Fasted Training

As I laced up my running shoes (first time since buying my VFF's) for a 5k on the gravel road, the lightning struck and the rain started falling. So I've been pacing around the crew trailer waiting for it to stop. There are squall lines in every direction today, so I was hoping to get my run in before it started storming again. I wanted to post a link to a guest post by Jason Fitzgerald this morning on Naturally Engineered I've been following David Csonka for a while now, and his blog is a great resource to all things Paleo and Fitness as well as a great place to start if you are just getting into all of this. Strength Running, likewise has been extremely helpful to me in improving my running ability. Both these guys know their stuff, and are talented bloggers who can really convey the information in a concise, understandable way.

Perfecting the Art of Fasting Before Running
The article deals with fasted-state running, and actively challenges the old adage that you need to carb load prior and during a run to perform well. If you are training for a race or race season Intermittent Fasting lets you work in a way to train your body to metabolize and store glucose in your muscles more efficiently. This definitely a must-read article.

In my own experience, I have switched almost entirely to fasted runs. I have not been putting in as many miles as a competitive runner, but rather supplementing my training, and maximizing the mind-clearing benefits of runs. I was starting to ratchet up my mileage before I started running in VFF's, but dialed it back down when I was breaking them in. I made up for the shorter distances with more frequent runs. It is very cathartic to just float along nearly barefoot, and I have to say it is mildly addictive when you are already into fitness. My already minimal (9mm heel drop) NB100's feel like cowboy boots compared to the KSO's. The only reason I am putting them on is I want to run on a gravel road, and gravel has been my arch nemesis lately. I really just want to run my old 5k on gravel just to get away.
I have not eaten a traditional breakfast in nearly a year, and now if I run with anything more than half a banana in my stomach I feel nauseated the entire run. Running with the fuel low light on has been nothing but a blessing to my runs. I get a nice little pulse of energy after the first mile that catapults me through the rest of the run. The only exception being on very high heat and humidity days where I'm just getting beat down by the elements. Most of the time fasting helps cool your body down as well, so the summers are a lot more bearable here in the deep south.
I have also completed many military fitness tests while fasted with my Navy PRT scores getting better, and my Search and Rescue Fitness Tests and Evals getting better. Swimming with anything in my stomach has generally been a bad idea anyway, due to the nausea and cramping associated. The Conventional Wisdom would be that an individual needs a large number of calories before during and after to fuel these workouts, but the opposite is true. I now perform better on an empty stomach than I do with even a light breakfast. Light breakfast being a powerbar or a piece of fruit. Now I fuel myself with a good cup (usually more) of French Pressed coffee, and at most a tiny piece of very dark chocolate to counteract the acid. Coffee and Chicory seems to provide the best results, as the chicory takes away the acid, and is high in magnesium.

The added benefits of increased insulin sensitivity, lower caloric load over time, and better fat metabolism, have all helped push me through plateaus in fitness and weight loss; and the "second wind" sometimes achieved gives the benefit of pushing through some grueling workouts leading to my better over-all conditioning. I am unsure as to this effect is from the release of liver glucose after gluconeogenesis from the previous night's protein, or if it is simply keto adaptation and the point at which the mitochondria switch over to burning ketone bodies (fat) as fuel. Either way, it has been intuitive to me to eat and work this way, so I will not be switching back.


If you are interested in learning more about Intermittent Fasting as a method, here are some very helpful links that I still follow on a regular basis:
Martin Berkhan at Lean Gains
Johnny at The Lean Saloon
Brad Pillon at Eat Stop Eat
Mike O'Donell at The IF Life
The Fast-5 Corporation

***I do want to state, that unless you have your diet really dialed in, and all the crap removed this will be a very difficult transition if this is something you are wanting to try out. A lifetime of poor dietary choices perpetuated by our consumerist society will not provide enough of the necessary nutrients for your body to run efficiently. Start with making REAL FOOD your primary source of fuel, so the need to snack on junk all day is eliminated. This is imperative. Fasting is intuitive once you can eat well enough to be able to skip a meal. Garbage in Garbage out. If you get light headed by dinner time after snacking all day, then it's time to reevaluate your food choices.

Mega Dinner

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I have been working out hard again now that the weather isn't nasty, and my ankle is getting back to normal. I haven't been blogging as much lately for more excuses than i can think, but I am here now. Yesterday was the first time in a long time that I can honestly say I was really hungry. I made homemade veggie soup for dinner, and i could Just. Not. Get. Enough. I ate soup until it was coming out of my ears, and then had another bowl. I was full, but still hungry. When I woke up this morning, I knew it was a legitimate hunger, and not just the occasional morning empty that passes after the first sniff of coffee. Luckily, there was a banana pancake waiting for me and a cup of coffee! My trailer mate had extra bananas and threw together a paleo pancake on accident. Basically: mash-up two ripe bananas, a whole egg, and some nut butter into a batter, and fry in butter. These were so good, and blew away any attempt at a paleo pancake I have ever tried before. Dumb luck.

After a hard workout at noontime, I was STARVING. Legitimate, depletion of bodily needs hunger. I checked (with a ketostick), and I was still in ketosis even after breaking a fast earlier in the day. I had planned on eating ad libitum today after last night, so it worked out, but I downed 3 eggs and a whole ham steak! By three in the afternoon the headaches started kicking in, and I was already hungry again, so I could tell I needed some starches. I ate an avocado.

It was dinner time shortly after, so I made this feast: I had a giant ribeye with the bone on, a boat-load of broccoli and some roasted vegetable medley. It was a dinner of such epic proportions so as to not be contained by one single plate. The steak covered one plate on it's own merit. I usually only eat like this on holidays. The only thing I would have added was a glass of wine, but unfortunately on call, I am unable to imbibe.

I will make an observation on fasting with a Paleo diet. You HAVE to make sure you can listen to your body to interpret your caloric and dietary needs. Eat when you are hungry, but don't when you are not. If you are lacking in something suck as Iron or Magnesium, or Potassium your body will tell you. I know when I start getting serious headaches that don't go away, I NEED starch to replenish my glucose reserves. If I eat something sweet I just feel like ass anyway, so this is where rice and root vegetables come in. Rice has never given me problems, so i never omitted it completely; but potatoes I use VERY sparingly. I limit them to rare occasions and never eat them alone. I always throw in some fat and usually other veggies.

With fasting most days, I have managed to curb my issue with boredom eating, push past the plateau at 200Lbs, and really figure out what works for me. The more I drop, the better I feel and perform. I also have had to adjust as i get lower in Bodyfat. I attribute this to having less of a store to draw from. When I was 230 and 20%BF, I could stand to have a few nutritious meals derived of my own bodyfat stores. I wish I knew the physiology of ketosis prior to then, but that's all hindsight being perfect and all. I still try to stay pretty low on the carb scale most of the time, and I use the headaches as a guide as to when I need to refill the tank. I passed my weight goal, but it was based on my bad math skills trying to figure out my lean body mass, and my body fat percentage still isn't where I would like it to be. I also want to push it a little to see how far this method takes me. I could look as good as I did after graduating from SAR school when I was 20 years old. That is pretty cool.

End of my 2 week Challenge Results

Just a quick post to brag about myself report my results:

After 2 weeks of my original challenge of Strict Paleo (no grains, legumes, dairy, or added sugar*) and Intermittent Fasting anywhere from 14-18 hours a day and including on 24 hour test, I have hit my goal of losing 10 pounds in 2 weeks! I started at 212lbs., and after my weigh in this morning I weighed 201lbs! All the sympathy weight gain from earlier this year is GONE!!!! I'm back to the weight I was the day of my wedding.

I am down a belt size, and I can definitely tell my BF% is down. I'm leaner. I have been at a sticking point lately, and I really think the IF and working out in a fasted state was the little push I needed to get over the hump. I'm not sold on the no dairy thing yet, but it's working, so I'm not in a hurry to throw it back in. I know today's dairy is definitely NOT the healthy product it claims to be, and I think I will probably forgo the milk and yogurt. I will definitely be snooty on my cheese selection as well.

Now alcohol is going to be tough. It's already very painful not pouring some Bourbon over ice in the evenings. I should just accept the ten pounds and have a drink, but I'm afraid I will binge. I may have to get a bottle of good red wine for this evenings dinner. I think that should be acceptable. We'll see.

Anyway, 10 pounds in two weeks is pretty cool. My jeans are loose. It's a good feeling.