A few of my non cycling friends have touted keto/LCHF diet as a great method to help shift some weight over a sustained effort over a few months given their recent successfull weight loss. Of course it’s still a matter of fuel in < fuel out and each person is specific.
Background:
Previously, +5 years ago when weight resistance training my PT prescribed 40p40c20f on training days and 40p20c40f on rest days and I noticed some decent results over a 3 month period. However, I ALWAYS felt excessively hungry on training days and had large swings in energy. Non training days were actually okay.
I have a goal of shifting about 10kilos/22lbs so no mean feat but at 5"10 and ~94 kilos/207lbs it’s there to be shifted and no real time limit but 3-6 months is feasible.
Been cycling about 2 years and had a height Watt/Kilo of 2.9 last year after a week cycling summer holiday in Spain and solid training in the months leading up to it. Had built up stamina for centuries and bunch spins averaging low 30s kph (low 20s mph). However then moving/changing job/moving country happened (+8/9 kilos, -20 watts ftp and a lot less weekly miles).
Current diet/training plan:
I’ve wanted to try a mix of the 16/8 fasting regime during weekly work days, including a couple fasted ~90 mins tempo/as rides in the am and maybe 1 evening ~120 spin with hill repeats throughout the workweek.
Saturday Club Endurace ride of circa 100k and 1200m climbing to try and get some miles into the legs and get used to longer rides again. Sunday’s to be a short recovery spin. During the week I feel great. The 16/8 is working out easy to implement, I feel satiated throughout the day eating a clean version of LCHF and have very stable energy levels and find it easy to maintain calorie deficit.
However, on Saturdays spin I’m finding it hard to do anything over 2 hours without any carbs/glucose in the system (nuts etc just don’t cut it) so eventually usually have to stop at a cafe for something or tuck into the “emergency gels”. So I’m thinking of turning Saturday into a higher carb day with maybe a cheat meal (good quality pizza/pasta) post ride if progress isn’t being halted.
Has anyone had any similar experiences/advice/resources to share? Any study/articles for these diets don’t seem to include anything about +4 hour rides on a bike and while I know some endurance athletes are fully keto strict and “fat adapted” it doesn’t seem to work for me just yet. But then there’s suggestions about LCHF allowing duel fueling. But how and when to consume carbs then in this case?
Pre ride carbs/on ride carbs/post ride? High carb cheat meal better off the night before?
Thanks in advance,
Aidan