Newbie, not overweight but interested in keto for Spartan racing

(Dale Greenly) #1

I am not overweight, but my brother is. He suggested a keto diet for the Spartan racing I do. Thoughts? And how do I get started?

(Chris W) #2

Well it would be helpful to know more about spartan racing. You would have to consider timing, the first 3-4 months you will suffer if this is cardio intense. Also you would have to retrain yourself to work at a lower level as you will not have the glycogen stores like you do now if you are a carb burner. The benefit to keto if you make it to fat adaption and have a decent amount of body fat is that you can if you maintain the best output level go on for what seems for ever. You just don’t get the sprinting, but you don’t need to stop either.

(Jack Brien) #3

Keto is just MADE for endurance racing, the longer the better. As sport becomes more sprint oriented it becomes less optimal, but not undoable. You can also do targeted keto, keto training and carb up for race time

(icky) #4

There is a book by the Keto experts Phinney and Volek especially for athletes.

It is called The Art and Science of Low Carb Performance

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Performance/dp/0983490716

#5

For athletes, really recommend the LCHF/keto documentary Run On Fat - which focuses on fat-adapted endurance for runners and others - featuring a number of champion athletes. Here’s a trailer:

#6

The biggest benefit I see from keto is in my recovery. At 41 I recover from workouts better than I did at 30 as a carb burner, especially my knees and hips.

(Dale Greenly) #7

Spartan Racing is cardio intense, obstacle course racing through mud, under barbwire, carrying buckets of rocks uphill, sandbags downhill. A short race is about 3-5 miles. That’s usually all I can do.

(Dale Greenly) #8

Awesome! Thx. That’s what I was looking for.

(Jack Brien) #9

I haven’t actually read this but it was the first thing that came up when I googled, “Spartan keto”