise athletes what to consume and how often, to get to the finish line. However, many of these companies don’t consider the actual type of athlete, their individual capabilities, the duration and intensity of their performance as well as their personal preferences. This is where we I differ completely. I get to know an athlete before advising them on any fueling strategy.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult for me to speak to you each as individuals in a knowledge sharing piece like this, but I will do my best to provide you with a direction and options you can consider as part of your own fueling strategy.

The first thing you need to ask yourself realistically is what sort of time goal are you going for during your race? Duration and intensity will ultimately determine your fuel intake. Then you need to decide what your dietary preferences are from a texture point of view. Are you the kind of athlete that likes to eat solids, or the kind that prefers a liquid feed or a combination of both as nutritional comfort is an important factor to consider. If you are going at a really high intensity and breathing is extremely heavy during the event you might want to consider a liquid or combination feed as chewing is not so simple and the airways need to be kept open. However if you are going at a controlled pace or a combination pace then you will have the ability to consume food solids.

WHATS NEXT ?

1. How often should you fuel?
Timing of nutrition intake is critical in any endurance sport. This should be frequent and planned.

2. How much should you be consuming?
The amount of nutrition consumed will be determined by a few factors mainly based on weight, duration and intensity.

3. What fuel should I be using?
Type of fuel is personal, as mentioned above. Lets break this down some more.

FUEL TIMING
Eat small and frequently (measure your food intake by time). Frequent consumption is the key to a decent endurance event. Once you are in a comfort zone, meaning a point of equilibrium where aerobic engine is stable, breathing is regulated and comfortable and you are in a rhythm, it’s time to feed. Generally I would say around 20 minutes or more you will start to hit this but it depends on the individual. Staggered or drip feeding is the best way to fuel as it keeps the energy system a lot more stable over time and its far easier on the digestive system. On the other hand, planning your nutrition intake by time makes it very structured and easy to stick to there is no guess work involved.

HOW MUCH FUEL ?
In endurance events there are many theories around the 60-90 grams of carbs per an hour. Maximizing absorption rate with the correct combination of carbohydrates and even trying to go beyond that. It’s certainly not about how many carbs you can fit in your mouth but what your unique body is capable of absorbing and utilising. Do not fall into this category of can over eater it will ruin your day. Plan this properly. If you consume 60 grams of carbs per an hour or less in training and then on race day take 90 grams of carbs in per an hour you will head for absolute disaster. You have not trained your gut to deal with this volume of nutrition intake. In the fuel guide I will provide you I have worked out an average amount of consumption based on the type of athlete you are. Most importantly is to test this out during training and not to arrive at the event without having tested the fuelling strategy a few times. Failing to arrive prepared from a nutrition point of view will not be a pleasant day out. Ensure the volume of carbohydrates per an hour is consumed over time and its the correct amount that your digestive system coped with in training

WHAT TYPE OF FUEL?
As explained earlier the human body has a large amount of fat (40 000 calories) as an incredible source of energy and most nutrition experts forget to take that into account as well. The glycogen tank contains around 2000 calories of fuel when topped up. As shown in my video on the Fuel Tank explanation if you are going at a high intensity and burning off approximately 1200 calories per an hour you know your glycogen tank is not going to last more than 90 minutes. However at a slightly lower or controlled or combination pace your tank will use a higher combination of fat with glycogen and your tank will last longer. The other way to spare glycogen is to take in nutrition and this can spare it to around approximately 30%.
I think you get the picture here which is a high intensity performing athlete will require a fast releasing carbohydrate feed while a lower intensity athlete can use more stabilizing carbohydrates which are non-spiking. But I bet no one has ever told you this. All they said is take gels no matter what kind of an athlete you are. Its the worst possible advice. You need to fuel your effort and duration correctly but also with the right combination of correct carbohydrates for the type of person that you are. Again, I cannot stress the point enough to test out your nutrition in training and many weeks before the event to get familiar and comfortable with the fuelling strategy.

Now I am not going to leave you there ;-).

Along with 32Gi I have designed a basic cycling fuelling guide for your big day.
Your job is to be realistic about your personal performance goals, consider the personal factors and then select the right fuelling guide for you. Of course if you have any questions I am there to help.  NOT ONLY have I provided you an awesome guide to fuelling but I managed to twist the arms of the  head honchos at 32Gi who have agreed to offer some one time incredible deals to take advantage of should you decide to take your fuelling strategy in that direction.

I have TWO Options for you to choose from:

Are you a WEEKEND WARRIOR or a RACE SNAKE (Click on the relevant option to get your Fuel Guide)

 

Once you are satisfied with your FUEL GUIDE you can

JUST CLICK HERE TO GAIN ACCESS TO YOUR UNIQUE OFFER

Train Safe, Plan Properly

 

All the best

M

Categories
Health Nutrition Training

TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT?

Today was a typical Thursday morning session usually an early morning ride with some of my fellow athletes out in the countryside. It is that time of the year where getting outdoors is pure soul food especially when its out of the city and in the farmlands.
My wake up call at the moment is around 4:30am until we hit later summer when we can leave earlier.  I grab a serving of my favorite TrueStart Coffee or a green tea, get dressed and head out the door. Training will start around 5:30am and then usually last anywhere from 2.5-3hrs. Today was a little longer due to some strong head winds over the last 30km’s and we only finished around 8:30am.

My fuel on the bike = NONE. Just a zero calorie 32Gi Hydrate electrolyte tablet in a single bottle of water. Post ride its a shower, get changed and then off to eat a recovery meal. Today’s was at around 9am and that was my first meal of the day. Scrambled eggs, salmon and avocado.
It was 14hrs since I last ate, with a 3hr training session in-between and a challenging bike course with lots of climbing and wind.

The reason for giving you insight into my morning routine is to throw some light on fasted training which I do constantly. In actual fact a week ago I went out on a 100km ride and about 5km’s into my ride I realized I had left my water bottle at home. I just kept riding, the temperature was cool enough where I realized my sweat rate would be lower and I could get through it no problem and I did. Just rehydrate when I finish.

Its quite a debatable subject and for many a mental challenge which is difficult to even comprehend.
I decided to take a look at my average HR (Heart Rate), Speed and Distance over the past few weeks of my fasted training sessions to give you some more insight into exactly what is going on, on  a physiological level.

On my longer training cycling sessions around 2.5-4hrs my ave HR is around 120-129BPM, Speed Ave:28-32km/h Climbing: 700-1000m Max HR around 174BPM of course in a hotter climate like I was in a few weeks ago average HR could go to around 136BPM.
On my shorter 40-80min sessions which are more quality sessions (Intervals, Pace etc) ave HR between 135-147BPM Max HR 181BPM

The purpose of the above data is to really demonstrate the reason why a fasted training session is completely doable. If you take a look at the average HR over a period of time especially on my longer sessions you will notice that I completely control my effort. I don’t go into a glycogen depletion state and I mainly access my fat fuel tank meaning I burn off a load of fat for fuel. This is especially true on the longer sessions where my average HR sits mainly in Z1-Z3 maximum and even then for short periods of time. While my shorter quality sessions do of course use a higher rate of glycogen as a fuel source but taking into account the time of intensity it will by no means deplete it.
Understanding the human fuel tanks to support your training effort is critical to understanding the fuel sources you will be using during your training session and if you understand what your body is capable of then you will have complete confidence in using natural energy stores to support you sessions. I recorded a video with animation recently explaining the human fuel tanks and how they operate during exercise, you can CLICK HERE if you want to watch to get an idea of how they work.

So how is it that someone like me can ride or run 3-4hrs without any fuel but then someone else comes along and just hits the wall and completely fades even if the person is plunging a load of carbohydrates into their body to prevent it. Its quite simple. There are 3 factors that need to be taken into account here and I will explain further.

  1. Fat adaption takes time – Your body needs to learn how to change and become fat adapted. Think about this your body is used to maybe a pre-training meal and fuel during a training session. Your mitochondria which are there to create ATP (to fire up those muscles) are like your little community that you feed and they move around in concentrations dependent on where they are needed the most. Its like someone moving cities for employment ;-). When a muscle is worked over and over it will over time build up a stronger community or force of mitochondria which are used to create energy for that muscle. Stop hiring ie: the muscle doesn’t work and the community will shrink and look for work elsewhere. Just as exercise especially intense exercise can increase concentrations of mitochondria. We need to look at the fuelling process as well. The mitochondria in the muscles become more efficient at burning fat stored within the muscles (intramuscular triglycerides). This makes the body about 25% more efficient at burning fat. Most fat is stored in the form of adipose tissue and should be mobilized  and transported into the muscle cells for energy conversion. When a person constantly uses carbohydrates which cause a rise rise in blood glucose the ability to allow the body to use more fat for fuel is lowered significantly. Eating carbs before and during exercise will not make you a fat burning machine by any means. In actual fact when I train with athletes who load themselves constantly with carbs but don’t run the engine to the extent they require them I mostly see roller coaster rides and complete energy fatigue.
  2. Pacing is key – Make sure you don’t over cook yourself. Train within yourself and by this I will use the following analogy. You have a box of matches with around 15 matches in lets say. Those are your glycogen rockets. Each time you push your pace very hard you burn a match or two. If you use up all 15 matches before the end of the your session you are going to hit the wall. Keep your ego in your pocket exercise within the correct zone and you will spare your fuel that much longer.
  3. Loading with Carbohydrates mitigates a higher rate of fat burn and over time glycogen depletion takes quicker than a more fat efficient athlete. Glycogen might be required for some efforts but if you can use more fat to spare glycogen as opposed to sugar well you are in a far better space you will spare it for longer and have more rocket fuel when needed.

It sounds quite simple in theory but in practice it will take time. I usually suggest getting used to fasted training by doing it on shorter sessions and only over a long period of time attempt longer sessions. Remember you are educating your body, training it and the usual energy pathways you were used to in the past are not going to be the same going forwards and this process does take some time transition.  In endurance sport being a fat adapted athlete means a far more efficient and powerful energy system over time. Burning more fat at higher intensities than the average Joe or sugar freaks is a major advantage especially in long endurance events. If you are a sugar burning athlete your stores will deplete far quicker than mine.

I will definitely touch more on this subject over time as I am sure many questions will come from it. However from a health perspective remember our bodies are made to burn fat in a normal metabolic state and this is why weight gain and disease is so prevalent in our world today. Sugar is over consumed and never justified. So my answer to the question to eat or not to eat is eat correctly and when its needed, but to ruin a great training session? No chance, absolutely burn that fat.

All the best

M

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Categories
Nutrition Recovery Training

RECOVERY IS THE TRUE MEASURE

My training gear is always prepared the night before so that in the morning I just up and go. I keep it simple and keep it routine so that I get up, get in my green tea and or coffee fix and head out the door. I am a creature of habit, routine and focus.

I switch on my sleep monitor which I have utilized to analyze my last 12 000 hours of sleep and set the alarm for 4:30am. Eyes close its time to sleep. I know that some days an early wake up can cause the loss of that final critical deep sleep cycle where hormonal release is crucial to body restoration and this morning I felt it. Alarm goes off, a light automatically shines from my phone for me take my heart rate immediately otherwise I go blind from it. Rest Heart Rate appears normal but I just feel like I need to recover some more. I close my eyes and go back to sleep.

I am sure every single day people across the globe battle with an early morning training session. I actually do not. Oh you thought I couldn’t get out of bed?
Actually the opposite I very much could but decided not to. I decided that I would push my training session to the late afternoon early evening to give myself an additional 12hrs of recovery meaning 36hr recovery from the previous session. Knowing your body intimately well and understanding when you should and should not train takes time and effort but its something many just don’t do.

When it comes to nutrition I am a freak of analytics. I am the kind of nightmare that walks into a Kauai and reconstructs their menu to suite my  immediate needs. I once made them make me scrambled eggs with avocado and asked them drizzle macadamia nut but over it. Another time I told them to make me half the normal rolled oats portion (as the normal portion was for a giant) reinforce it with a serving of pea protein isolate after it was cooked, but made sure they cooked the chia and gojis in the oats not to throw them over afterwards ensuring I got maximum nutrient absorption. I then asked them for a small tub of blueberries on the side. They know me well now they even have names for my meals like Wolff’s Power Oats or Marks Egg Special but that comes with the territory I don’t just accept I do whats good for my own engine. The way I am with nutrition is the exact same way I approach my training. I holistically look at an entire week and shape rest and nutrition around the workouts to ensure maximum recovery to ensure maximum strength and health gains. Its not something I was an expert at when I was younger actually the opposite. In our youth we all want to be hit with hard suffering sessions day after day. However with time you learn that it weakens you and doesn’t strengthen you. Recovery is the true measure of patience and a patient person will reap the amazing benefits from recovering well between workouts.

I often get questions from athletes such as I want you to kill me this week, or please throw a hurt-box week at me and I sit back and laugh thinking just how the concept of proper recovery is the furthest item from their minds. While most people think about their training sessions I am thinking about my recovery sessions. Pick your battles never go into war with a weakness only go in with strength or you will face a losing battle.

I always tell athletes that a rest day doesn’t mean you are not training it means you are recovering. It takes a special kind of person to recover properly. On a rest day you still train your gut by including proper nutrition to ensure proper recovery, immune system strength and health. It also might mean a toned down training session where your max HR is limited and yes you might feel like you doing nothing intense but active recovery is crucial at times.

I cant stress enough how if you focus on recovery and nutrition more than you do only on training you will start to reap the rewards of the patience game which you never thought were possible. Prepare yourself for renewed strength, energy, speed, and of course immunity and health and you will never look back. Recovery is always the true measure.

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Categories
Health Training

MASTER YOUR EMOTIONS

I wasn’t sure what to write about today but the past few weeks I have been dealing with many athletes who have had either illness or injury and I noticed a very real trend. Possibly you have experienced this as well.

Around 6 weeks ago while overseas and I decided to go on my first bike ride outdoors in months. A hot summers day and an awesome ride and with just 200 meters from the finish line, BANG. I hit an oil slick while coming through a traffic circle and face planted badly. I also had the bad luck of breaking my baby finger on my left hand. Oh and Murphy’s law would dictate that I am also left handed.

I have to admit I was in a lot of pain and a little disorientated from the quick fall. A car stopped and asked me if I needed help. I looked at my bike reconnected the chain, spun the pedal around, did a quick check that all my bike mechanics were working correctly and said “Yeah, I think I am fine”. I got on and started to ride the back, she was of course shocked to the core. I was just in lets get this resolved as quickly as possible. A self check, showed bumps bruises a torn kit and a broken finger. I got away quite lucky and realized I could keep on training.

The next morning I got up early, went out for a beautiful 20km run and really enjoyed it. I felt a mild stiffness from the day before but nothing like I thought I would. I resumed my training as normal and kept up the cycling and running. However in the background something was lurking and it all happened one morning when I woke for a short comfortable run. About 7km into it I started an ascent up a hill I had run many times before however on this particular one I felt a tightness in my left calve muscle. I stopped immediately and walked a few meters then started to run slowly again but it pulled again. I knew immediately. Calve muscle grade 1 tear. I had to walk around 75 minutes to get back home as the route I chose was not an out and back and I was stuck on the other side of a hill.

I got back home and immediately went into rehab mode. Ice and Heat, Elevation and complete rest for 72hrs. Immediately after I started a series of eccentric loading exercises as well as placed a mild heal raise in my shoes to limit the calve stretch. I eventually managed to get back on the bike and ride lightly as this did not aggravate the area at all but helped speed up the healing. Usually I would call my sports physician and immediately get a platelet injection. I find PRP therapy works amazingly with soft tissue and dense muscle fiber. However I didn’t have access. It was great that I was getting back into the swing of things. However the underlying cause was not being resolved. The main issue was of course misalignment. The impact of my bike fall had thrown out my body alignment quite severely. My left leg according to running analysis was doing around 3% – 4% more work than the right let. That was enough to cause the strain. So some chiropractic manipulation some shock wave and I was back to running again.

A process like this doesn’t happen overnight it happens over time and age and lifestyle can determine the time it will take to heal. Experience has taught me never to get emotional. I understand the physiology intimately and under any circumstances I go into a complete understanding that the body has messaged me in a harsh way. I sit up, I listen and I initiate a plan of action.

The biggest issue I see with health and endurance junkies these days is that they are very emotional. Training and racing is everything and they only think about the objective but not about where they are at this current moment in time. You absolutely cannot get emotional about injury or illness you need to accept it and plan your recovery.
Never set a time frame for recovery based on a particular goal. The goal needs to be set aside it only creates brain fog and you will lack the focus needed to recover properly. Many athletes sit for days thinking their injury will just disappear over time. That just does not happen. It might ease up but if the root cause isn’t dealt with it will come back to haunt you far worse the next time around.

Master your emotions and follow put your recovery plan into action. This should consist of consulting with an expert who understands the injury or illness. It should consist of researching the kind of exercises you can and can’t do. Very often when a runner cant run due to injury they are devastated. I can think of a hundred things they can do, its just you need to think out of the box and work within the framework of your recovery plan. Another thing you can do is absolutely focus on your nutrition, because injury or illness can be attacked nicely through nutrition and it can speed up the healing process if done properly. If you have a lower limb injury like I had there is no chance you can afford to gain extra weight as this will place more stress on the injury. Reducing the weight, reduces the force on the injury and helps with a faster recovery. However many eat themselves into weight gain due to emotional collapse and this just makes the healing process that much longer and more frustrating.

A race or particular training goal will always be there you might just have to shift the goal posts a little and get over the hurdle before getting back on the road. Don’t let the pressure of friends, peers, goals or sponsors push you into the emotional hurdle of your ailment miraculously disappearing. It wont.
Master your emotions and you will master your own journey of health and fitness.

All the best

M

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Categories
Health Nutrition Performance

CAFFEINE – BENEFIT OR DRAWBACK?

Except for the odd few, most people I know are coffee or tea drinkers. I myself am a green tea addict however I love the occasional Americano in its most natural form.

Caffeine itself is quite an interesting debate. It’s impossible to tell how much caffeine there is in a cup of coffee or tea the variants are huge. Many say they can drink coffee and go straight to sleep. Yeah, whatever, just because the coffee tasted strong doesn’t mean that the caffeine content itself is high. It’s purely the roast and flavour of the beans and of course the preparation. That cup of coffee that tasted so strong could have had a tiny 20mg caffeine content which in all honesty could put most people to sleep.

Flavours of coffee’s and teas is one thing but let’s talk about caffeine.

Caffeine is a mild stimulant that occurs naturally in a variety of plant species. There are people who view caffeine as a useful stimulant that increases ones concentration and awareness as well as many other physical traits.  The important thing to remember is that caffeine affects each and every individual very differently depending on the amount consumed, the frequency of consumption, and a person’s individual metabolism.

LETS GET TO THE FACTS:

Scientific proof of caffeine and sports performance is being debated constantly and there are definitely benefits. So much so that at one stage caffeine was banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and its now legal but currently on the watch list.

There are advantages that caffeine has which I will go into in a little bit of detail shortly but lets take a look at both sides of the coin.

Caffeine is a stimulant and it does have addictive properties. In a healthy diet, your consumption should be limited and health professionals will recommend around 7 – 10 cups of coffee per a week as a limit. However most people can do this in a day. One thing is certain caffeine does stimulate and it plays with one’s emotional and energy stability. Stimulant drinks such as coffee are also known to be one of the biggest role players in a person gaining weight when blended with awesome syrups and sugars and loaded with milk. Another important consideration is that caffeine impacts the ability to sleep properly and this is crucial from a health and sports recovery point of view. Caffeine also causes a rise in acidity in the digestive system, and from a health perspective one should try to consume a diet that is more alkaline, acid of course can lead to health issues as well as during exercise. Caffeine has mild diuretic properties causing loss of fluid in some people but each person is unique and in others not so much. An athlete that consumes caffeine consistently is actually doing himself a complete disservice.  Caffeine does boost blood pressure medical researchers have found. Although the rise is temporary, researches question whether it’s good for you when it occurs over and over again in other words in excess. However, research has also shown caffeine to be beneficial to the heart long term. Again, this is in moderation and not in excess. My biggest worry is about the boost in blood glucose levels that accompanies caffeine intake with syrups or sugars.

WHATS GOOD ABOUT CAFFEINE?

Looking at research coffee has shown to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes as well as fatty liver disease. Caffeine can improve memory, decrease fatigue, improve your mental functioning, which plenty of studies suggest. It can improve your short-term memory and speed up your reaction times, according to a study presented in 2005 at the Radiological Society of North America. Moderate coffee consumption — defined as three or four cups a day, providing 300 or 400 milligrams of caffeine (assuming it contains this much because remember it’s impossible to know the exact amount) — carries “little evidence of health risks and some evidence of health benefits,” conclude researchers from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University in Corvalis.

Coffee drinking, the researchers say, may help prevent type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and liver disease, including liver cancer. And it doesn’t appear to significantly increase heart disease risk or cancer. But, they warn, those with high blood pressure, as well as children, teens, and the elderly, may be more vulnerable to caffeine’s adverse effects.

 

What about caffeine in Sport or Physical Exercise?

Well there are two major benefits that caffeine has, the first is that when consumed on its own without sugar it has demonstrated a rise in the amount of free fatty acids available for use as a source of fuel. Fat of course is an incredibly powerful form of fuel and the more free fatty acids you have available for use in an endurance event the more you are able to benefit from it. There is one slight consideration though? That in order for this to work well, a person should be more caffeine intolerant, meaning if you consume a lot of caffeine per a day you won’t benefit as much as someone who takes in less caffeine in a day. In other words not an excessive caffeine drinker. Second thing is the timing of consumption before an event. In scientific testing it’s been shown a consumption of around 1-2mg of caffeine per a kilogram of bodyweight around 3-4hrs before an event is best. It gives the body time to mobilise free fatty acids for use as well as being long enough before the event to remove the acid from the system and of course negate the risk of dehydration if you fall into that category.

Then caffeine during an event has shown to improve mental performance and from personal experience in endurance sport mental performance = physical performance.

The second major benefit is caffeine for recovery. Yes, believe it. It’s been shown that having caffeine with a complex carbohydrate after exercise has shown to speed up the time taken for glycogen replenishment. Under testing it’s been shown to speed up the process by as much as 60%. As an example, a rolled oats meal and a very strong coffee or two (with a decent amount of caffeine of course). Just remember to hydrate yourself consistently after a session as well. I usually blend the coffee directly into my smoothie if that’s my choice for recovery for awesome flavour and the caffeine

Finally, there is another slight benefit, and this is the wake up effect. If you are feeling tired or fatigued caffeine has the ability to wake up the brain a little. Of course it’s a temporary effect, but during a sporting event this slight feeling of euphoria can give you a lift. Taking caffeine around 60 minutes before a workout will also have a benefit in assisting with mental focus and helping with a better quality driven workout. It takes around an hour for the caffeine to be completely metabolized in the body to become effectively utilized.

If during an endurance race you are wanting a caffeine boost, it can assist with a wake up effect and sense of euphoria however the amount and timing of the caffeine intake needs to be tested in training before a race to get an understanding of your thresholds and digestive system response.

In conclusion caffeine has certain benefits, but it should not be abused because it then becomes a detriment from a health perspective.

On a personal note I will explain how I use coffee or green tea to give me my benefit. Firstly the caffeine in green tea is pretty mild I don’t use that as a caffeine source. It’s the catechins I want which of course contain EGCG which can aid fat burn but also antioxidants for general immune system strength and of course the taste is why I like it. If I want caffeine I switch to coffee BUT I use a coffee where I know exactly how much caffeine there is per a serving.

When do I consume coffee? Generally, before a long hard workout I take in around 90-100mg of caffeine. I use TrueStart as I know that it has that amount of caffeine per a serving it also has a 5-6hr release (natural caffeine from a hydrous process) where all normal anhydrous caffeine is metabolized within 60min on average, so I prefer the stability.

During a session, I also take caffeine but only if its longer than 3-4hrs then I use a 32Gi G-Shot on the go or can drop TrueStart in a shake however I usually train fasted unless gearing for an event and need to train my gut for fuel. I like to take it in regularly. At Challenge Roth last yearas an example, I consumed 10 x 60mg caffeine shots in a 5hr bike ride taking in one every 30 minutes. This needs to be tried and tested however and I never do something I haven’t trained for. I train properly from a nutrition point of view and know exactly how my body responds to anything I consume.

Then post exercise if it has been a tough session and I feel glycogen store depletion I will consume more caffeine to aid the recovery process. On workouts under 2hrs a single serving of TrueStart will suffice. However, on sessions lasting longer I sometimes will go up to 180-200mg of caffeine in my recovery meal to give me a boost and I blend it into a smoothie, or my porridge or pancakes as it helps with flavour as well. Sometimes I just add it to an ice cold 32Gi Recover Chocolate shake on a hot day and make a mochaccino which goes down extremely well.

The point I am making is I understand how much and when to consume coffee / caffeine. It has taken time and  practice to test everything properly. Of course, I consume it for enjoyment as well. I don’t believe in taking in something you don’t enjoy. There those days where I enjoy a good java after a session. But knowing how much and when to consume it will place you in a position of power from a health and a performance perspective.

 

Finally keep your coffee or caffeine drink sugar free, adding sugars have more detriment than benefit.

 

If you are interested in TrueStart Coffee and 32Gi’s G-SHOT they are available at leading Dis-Chem outlets and online at

www.truestartcoffeesa.co.za

www.32Gi.com

 

Mark Wolff is an endurance, nutrition and physiology expert with over 20yrs experience.

An endurance multisport athlete with a triathlon, mountain biking and weightlifting background Mark works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines as well as people with health and weight issues.
He firmly believes that an athlete can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is down packed. Marks focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, weight, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi a sports nutrition company focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is a certified sports nutrition expert as well as a marathon, track, triathlon and cycling coach. He spends most of his time guiding athletes with a very holistic approach to blending training and nutrition for performance and health.

 

Categories
Health Nutrition Recovery

RECOVER RIGHT WITH PROPER NUTRITION

If you ask any coach what the most crucial aspect of training is they will tell you the recovery. Training breaks you down and proper rest and nutrition build you up and make you stronger.

Athletes very rarely get nutrition correct for recovery. Most of the time I either see meals which are overloaded in calories because they “earned” it or the macros are completely incorrect based on the kind of session that has just been done.

In my last blog  Prepare to Perform we briefly touched on the topic of pre-workouts which I will be expanding on, however the element of recovery is far more important in the big scheme of things.

Recovery needs to be looked at from a few angles. Giving the body what it needs to recover is of course the main one, but what about the goals of the person. As an example, what if you are trying to drop body fat, and increase lean muscle mass? Then the type of meal you select post session will either be to your advantage or detriment. I can honestly tell you that most of you select meals which are to your detriment.

Why do I say this?

It’s simple not many people take the time to truly evaluate their sessions and understand what the body is going to go through on a physiological level which ultimately would get you planning your recovery meal prior to the session. When I go into a training session I already know what my body is going to go through in that session and then I have already planned the post exercise recovery meal. How many of you do this? I bet not many! Even if you do plan your meals its most likely based on convenience but unlikely to be based on exactly what the body needs.

Now you are wondering how the heck do I know what I want to eat after the session based on the session structure and what my body is going to be experiencing?

The truth is you can plan, it might not be 100% spot on but then all it will require is a minor modification to get it correct.

So now that you understand that recovery meals can be planned and the importance of them lets focus on how we go about strategizing our recovery nutrition.

The athletes I work with know very well that I look at sessions based on time and intensity. Why do I do this? Simple, your energy system is impacted differently based on these two main factors. We have a few fuel tanks in the human body, the two main ones being glycogen and fat. Intensity and time will determine which of these fuel tanks are mainly utilized and depleted. To understand this a little more do yourself a favor and check out my Get in the Zone explanation on You Tube.

To get recovery correct I break down sessions as follows:

Low Intensity

Medium Intensity

High Intensity

If you watched my video you will know a low intensity session even over a longer period doesn’t really touch much glycogen at all. What this means is that you wouldn’t need to take in a high amount of carbohydrates post exercise. Why? You haven’t depleted your carb stores and so why would you need to load the system. If anything, overdoing the carbs post exercise when it’s not necessary will just mitigate your fat burn zone and most likely lead to weight gain. I have very often caught athletes post exercise just before they are going in for their “deserved recovery” meals. I carried out both glucose and ketone testing on them and then asked them what they were planning on having to eat. Number one they hadn’t planned, number two they were nowhere near the correct meal selection. Glucose was stable they were not burning much fat and they were dreaming of a large bowl of oats or a large peanut butter bomb from Kauai.

 

Not needed at all. The idea of proper recovery nutrition is to give the body exactly what is needed to recover from the session and to prepare for the next. No less no more.

What exactly I am looking for is quite simple it’s these 3 main aspects I analyze from a recovery point of view.

  • Glycogen Replenishment / Blood Glucose Stabilization
  • Muscle Recovery
  • Re-Hydration

Let’s break this down a little further and I will start with the muscle recovery.
Your muscles require protein to rebuild the question is how much and when. I am not going to get too in-depth here as this can be a thesis on its own. I will just say this. Protein needs to be consumed according to your body’s requirements. As a simple example an endurance athlete should be eating anywhere to 1.1-1.7 grams per kilogram of body weight, body builders even more. This value will depend on whether you are maintaining or needing to build more muscle mass and or drop some weight. Another factor that needs to be considered is if we are working on say 1.4 grams to a kg of body weight and you weigh 60kg it means you will require around +-85 grams of protein per a day. Many people think this can be consumed at once but you couldn’t be more mistaken. Protein intake must be split through the day and preferably around 20-25 gram maximum serving at a time with around a 3 hour gap between. Protein cannot be stored it needs to be processed and if you overload on it, it will be converted to blood glucose and eventually stored as fat, assuming glycogen stores are topped up. As far as a window period goes for an athlete no not really, your windows are through the day. Taking in protein post exercise can also help curb hunger cravings depending on protein consumed. Now you know why excessive meat eaters are anything but lean 😉.

As far as rehydration goes you need to replace loss of fluid through sweat. This does not mean sugary drinks it means fluid, so something like a hydration drink without calories or just plain water is fine. I will be writing a few separate blogs on hydration as its quite a big topic of discussion.

Now let’s look at my favorite topic, carbohydrates. Probably the most over consumed macro post workout because you earned it right? Wrong!

I will return back to what I mentioned earlier about time and intensity and ultimately this is one of the ways I determine the timing and volume of carbohydrate intake post exercise.

The rule of thumb is:

Low Intensity = Low Carb

Medium Intensity = Medium Carb

High Intensity = High Carb

Of course you need to be realistic here as intensity can be perception. I use heart rate effort as intensity and this doesn’t lie. Over and above that if you do a high intensity session for only an hour then you really haven’t “earned” your high carb meal because taking into account warm up, warm down and time of intensity you might not have really chewed up much glycogen and in that case a lower to medium carb meal might be a way better option. However a 2.5-3 hour high intensity session could certainly earn a higher carb meal but it also depends on what was consumed during the session.

Now you don’t want to get this meal wrong, so how do you mitigate that.
This is where one of my real secrets about recovery is about to be revealed. It’s taken quite a few years to master it properly, as each individual is very different from the next. But I have developed what I call the Double Nutrition Recovery System. The actual breakdown will be discussed in complete detail in the book I am writing. However, in short, I do two things. I look at the time and intensity of the session and then I combine that with the human element. In other words, how are you feeling directly after the workout, because sometimes the body speaks to you and those messages are so critical to understand. It might have been a short hard workout BUT what you did the day or days before could have brought your world down on this day due to what I call gradual tank depletion. I see this often by the way., mainly due to nutrition neglect or and over training.

Back to the Double Nutrition Recovery System. You start with the lower to medium carb meal first rather less than overdo it, as once you have over done it there is no turning back. So, have your first meal in a low to medium carb format and then wait 30 minutes. At this stage, your body will be speaking to you, if you are under cooked you will feel it and then all you do is take in a second recovery meal within the hour of the first one BUT I need to emphasize the macros MUST be correct. This system works extremely well and sets up a proper recovery which will leave you feeling stable, strong and recovered for the rest of the day. Understanding the type and timing of the meals are crucial to its success. Of course, also knowing which foods you require are very important, it’s not just carbs you need, there needs to be a balance of protein and fat with your recovery meals and again it’s such a big topic, but my book will be discussing recovery options as well as food tolerances and intolerance’s. Stay tuned.

Once your recovery meal is down packed and you have it spot on the most incredible thing is going to happen. You won’t have energy dips during the day, you won’t have unwanted hunger cravings, you will get stronger faster and best of all you will have the body you desired.

Remember the least amount of food to achieve the greatest possible result is what we are aiming for and most importantly, it needs to taste good and be enjoyed. Health is not a sacrifice its heavenly 😉.

Marks Mochaccino Recovery Shake (Medium to High Carb-Depending on Session)


– 4 scoops of 32Gi Chocolate Recover
– 1 serving TrueStart Coffee (95mg of caffeine)
– 400ml’s of water or milk (I use almond or rice milk but dairy is also good if you are not intolerant)

Macros:
Carbs (Medium GI) 48grams
Protein 18grams
Caffeine 95mg
Wanting this shake you can get it online here click on links below or at your local Dis-Chem
To get TRUESTART ON SPECIAL DEAL NOW
To get 32Gi RECOVER

Mark Wolff is an endurance, nutrition and physiology expert with over 20yrs experience.

An endurance multisport athlete with a triathlon, mountain biking and powerlifting background Mark works extensively with professional and amateur athletes in a variety of sports disciplines.

He firmly believes that an athlete can only reach their full potential when their health and nutrition is down packed. Marks focus on nutrition and physiology is not just on training and racing, but he places major emphasis on recovery, immune system health, emotional stability, stress management and performance. Mark is co-founder of 32Gi a sports nutrition company focused mainly on health and endurance nutrition. He is a certified sports nutrition expert as well as a marathon, track, triathlon and cycling coach. He spends most of his time guiding athletes with a very holistic approach to blending training and nutrition for performance and health.

 

 

Categories
Health Nutrition Performance Training

PREPARE TO PERFORM

No matter what sport you participate in from gym goers to endurance junkie’s preparation for a session require not just a wake up and go but an actual strategy for how you are going to fuel yourself before during and after your session.

I often get asked the question of what and it ultimately depends on a few factors which need to be seriously taken into consideration.

These are:

What time are you training?

How long are you training for?

What intensity are you training at?

When are you training again?

Without clearly understanding the objectives of your workout how can you possible achieve the desired outcome. Secondly, what is your main goal?

Weight loss?

More lean muscle mass and a better physique?

Better fitness and endurance?

More muscle mass?

Less body fat?

Health?

 

Did you know that just training without the proper nutrition around it is just a complete waste of time? You really need to take this into consideration if you want to achieve your goals especially from a health point of view.

I have often used the analogy of comparing a human body to a vehicle. So, you want the body of a Ferrari which is awesome. But instead of having high performance fuel you use a very low-grade petrol and oil. You don’t take care of the engine yet you expect the “Ferrari” to perform. That is ridiculous. You think you can treat your engine like a VW beetle and perform like a Ferrari. Sorry friend it isn’t going to happen. If you look at it from a health perspective imagine placing really bad fuel into the engine and then trying to get it to accelerate to an extremely high speed, with barely any water in the engine. Yes, that’s you, the athlete or lifter who thinks they can eat KFC in moderation and then push out huge weights or high wattage. Eventually the pipe will burst, the engine will blow something will have to give and it always does. Maybe not immediately but certainly over time.  If you have a high-performance vehicle you will go out of your way to make sure that the best fuel, oil and tires are used. Same with your own body, if you treat it with high performance fuel and give it the best, you can only expect it to perform at its best.

Do you know what the advantage of being human is?

We might not look like a high performing vehicle or have that lean muscular or fast physique, but one thing we have which a vehicle doesn’t is we can change our shape. We can completely reshape ourselves inside and out and that all boils down to the fuel we place in our engines. It should be the best. I am not talking about illegal substances and quick fixes which impact your health. I am speaking about proper nutrition which will keep you on the journey from a health and performance perspective to reach your goal.

I often hear people saying everything in moderation. What rubbish. If I ate everything I enjoyed in moderation it would be disastrous. Imagine I drank wine, coke and beer in moderation, ate pizza in moderation and the followed that up with some chocolate in moderation. My eating week would be hell. Moderation is an absolute excuse for the lazy to sacrifice their health and goals for emotional attempts at making their serotonin levels rise to fill their minds with awesomeness. In the end it’s a losing battle. You are what you eat and it couldn’t be more accurate than that.

Now with all this in mind I have completely drifted away from the discussion of actual fueling and now that we know how important nutrition is let’s go back to that awesome topic of where to start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we are going to focus on the pre-workout nutrition. It’s going to be critical when trying to achieve a certain training goal.

I asked many questions above? Let’s review them and decide how to tackle our pre-training nutrition.

Time of the training session:

This is crucial as if you are waking up at the crack of dawn and going straight out on an exercise session do you really feel like eating so early on. Is it absolutely necessary to consume something at 4am. Well the truth is it depends on the next question.

How long and how intense is your workout going to be.

Only 60-90minutes long or maybe up to 2hrs or longer. This will certainly make a difference.

Now look at the objective. Weight gain weight loss, body fat burn, fat efficiency for endurance. These all play a part of the puzzle.

Considering the above scenarios, I would suggest any workout lasting up to 90min does not need much fuel at all. The human body has natural energy stores which can keep you going at a high intensity for that period and you can pretty much do a fasted training session.

Check out my video explaining the Fuel Tanks of the Human Body https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3egjhBpfo0&t=2s this will explain clearly how your own natural energy stores work.

Training fasted will allow you to burn off body fat quite early on depending on the session you are doing and simultaneously allow you to become a fat efficient athlete. Many people battle mentally with this. They don’t feel so great and this is only because of habit and what I call the brain train. You have trained your body in a certain way, and its adapted to that. Attempting this is confusing and a shock to the system and so it takes shorter sessions over time building up to longer sessions to become better at it.

If you ever do a fasted training session you must know how to recover properly from it. Without proper recovery you will battle to make the gains you need and if there was a second session later that day you will be fatigued to turn out another quality workout.

I often get asked about muscle catabolism as opposed to anabolism with fasted training. My answer to that is for a session this short you certainly won’t catabolize your own muscle you have plenty of other fuel to work with. If you are a body builder and require a minimum daily protein intake which is much higher than an endurance athlete then a protein is most likely required at wake up and again later after for recovery however that is a different topic completely.

So, I threw a spanner in the works now telling you to train fasted. I am not saying it’s a must. As I do advise athletes on pre-workout nutrition prep to increase fat burn, naturally of course, make the brain happier and provide far better mental focus.  There are many meal ideas and natural supplements which can be used to enhance the workout and allow you to perform very well while being rewarded with the same benefits.

I bet your next question is what are these and what I will do is give you a little insight into how I fuel my sessions to explain it a little further.

Not many people know but I did come from a weight lifting background into endurance sport, I once weight 112kg now only 66kg. So, I understand both worlds quite intimately, and how the body suffers in both. Each is unique. I train for endurance but I also do strength and both have their challenges.

At wake up my primary objective is to ensure I am alert and focused. Early morning sessions often sacrifice the final sleeping hours of major hormonal release and final deep sleep cycles. I won’t get into discussing the science of sleep now, however I can say this. Waking up in a deep sleep cycle can leave you feeling fatigued and tired. It’s not a pleasant feeling.

What are my goals as an endurance athlete?

Maintain a lean healthy muscle mass
Keep my immune system strong
Make sure I am a fat burning machine (fat efficiency is an endurance athlete’s best friend)
Ensure my energy levels are consistent

Wow what a list you might say
They are in no order of preference. Each of these are important to overall health strength and speed.

So, I will tell you how I do it.

It’s quite Simple. Firstly, for any athlete, the mental aspect plays a critical role. Strength of mind can get us through almost anything. However, this requires mental focus. This is where my favorite friend caffeine comes into play. This doesn’t mean any caffeine it means measurable caffeine. I use TrueStart performance coffee for this. It carries an accurate 95mg of caffeine per a serving and it’s a natural caffeine releasing for close to 6hrs which completely covers my workout. The best thing is its completely natural and as anyone knows I hate synthetic products.

I know per a kilogram of bodyweight how much caffeine I need before a workout and how long it will last me in order to provide me the right amount of focus to cover my session. TrueStart Coffee does the trick.  What else does caffeine do? I free up more free fatty-acids which allow me more access to free energy floating around my body in simple terms more fat for fuel. I also like to load myself with green tea in the mornings. Research has shown that green tea can assist in decreasing fat storage and assisting with fat burn BUT to achieve this quite a fair amount needs to be consumed. I can drink anywhere from 6-20 cups a day depending on my mood. One cup is not going to do the trick but I love waking up to it. I like the taste and use it as a form of hydration.

Generally a session of up to 90-120min for me will be covered by the above due to my fat efficiency. However on slightly longer sessions. I make a little energy bomb and generally this is concoction of pure MCT oil, caffeine, nut butter and vanilla powder. Oh its s a BOMB and a tablespoon kickstarts my engine rapidly, of course I could add some BCAA’s and Beta Alinine to add more fuel to the fire, BUT that’s again for another discussion. I keep it simple depending on my goal. If I don’t feel like eating then I just add pure vanilla flavoured MCT oil or MCT oil with Vanilla powder to my TrueStart Coffee and that’s enough fire to get me going from the mug.

Another product I use when I am on the go is the 32Gi G-Shot, 60mg of caffeine per a serving in a simple snap sachet and easy to stack in my wallet, makes it a very convenient carry and use.

This type of pre-workout ensures I can churn out a quality session with-out compromising what I need. It is so effective you won’t believe the results after a few weeks. I often get asked what about carbs before your workout? Why?

I have natural carbohydrates stores in my body 2000 calories worth and they will easily see me for up to 2hrs of a high intensity exercise (Check out my video link I mentioned earlier) I use what I have no need to douse my flames. Raising my blood glucose levels before a session will just mitigate my fat burning ability so if my goal is to burn more fat why would I start my session off on the wrong foot? It doesn’t make sense. If workouts are much longer then that’s a completely different story and we will get to that in another blog. As for strength training the above would work just as well. So, weight lifters go crazy.

This is just a small share into my morning routine before a session, I will cover more topics of longer endurance sessions, fueling during and post exercise recovery. But for now, keep training hard, sleep well and eat even harder 😉

             The Fitness Freak

P.S. I FORGOT

If you are keen on TrueStart Coffee there is a great deal at the moment Just Click Here 

32Gi’s GShot is available online at the 32Gi Store Just Click Here

As far as MCT oil go there are a few, but Battle Brew and Natures Choice are two I have used which are awesome Dis-Chem stock Natures Choice and Chrome Battle Brew. Natures choice has a Vanilla flavour which is pretty decent.

As far as my nut butter bomb goes well I will certainly be giving you a recipe in the near future as I make it all myself 😉

 

 

Categories
Health Nutrition Training

MCT’s for Energy

Coconut-oil-2

 

MCT’s (Medium Chain Triglyceride’s) has been of quite a large debate lately.I assisted Pedro van Gaalen editor of Fitness Magazine to put this informative article together for the publication. It will hopefully provide you all some clarity in understanding MCT’s. Fitness Mag is an excellent publication so do yourself a favour and next time you see the magazine in store take a copy home with you the topics are usually quite interesting and  diverse 🙂

 

Click on the link below to open or download the PDF

MCT Article – Pedro van Gaalen & Mark Wolff

Categories
Nutrition Training

Burn the Fat for better Endurance & Health

FatBurn

Sunday morning 7:30am my alarm goes off and that signals my time for a long training run. Today’s goal is around 2.5hrs which should give me around 33-34km’s at a comfortable pace. An easy no complicated morning preparation involving a nice hot cup of green tea, running shoes on and off I go. Around 11am my session is complete a comfortable 33km run and feeling good. Only now is it time for my first meal of the day.

“Wait a minute” I get asked. “How do you get up so late, don’t eat anything at all then run that distance at that pace comfortably without any need for fuelling before or during???” My short answer is that I am fat adapted. I am predominantly in a fat burn mode, meaning I can go a lot further on less. Whether it’s a 42km training run or a 180km training ride, at the right pace one can go for hours on his natural fat stores if properly trained. If you think about it in terms of motor vehicles, some vehicles require huge amounts of fuel to power them over distance while others are so fuel efficient they pretty much reach the same destination at the same time just on much less.

Over the past 20 years a huge legacy of massive carbohydrate fuelling has been entrenched in the latest generation of performance athletes. However more and more this is being shown to be less of an importance to making the body more fat efficient to be able to maximize the use of natural fat stores for fuel and rely less on carbohydrate intake in order to gain a massive performance benefit in a long endurance event. I often use the Kenyan or Ethiopian marathon runner as an example of this. A predominantly high carbohydrate diet, topped up glycogen stores and a 20km/h average speed for a marathon is all in order, for a 2hr performance that is.
Then we take a look at something like a Two Oceans Ultra Marathon where course record money is up for grabs and the Kenyan & Ethiopian runners appear with force to match their speeds against the Lesotho, Zimbabwean and South African ultra-runners. They just don’t stand a chance at least for now. The ultra-distance runners are so much more adapted to running at a higher pace on less. Yes, far more fat efficient athletes who spare glycogen on fat fuelling and go further on less.

As performance requirements demand more time so does your energy system need to be completely adapted to that time. Topped up glycogen stores are completely limited even if slightly spared with carbohydrate intake so yes smashing out a very high pace for a short space of time is perfect when it comes to carbohydrate fuelling. However the longer the event the fact is the more the fat efficient athlete will have an advantage. Let me just clarify that this doesn’t mean no fuelling on carbohydrates, by all means yes you should be, the brain will function far better on carbohydrate fuelling when the body is under stress and this will make a huge difference in performance however being fat efficient means you will require less than the average carbohydrate dependent Joe.

The Comrades Marathon which is a 90km Ultra run each year in South Africa has incredible winning times of around 5h30 roughly a 3:40min/km pace for this time over a course with huge elevation changes and lots of climbing. I have had the pleasure of working with some of the gold medalists (top 10) in nutrition advisory and on route seconding them. All race fuel is ready and prepped in various forms from liquid feed to food solids, gels and protein. Each year I measure intake of athletes on route in the form of carbohydrates, protein and fat as its being consumed along the route. What is quite amazing to see is that the elite runners actually consume anywhere between 20-40grams of carbs per an hour yet they still perform at an incredible pace. Most people I speak to are convinced these runners are consuming anywhere from 60-90grams of carbs per an hour, however this couldn’t be further from the truth. These runners run on their own natural fat stores and they are so fat adapted they are able to perform at a fairly high intensity with fat being their primary fuel source.

The next question is how do you become a fat burning machine of an athlete?
There are quite a few steps that need to be taken however most importantly is that it doesn’t happen overnight it takes time to become fat efficient and it takes effort and commitment but in the end you will reap the rewards.

Before we go into how to become an athlete that burns more fat for energy, let’s understand what it actually means. There are various physiological structures in the human body which can be “trained” to increase the amount of fat that is utilized for energy. Lipolysis is the process of breaking down subcutaneous fat and converting it into triglycerides which will ultimately be converted to energy and used by the muscles. This process takes time and there are other areas of fat which are more quickly accessible.  Upregulating Beta Oxidation, so that you can convert as much fat as possible and at the highest intensity as possible into Acetyl-CoA which of course is introduced into the Krebs cycle to allow for ATP production and fuelling of the muscles is one way. Also by increasing the amount of fat available to the body, to be utilized for energy not just in the form of ketones but in the form of intramuscular triglycerides is another way. In actual fact athletes can derive around 20% of energy from IMTG (intramuscular triaglycerol) depending on diet of course. Women generally have a higher IMTG than men and utilize more during exercise which begs the question are women generally more fat efficient athletes than men? Based on my experiences with female athletes I would tend to favor that opinion.

Increasing ketone levels is another way of providing internal fat fuel sources. However instead of worrying about being in a state of ketosis to make yourself a “fuel efficient” athlete, more steps should be taken to train the mitochondria to utilize more fat as fuel and this can be done in a non-ketogenic state. The focus should be training the body to convert fat to glucose to be used as energy internally without relying too much on external glucose sources. Many athletes try to shift into the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) dieting phase to try to become fat adapted, however I don’t firmly believe this is where to begin. It’s a very difficult place to start if you are an athlete that suddenly wants to make this switch. I also get many people insisting on going into a state of ketosis without actually really understanding their own body’s requirements before doing such a thing and in many cases it’s not required.

Becoming a fat adapted athlete does require a key focus on nutrition. This is critical to any athletes performance however to make yourself a fat adapted athlete you need to start with your diet. There are some key points when selecting appropriate food types to make you more fat adapted and these are:

To Burn Fat you need to Eat Fat
This is a very important point. The general population fear eating fat, but in actual fact by eliminating fat from your diet you are limiting your body’s ability to be a fat burning machine. Introducing healthy natural fats into your diet is important to become more fat adapted. You don’t have to make huge changes overnight, but definitely have no fear of eating fat as it is critical to fuelling a fat adapted engine. Introduce a higher amount of fats into your diet in order to benefit from them. Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT’s) are an excellent example of quickly accessible fuel in the form of fat which can be immediately utilized by the mitochondria as an energy source.

Carbohydrate intake needs to be Monitored
Fat adaption doesn’t mean cutting carbs it means being selective of the carbohydrates you take in. Dropping carbohydrates to under 50grams a day for most individuals will be an extremely difficult thing to do. I would suggest selecting carbs from more fibrous, low GI and vegetable based options as opposed to grains, breads and starches. It’s all about insulin management and by keeping insulin response very low you can be assured your ability to burn fat will be a lot higher.

Train the Brain
One of the biggest issue with carbohydrate limitation is that most people have a sweet tooth and are sugar dependent or tweaked to crave sugary foods. That’s one of the reasons why I am against “natural” forms of sweet such as honey. Yes, honey is natural however it is completely sugar and breaks down into glucose and fructose which means your brain is still trained to crave sweet and you are still playing with insulin. The same with sweeteners in coffee or tea or diet cold drinks, they might be low calorie but they are training the brain to stick with sweet.

Carbohydrate Timing
The timing and volume of carbohydrate intake is critical. If you wake up in the mornings and take in a higher carbohydrate meal, and then go and train you have completely mitigated your ability to maximize fat burn as you have already raised the blood glucose in your system which will be utilized as a source of energy before the body resorts to fat utilization. If the higher percentage of your daily carbohydrate intake is taken post exercise after a long or hard session due to the low insulin response you will again maximize your body’s ability to remain in a fat burn zone.

Over and above nutrition requirements there are other considerations that you should take into account when it comes to being a more fat adapted athlete.

Fasted Training
Training in a fasted state as mentioned earlier will definitely engage your body to utilize more fat as a source of fuel. By not providing any external sources of fuel, the body will have to adapt to relying on its internal sources primarily being glycogen and fat. Many people I deal with fear going on a session without an energy drink but if the session is 2hrs or under you will manage perfectly on water. If you are still very nervous to attempt it then take a sports drink with you and delay the consumption of it for the first hour in order to kick start the burn in that fasted state. The other option is to take a sports drink which does not cause a big rise in blood glucose so that you can still derive benefit for fat burn.

Training Intensity & Time
Something I need to stress is that training at an extremely high intensity can mitigate fat burn due to the fact that oxygen is required to convert fat ultimately for use as energy. In this case glycogen will mainly be depleted. However, training at a high intensity in a fasted state with shorter workouts and slowly building up will help train the body to utilize a higher percentage of fat at higher intensities and this has been shown in many fat adapted elite athletes. If you can talk while training then no need for high calorie drinks, sufficient oxygen is getting into your system to burn fat assuming you haven’t spiked your blood sugar. If you cannot talk at all during training and are puffing and panting then this is more your glycogen depletion state and these workouts should be kept to under 90min in a fasted stated and you can slowly build on them with time.

So with all this in mind what about racing? Yes we do race on carbohydrates, we definitely feel a great benefit from carbohydrate consumption even in lower amounts than the average person who is completely carbohydrate dependent. If our glycogen stores do deplete at some point in a long endurance event, for us fat efficient athletes it’s a transparent transition from glycogen to fat usage where no major pain or slowing is felt just a gear adjustment needed and the game goes on.

I could go on and on about the benefits of becoming a fat adapted athlete, it really doesn’t take much major effort just some healthy lifestyle, nutrition and training modifications and the benefits will be rewarded long term.

Categories
Nutrition

To Organic or Non-Organic ?

12-Health-Benefits-of-Bananas

I often get asked about organic food consumption and there is always a lot of debate around organic and non-organic selection. Does it actually makes a difference?

Recently there was a nutritionist on the radio debating that organic food was not actually beneficial, and everyone that approached me that day had something to say about it. I never actually heard the debate, maybe she was speaking strictly from a nutrient point of view, which is highly debatable anyway. But I would rather stick to as natural as possible regardless of what anyone says.

I have my own personal reasons for favouring organic products (assuming they are credible) and decided to share this little story to open some eyes. My decision to select organic is purely from a point of view of what I term deselection or risk management i.e.: not ingesting nonsense.

Many years ago while living abroad I worked in banana plantations. I had exposure to all the goings on in the fields from banana seedling to fruit to market. I won’t get into the science of how a banana tree is grown to produce fruit, but basically through the growth stages there are multiple trees growing around the main fruit bearing tree.

In order to ensure maximum energy transfer to the fruit bearing tree the other smaller surrounding trees are killed. This was done by injecting benzene into them. Yes benzene. In other fields in I was exposed to in central America there was also a chemical blend of this nature.

Of course it does not just disappear into thin air but seeps into the ground and eventually gets absorbed into the main fruit bearing roots. Bottom line, those bananas definitely contained traces of benzene, and lab testing did produce some shocking results. So when they say fuel up with bananas they truly are not lying.

My point however is that as consumers we are never exposed to the processes of getting food to our shelves, and if we were we might land up starving ourselves for fear of being poisoned. Yes, organic produce is highly expensive, and most will go for non-organic produce. I just advise you to think twice when you have the choice, because the evidence of composition for many non-organic foods , is as I put it quite shocking. My advice to you is, take a look at your weekly menu and switch the most eaten produce to organic, and then move to the next. In this case, it’s not about what you are wanting to take in, but what you are wanting to avoid taking in.

There is so much misunderstood disease going on in this world and one can only think that 90% of the time we eat it. Keep it natural keep it clean.