Head Scratching Moments

This week I want to talk about how you can manipulate/change your diet in order to improve your body's ability to use fat for fuel during exercise and at rest.

Before I get started there are a few issues that I'd like to address before I get into the "how" in order to help people grasp this concept a bit better.

First off, I'm not a nutritional expert. I'm not comfortable telling you what supplements, vitamins and minerals, or what % of this or that to eat. I can tell you what I do based on my 10 years of experience on the subject.

I believe people have a good idea of what is and what isn't a healthy food choice, but struggle with the timing, possibly making a healthy choice not so healthy. Gaining this knowledge could be the key to enhancing your body's ability to burn fat during exercise and at rest.

I first started getting into the impact of diet on performance when I was 17 and hooping it up with some big boys. I've always been the type of athlete that needs to do everything within my control to keep moving forward. I'm not one of those gifted athletes that can get by on just talent alone. I've always needed to work--diet, technique, strength, sport specific training, etc.

I knew that growing a foot taller and playing in the NBA was out of my control, but what I could control was my ability to work on other areas of the sport. This included my attempt at putting on lean muscle mass and becoming stronger so I wasn't getting thrown all over the court.

Alright, enough of the old glory days and back to the point of this piece.

When we first started talking about how to improve your fat burning there were a number of things I read from athletes and coaches saying that fat burning doesn't matter or is a myth and is just a sign of fitness.

I agree and disagree. I think that fat burning is a component of fitness and that you need to have the complete package to be at your best or reach your desired level of fitness.

-What is the use of a huge VO2 max if you aren't strong enough to push the pedals?

-What is the use of being a fast runner if you aren't durable and constantly injured?

-What is the use of a high functional threshold when anything over Zone 1 has you burning through all your glycogen stores?

So, in my opinion, burning fat could be the answer to those head scratching moments that many athletes face race after race. They might be able to get through days, weeks, or months of training, but they can't put it all together in a single day because they are racing at an intensity where they burn through glycogen faster than they can process and absorb it.

There are also the claims that fat burning is bogus because your body burns what you eat. While I don't believe this is entirely true, increasing your dietary fat intake has been shown to increase your fat burning. I find it funny that folks try to use this as a reason why fat burning is a myth. Claims such as "Ah, they just manipulated their diet to improve this function of their metabolism." In my opinion, they just proved our point. Why wouldn't you manipulate something that is going to make you a better athlete. Could I say? "Ah, they just rode their bike more to improve their functional threshold."

Then there are the many athletes that boast how they eat whatever they want and still are at the top of their game. This might be true, but as I've said before, you can't always assume they couldn't be better.

I very much believe there is a genetic component to fat burning and athletes that can eat however they want use their own experiences and conclude that diet and fat burning are insignificant. I understand their reasoning because they haven't the issue, but I still think that the diet can be changed to optimize one's self.

OK, I've already written the above and meant for this blog to be about ways to change your diet in order to be a better fat burner, but I've realized that the "why" needed to be explained first. The "how" will be my next entry.

To continue on...

Athlete One



Athlete Two


The two graphs above represent two different athletes. These athlete's zones or critical physiological markers are almost exactly the same. They look a bit different because of the scale and the starting watts. However, both athletes would be considered to be of the same strength.

The grey part of the chart is carbohydrate usage for a give intensity. The black is fat usage for a given intensity. Most athletes can sustain an intensity at which the carbohydrate is being burned at a rate of 10 kcals/min. For example, if an athlete is burning a total of 13 kcals/min--4 kcals/min are coming from fat and 9 kcals/min coming from CHO, the athlete should be able to sustain this intensity if all other "components" are present.

Athlete One, is a professional triathlete and trains roughly 30 hours per week. Athlete Two is an age group triathlete that trains 12-17 hours per week.

Athlete Two, even though they have a very good substrate profile, isn't breaking any records in the age-group ranks. Bringing me back to my "component of fitness" point. There is probably another limiter this athlete faces. Endurance?

Athlete One, even though they've gotten stronger and more fit has a poor substrate profile. The above substrate profile hasn't prevented this athlete from becoming fast, but has them at a stand still where they can't quite figure out what's prohibiting them from taking it to the next level.

For the past few years, the results haven't gone according to plan even though the training has been increased and completed. This athlete is racing within an appropriate percentage of FT so one wouldn't think pacing to be the issue. Their coach would be puzzled because they are pretty sure they have the training zones right.

So what is it? I think I know.

Without a progressive fuel test, how could you?

You can keep getting stronger and stronger, but is your racing leaving you on the side of the road scratching your head?

For some more reading, check out these recent articles by the team...

http://alancouzens.blogspot.com/2008/06/mummy-returns.html (practical recommendations)

http://alancouzens.blogspot.com/2008/05/improving-fat-oxidation.html (scientific theory)

http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2008/05/thoughts-for-female-athletes.html

http://www.justindaerr.com/blog/index.php/recovery/

Stayed tuned for dietary strategies focused on improving your fat burning.

Mat