Still on the Keto diet but losing faith. I've noticed many of the elite Keto athletes seem to carbo load up on performance day. I thought just a little fudging and it will stop the fat burning process. If correct this means the athletes are running on sugar induced glucose not their fat storage on show day. What are the thoughts on carbs at showtime?
Depends on your definition of Carb Loading. Extreme Weight loss is 50g carbs, Weight Lost is 100g, maintenance is 150-200g.. All from good sources of carbs.
An event with extreme sustained effort, say a 1 hour TT, versus say a 12 hour endurance event will be more short term Glucose dependent. The more bursty the Power requirement and the closer to the nut you are for in-excess of one hour, the more you run the risk of exhausting glucose in the system resulting a "crash" versus a slow draining to empty.
So, if the morning of that TT event i up my carb input to say 400g from the best sources. Example berries, and sweet potato hash. During the event I then might carry a Chia based gel for a boost take at 30 minutes, just in case, too add some edge at the end of the second half. As long as I do not grab five Hammer gels at 21g of sugar; or pound two bananas, then I am not going to tip over my Keto system. Instead it will just see a higher level of stable glucose from the morning than it normally does; Long before it can over react with insulin we hit it with a high power demand and the body will bring all its available resources to attack the problem at hand.
Nutrition timing is important and requires some trial and error. Meanwhile, the 12 hours events instead require a strategic and steady replenishment of balanced nutrient intake; to keep the tanks topped off. Instead of loading 400 in the morning I would do my normal days supply of 150g and then figure a way to ingest more through out the event along with the other nutrients. The more training input ahead of time the more you can do without Glucose. I can now get some pretty high power output on 50g of carbs but it took most of the winter to build that. How I choose to deploy that on a longer than 4 hour ride depends on the goal. Chasing a sub 4 century will take Glucose and a multi metabolic strategy; but a sub 5 century that I can probably do on a cup of coffee and electrolytes. Next year I aim to raise that bar.
Now that stuff said, back at the TT style event. Might there be a single gel in my pocket for that last 8 minutes? Just in case I'm running neck and neck with the other guy and I need some nitrous I can drop in the tank? Probably! Would I use it; if need to; You-betcha. Will I pay for it later, probably, but not as bad as the guy putting down a gel every 10 minutes and drinking liquid sugar in his water bottle.
((No offense to the banana we field tested that as a possible better alternative to the chia; it did not end well)) The chia surprised me; +1 for pluckyblond.
So let's remember, Lee's been pounding the drum to remind people that Glucose isn't bad, isn't evil etc. I still concur with that; it's simply the source, the quantity and the quality that the Keto diet aims to control. That's one of several strategies. The keystone idea is you do not have to be overly Glucose dependent; but you still require glucose. So on race day you are going to need more Glucose; just by comparison you will need no where near as much as the other guy who is using it as his only fuel source. If you choose your glucose sources well you body will handle it without too much whiplash.
Nutrition is going to be a management game; regardless of which philosophy you follow.
These days, I try hard to look at "lazily obtained Glucose" and Alcohol as the same problem. I can use both intelligently to achieve a specific desired effect; and I can misuse both with disastrous results.
YMWV; because we all know Jason is Donut powered; and Lee is running on "Green" Smoothies; each with good results at large events that require more than average athletic output. There's more than one way to fuel; picking the one that works for you is the first step.