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(drpierredebs @ May 25 2008,1:05)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(Martin Levac @ May 25 2008,12:59)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><div>
(drpierredebs @ May 25 2008,12:54)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I eat far less carbs than most cyclist. And noone is going to climb, or ride, without carbs.
Very few cyclist at my age are 8% body fat.
The pro tour riders are all below 40 year sof age, and only the climbers are really that much below 8%.</div>
They too would be leaner if they ate no carbs regardless of their age. If they won't ride without carbs, maybe it's because they are too dependent on carbs. Then maybe it's because when they try no/low carb, they don't take the time to adapt fully to a high fat diet and so are not efficient at using fat as fuel. Or they just don't eat enough fat. There is a period of adaptation from a high carb diet to a no/low carb high fat diet. It can take upward of 20 weeks. Or it can be very short as stevejones has reported in his experiment log.</div>
how much leaner does a 5% body fat rider need to get?
6% is about the level before performance suffers.
At about 8% body fat and below, further fat lose it is almost irrelevant as performance is then mostly a question of heart function efficiency and the the ability to ride at the anaerobic threshold and above.</div>
Well then, I think heart function efficiency would improve on a no/low carb high fat diet. The brain is about 30% more fuel efficient when it runs on ketones instead of glucose.
Have you ever seen a study or any paper showing a real comparison between a high carb diet and a no/low carb high fat diet with trained athletes? I haven't. I've seen pseudo-studies showing how inefficient switching to a low carb is when the rider is fully adapted to a high carb diet and hasn't been given enough time to adapt to the switch. The point is that I think there is no data for the no/low carb high fat diet to which a high carb diet can be compared to reach a definitive conclusion. So when you, or anybody else, say that riders need a high carb diet, I say they just don't know the facts about the alternative to make an informed decision on the matter.