Here are a few links to studies on fatty foods and health.
The first one seems to mesh with the Caveman Diet and other lipolysis approaches.
The second one kinda contradicts it, saying that fat food quickly hurts both memory and exercise-ability.
Hmmm…
The third is the Caveman/Primal Diet dude’s pitch.
This is all kinda tricky stuff, but hopefully there’s a simple path hiding in there somewhere.
The basic idea is that fats have the most energy. Exercising without carbs in your blood is a way to train your body to burn fatty foods. It learns to use a different pathway. Carbs are for quick, hot energy — and promptly turn to blubber if not immediately burned. Fats are a slow, low burn — and don’t end up on your waistline or in your arteries if you burn em right.
The Caveman folks say that carbs are just sugars. They cause insulin and cortisol spikes that are just plain bad for you, the only good being that they’re quick fuel. Those spikes relate to diabetes and even to cancer.
Now, the Caveman people say to eat only healthy fat. The factory-made hydrogenated stuff is nasty.
Anyway, the first link is to a study which had folks all eat the same big, fatty holiday meals. One group didn’t exercise — they gained 6 lbs in short order. — And they showed a quick move toward diabetes — their body quickly was far less able to handle the insulin/sugar loads in their blood. Another group exercised 90 minutes a day while they ate — and gained 2-4 lbs or so. Another group exercised BEFORE breakfast — after fasting all night while asleep — and they gained NO weight.
So that seems like that would be a good tip to burning off the holiday blubber: do workouts before breakfast. Maybe even just a quick workout before heading off to work would help do the trick?
The report admits that performance isn’t great (it’s not what an athlete would do to improve speed, etc.), but it burns the fat.
I wonder if a BLEND of the Primal Diet is a bad idea. I haven’t removed as much carb’s as possible — the stuff just keeps popping up. But I no longer lay it on (unless I’ll soon be jamming for hours in the heat). I tend to use fat and protein now for long-lasting energy with some carbs for a hot burn. But I find that if I rely on carbs that I burn thru em right away and bonk even if steadily consuming them. Anyway, I often go for an egg/toast breakfast. I’ll have some taters with a meat/salad meal but don’t go for seconds. So, some carbs, plus protein/fat. Does this approach wreck the goodness of the Primal Diet? Maybe it gives worst of both worlds. ??
In my exercising I’ve tried adding more sprinting and power-work instead of just enduro stuff. The Primal approach challenges enduro exercise, saying it just produces free radicals.
well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/phys-ed-the-benefits-of-exercising-before-breakfast/
well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-memory-and-exercise/
