Nutrition strategies

[frontier_joe]

Hi, I wanted to start a thread to find out the different strategies regarding nutrition timing that people use. Ultra distance in particular. I know there are a lot of different opinions on this but I'm interested to hear them all. Personally If I'm on an ultra I'll make sure I've eaten well a few hours before the start then ill not eat for the first hour to 1.5 hours depending on terrain and pace. Then trying to eat once an hour or more if I feel like it for the remainder. Taking a break if I get nauseous.
Anyone eat less frequently or larger amounts?
Does anyone use a fasting period at the start or part way through the race/run?
Any one have any particular strategies for avoiding nausea or coping with it once it's set in?
Looking forward to hearing about people's experiences!

[Yaks]

The following is something I've been reading up on, not implemented yet, but seriously considering.

Have you heard of LCHF ( low carbohydrate high fat ) eating - basically you cut out nearly all carbs/sugars ( down to about 50g carbs per day ) and eat a high fat content, ignoring all the health warnings about cutting fat intake - natural fats are very good for you it seems.

Your diet becomes meats, eggs, above the ground veg (ie cauli, cabbage, spinach, green beans, etc but not tubers as they are full of starch and carbs ), fruit ( berries, but not apples, bananas, pears, etc as they are full of sugar ), dairy ( full fat butter, milk, cheese, yoghurt, etc ), nuts ( not peanuts or cashews as they are not really nuts ), seeds, etc

No bread, pasta, rice, potatoes are probably the biggest challenge for most people as they are such a regular part of the western diet

After 2 or 3 weeks ( where you will feel pretty lethargic ) your body will adapt from using carbs for energy to using fat for energy. Unlike carbs, your body has an almost endless supply of fat that it can burn, and it can do this very efficiently.

There are quite a few ultra athletes that have moved to this type of diet, and you don't need to eat whilst exercising, the body will burn fat which has lots of energy in it. Guys will run 12 hour ultras on just plain water and not bonk.

As I said, not tried it, just started reading, there may be others that know more and can explain it a bit better.

Apologies if this is not the sort of answer you were looking for.

A book recommended to me that I'm just about to start is "The Art and Science of Low Carb Performance" by Volek and Phinney.

[Rob Furness]

I've heard a lot about LCHF but I'm not convinced. I tried it a while back and found it totally destroyed my top end speed (granted that's not particularly important in ultra racing) and I've also read some research that suggests your body is more likely to deconstruct and use muscle protein as a fuel when running in a carb depleted state which is obviously not desirable. As usual with all these things, more research is required I reckon.

Me personally, I don't do ultras but I do plenty of 20+ mile races and I usually eat every 45 mins or so depending on how I'm feeling and I usually use either fruit bars (NAKD) or gels, again depending on how I'm feeling.

[frontier_joe]

LCHF diets are potentially very good but you really have to know what you're doing otherwise you can run into a lot of problems. Getting your body to use fat as a fuel source is great for ultra and regular distance. The more fat your body uses the longer your carb stores will last. One of the problems in sticking to a diet like that is the danger of depleting your carb stores and your training can take a big setback. Other complications can include muscle atrophy and an increase in %body fat. Not to mention the lethargy. All those negatives aside if you do it right the results can be fantastic. Relatively simple changes in diet and alterations to training really help.
I'm more interested in the timings people use on ultras. Happy to discuss anything nutrition related