On Dec 19, 2005, at 7:40 pm, Robert Kesterson wrote:
> I recently read the book named in the subject.  It was aimed at
> endurance athletes, which I am not, but it does point up a possible
> problem with the paleo diet, one which I wanted to throw out here
> for discussion.   The problem is simply that if you're a very
> athletic person, you're going to be burning a lot of calories.  For
> the typical athlete, most of those would come from carbs.  On the
> paleo diet, you've got to work at it to keep the carbs up.
>
> Now like I said, I'm not an endurance athlete.  I do recreational
> weightlifting and various cross-training type activities for a
> total of about three hours a week.  However, I find it hard to keep
> my calorie intake high enough *not* to lose weight at a fairly
> rapid pace.


Robert

I don't consider myself an athlete by any means.  I do do a lot of
martial arts training, and it has been during busy times something in
the region of 12 hours in a week.  I find the argument that if you
really push your body you need to cheat on basic (paleo) dietary
facts hard to swallow.  The main reason being that physical fitness
is one of the keys to our survival- and the daily lives of some
modern (and probably paleolithic) hunter-gatherers is far more
strenuous than what people today consider a hard workout.

If there really is something that can't be done without resorting to
chronically toxic foods, that's perhaps a sign that the human body is
not designed to do that!


> So here's the question.   When you're trying to keep calories up,
> as I see it you have three choices:
>
> 1)  Increase overall quantities of food consumed.  This has built-
> in limitations.
>
> 2)  Increase fat consumption.  This can increase calories fairly
> well without increasing the food bulk too much.
>
> 3)  Increase carb consumption.  This is really hard to do without
> invoking #1 above, or adding in foods that are not paleo approved.
>
> The third approach is the one suggested in the book.  But here's
> the problem:  I am mainly interested in the paleo diet for the
> health and longevity benefits.  If I take the book's advice and
> include some targeted carbs (like oats, potatoes, yams, etc
> targeted around workouts), would that be giving up the long-term
> benefits of being on the diet?
>
> Are there other (non-endurance) athletes on this list?  What are
> your experiences?


I am puzzled why the book suggests adding oats, potatoes and yams,
but not bananas, raisins or even honey, which are all far more paleo
by any sensible definition I know.  I personally would not dream of
adding non-paleo carbs, as the risk of disease and tooth decay is far
too high.

However, I mainly unconvinced of a need to eat around training.  I do
a lot of my own training in the morning, which in practice means up
to an hour of mainly strength work.  This is following an overnight
fast of about 12 hours, and before a daytime fast of again about 12
hours (I generally eat once a day, in the evening, and often train
shortly before my meal so I get some days in with double sessions).
I have not noticed any problems doing this, in fact I feel fitter,
not more drained, on such a programme.

I find *food* completely unnecessary during training, never mind
carbs!  And since the main reason for physical exercise among
paleolithic people was acquiring food, this makes a lot of sense
(otherwise we would have ourselves a pretty fatal catch-22).

Ashley