Stephen Phinney wrote a review of studies on low carbohydrates and
athletic performance
(http://www.pubmedcentral.net/articlerender.fcgi?artid=524027 and
concluded that endurance performance "can be sustained despite the
virtual exclusion of carbohydrate from the human diet."  The reasons
previous low carb athletic experiments to that point had failed were
because they: 1) Didn't allow sufficient time for the body to switch
from carbs to fat; 2) didn't provide enough sodium and potassium; and
3) provided too much protein.  (Per Phinney, daily protein needs to be
in the "optimum therapeutic window" of 1.2 - 1.7 g/kg of reference body
weight).

Phinney does have a caveat that I'd like to disprove.  While endurance
athletes would do well with this diet, "anaerobic (i.e. weight lifting
or sprinting) performance is limited by the low muscle glycogen levels
induced by a ketogenic diet...."  I don't believe that this is true --
at least with the Arthur Jones low frequency, high intensity weight
training regime that I do.  I am going to see if the Jones exercise
prescription is not a perfect fit for the Phinney diet.

So here are the rules:

* Three weeks (July 24 - August 13, 2006)
* Two high intensity weight training sessions per week, no more than 20
minutes per session
* No carbohydrates
* 76-108 grams of protein per day
* Unlimited quality fats
* Potassium and magnesium supplementation (I'll get enough sodium from
my Grassland Pemmican)
* No alcohol

I'll be posting my results here.

Please contact me if you're interested in joining me.  Should be
interesting.


Jim Swayze
www.fireholecanyon.com