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Running Lean with Patrick McGilvray

Low-Carb

87. Weight Loss Is Not the Goal

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As a weight loss coach for runners, I work with a lot of people whose main goal is to lose weight. As a runner, they may have put on a few dozen pounds over the years and no matter how many more …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 87 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, weight loss is not the goal. As a weight loss coach, I work with a lot of people whose main goal is to lose weight. So as runners people come to me because they’ve put on a few dozen pounds over the years.

And no matter how many more miles they put in, they just can’t seem to drop those pounds. They want to get back to their natural weight. So they come to me for help reaching that goal. And this all makes perfect sense, right. But once we start working together, I let them in on a little secret. Weight loss is not actually the goal.

What I know, there’s something much bigger at play here, there’s something much more important, a much more important goal that you should be focused on. So in this episode of the podcast, I explained why weight loss is not the goal. And the one thing that you should be focused on instead.

But first, if you like this podcast, you have to come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook. This group goes hand in hand with the podcast, it extends the conversation it gives you a voice. You can ask questions and get answers. You’ll find positivity and encouragement support from a group of like minded people just search for Running Lean community on Facebook, and come and join in all the fun.

And here’s another five star review of the Running Lean podcast. This one’s from Lori Lori says, “A regular dose of encouragement, motivation to eat healthy and be active can easily wane. And this podcast brings all of my goals back into focus for the rest of the week. Each episode leaves me with something to ponder.”

Well, thank you so much for an awesome review, Laurie, and if you want to leave a review, I would so appreciate it, you can share the love. Just scroll down on your podcast listening device. Apple podcasts, tap the stars write a few words.

And right now you can even submit your review on a rate and review post little contest that we’re doing over in the Facebook group. So all you have to do is tap the stars, write a few words, take a screenshot of your review, and then comment on the rate and review post in our Facebook group.

And at the end of the month at the end of August. I’m going to pick one of those reviews and one lucky winner will get free coaching with me. How cool is that? So just go to Apple podcast, tap the stars write a few words, take a screenshot, boom, paste it in the group, you’re done. Okay. And there’s instructions on how to do all that pinned to that post in the group.

And then people ask how can they how can they work with me people come to me they’re like, Patrick, I want to work with you. What do I do? Well, there’s two things, two ways you can work with me number one, the Running Lean coaching group. So all during the month of September. So starting next week, next week is September already you guys by the way.

But next week starting into September, we’re going to be doing the four weeks to fat adapted. And this is going to be the focus for our whole month is fat adapted running, becoming a fat adapted runner, exactly how to do it step by step, which foods to eat, which to avoid the kinds of carbs you should be focusing on the kinds of carbs you should definitely stay away from how to get through that tough transition period without losing your mind.

Basically, I want to teach you step by step how to become the lean, fat burning running machine that you want to be and you’re going to learn the mindset that’s required to make it last for life. So join the group. That’s one way to work with me and just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and you can sign up now and get started.

The other way to work with me is to hire me as your coach you and I can work one on one together and I will show you exactly how to become the healthiest, most badass version of yourself. We’ll put together you know custom plans just specifically just for you. You get one on one coaching with me every week.

And something that you may not know is that when you sign up for one on one coaching with me you also get membership in the Running Lean coaching group. So it’s kind of a two for one So if you want to apply for a one on one coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. That’s it, you want to join the group, just go to Running Lean podcast, comm forward slash join, and for one on one coaching with me runningleanpodcast/com/apply, okay?

Got all that out of the way, let’s talk about weight loss not being the goal, what I know, it’s so funny. I am a weight loss coach. And I’m telling you weight loss is not the goal. And you’re probably like what is happening here. But people come to me all the time, and they want to lose weight, right.

So they have this goal, they want to lose 30 pounds by November 1, you know, they want to run a marathon, they want to be healthy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right. So we put together a plan, they start making changes to their diet, they might change up their running program, they might start doing some weight training, which I highly recommend, by the way.

They start working it things going well, for a while, maybe they, they they’re losing some weight, they’re feeling good about themselves, and then maybe they hit a stall, their weights kind of stalled. This pretty much always happens by the way, okay. And then they get frustrated because their number on that scale is no longer moving the way it was before, their weight loss has become slow or stalled.

And this frustration they feel causes them to act out. And they start eating their feelings and maybe they start gaining more weight, and they become even more frustrated, they start eating their feelings even more. And you understand the cycle here, right, this is not a good place to be. Something else that always happens almost always happens is the stall kind of comes to an end if you just kind of keep going.

And they start losing weight again, but sometimes it takes a few weeks or whatever, okay, but here’s what I’m trying to get to with all this losing weight, it’s not a linear process, you don’t lose, you know, half a pound every day or whatever, yeah, it just does not work that way, it goes up, your weights gonna go up, it’s gonna go down, it’s gonna go up, it’s gonna go down. Obviously, we want to trending in the right direction.

But when you become obsessed with that number on the scale, that obsession will drive you crazy. And if you want to learn more about this whole scale drama stuff, listen to episode number 66 of this podcast eliminating scale drama. And I go into a lot of detail about this. Okay, so I want you to, to do that. If you haven’t listened to that, it’s, it’s really good because it tells you about my feelings on on the scale, what it means how often you should weigh yourself and all that other stuff. Okay.

But here’s the thing, if all you’re focused on is your weight, how many pounds your body weighs? You’re kind of missing the point. And the big secret is that, listen, weight loss is really not the goal. Getting to some arbitrary number on the scale is not what you should be after fitting into those jeans you rock 10 years ago is not your only objective. Although that’s pretty awesome. If you could do that.

So what are we talking about here? What’s the real goal, Patrick? Well, here it is, the real goal is to become the healthiest version of yourself losing weight, you know, getting back to your natural weight, whatever that is for you. That’s a side effect of becoming healthy. It’s secondary.

But most people have this backward. They think that, you know, they need to lose weight to get healthy. But it’s the other way around, you become healthy, and then the weight comes off. You stopped putting a bunch of crap into your body and your body responds, inflammation disappears, your hormones get back in line, blood sugar and insulin levels become normal, you start feeling better, you’re not hungry all the time, you start sleeping better, you no longer feel stressed out about everything, you’re you have tons of energy running becomes easier, your cravings for sugar go away.

And you seem to be able to think more clearly all of these changes in your body start happening. And then as a result of all these good changes happening in your body becoming healthier, then you start burning fat like crazy, then the weight starts to drop off. Alright.

And remember, we store body fat when we have when we’re taking in all this extra energy usually in the form of sugar in our body can only use so much of that energy and the rest of it gets stored away to be used later. But later never comes where we’re always storing fat. We’re really good at storing fat, we’re just not really good at burning the fat, okay?

So, we’re really good at storing and storing and storing fat. We want to be good at burning and burning the fat, right but all these other things have to happen in order for you get your body into that fat burning mode in order for the weight to start coming off. Okay, so you get your body healthy first and then you start losing the weight making sense. So it’s less about the number on the scale. And it’s more about becoming the healthiest human being possible.

So I’ve said this before, and I want to go on to explain this a little bit more your health, it’s not a destination, it’s not some, there’s no finish line, it’s not some place you’re trying to get to. It’s a way of life. Health, your health is not a destination, it’s a way of life. You will always need to be mindful of what foods you’re putting into your body. You know, just because you hit your goal weight, doesn’t mean you’re done. You got to keep eating healthy foods forever.

People ask me all the time, okay, so I’ve been eating great. I’ve lost almost all my weight. So I’m almost at my goal weight. Now, when I get to my goal weight, what do I do differently? And the answer is basically, nothing like you pretty much keep doing the same thing. If you’re eating healthy today, why would you stop eating healthy when you get to some number on the scale?

You know, what got you here is what’s going to keep you hear eating real food, healthy, nutrient dense food that does not cause you to gain weight. That’s what you want to keep doing. Why would you want to go back to doing something that that got you unhealthy and overweight in the first place?

You know, you’re always going to need to do some sort of resistance training, some sort of strength training in order to maintain your muscle mass, especially as you get older. Interestingly, a major cause of injury and death in older people is falling down. And here’s a quote from this is crazy. It’s from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. There’s a report for you.

Oh, yeah, it’s the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. There’s some cheerful reading right there. But anyway, here’s what they say every second of every day in the United States, an older adult falls down, making falls the number one cause of injuries and deaths from injury among older Americans.

In 2014 alone, older Americans experienced 29 million falls, causing 7 million injuries and costing an estimated $31 billion in annual Medicare costs. This is crazy. And really, the the reason these people are falling down is because they just keep losing their muscle mass is called sarcopenia.

And as you get older, most people, they lose their muscle mass and they become weaker and weaker and weaker, and they can’t even stand up anymore. And when they fall, they break a hip, then they become bedridden, and then leads to escalated death to a faster death. We don’t want that.

Okay, so we want to continue to stay strong. Not only do we have to be mindful of our food intake, as we, you know, as we keep going through our life, we want to always eat healthy, we always want to be doing some sort of resistance resistance training so that we stay strong, right, we don’t stop because we get to some goal weight, or because we hit some sort of body fat percentage, or whatever we keep going right.

You’re always going to have to, you know, stay with some sort of cardiovascular exercise to you’re always going to want to walk or run or do some swimming or whatever it is that you like to do. You know, you don’t stop running just because you lost 30 pounds, you keep running because running is good for you. It’s good for for your physical, mental and emotional health.

When you run, you know, you release endorphins and serotonin, these are chemicals in your brain that actually improve your mood. So running regularly, improves your mental health. Running also improves your memory and your ability to learn. So running helps you to reduce stress, reduce depression, reduce anxiety, and I don’t know about you, but I want to continue to keep running and to have all these good things in my life.

I want to continue to feel good. I want to continue to improve my mental and emotional health. These are some of the many many reasons why I love running so much. Right? Running just feels good, right? So these are things that we want to just continue doing. We want to continue eating right, doing some sort of strength training and continue doing some sort of exercise in you just have to accept that becoming healthy and and living a healthy life that this is just your new way of life.

And until you accept this fundamental truth, you’re going to be kind of unhappy and frustrated. Because if you’re expecting to like lose 30 pounds by a certain date and you don’t hit that goal, then you know, it doesn’t really matter. If you’re committed to this as a way of life, it doesn’t matter. When you’re committed to the process of becoming healthier as a way of life, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, you’re just you’re all in and you’re good to go.

Right, you have to commit to this to becoming healthy, as a as a lifestyle, it’s a full time gig, it has to become just a part of who you are and what you do, you have to be all in forever. And this is not bad news. When you when you’re committed to this for life, it actually, it’s a good news, it gives you an opportunity to learn a lot about yourself.

So the longer you stick to something like this, like being healthy. The more you learn about yourself, like the more you grow internally, because as you know, the way you learn and the way you grow is you have to face and overcome challenges. And all kinds of challenging stuff will come up for you I promise, the longer you are committed to eating healthy, for example, the longer emotional and mental and emotional things are going to come up for you people are going to judge you, people are going to say things to you, you’re going to feel like you’re missing out on something, you’re going to feel sorry for yourself, you’re going to get frustrated, you’re going to get angry, you’re going to want to quit, you’re going to feel like a failure, all these things are going to come up for you.

When you embark on an epic journey like becoming, you know, a healthy person for the rest of your life, like this stuff is all going to come up for you. But again, this is not bad news, this is the good news. Because when these things come up, then you can deal with them. You can learn how to navigate these things, you can learn how to overcome all of these challenges. And when you do that, then you become a mental and emotional badass, it’s totally worth it. It’s totally worth it to to face all of these challenges, okay?

So it’s not so much about the goal. It’s about who you become in the process of going for the goal. And I love goals. I love big impossible goals, especially, you know, if there’s something that seems impossible for you right now, like for some of you, it may be like running a marathon, like that’s something you want to do. But it seems impossible for you, or losing 50 pounds or 100 pounds, it may seem impossible for you right now.

But here’s the thing, it’s impossible for you now, because who you are today, can’t do that. Who you are today, you’re not the person that can achieve that goal today. But here’s the cool thing. When you set out to achieve an impossible goal like that, you become a different person in the process of going after it. You change. You learn new things, you develop new habits you grow, and you become more. And honestly, this is the real goal.

The real goal is to always become more and I talk about this a lot I talk about becoming more I want to explain what I mean by that. What is more, and how will you know when you get there. This is exactly what I’m talking about here in regards to losing weight. The goal is not a number, but a way of life. Right? So becoming more, at least for me, it means I’m always learning. I’m always growing, I’m growing mentally, I’m growing emotionally, I’m always becoming stronger.

My body is becoming stronger, my muscles are becoming stronger and bigger. My mind is becoming stronger. I’m always becoming more of me and becoming more of who I am. And becoming more of who I am authentically and becoming more of myself. And this seems pretty basic, right? Just be yourself. People say be yourself. But it’s kind of harder to do then than it sounds on the surface. Like what does it mean to be yourself?

So for me becoming more of myself, it means really not giving a rip what other people think of me. Becoming more of myself means not judging myself, and not judging others. Not comparing myself to others. Not being afraid to feel any emotion. Not beating myself up when I fail to reach a goal. Becoming more for me, it’s a life long suit. It’s a lifelong pursuit of trying to answer this question. Who the hell are you? And here’s the thing, this pursuit it never ends.

Just like becoming healthy is not a destination but a way of life. It’s the same with just becoming more in general. It’s not a destination. It’s always a moving target. And that’s okay. See, for me, I’m committed to learning and growing every single day for the rest of my life, when I stopped learning and growing and becoming more, that’s when I’m just gonna die. Okay?

And I don’t want you to think of this as being overwhelming because when we start thinking about things forever, like, geez, Patrick, I had to do this forever. Does that mean like, I can never eat a piece of cake ever again? Does that mean I could never ever take a break from running again. And of course, it doesn’t mean that at all. Just don’t get caught up in the forever part of this. Just do what you can today.

There’s a saying in 12 Step programs, one day at a time, just take it one day at a time. It’s not a forever deal. I love this little concept. It’s it’s so simple, but so powerful one day at a time, just focus on today. What real food will I eat today? What strength exercise am I doing today? How far am I running today? Don’t worry about tomorrow, worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. Today is about today. Okay, one day at a time. Don’t get too caught up in this forever thing.

But just know that there isn’t a goal, there isn’t a finish line, there isn’t a destination we’re trying to get to hear. Okay. The bottom line here is that your health is on going something that you have to be committed to for the long haul. And that’s good. This is good. If you’re committed to this for life, then you know that you’re going to be so much happier because this is just who you are and what you do.

But if you’re not committed to it for life, if you’re like, Well, I’m just going to get healthy, I’m going to get healthy. When I reach some number on the scale that I’m going to stop, then I’m promise you, you’re going to come to a place where you begin to become unhealthy, you begin to become overweight, you might begin to become sick. And then you’re going to have to like do it again. Does this sound familiar?

So many people do this, they call it the yo yo dieting, you know they they get healthy, then they get unhealthy. You know, they they lose weight, then they gain it back again. And this is a never ending cycle for some people. I don’t want that. I’ve done that before. I’ve gained and lost weight many times. And the last time I lost, you know, I started to gain weight again, and I lost about 40 pounds. I was like, this is the last time I’m doing this.

And so far, it’s been amazing. I don’t have to worry about anymore because I’m committed. This is who I am now. This is who I am. This is what I do. I would say just stay committed to your health and your fitness. You don’t have to worry about that happening. Okay. So I prefer to just stay committed, because this is what I do now.

And in my past, I used to be a wreck, I was overweight, I was sick, I was unhealthy. I smoked a pack of cigarettes every day, I drank 8-12 beers every single day, I couldn’t run to the end of a block if I tried. This wasn’t that long ago, this is like 20 years ago, like 2003. And I made that decision almost 20 years ago that I was never going to live my life that way again.

And of course, there’s been ups and downs during that process. And I you know, got healthy and got unhealthy again and all that. But here’s the thing, I wanted to be around for my two boys. I wanted to see them grow up and become men. Now my oldest son, Jack, he’s married and hee has a one year old. Oh my god, cutest little grandbaby in the world.

And you think I want to quit what I’m doing now? Hell no, I want to be around for a long time. I want to keep becoming more I want to see my kids become more. I want to see my grandkids grow up and become more.

And I want that for you to I want to see you become more. And I truly hope that that’s what you want for yourself as well. So let’s not focus on the number on the scale. Let’s focus on becoming the best and most badass version of ourselves. We owe that to ourselves. All right.

Well, that’s all I got for you today. Remember September is fat adaptation month over in the Running Lean coaching group four weeks to fat adapted. learn exactly how to become a lean fat burning running machine become the healthiest version of yourself yet and learn the mindset you need to make it last. Just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join. I really hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, please consider sharing it with a friend I love you all keep on Running Lean. Talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

84. Fueling Strategies for Low-Carb Running

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Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to fuel your runs as a low-carb runner. It might be because we’re back in marathon season and your runs are starting to get longer. I …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 84 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today we’re going to be talking about fueling strategies for low carb running. Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how to fuel your runs as a low carb runner. And that might be because, you know, all of a sudden we’re back in Marathon season, I know, where does the time go?

And maybe our runs are starting to get longer. I think it’s partly that. And I also think there’s some fear around this idea of like, I’m just afraid I’m going to bonk when I get up into these higher mileage runs.

And so, you know, and I get that totally because I was also very skeptical about fueling for these longer runs without using carbs without carb loading the days before a run and without using gels during a run.

Because that’s just the way I did it for like the first 15 years or so of my running. And it kind of worked, you know, and so I was thinking there’s just no other way to do this, right? Well, today, I’m here to tell you that there is another way.

And I’m going to share my thoughts and my experience around this topic, and offer up several different fueling strategies that you can try if you want to, you know, perform at your best as a low carb runner.

And I’m hoping by the end of this episode, you feel a little less fearful about those long runs and feel a little more confident about this low carb approach to running this fat adapted approach to running Cool.

Alright, so if you’d like this podcast, please come check out the Running Lean community on Facebook. This is a group that goes hand in hand with the podcast. It gives you a chance to ask questions and feel supported. It’s a fun, positive group of runners just search for Running Lean community on Facebook, and join us we’re always doing fun stuff over there. So come check us out.

And here’s a recent five star review of the Running Lean podcast actually, I’m like, this is not recent. This is from awhile back. But I just found this I just saw this review and I was like, Oh, this is cool. I need to share this.

And this is from SBerger2020. And this person writes, “Running motivator with great info. I love listening to this podcast, I’m training for a triathlon and I couldn’t be happier with the topics to achieve those goals. Plus, I get lean in the process. Thank you for putting the amount of effort you do on this podcast, Patrick.”

Well, you’re welcome. And hey, if you ever want to share a little love, and you enjoy the podcast, it’s simple. All you got to do is open up Apple podcasts, you know, find the Running Lean podcast, scroll down, tap the stars leave a few comments. And that would mean the world to me would love that.

And just so you guys know the Running Lean coaching group is open. And this is a fun group of people. We’re all working towards similar goals. We’re trying to lose weight, improve our health, improve our running performance, become that badass person that we’ve always wanted to be and learn how to make it last.

Alright, so this is a monthly membership program. So you can you can join us any time. When you’re ready. I want this to be available for you. It’s always there for you when you are ready. So come and join us. You get the weight loss training course for runners. That’s a self paced online program that you can go through also another self paced program is the achieving the impossible course about goal setting, creating an extraordinary life by going after unrealistic goals.

We do weekly live coaching calls via zoom. So we do a big group zoom once a week. And you get the support and encouragement of people that are doing very similar things that you’re doing all right. Most importantly though, you get accountability.

We’re gonna like check in on you and see if you’re sticking to your plan. See if you’re moving towards your goals, we want to help you stay on track. So this is a big big part of what we do in the group. Okay.

I also have a private members only Facebook group that goes along with this and we we do some some coaching and training and teaching in there as well. And this month, August we’re talking about the thought, feeling, action pattern. These things that sometimes they keep us stuck. You know, we don’t even know we’re doing it, but we have these thought feeling action patterns that are responsible for either moving us closer to our goals or moving us further away.

And we need to learn how to harness the power of our own thoughts and feelings so that we can do what we want to do. And we can start achieving the things that we want to achieve, whether it’s weight loss, or big running goals, whatever it is for you. We want to help you get there.

And understanding your thoughts, feelings and actions and learning how to control that stuff is key, it’s key. So come and join us just if you want more information, you can look it up at runningleanpodcast.com/join.

Okay, let’s talk about fueling strategies for low carb running. So if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that I talk a lot about how awesome it is to be a fat adapted runner. Right? So fat adapted running just means you have changed your main source of fuel from sugar to fat, you know, you’re not burning carbs for energy, as much, we always are burning some glucose or glycogen for energy, we’re always burning some fat for energy.

But the ratios are much different when you’re fat adapted, much higher, burning much more fat. So some of the benefits of becoming a fat adapted runner, you have, basically the hunger issue goes away, right, you’re just no longer hungry all the time, no GI distress.

When you’re running, you become bonk proof, you can basically feel like you can run all day, and I’ve done up to eight hours of straight running without any fuel at all. So I can attest that, you know, now I haven’t gone 24 hours or anything like that.

But you know, you just feel like you can just keep going, it’s amazing. You always have plenty of fuel onboard, you know, you’re carrying around your own fuel source, you’re burning your own body fat, which is amazing. So you don’t have to carry fuel with you don’t have to carry all the gels and goos and blocks and all that other stuff or, or like pizzas or hoagies, whatever you take with you on your long runs, people take all kinds of stuff.

Some other benefits is obviously you’re burning fat. So you you tend to lose weight much more efficiently than if you’re eating a bunch of sugar and stuff like that. You have better focus and concentration you can like perform better when you’re out there running, you can think more clearly. And running is just easier. Okay.

But I think there’s a misconception that you always have to do your runs on fuel because I’ve talked a few times I’ve you know, talked on the podcast here about doing a marathon or a 50k on fuel. And I just want you to know that we don’t have to do everything on fuel. That’s not like necessarily the optimal way to go for everybody. Okay.

So when we talk about running sans fuel we’re kind of talking about running in the fasted state. So what does this mean? Why? Why do we? Well, you know, why would we run in the fasted state? Well, the fasted state just means you haven’t had any food, or, or quote unquote, fuel for, you know, 12 hours or so. Right?

In the definition of fasted could be different for different people. But that’s kind of the general rule of it. So when I say I’m running faster, that means I had dinner the night before I wake up in the morning, I might have some coffee, and then I go for a run. That’s what I mean by running in the fasted state. So it might be 8 or 10 hours. Usually, it’s about 10 to 12 hours of having no food. Alright, so that’s what we mean by running in the fasted state.

But why would we do this like Why run in that fasted state? Well, there’s a lots of reasons why we do this, it helps to boost your fat burning. So just being in that fasted state will lower your blood sugar and lowers your insulin, which will increase fat burning. So you you can burn fat more efficiently when you’re fasted as opposed to having fuel.

You produce alternative fuel sources like ketones while you’re in that fasted state and ketones you can use as fuel on we’re going to talk about that later on here today. You actually get an increase of energy when fasting people think you like you have a loss of energy but you don’t you you get a you produce more adrenaline, you have more energy, not less, you can actually train harder.

You can have more intense workouts you can run harder, so you don’t lose energy actually get an increase of energy, which is kind of cool. Running in the fasted state helps to decrease inflammation. So sugar, and specifically insulin is very pro inflammatory.

And if you want any proof of this, just like, if you’re doing like pretty low carb, just eat a bunch of sugar, and watch the scale go up the next day, like three pounds, I did this recently, I ate a bunch of carbs. And I gained three pounds over the course of a day and a half, basically.

So when we eat sugar, it raises our blood sugar insulin gets raised in, try to bring that blood sugar down. And insulin is very pro inflammatory. So you can actually decrease inflammation, which is a good thing when you’re running, you know, especially if you’re doing long distance type of running, right.

So you get a decrease in inflammation when you’re running in the fasted state, you get more growth hormone produced when you’re running in the fasted state. Which growth hormone is awesome, because it helps to increase bone density helps to increase muscle mass and helps you to recover faster from these longer harder workouts.

So fasting, basically, you know, running in the fasted state allows you to train harder, recover faster, it speeds up the fat adaptation process. So if you’re trying to become fat adapted, if you’re making that transition to from being like more of a sugar burner to being a fat burner, then one of the keys to fat adaptation is like you’ve got to force your body to start using your own body fat for fuel.

And one of the best ways to do this is just not eat anything at all and then go run. That way your body like it will use up whatever glucose is available, whatever glycogen is available. And then it’ll have to like go into your fat stores, or the stored body fat for fuel, which is cool, right?

Because this process of switching from burning, you know, glycogen mostly, or glucose to fat, it takes several weeks, you know, the fat adaptation processes is not super simple. It’s like uncomfortable. But when you’re running fasted, it actually helps to speed up the process, right? It helps helps to shorten the uncomfortable adaptation period. So anyway, there’s all these amazing benefits of running in the fasted state.

But do you have to do all your runs fasted? And the answer is no, you don’t. And there’s different ways that you can fuel for running, you could just go to sugar, you could just go like eat goos and carb load and you know, do your Fettuccine Alfredo the night before, or whatever it is. But that is not recommended. Because you’re going to like totally throw off your whole fat adaptation game when you do that.

Okay, so we want to think of alternative fuel sources, right? And so here’s something I want you to consider, like, when should you think about fueling for your run? So I think you can do a lot of your runs on fuels and I think you should, I think it’s very, you know, advantageous to do that. To do a lot of your runs in that fasted state, because you’re going to tap into a lot of natural processes that your body has, you know, that fat adaptation, the fat burning, the growth hormone, the adrenaline, all those things, take advantage of that stuff. Why not?

But there’s times when you might want to think about fueling for your runs. Okay. And so when when should you think about fueling for your run? So of course, that depends on you and your goals, as everything it depends, right. So, you know, I’ve done two marathons and a 50k, within the last nine months or so, totally unfueled.

And, like, is this the way everybody should do it all the time? I don’t know. Maybe you could try it. Maybe not. This season we just started marathon training, you know, one or two months or so ago. So for this upcoming marathon in October, I’m practicing with some different fueling strategy. So I want to try something different.

And I want to try some different fuels. And this is kind of why I’m talking about this today, because it’s very much on my mind, I’m experimenting with all these cool things right now. So back to the question like when should you start thinking about a fueling strategy for running?

Let me I’m going to go into a higher level really quickly here. I want to look at a higher level of fat adaptation and then I’ll come back to this question. I’m not doing this on purpose. I’m just trying to like I want to make sure we understand what we mean when we talk about being fat adapted, okay.

When you’re fat adapted, you’re much more efficient at using fat for fuel. Alright, we’re always burning, both glucose and fat. We’re always burning some glucose or glycogen, glycogen is just glucose that’s stored in your muscles. And it can be used by your muscles directly within the muscle that it’s stored in, okay?

And so we’re always burning some glucose and fat, but the ratios change, when you’re fat adapted, you’re definitely gonna be burning more fat more efficiently. Your body produces plenty of glucose on its own, to fuel your muscles while you’re running, even at higher intensities.

And there’s this kind of myth out there that like, well, if you want to run faster, you have to use carbohydrate as fuel. And you don’t. I mean, this is like old school thinking. And you know, it does work. If you’re carb adapted, you can definitely use carbohydrates for more intense intensities of running. But you don’t have to do that.

So there’s been some studies done. And the one that kind of comes to mind is this faster study was done a few years back. And they showed that. So they had two different groups, they had a low carb group of athletes and a high carb group of athletes. So they were this group of ultra endurance athletes that were, you know, some of them had been on a high carb diet for many years, and some of them have been on a low carb diet for many years.

And they noticed that in the low carb group, you know, the peak fat oxidase oxide, oh my gosh, the peak fat oxidation was 2.3 fold higher than it was in the high carb group. Okay. So basically, what they’re saying is, the people in the low carb group were burning 2.3 times more fat more efficiently than the high carb group. Okay.

Basically, the conclusion of the study is this compared to highly trained ultra endurance athletes consuming a high carb diet, the long term fat adaptation results in extraordinarily high rates of fat oxidation, whereas muscle glycogen utilization and repletion patterns during and after a three hour run are similar. So that was the conclusion.

And basically, what it means is this: even elite Ultra marathoners who were running hard for three hours, you know, the low carb and the high carb performances were very similar. And my takeaway is that you can absolutely run faster and run harder, and you don’t need to carb load and suck down all the gels to do it, you can do it as a fat adapted athlete. Okay.

So the main thing that I want you to take away from this right here is that, you got to understand that when you’re fat adapted, and you eat a bunch of sugar, or carbs, all of that fat burning is put on hold while you’re metabolizing, the carbohydrate load. This is very important to understand.

And I talk to weight loss clients about this all the time, who are like, oh, you know, I just want to like, you know, eat some sugar and eat some carbs is that okay if I do that every now and then? I’m like, I’m not recommended because when you’re metabolizing, the carbohydrate load, all the fat burning is being put on hold. Right.

So as a fat adapted runner, I don’t want to fuel with carbs because it shuts down this very efficient fat burning engine that I’ve worked so hard to build, maintain. So today, my body’s running like a clean burning Tesla engine. And adding carbs into the mix is like putting gas into that Tesla motor, just it doesn’t work, it’s gonna cause all kinds of issues, it’s just totally not going to work at all.

Okay, so getting back to the question at hand, when should you start thinking about fueling your runs? So now that you understand why you want to stay fat adapted and take advantage of that clean burning engine source, that clean burning fat burning engine that we’re talking about? Let’s talk about fuel.

I suggest just as a general rule that you do most of your runs fasted up to a certain point. So what point is that only you can answer that and I want to encourage you to do a little experimenting with this and test the waters in push yourself and see what you’re capable of.

Go longer and longer without fuel. What is that going to be for you? 12 miles? 14? 16? 18? I don’t know. But figure it out. I think it’d be super fun to try.

You can always take something with you in case you need it. And I’m gonna give you some suggestions on that in a second here, but, but I want you to see what you’re capable of, I want you to see what it’s what it’s like to run for 12 or 16 miles, without any fuel at all, and see, you know how that feels for you as an individual?

And if you like that feeling, why not just keep it going? Do you know what I mean? Like, why not just take advantage of that if it works pretty well for you, okay. And I find that when I’m running fasted when I’m running without fuel, and I get to like mile 12, or so I actually feel like I have more energy, like my energy levels begin to increase, because the longer I’m out there, the more efficient my body is, is burning fat. And why wouldn’t I want to keep that going?

You know, when I see other people around me, if we’re doing a 20 mile run, and I get to mile 12 or 14, other people are starting to fade, their energy is like starting to decrease. Mine is increasing. I mean, it’s not like I can sprint all of the sudden, running is still hard. Okay, but I feel like I just have plenty of juice, and I can just keep going plenty of gas in the tank, I can just keep going.

Okay, so what is that right distance for you? Only you can figure that out. But I want to encourage you to try it and figure it out and see how long you can go without fueling yourself. But fueling is definitely an option. So let’s get into this a little bit here.

One of the things I need to say before we get into like what types of fuel to try, you have to practice these fueling strategies before your race, right? Nothing new on race day. That is our mantra when it comes to long distance running. We never do anything new on race day. I learned this the hard way.

During my very first marathon back in geez, was it 1990 or 2006? I ran my first marathon and I had heard somebody talk about, you know, having like caffeine during their marathon and it helped them. It gave them a boost of energy. And sugar was good, you know? And I was thinking, hmm, I think I was at Starbucks or something.

And I saw this like package of chocolate covered espresso beans. And I thought, well, that’s perfect. I’ll just take these with me on my marathon. This could be awesome. So I stuck a bunch of these chocolate covered coffee beans in a baggie. I put them in my pocket. I had never tried this during a run before. Okay.

And so I’m out there running. I don’t know I got to mile, I was at about 14. And I’m like, Oh, I’m gonna try a little energy here. So I reached into my pocket I grabbed this baggie of these coffee beans. Okay, first of all, they had totally melted like the chocolate was just all over the place. It was a huge mess. And I couldn’t even like stick my fingers in there without like getting totally messy.

So I’m like, trying to like dig the coffee beans out of the plastic bag with like my tongue, like shoving this bag in my mouth trying to get these coffee beans. So I eat a bunch of these. Now melted chocolate drenched coffee beans. And I started chewing on these things.

And I just started coughing like crazy because all those little bits of coffee beans got like stuck in my throat. And were super irritating to my throat and I went into this coughing fit for like the next couple of miles. It was horrible. And I honestly don’t think I got any kind of benefit from doing this. But this was just a good experiment. And a good lesson for me of like, don’t do anything new on race day.

Had I tried this in a training run, it would have been super clear that this is a stupid idea. Okay. But instead I was just like, Oh, what the hell, let’s give it a shot, you know? So that was a terrible idea. Okay.

But anyway, you want to make sure that you’re practicing, you know, your fueling strategy several times before your race. And I suggest trying a few different options here from some of the stuff I’m going to talk about here, try a few different things and see what works best for you.

Okay, so with this in mind, you may want to pick a distance like any run over like 15 miles, you know, or 12 miles, whatever it is, pick a distance and then just start practicing your fueling plan on these longer runs. Alright, because the only way you’re going to know what works for you is if you try some things, okay? There’s no right or wrong way to do it.

Find something that works for you. Try it a few times on these longer runs. And then you know, just go with that, you know, then you know that it’ll work for you on race day. Okay. So for me, I’m trying a bunch of different fueling strategies right now. So I’m trying on on anything like 10 miles and over, just to see like, hey, what works, what doesn’t and so far I’ve had some pretty good results.

So some of the options I’m going to talk about here, some of the different products and fuel options, and I’m going to talk about some of the criteria for me is that I want to make sure that I maintain fat burning as much as possible, because I want to take advantage of that I don’t want anything that’s going to shut down the fat burning engine while I’m running.

Okay, so I’m very careful about which fuels I’m choosing and the ones that I’m sharing with you today are the ones that I know are, are not going to shut down that fat burning process. Okay, so some of the things I’m looking for, make sure there’s no sugar in there, make sure there’s no weird ingredients, I want to make sure that this product will at least maintain or improve that burning.

Some of these actually help you improve that burning, which is cool. You’ve got to be able to take them with you on your runs. Some are better than others from that perspective. They have to taste good. And they have to have been like field tested like things that have been around for a while they’ve been proven to work. So let’s get into this.

Here are some fueling strategies for low carb burning. The first one that I love and I use this all the time is MCT oil. MCT oil is medium chain triglycerides. And these are naturally occurring fats that are found in things like coconut oil and palm oil. MCT oil itself is typically made from coconut oil, and this is the one you want to use right.

Don’t use stray coconut oil because that also contains the long chain triglycerides, we want to stick with the medium chain triglycerides because these are more readily available as fuel. Okay. MCT’s behave differently compared to LCT’s. So instead of having to be broken down and digested by the body, the MCT’s are sent directly from the gut to the liver, where they can be used as a source of energy by the body. Or sometimes they’re quickly turned into ketones ketones is another type of fuel I’m going to talk about in a minute.

But because of this fast turnaround, the calories from MCT are less likely to be stored as fat so you’re not storing the fat from the MCT you’re actually using it as energy. So MCT’s have been around forever. People use these all the time for mental clarity, your brain loves MCT’s as a fuel source.

And some of the benefits of using MCT’s for running is that helps to improve energy output. So they’ve done some studies that show that consuming MCT’s pre workout maybe 30 to 45 minutes before a workout can help people increase their total energy output during the training. MCT has helped to increase fat burning. So they’ve done some research. And they suggest that fatty acids like MCT oil as a pre workout fuel, give you you know a little bit more bang for your buck from a fat burning perspective.

So they they did this study where they actually took cyclists and cyclists were actually able to easily tap into fat as a fuel source while maintaining a high level of performance output. And once they were fat adapted their bodies were able to burn fat as a cleaner source of fuel kind of like what I was talking about earlier, without having to tap into muscle glycogen.

So it actually helps to, you know, spare muscle glycogen meaning that you you’re going to have more muscle glycogen available for longer periods of time. Another benefit of using MCT oil is that helps to reduce lactate buildup in athletes. So during exercise, you know rising lactate levels can negatively impact your your performance right?

MCT may help to reduce lactate buildup. So they did this study where they took athletes who took about a teaspoon and a half of MCT with food before cycling and they had lower lactate levels and found it easier to exercise compared with people taking long chain triglycerides. So pretty interesting stuff.

But definitely you’re going to notice an energy performance. I use MCT oil every day I just add a little bit to my coffee in the morning and it gives me energy for hours. So how to use MCT is like one to two tablespoons around 30 minutes before a workout is recommended. But here’s the thing with MCT is you’ve got to build up to that.

Because they can be a little bit harsh on your gut, like some people have stomach issues, when they first start doing MCT oil. So start with like a teaspoon a day, and then work your way up to a tablespoon or two. And the the energy boosts that you get from MCT oils lasts for several hours.

So if you’re out there running, you know, 15 miles or so you probably don’t need to re-up your MCT intake. But if you’re going to do a marathon, or anything that’s going to be longer than that every two to three hours, you can do another tablespoon or two of MCT oil. So there’s a very clean source of fuel directly just gives you energy without, you know, a bunch of calories and stomach issues and all that other stuff. So experiment with it. Try it this is a good is a good, very well proven fuel strategy for low carb burners.

Another thing that I’ve tried in the past and have had some pretty good luck with is just something very natural, it’s nut butter. So there’s a brand called Justin’s.And Justin’s makes these little packets of nut butter, you can find these in the grocery store, they’re in the same aisle with all the peanut butter and almond butter and stuff like that.

And the packets are cool, you can take them on a run just like you would a gel packet, okay. But here’s what they do, they give you fat and protein. So the fat gives you some energy, right. So you can actually your body can actually make energy from the fat that you eat, as well as your stored body fat.

So the fat that you eat, and that becomes, you know, metabolized is called free fatty acids. And you can actually derive energy from fat as you consume it, which is awesome, especially if you’re a fat adapted athlete, you’re much more efficient at burning fat in general, you can derive fat energy from these free fatty acids very easily.

And then protein. Protein helps to prevent muscle breakdown during endurance activities, it helps to boost glycogen storage. So your body you know, glycogen is is glucose that your body is storing in muscles. Protein helps to increase the glycogen storage. And it helps to reduce muscle soreness and promote muscle repair. So during long distance activities, fat and protein are recommended.

As you know, fuel sources to help support muscles help you to feel less sore help you to promote muscle repair, glycogen storage, and then the fat gives you the energy. Okay, so in a little packet of the Justin’s almond butter, for example, there’s 19 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, and then a few grams of carbs, like 5 grams of carbs, and that’s from almonds.

And they also make a peanut butter as well. Just make sure that when you guys are using something like this to check the ingredients because most peanut butters or almond butters – and Justin’s especially has a bunch of different flavors, they all have sugar in them. So you want to just go for the classic almond, or classic peanut butter packets and those don’t have any sugar in them at all, there’s a couple of carbs from the from the nuts, but that’s about it.

So how to use nut butter, just take one packet every, you know, take one about 30 to 45 minutes before your workout or your long run and then once every 60 minutes or so. So I used these during a 50k a few years back, I use just a few packs of this almond butter. And I really didn’t need very many of these things. A few of them was okay.

Here’s the thing with these things you got. It’s not like a gel like it’s not super thin. It’s very thick. It’s not super easy to get down. Like to get them out of these packets and actually get them down. Like it requires a little bit of effort. I had to like stop and like, yeah, like it’s almost like you’re chewing the peanut butter or the almond butter. You know, it’s like a lot thicker than you would expect it to be. So this is one of those things where you definitely want to experiment with it. But it’s a great option for sure because it gives you that fat and protein for fuel.

Alright, another fuel option would be using exogenous ketones. So what are we talking about here? So ketones are little bundles of fuel that your body makes when you burn fat, right? We’re all producing ketones all the time. Everybody is like if you’re burning fat, you’re producing some ketones, okay, and just some people burn more when you’re fat adapted, it means you’re probably producing more ketones, which is fine like you, you know, this is a good source of, of energy for your body and for your brain.

So on a standard diet, when you’re eating a lot of sugar, your cells will use, you know, glucose for energy. But if you’re eating a low carb diet, you know, you’re keeping your carbs low enough. So your body, you know, you don’t have a lot of that glucose to use for energy, you know, you’re going to burn more fat as your main energy source. And this is what it means to be fat adapted.

So when you’re fat adapted, your liver actually breaks that down into ketone bodies, and then sends those ketone bodies through your bloodstream to fuel your cells. Okay? There’s three main ketone bodies that your liver makes when it breaks down fat.

The first is beta, beta hydroxy butyrate, BHB. The second is acetyl acetate. And the third is acetone. Acetone is actually created as a byproduct of acetyl acetate. But let’s not talk about those second two, we’re just kind of focused on BHB beta hydroxy butyrate.

So when you burn fat, you generate BHB. And that leads to the creation of ATP through the Krebs cycle. And this gives you energy, right, so just what you just need to know about this is that being fat adapted means you’re probably producing some BHB. And you’re getting energy from that, okay?

ATP is an energy source, adenosine triphosphate. This is a high energy molecule that your body stores for use as energy. But your body can only use a very limited amount of ATP. This is like used for explosive things that you can do for maybe 10 or 30 seconds total. And so for longer distance activities like running, you need a different source of fuel.

So when you run out of ATP, your body can use energy from glycogen circulating glucose free fatty acids. In this case, we’re talking about BHB or ketones, okay? So when you take exogenous ketones, exogenous – this means you’re getting them from outside your body. Endogenous would mean you’re creating them yourself.

But we’re talking about taking exogenous ketones, your your body can actually use that energy immediately, which is super cool. It doesn’t have to like go through a process of, you know, digesting and all these other things, right. So when it comes to endurance exercise performance, exogenous ketones will give you long lasting energy.

And it has a couple of other benefits too, which is that helps to increase your mental clarity and focus helps you to burn more fat more efficiently, decreases hunger and decreases inflammation. So I’ve been experimenting with exogenous ketones, and I have to tell you, I love them. I love taking these things. How to do it, well take a scoop of these, like it’s just a mix, you mix into water, or I mix it into a protein drink or something like that. Take it about 30 to 45 minutes before a workout, and then they suggest maybe a half a scoop for each additional hour.

So you know if you’re doing an ultra or or you know, you want to do a competitive marathon, you want to run fast. You know, another half a scoop each hour that you’re out there running is is perfect. So you don’t have to do a ton. There’s two types of ketones, exogenous ketones, there’s ketone salts and ketone esters.

And here’s the difference. So ketone salts is BHB is attached to a mineral. So it’s like sodium, potassium and magnesium. They’re longer lasting than ketone esters. They’re less potent, but they last longer. And they you can actually you can tolerate the taste of them. Okay? Ketone esters are attached to an alcohol molecule. They’re shorter lasting, they’re more potent, but apparently, the taste is almost unbearable.

The main difference between the two is the duration. So ketone esters give you a shorter, larger like spike in ketones while the ketone salts give you a longer lasting more moderate spike. Ketone esters apparently are terrible, like really terrible, and I’m just not even bothered trying them.

The ketone salts that I’ve tried, they last longer, they taste fine. They’re more it’s like the one you’ll find if you go if you just do a little search on Amazon or something for exogenous ketones, most of what you’re gonna see is ketone salts. Just try to avoid the ketone esters, I don’t think you’d like that too much.

Another source of fuel that, and this has kind of been my go to for my low carb running these days, which is s-fuels. So s-fuels is a product that’s made for people like you and me who are long distance endurance athletes who like are trying to do the low carb thing, you know, they understand exactly where we’re coming from.

And so they’ve created products that help us to, you know, maintain fat burning, enhanced fat burning for long distance events. So, they have two different products. One is called Train and the other is called Race Plus. And the Train product is for athletes who, you know, are doing, it’s a little bit lower intensity.

So this is this is good for the everyday runner who’s out there doing training runs, or even if you’re doing a, you know, lower intensity marathon race or long distance event be perfectly fine for you. Okay.

The main ingredients here, they use collagen peptides is protein MCT. So there’s MCT oil in this product. There’s l glutamine, which is an amino acid. So this is one of the building blocks of protein. And it has electrolytes, so sodium, calcium, potassium. So, these ingredients are formulated in a way that helps you to burn fat more efficiently. It gives you some fuel like from the MCT’s, it gives you some protein from the collagen peptides.

And then you get this L glutamine which helps to reduce inflammation and, and minimize, you know, protein or muscle loss during exercise. Okay, so and then it’s got electrolytes in it too. So it’s a really good product. And I’ve been using this for my longer runs my 10 mile-ish runs so far.

You just mix it in with water, it has, it’s a very, it has a water like consistency. It’s very tasty. And I love it. And so far, it’s been really good. It’s been I think it helps me on these longer runs that just stay in that fat burning mode and just enhances that fat burning mode. A

nd then they have another product called Race Plus. And it basically has the same ingredients as the the Train product, but it has something called highly branched pre jet pre digested cyclic starches, which is a carbohydrate source. Okay, this is a very low kind of glycemic carbohydrate. It’s like 15 grams of carbohydrate per serving.

And it’s like a slow burning type of carbohydrate that allows you to still, it does give you some carbohydrate burning, but it also helps to with fat oxidation, in other words, like you can still burn fat, but you’re burning some carbohydrate as well. So it kind of helps you to do both. And I haven’t tried this product, honestly, I just don’t do much at the higher intensities. So I’m just like, I don’t know, I really don’t need it.

But apparently, the the people that use it, the elite athletes and stuff like that, that are fat adapted really love it, because it does give them a little bit of a, a boost because of the carbohydrate in there without shutting down fat burning. And that’s the important part here. We want to make sure you’re doing both efficiently. Okay.

Then there’s another product that a lot of people have been talking about recently, which is, and I have not tried this one. And this is the next one on my list of try, which it’s been around for a while. And the key ingredient is something they call super starch. So super starch is a corn starch kind of derivative. And it’s a complex carbohydrate that doesn’t spike your blood sugar. It delivers a slow and steady release of glucose into the bloodstream.

So it’s not going to crank up your blood sugar and not going to crank up insulin and it’s not going to shut down fat burning off together. It might slow it down a little bit. But it gives you this stable blood sugar and stable steady energy. And supposedly it’s a very good product for long distance running. Again, I haven’t tried this one but people love this. All right.

They have a couple of different products. They have an energy powder, which is something you can do beforehand. So just like 30-45 minutes before your workout. Do this powder. And then you can add, you know, another serving of this every 60 to 90 minutes. Okay?

They also have a product, which this is interesting is energy gels, they’re called Edge Energy Gels. And so you can do a pouch 30 minutes before an exercise, and then do one every 60 minutes or so for workouts that are like over nine minutes long.

And this is kind of cool, because it’s a pouch of like, it’s like a gel that you can take with you. That is a very slow burning carbohydrate. But it doesn’t shut down the fat burning process either. So this is one I’m definitely going to be trying and I’ll get back to you guys on that.

So those are the main fuel options for low carb running, I think these are all very viable. And none of these will shut down the fat burning, they will all help you to stay fat adapted while you’re running and take advantage of all the benefits of being a fat adapted runner. And there’s one more that I wanted to mention, this is an element. This is not really a fuel. It’s an electrolyte mix, but it’s product, lMNT. It’s by elemental labs. And if you’re out there running, especially in this heat, you have to like replenish your electrolytes. It’s just so important.

And this is a great product, no sugar, it’s just sodium, potassium, magnesium, low flavoring, little stevia tastes great. People love it. And it works really well. So whether you’re doing a fasted workout or you’re using some of these other fuels, make sure you’re getting your electrolytes in somehow. Okay, and element is a great way to do that. All right, cool.

Well, be sure to join us over in the Running Lean coaching group for August because we’re taking a deep dive like I was mentioned earlier into these thought feeling action patterns, how they show up for you how you can change them so you can start getting the results that you want around weight loss around running around your health and fitness goals. So just go to runningleanpodcast.com/join and join us in the Running Lean coaching group would love to see you in there.

And I hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, please consider sharing it with a friend I love you all keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

75. How Being Healthy Becomes a Lifestyle with Latisha Simmons

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I have a very special guest joining me here on the podcast today. A few months ago, Latisha Simmons was facing some pretty serious health issues and decided she needed to make some big changes in …

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Podcast Transcript

Patrick McGilvray
My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 75 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners. And today, I’ve got a very special episode for you. I’ve got a special guest joining me here on the podcast today. Latisha Simmons.

So a few months ago, Latisha was facing some pretty serious health issues. And she decided that she needed to make some big changes in her life. So she changed her entire approach to diet to running to strength training. And most importantly, though, she changed her mindset around all of this.

And she’s worked really hard on making this whole idea of becoming healthy and being healthy. She’s worked hard on making this her new lifestyle. Like I said, she’s come a long way in just a few months. And I thought it’d be beneficial for all of us to hear her story of transformation. So that’s coming right up.

We had this conversation, Latisha and I, recently in the Running Lean Facebook group. And if you haven’t checked it out yet, please come check out the Running Lean podcast community on Facebook, I created this group so that you and I could have a conversation, that it was a place where you can ask questions and get answers and do it all in a way that’s like fun and encouraging and motivating. So just go on Facebook and search for Running Lean community and come join us. Come join in on the fun.

And then quickly, here’s another five star review of the Running Lean podcast. This one’s from Tammy. Tammy says, “I love everything you teach. I listened to your podcast when I run. And when I work out. Thank you for everything. I’m in love with my new lifestyle. I love to listen to your new podcasts and the old ones too. Thank you again, Tammy.”

Tammy, thank you so much for leaving this nice review, I really appreciate it. And if you enjoy the podcast, I would love it if you could tap the stars just leave a quick rating and review. It just helps other people to find the show. So you can do that on Apple podcasts and probably other places where you listen to podcasts.

And then hey, if you ever want a little help losing weight, or, or making all of this a lifestyle, I’ve got you covered. As a one on one coach, I work with runners every day who are working to become the healthiest and most badass versions of themselves.

So a coach doesn’t just show you what to do. A coach will hold you accountable. Coach will help you get through all of the challenging stuff. And there will be challenging stuff, I promise you. A good coach will encourage you to do the stuff you don’t want to do so that you can become the person you want to become. So not everyone needs coaching.

But for those who who want the expert guidance, who want the support, the encouragement, the accountability, then coaching might be perfect for you to learn more and apply. Just go torunningleanpodcast.com/apply.

And what happens is you’ll schedule a call with me and you and I’ll jump on a quick zoom call, we’ll have a short conversation. And we’ll see if coaching is a good fit for you. It might be it may not be either way. It’s cool. You have nothing to lose from just having a quick conversation. Okay, cool. So let’s get into this.

So like I said in the intro Latisha has come a long way in just a few months. She feels amazing. She’s lost a bunch of weight running is amazing for her. And she’s developed this awesome new mindset about what it really means to be healthy, how she’s sort of made this into a lifestyle.

Because listen, she’s tried other things before and they just never worked for her long term. But now she says things are different. She’s developed this new mindset about what it means to be healthy. And she’s just kind of made this how she lives her life. Now, this is just who she is and what she does. It’s really cool.

And no, it wasn’t a walk in the park for her. It was challenging. And she talks about this, she talks about especially at the beginning, it was very challenging for her but she had this determination that she was going to make it work and she was able to get through all of it. So I hope you enjoy this conversation that I had recently with Latisha Simmons. So let’s just get into this conversation if that’s cool with you, first of all, welcome, Latisha.

Latisha Simmons
Hi, Patrick. Thank you for having me.

Patrick McGilvray
This is my first time doing an interview in the group here like this. So…

Latisha Simmons
Guinea pig is what you tell me.

Patrick McGilvray
So you’re my guinea pig. Thank you for playing along with me, you are pretty awesome for doing that. I appreciate that you’re brave, you’re courageous. So just like introduce yourself and like, tell us like, where you tell us where you live. And like, tell us a little bit about your you know where you were a few months back and why you decided to make some changes and stuff. So just kind of give us a little bit of background and tell us like where you were coming from.

Latisha Simmons
Okay, so I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a small town in Tennessee, couple hours from Nashville, and a couple hours from Atlanta, Georgia born and raised here. So when I first came to purchase a little bit of backstory, I started running back in 2015, just to lose some weight, and I’ve been a yo-yo dieter all my life building weight issues.

So I started in 2015, to lose some weight. The way I lost at that time was by running and doing some strength training in basically counting calories. So I was successful with that 10 months after that I had lost 80 pounds, kept it off for a couple of years.

But then 2019 it started to creep back. And I just started regaining some of the weight. So Patrick talks to us about that all the time. So because I started gaining the weight back, of course, I wasn’t happy about that. Honestly, I was ashamed of gaining it back again.

So as a result, I just, I was still running the whole time. But my you know what, my eating wasn’t good. So I didn’t even like want to go like to my doctor’s appointments, like my annual doctor’s appointments, because I knew my doctors were gonna be like blessing.

So anyway, I didn’t go to the doctor for a year or two. And so finally, I went to the doctor earlier this year. And it actually was my gynecologist who was running, you know, some tests and she was like, I think you might be insulin resistant. Of course, I had really no idea what that was.

But because I have a family history of diabetes, is what made her even look at that for me. And she knows I had gained a significant amount of weight in a short period of time. So she ran tests, and sure enough, I was insulin resistant.

So that’s basically where I was when I found Patrick, I was insulin resistant, I had high blood pressure, because I had regained you know, so much of the weight back that I had lost. And because of the genetic predispositions has started to show up, I’m in my mid 40s. And apparently, that’s when all that starts to show up. So anyway, that’s where I was when I found you, Patrick.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and then, you know, talk a little bit more about that feeling of like gaining the weight back. And you mentioned like that feeling of just feeling like ashamed of like, you know, you you did something, you know, that was good for you, and you did something good for yourself, and you made a big positive change in your life and your health. And then you slipped, you know, when you went back to a, you know, gaining a bunch of the weight back, like talk a little bit about how that felt.

Latisha Simmons
Yeah, I mean, I really, I mean, honestly, I felt like a failure, like I failed myself again. So it wasn’t a good feeling at all, I really didn’t understand what was happening because like I said, I was still running the whole time. I was still strength training the whole time. And you know that you hear, you know, if you’re a runner, you can eat whatever you want. So and I know that’s not true, but kinda sorta I was still doing that. And it’s worth a try. Right?

Exactly. Well, I’m here to tell you that doesn’t, you know, doesn’t matter how much you run if you don’t have your diet under control. It’s just not going to work. So yeah, I wasn’t in a good place. I didn’t feel good. Didn’t have the energy I used to have.

My running was hard to think about, you know, the more weight you’re carrying around, of course, it’s just uncomfortable. So yeah, I wasn’t in a good place wasn’t feeling good at all. And like I said, I just, I was feeling just really down on myself for you again, you know, losing the way but only to regain it again. So yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
And so you went to the doctor and the doctor said you’re insulin resistant. And what that means is that your body will no longer respond to the effects of insulin so your body just starts producing more and more insulin.

And when that happens, so insulin is that hormone that that locks up your fat in your in your fat cells and it doesn’t allow you to burn the fat so you’re always storing fat when insulin is high. So that’s kind of what was happening in with you. And, and so your doctor recommended something for you, what did she recommend that you do?

Latisha Simmons
Yes, she, when I left her office that day, I left with a low carb diet, low carb, low sugar diet. And basically, it was a list of foods that I could eat and a list of foods that I couldn’t eat. So she was like this is what you have to do.

The good thing about it is, so basically, insulin resistance is pretty much pre diabetes. Which means, you know, if you catch it early, you you know, if you change your lifestyle, your eating habits and workout and all that stuff, you can, you know, pretty much reverse it. So that’s the good thing.

She was like, you know, we caught it early. If you do what I tell you, you can you can beat this. So of course, I’m like, okay, just tell me what I need to do. So yeah, she gave me that, that told me you know what I needed to do. Um, but you know, I left there with two prescriptions that I didn’t have, when I when I walked in the door.

I’ve never been on any medication, you know, regularly like that in my life, knock on wood, but I am now. So that was really my motivation to really like, basically get my life together. Because she’s like, if you don’t, you’re gonna be on this medication the rest of your life. But if you do what I tell you, you know, you can come off of it within a couple of months.

So that’s what she told me. And around that same time, I feel like it was meant to be because I somehow found the Running Lean community on Facebook, which you and I were talking before, I don’t know how it took me so long to find it. But timing is everything.

So anyway, I found I found the Running Lean community. And it was right around the time you were doing the February challenge. We were starting on February 1. So all of that aligned with my doctor telling me to do this same diet that you were challenging us to do. So worked out perfectly. So I’ve been doing it every since February 1.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. We’ll just call that divine intervention. Yes, I like that. The gods were smiling upon all of us. Okay, so she sends you home with like this list of foods to eat, and you start doing the low carb thing. And then, okay, so what was your diet like before that, like what was it that was? What was the diet like that kind of got you to putting on all that weight again?

Latisha Simmons
So it pretty much was a free for all, like, I was just eating, you know, whatever I wanted to eat as much as I wanted to eat course, you know, all the meat, the three meals, the snacking in between. So that’s pretty much what my diet was.

I mean, I was eating, I’m a huge sweet eater. So of course, I was eating, you know, cakes, and cookies and doughnuts, and just all the stuff that I like to eat. Just really not even being mindful of what I was eating, just eating and that started happening.

It’s happening like right around 2019 ish, then of course, when the pandemic hit, I mean, you know, just, you know, that didn’t help the situation either. So just a lot of sugar, a lot of carbs, and just basically, anything I wanted to eat whenever I wanted to eat. So it was basically eating all the time. It felt like even as I was eating, I’ll be thinking about what am I gonna eat next meal. That’s, that’s kind of the state I was in.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so you mentioned sort of, like just eating on was almost like unconscious eating. That’d be a way of describing it. Yeah, just eating. Yes. Like you don’t even know you’re like, how did I just eat that whole bag of chips?

Latisha Simmons
Exactly. Exactly. I was only supposed to eat three cookies. And now the whole bag is gone. Yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
Hmm. Once you start once you start you can’t stop though, right? I know. What about alcohol? Did you drink alcohol before?

Latisha Simmons
I did. So so like I said, I didn’t realize that I guess I was addicted to sugar because it will start in the morning with my coffee creamer. And in at night with a glass of desert wine, and of course, sugar and carbs in between the day too.

So I was drinking like a glass of wine every night, you know, in sweet wine so you know full of sugar. So that’s where I was before I started the low carb, low sugar.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, so you were drinking dessert wine. You were drinking dessert coffee in the morning, basically right? And like dessert breakfast and lunch dessert snacks. Isn’t it funny like everything? Like you know will say like, well you can’t eat cake for breakfast but have this pile of pancakes with maple syrup all over it and that’s fine.

Latisha Simmons
That was a regular breakfast for me that I love pancakes and syrup. Yes. And cranberry juice. Of course we know that juices are full of sugar. Just yeah, just sugar all throughout the day in different formats. And of course, we know sugars and so many things that we don’t even realize have sugar in it. And everything more. So yeah, that was my life. Yes.

Patrick McGilvray
Okay. Okay, so what were some of the big changes that you made? Like what was what kind of stands out to you? Now? Obviously, you stopped eating sugar. But what were some of the things that you did that were? Well, let’s let me put it this way. What were the hardest changes for you to make?

Latisha Simmons
How long we got? No. I know the answer. But I was just, I mean, man, there were a lot of things that it was hard, but I think I mean, it was hard to stop drinking wine every night. You know, that was hard to do.

You know, my little coffee creamer. That was hard to do. I mean, just think I mean, everything I was eating, and drinking has some kind of sugar in it. So I mean, it was just hard not to eat. You know, every time I looked around, you know, it’s just, there was a lot of things that was hard about my running was hard.

Once I you know, started not eating so much sugar, and carbs and all of that stuff. So I don’t know, honestly, patching back and saving. One thing was hard. I do know. Most everything was hard.

Everything, just everything about it was hard. Everything about it was hard. It was not easy at all. It was just hard to stop eating, you know, all the carbs all the sugar eating all the time. I mean, it was it was hard. It really was, yeah.

Patrick McGilvray
But you’re able to stick with it. You did a really good job of sticking with it, like you made a decision early on, that this is you know, I’m going to make this work. Because I’m not going on this medication for the rest of my life. And like, I’m not going to become a diabetic. And you made a work and you stuck to it. Like you were really, really good about sticking to it. Talk a little bit about that, like, what was that like for you?

Latisha Simmons
Well, I mean, like most runners, we’re pretty competitive people in you know, with ourselves. So one way to get me to do something is to tell me, I can’t do it, or expect me not to do it. Because my doctor didn’t tell me, you know, I couldn’t do it. She knows me. So she knows, she knew that if she told me if you don’t do this, this is gonna happen.

And you know, this is what we need to tell she knows me. So she knew that. So that’s basically what it is. It’s like, no, I’m not gonna be on this medication forever. I’m not gonna end up a full blown diabetic. No, so let’s do what we need to do. So, yeah, I was all in. I mean, one.

And like you said, I do feel like it was divine intervention, because it all kind of happened at the same time. So I was like, Okay, it’s meant for me to get my diet together and make this really a lifestyle change this time, stick with it, and you know, get take back control of my health is what I need to do.

So, I mean, that’s, that’s pretty much the mindset that I’ve had, I mean, you talk to us and several other podcasts about how important mindset is, and honestly, that’s it is, it’s all about your mindset. And so once I, you know, made up my mind that this is what we’re gonna do, like you said, I was all in.

And, of course, you know, having you there for support and accountability, and just, you know, walk me through every step of the way, is really a big part of why I’ve been so successful. So I mean, yes, I had to do the work, but I couldn’t have done it without all the support and accountability that I’ve gotten from working with you.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, and you know, what that whole mindset of like, going all in is really the key, it really is. Because I can be like, the motivator over here and your cheerleader, and I can show you what to do and encourage you and, you know, support you and hold you accountable. I can do all that stuff.

But at the end of the day, you’ve got to like do the work yourself, you’ve got to stick to your plan, you’ve got to, you know, show up and do your runs, even though it sucks. We’ll talk about that in a second. But like, you have to have the attitude of like, I’m going to do this for me, because I’m worth it.

And it’s important to me, you know, and my health is the most important thing that I have, you know, and so you made that commitment. And so I want to say, you know, I’m proud of you for for sticking with it, but mostly I’m impressed, because you made that commitment early on, and you just you nailed it. You know what I mean?

Like you just were like, I’m not going off my plan. And you you really stuck with it like like crazy, which is awesome. And here’s the thing, and you kind of mentioned this at the beginning like runners are good about stuff like that, like we’re competitive. And we can stick to a training program, no problem, you know, marathon training in the snow, you know, no problem I’ll show for that.

But then it’s like, don’t eat waffles. And you’re like, why isn’t oh my god crazy talk, you know. And so that’s I’m glad you brought that up. Because runners already have that mentality of like being able to stick with stuff and do the hard things, you know, we can absolutely do that, we just need to take that same attitude we have about sticking to our training plan and apply it over here to our to our diet and our nutrition and stuff like that.

So let’s talk a little bit about running because I know you struggled for a while. So there’s this thing that happens with runners and I’ve talked about this a million times. But it’s this fat adaptation period where when you as a runner decide to stop eating a lot of sugar and a lot of carbs, then it takes a while for your body to switch over from burning all that sugar and carbs to burning fat.

And burning fat is where you want to be because that’s where you lose weight. And that makes running so much easier. And stuff. I’ve talked about this so many times. But it’s hard to do, because there’s that period where you where you’re running, and you don’t have the energy here because you haven’t made the switch yet.

And so that that fat adaptation period can take on average, most people two to six weeks. I talk about this all the time. Some people it’s like a week or two, and it’s like, boom, no big deal. It took me like eight weeks, it took me a long time. What did that feel like for you? Like, what was that transition period? Like for you?

Latisha Simmons
Oh, my goodness, oh, man, it was really bad. The first couple of weeks, I don’t, I couldn’t run more than two, maybe three miles at a time. That’s as far as I could go. And so you can imagine, you know, you used to, you know, run in, you know, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 miles, you know, depending on where you are in your training cycle. And you can’t even run two miles? You know, so it was hard.

And I think that was really one of the there was one of the times where you really came in handy for me because you were literally my cheerleader every week when I would meet with you because I’m like, they suck. And I don’t want to do it.

And you were like, you have to keep doing it. You know, so you really helped me through that period, because I really wanted to quit. I mean, that was the end now that you say what was the hardest part, there probably was the hardest part. Because I run really, I mean, it’s mainly mental health, I run for the mental benefits of running.

Sure, physically, it helps us to, but it really helps me mentally. So as much as I, I like how I feel when I run it wasn’t feeling good at all. And that went on for several weeks. And, and I think Patrick, I’m like you I think it took me probably six, seven weeks before my run started feeling good. So yeah, that was a long time.

But you know, I trusted you. And I really think too, that you have in your own personal journey, you know, your own struggles with you know, your lifestyle before you major change. I think, you know, knowing that this work for you, and you have no personal experience with this really helped me to trust you.

Even when you know you were saying, just keep going just keep going, I promise you on the other side is gonna be better. Knowing that you personally had that experience is what kept me going. I mean, cause I’m just gonna be honest, if it was somebody else that you know, is selling this whole thing and don’t have a personal experience with it. I probably wouldn’t have done and it would have just given up.

But knowing that you had had gone through the same thing. I was like, Okay, I’m trusting him. And I’m glad I did. Because now I mean, when I run, I look forward to running. I mean, I have rekindled my love for running again. When it’s you know, thanks to you telling me just don’t give up. Just keep going. It’ll get better to get better. I’m like, Okay, I’m trusting you, Patrick. So anyway, you know, it worked at it every week.

Patrick McGilvray
I was like, it’s just got to be getting better and you’re like no it took a while but but here’s the thing it’s like yeah, so you’re right that this is the the part where most people will just quit on this process because it does kind of suck and it’s hard.

And it just feels like you don’t have energy when you’re running and it’s not it’s not comfortable at all right? And so I just kept saying like you’re going to get through it I promise you it will happen it just takes what it takes for any everybody’s a little bit different. So and you did you eventually got to that point. So let’s think about a little bit now what is it like for you now running Like how is running for you today?

Latisha Simmons
Man running now it I mean, I am back to looking forward to it on my run days because I run four days a week and bike two days a week. So I run days I’m like, Oh yes, I get to run today it feels good. I have more energy to do it.

Even like on my speed days and my heal repeat days. I mean, I’m just killing those now. My recovery is better. Like, I feel like I recover quicker. There are times where I will go and do a 12 mile run on a Saturday. And that’s pretty much all I’m doing. I’m coming home, I’m eating, taking a shower, and I’m laying around all day.

Now I come home, eat, shower, and I go out and you know, enjoy my weekend because I just feel better. Even after the run, I feel like my recovery is better. So my running is I’m really enjoying it now. Because I look forward to my long runs even though it’s getting hot here in the south. Still just looking forward to my runs.

And honestly, and I never believed you when you would say this, but you like it’s come to feel amazing. And you’re gonna feel like you can just run all day. And yeah, I have to give it to you. That’s true.

There there are times where I’m like, oh, man, you know, if I’m only scheduled to do 8 or 10 I’m like, oh, I could have kept running. I mean, cause it felt that good today. So yeah, my running definitely is much better than it was when I first started the you know, the low carb low sugar. But yeah, I definitely have rekindled my love for running now. And it just feels great. And I look forward to doing it on my running days.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah. And runnings probably also a little bit easier for you, Latisha because you’ve lost some weight. Well, yeah, I mean, would you say that’s true?

Latisha Simmons
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Patrick McGilvray
So how much have you lost so far? Just in the last three months or so?

Latisha Simmons
I’m 32 pounds down. So yeah. 32 pounds since? Yeah, since I started.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome work. Yeah, that’s a lot in a short amount of time. It is.

Latisha Simmons
And the good thing about it is, you know, once you get over, you know, I’d say the first probably two weeks. You don’t feel you know, deprived. You don’t you’re not hungry all the time, you’re not always thinking about what you need to eat next, you know, like, all those sugar cravings are gone.

So it’s just been just a whole 360 for me, like I and every week, of course, you know, this passion happy. Like, I can’t believe I’m not like thinking about food all the time. I’m not hungry all the time. Because I just couldn’t believe it because that, you know, that had been my life for so many years.

So yeah, that’s just been amazing not to, not to feel like a slave to food basically. This I felt before, like, you know, I was always thinking about him, it was just consuming, you know, my thoughts and my behavior and to not have that now.

I mean, there are times where, you know, it’s two, three o’clock in the afternoon. I’m like, oh, I need to eat. Like, I haven’t even had anything to eat, but I still have energy. I’m not crashing. And I’m not thinking about food all the time. So, man, it’s, it’s been a life changer. For me, it really has been.

Patrick McGilvray
That’s crazy right there. And that’s one of the things that I love about eating this way is that I’m not hungry all the time. Like, I didn’t eat until after 1:00 to 1:30. And I was just like, what what is this, you know? But there’s like this incredible amount of freedom in that because you’re not like, like you just said you’re not like obsessing about food 24 hours a day anymore.

You know, and when that goes away, you can start doing other things, you know, like, get on with your life, go for a run or whatever. And, and running, you know, drop, take 32 pounds and put it in a backpack and strap it to you and go run with that. And you know, runnings gonna be a lot easier without that 32 pounds on you for sure.

So what do you think about like, your ability to take this low carb sort of like lifestyle and like, go forward with it into the future? Is this something you feel like you can do forever? Is this something because you’ve tried other diets that didn’t work for you and you’ve tried to do other things? But do you feel like what you’ve learned here is something that you can perpetuate and that you can do pretty easily or does it seem like it’ll still be hard?

Latisha Simmons
Well, I mean, honestly, when when I walked out of my doctor’s office with this diet, I was like, there’s no way am I gonna be able to do this, first of all. Secondly, definitely not long term like, this is gonna be awful. Because you know, of course, we’ve all tried, like you said, the other low carb diets and stuff in the past.

But this, and again, you told me this, but I didn’t believe it. I mean, it definitely is easy. It’s a lifestyle. And I think that it’s not hard to do. Like, I still go to all my favorite restaurants. And there’s always something I can eat, that I can enjoy eating. So it’s not hard to do, like, it’s easy to fit into your lifestyle.

And, and that is what sets it apart from all the other diets I’ve ever done. The other ones were not sustainable. They just were not not long term. But this one to answer your question, I really do feel like I can do this for the rest of my life. And sure I have, you know, this threat of, you know, these health issues over my head, if I do go back to eating, you know, different types of diet.

But we all know, I mean, sometimes that’s not enough for people. But I do feel like for me, it’s I feel like I’m literally in a race against diabetes. I feel like that. And so it’s like, if you go back this way, then that’s what you’re looking at. But if you keep going this way, you know, you’ll be fine.

And you’ll be able to live a healthier life. And so, you know, I really don’t have a choice. I mean, I do, I mean, I could make that choice and end up on this, you know, medication, and you know, all of that, but I’m choosing not to do that. And I think this this low carb lifestyle definitely is the key to me being successful.

And I yeah, I don’t I really, I guess I still can’t believe that I don’t feel deprived. I mean, I keep waiting for that, you know, all the time like it. I mean, the fact that I don’t really I can’t eat pasta. I mean, I can I mean because of course you tell us, if there’s something you feel like you just really need to eat, eat it, then your very next meal, go back to your diet.

But I haven’t even had to do that like because I just don’t miss it. It’s like a life’s like this is what we’re doing. And so I’m just automatically, you know, making my choices based on my lifestyle. So I can’t believe it.

I never thought that I will find something that actually works for me. It’s good for my health in this sustainable. I just never thought that I will find that. But I really have and I just I can’t tell you how ecstatic I am about that.

Patrick McGilvray
So, so awesome. How about that dessert wine? Do you miss that?

Latisha Simmons
You know, I like to say after about two weeks. I didn’t because I don’t crave sugar like that anymore? Ah, interesting. No, I don’t crave sugar like that. And I’m just like, I mean, because I’ve been thinking I’m like, maybe I could just have a glass of wine. I’m like, I really don’t want because the the thought of how sweet is gonna be.

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, you were concerned about that at the beginning. You’re like, I don’t know about giving up this dessert wine. I mean, because this is part of like who I am, you know? And you were not too thrilled about that part.

Latisha Simmons
Yeah. But when I think about, you know, just the consequences of it. It’s just not worth it. I mean, you know, will I drink alcohol again, I’m sure I will. But I don’t think that I’m going to be drinking a glass of wine every night. And it definitely won’t even be dessert wine. It’s going to be you know, something with less sugar than that. Like I said, not every night. So I really yeah, I’m surprised that I’ve been able to just just keep doing it.

Patrick McGilvray
So you were drinking a glass of wine every night and you haven’t you haven’t had any alcohol?

Latisha Simmons
I have had one drink. Not a dessert one.

Patrick McGilvray
One drink in three months versus every night. That’s a big change.

Latisha Simmons
Oh yeah, I’m not going to be. And I wanted to do that just to see what would happen. Yeah. And I you know, to be honest, I was scared to do it. Because it was like, a trigger or something? But you know, and it wasn’t as a really sweet drink either.

So I definitely know that’s not going to be the case. But yeah, I didn’t. I was like, okay, one drink of coke. And now I’ve been fine. So yeah, it’s not something that I just have to have anymore. But you’re right. I was concerned about it in the beginning.

Patrick McGilvray
Awesome. Yeah. So any final thoughts? Anything that you want to share that we haven’t talked about yet? Or, you know, what do you see yourself in the future? What’s next for you?

Latisha Simmons
Well, I still have some weight that I want to lose. Some of course. Everybody just keep doing what you’re doing. Just keep doing what you’re doing. And that’s what my plan is, is to keep doing what I’ve been doing because it’s been working for me.

You know, my daughter is excited about the progress that I’ve made. And she’s, you know, she’s hopeful that I’ll be able to come off these medications soon. So that’s obviously a big motivator for me. And again, knowing that if I go back to my old lifestyle that, you know, I’ve got some major consequences, you know, that I’ll be facing.

And so that’s, you know, a huge motivator for me to keep going and not only logistics, set an example for, you know, other people that may be going through this same, you know, situation, or I have family members that have some some of these similar health issues.

And, you know, I really want people to know that if you change your diet and your lifestyle, that you really can’t overcome some of these health issues that you might be facing, you know, even though you know, it is, you know, a genetic, you know, issue.

Sometimes that doesn’t necessarily mean that, you know, you have to just give up, you know, you still can, you know, fight and see, you know, can you change it, do all you can basically I’m trying to control what I can control, you know, I can’t control my genetics, I know that, but I definitely control you know, how much I exercise what I eat, you know, that whole thing, I like what I drink, and that has a big impact on, you know, the outcome here.

So, that’s definitely a big motivator for me. So my goal is to keep running from diabetes. And also, you know, just get some back to my goal weight, cause running wise, you know, once I get back to my goal weight, I want to set some some PR’s. Once I get back to that, I got a couple of races coming up. So that’s basically where I am.

But I’m excited about it for the first time ever, I actually feel like I can, once I get back to my race late in my healthy weight, that I can sustain it. And I have never felt like that in my entire life. So that is really just a wonderful feeling to have. And again, being able to do that and not feel deprived.

I mean, because if you feel like you miss an out or you feel deprived, you’re not gonna stick with it. But this type of lifestyle, you just don’t feel that way. At least I don’t. And I’m just super excited about it. And coming into it. I was just like, there’s no way I’m going to be able to be…

Patrick McGilvray
You were skeptical, you were a little skeptical. You’re like I don’t know about this guy. But we made a believer out of you, Latisha. So I just want to say thank you for coming on here and sharing your story.

And I also want to say that I’m really proud of you for just like, being courageous and making these changes, because it was hard for you at the beginning, you know, just to make that decision to like, go all in on yourself and to like, make these big changes in your life. That requires a lot of courage.

And a lot of people don’t have that, you know, a lot of people it’s just too scary for them, you know, but you you are like, I’m I’m going to make this happen. I’m going to do this, I’m going to fix my health. And yeah, you mentioned like diabetes being you know, genetic, you there’s a genetic predisposition predisposition for diabetes and insulin resistance and stuff like that. But it’s a lifestyle disease, you know, and you can absolutely change it with your lifestyle.

Just because you have the genetic predisposition does not mean the genes will be turned on. So if you don’t, you know, if you don’t feed the bad lifestyle, then the genes don’t get expressed, you know, and so you can definitely affect even a genetic disease, like diabetes with the right kind of lifestyle.

Latisha Simmons
Exactly. And, and I’m glad you brought that up. Because, you know, my doctor told me so I’m like, What do you mean? Like, I’ve never had this problem before. And she’s, you know, she’s like, because you’ve been keeping your weight under control, you know, you’ve been running and exercise and, and all of that.

So, you know, it didn’t show up. She said, but once you start eating what you want it to and, you know, started gaining all this weight, you know, then it showed up, she says so this has been there, but you’ve been able to control it with your lifestyle.

And so now that you know your lifestyle, it’s out of control, basically, here it is. I’m like, oh, so yeah, you bring up a good point. I mean, it’s just because it’s there and you can still control the lifestyle. And I’m definitely a believer of that now, because I’m seeing it. I mean, you know, it’s working. So I’m like..

Patrick McGilvray
Yeah, the whatever you want diet, that one doesn’t work for that. Even if you run it don’t matter. Doesn’t matter how much you run that diet doesn’t work.

Latisha Simmons
Yeah, I mean, I trained and did a 50k during that time. And so like I said, I was being austere running marathons and ultra marathons, but I’ll still eat what I wanted to and yeah, that didn’t help.

Patrick McGilvray
I mean that’s such a such a common story. Well, thank you again, Latisha. I appreciate you so much. And I’m so proud of you. And we’re gonna keep following your story here. I want you to keep us posted on your progress and let us know how this how these PRs go for you.

Latisha Simmons
Absolutely, I will do that. Thank you for having me, Patrick.

Patrick McGilvray
If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

72. Becoming a Lean, Fat-Burning Machine and Making It Last For Life – Part 1

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This is part one of a two-part podcast series called “Becoming a Lean, Fat-Burning Machine and Making It Last For Life”. As a Sports Nutritionist and Weight Loss Coach for Runners, I help runners …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there and welcome to episode 72 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray. And today, I’ve got part one of a two part podcast series that I’m doing called Becoming a Lean, Fat-Burning Machine and Making It Last For Life.

As a sports nutritionist and weight loss coach for runners, I help runners transform themselves into lean, efficient fat burning machines so they can end the yo yo dieting and finally get to their ideal weight. This subject is near and dear to my heart since I gained over 40 pounds in just a few years when I was training for marathons and ultramarathons training for and running marathons and ultra marathons and still gained like 40 pounds.

This did not make sense to me at all. What the heck is going on here? Well, I eventually figured it all out. I dropped those extra pounds, I learned how to keep them off for good this time. And now, I help as many runners as possible to do the same. So in this eye opening two part series, I’ll show you exactly what it takes to become a lean, fat burning running machine and most importantly, how to make it last for life.

But first, if you haven’t already done so, come check out the Running Lean community on Facebook. This is a group of runners who share similar health and fitness goals. You can ask questions, get help and feel supported. Listen, we all need to feel supported, especially when it comes to doing hard things like losing weight or training for a marathon or qualifying for Boston.

Having this community to lean into is so helpful. You’ll find encouragement, inspiration and even motivation from when you’re just not feeling it. Just go on Facebook and search for Running Lean community and join us.

And here’s a recent five star review of the Running Lean podcast from Erica and she says, “My weekly treat. I look forward to Patrick’s podcast each week, my treat over the weekend is to pop in my air pods and go for a run. While I take in the invaluable information of real life experiences. Tough but much needed honesty, encouragement and inspiration that Patrick provides. These podcasts cover a wide range of everyday obstacles you come to in life as you try and navigate your journey to being a stronger runner. And a healthier and happier you.”

Thank you, Erica, that was very cool. Thank you for sharing. And you can share the love too if you enjoy this podcast, it would mean a lot to me if you would just take a moment to leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen. I just would love that it just makes me feel good to know that this message is resonating with you guys.

And listen, I also know that all this talk about diets, sports nutrition, weight loss, becoming a fat adapted runner, all these things – it’s awesome. It’s super helpful. But it also can feel a little overwhelming. You probably want to know just like how do I get started? How do I make all of this work? Well, I got you covered as a one on one coach. I can help you make sense of all of this and help you apply these principles to your own life.

Listen, we’re all very different. We all have different metabolisms, different body types, different genetics, different goals, different likes, different dislikes. And there’s just not one approach that works perfectly for everyone. If there was, that would be amazing. It would make my job a whole lot easier, but there is not.

So the way coaching works is we work up a metabolic profile for you. We clearly define your health and fitness goals. Then we put together a plan that is specifically tailored to help you reach those goals. And it’s not just about diet and nutrition either. It’s about becoming the healthiest human being that you can possibly be physically, mentally, even emotionally.

I work with people who’ve been struggling with weight their whole life and they’re ready, finally ready to change for good. I work with runners who are tired of bonking all the time. They’re ready to stop hitting the wall at mile 18, so they can finish strong for a change.

I work with runners who just want to qualify for Boston finally they know in their heads they can do it but they just can’t seem to dial in their nutrition and drop those last 10 or 15 pounds they need to run faster. I work with people who just have an unhealthy relationship with food, they do a lot of stress eating, a lot of emotional eating, and they’re ready to take back control of their thoughts and feelings around food and maybe stop obsessing about what they’re eating all the time.

Whatever your health and fitness goals, I’m here for you, I can be your guide, and show you the way to help you to become the most badass version of yourself yet, yet. So to learn more and apply for coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply.

Alright, so I did a similar podcast series around this time last year. So this was episodes 19, 20, and 21. And I thought it was time to revisit this and provide an update because I’ve learned so much in this past year, I’ve helped so many runners become efficient fat burning machines, helped so many people lose weight and improve their running and improve their health.

And I wanted to spend a little bit of time over these next two episodes to share a lot of new information with you guys. So if you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, some of this will be a review, you may have heard some of this before, but I think a lot of it’s going to be new and new and improved just for you. Okay, so lace up those running shoes, pop in those air pods and let’s get into this.

So the problem as I see it for a lot of runners is that a lot of runners are just carrying around too much body fat. A lot of runners are what would be considered overweight or even in the obese category. And we all have this idea of what runners look like – these skinny, super lean, no meat on the bones kind of person, right? This idea of like these elite marathoners, right.

But that is far from reality. A lot of runners just struggle with their weight and they have a hard time losing weight. Maybe they keep gaining weight year after year, like I you know, and running isn’t working to stay lean anymore. It’s just not keeping the weight off anymore.

And, you know, most runners that I know and a lot of the runners that I work with are coming to me because they’re they’re kind of addicted to sugar and carbs, you know, they love their doughnuts, their beer, their pizza, their goos, their gels, their sports drinks, all this sugar, right.

And this is a problem. This is a big problem for a lot of people. You know, running is great. It’s good for you. It keeps you in good cardiovascular shape, it builds endurance, it helps with stress relief, it’s good for your mental health, it’s good for your overall health, right? But running alone is just not a very good way to lose weight.

Even runners who look good on the outside, like you would look at them and go that person is pretty, pretty decent looking and they don’t look, you know, overweight, a lot of runners are what is considered trophies. You know, they’re thin on the outside, but fat on the inside. This was definitely me, you know.

I’ve worked with many runners who have steadily gained weight, they can’t lose that weight. Their doctors have told them that they’re pre diabetic or maybe even diabetic. They maybe even have moved into the obese category. A lot of times doctors will put them on diabetes medicine, like Metformin. And these are people who are runners, and they run regularly.

They’re running marathons, and they’re being put on diabetes medicine. Some of these doctors will tell them that they need to get their blood sugar under control, or they will have to go on medication. So they might be pre diabetic. Or they might suggest that they switch their diet, they stop eating all the sugar and the carbs, they switch them to like a low carb diet, right?

So a lot of these people might look okay on the outside, but they have something very different going on inside right? Inside they’re unhealthy. You know, they’re overweight. They’re at risk for a slew of metabolic diseases like Type Two Diabetes and insulin resistance, heart disease, high blood pressure, even obesity.

And here’s the thing, like a lot of people are just not talking about it. Because it’s like, oh, I’m a runner, so I’m healthy. I can just eat whatever I want. And for a lot of us, that’s just not the case. And this isn’t just an opinion. I get messages from people every single day about this. So here’s a few.

Here’s one. This guy says back in my 40’s, I was 170 pounds and running marathons in two hours and 30 minutes. That’s fast, you know, and he says now I’m in my late 50’s And I weigh in at 213 pounds. Oh my gosh, in 10 years, this person has put on 43 pounds, that is crazy.

Another one is, I’m killing myself running this month to meet a goal and I’m up four pounds, WTF. Here’s another one, I ran my first half marathon and full marathon in the past year, I gained weight training for both. And I’m so confused, and I’m exhausted from the battle of trying to get back to my original weight without ditching my love for running.

You guys, these are just messages I get from people all the time. Here’s somebody that’s like, you know, been training for a marathon, ran a half and a full marathon and cannot get back to their original weight, they gained a bunch of weight.

And then here’s what I got just a few days ago, I was training for my first marathon in 2019. And I ended up gaining around 30 pounds, which was super frustrating, because then it just made running even harder. You know, and I’ve talked about this before I work with someone who’s been on a daily run streak since 2007. This person has like more than 5000 straight days of running. And when I say run streak, this person is running like at least three miles a day.

And in the process gained over 50 pounds. That’s crazy. And if you’ve ever like ran a marathon or half marathon, or you’ve watched one, you’ve probably noticed this trend, right? Sure the people in the front, the leaders, a lot of them are pretty lean and pretty fit. But most of the people you see would be considered, you know, overweight.

And it’s not a judgment. And I’m not shaming anyone here because this was me too. For sure. I was one of those people that was like, you know, fat as a runner as a marathon runner as an ultra runner. You know, I’ve been running marathons and Ultras for like, 15 years now.

And prior to that, before I got into running, I was very overweight, 230 pounds, fat, sick, I drank too much. And I had this big wake up call in 2003 when I was diagnosed with cancer. And at that moment, I decided I had to change my life, I had to get healthy. So I started running and changed my diet. And it really did change my life.

And I went, you know, basically I started eating more vegetables, right? I just went like vegetarian. And then I went plant based, you know, for like 10 years. And this worked for a while. But I slowly started to gain the weight back again, even though I was still running marathons, and ultramarathons. And I was training all the time.

And this picked up pretty quickly. You know, in the last few years here for me, you know, I started gaining weight, like crazy. So I started running more to try to run it off, you know, and it just wasn’t working. And I was still running a lot, you know, one to two marathons a year.

Several Ultras, every year, I would work out at the gym like three times a week. I was walking all the time, doing yoga, very active lifestyle, and still gaining weight. And by the time I had put on over 40 pounds, and I was up to almost 200 pounds again, I was like, I’ve got to do something about this, you know.

So I did, I changed a bunch of stuff that I was doing, you know, but really the biggest change was with my diet. I’m going to talk more about that in just a second. But I was able to drop those 40 pounds in a very short amount of time. And I’ve been able to keep it off effortlessly. And today, I’m 54 years old, I’m 165 pounds. I’m leaner and stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. Like I feel amazing. I have a ton of energy all the time. Running is amazing. I’m still running because I love it.

I’m running because I love it, not because I have to run to try to maintain my weight. And that’s like the biggest issue right? There’s like, running alone is just not enough. It’s not enough. So the biggest problem I see really is that, you know, people use running as a way to try to lose weight and it’s just not a very effective weight loss strategy.

Okay, we’ve been told for over 40 years now that in order to lose weight, and stay healthy, you have to just eat less and exercise more. This is called the energy balance theory. And it’s called a theory because it’s just that – it’s a theory. So the energy energy balance theory says that it really doesn’t matter what you eat as long as you burn more calories than you consume. You’re good. Right?

That’s it. That’s the end of the story. Just burn more calories in your eating and you’ll be fine. This is fine if you’re like a combustion engine, right but we’re not combustion engines. The human body is much more complex. There’s a lot more going on here that has to be addressed.

Even a combustion engine will break down with the wrong kind of fuel. Have you ever put diesel gasoline or diesel fuel into a gasoline engine and see what happens? The whole thing starts smoking and just explodes, like it does not operate properly. And I think that’s kind of what’s happening here.

We’re putting the wrong kind of fuel in our body, it does matter. Calories do matter a little bit, you know, calories play a role, for sure. You know, you can’t eat 4000 calories a day, and not exercise and expect to lose weight so that’s just not going to work, right?

But it’s not just about calories. Okay? And it’s not, it’s not like running is terrible. Like you shouldn’t run or anything like that. Don’t get me wrong about that, running is amazing. It’s so good for your cardiovascular health, for your mental health. It’s a great way to like release endorphins and dopamine and feel good running actually makes you feel happier.

But as a weight loss strategy, just not very effective. So what’s going on here? What’s this whole energy balance theory, why isn’t it working? So it’s not just about the calories in versus calories out, right? In order to lose weight, what do you have to do? You’ve got to burn the fat, right?

That’s what we’re trying to do when we talk about losing weight, we’re not talking about losing muscle, we want to lose the fat. Okay, so in order to lose weight, we’ve got to burn fat. The part that most people don’t understand is that in order to get into fat burning mode, you have to remove the body’s preferred source of fuel, which is sugar, so your body will burn sugar first, and as long as there’s sugar available to burn, you will not be very efficient at burning fat.

Okay, the goal here is to transform your body to change your body from a sugar burner to a fat burner. Okay, so the main regulator of this process in your body is a hormone called insulin, when you eat sugar, or carbohydrates, so sugar is just a concentrated form of carbohydrate. It’s like a pure form of carbohydrate.

Okay, so when I talk about carbs, I’m talking about sugar. When I talk about sugar, I’m talking about carbs all the same thing. When you eat carbs, your blood sugar goes up. Insulin is then released to bring your blood sugar down. Blood sugar goes down. Everything’s cool, right?

But here’s the problem. Insulin has all these other effects on the body. So when insulin is elevated, your body is put into this state of fat storage mode. So insulin is like the security guard that keeps the fat inside the fat cells. And as long as insulin is present, the fat is going to stay right where it is. Okay.

So all of that energy from the carbohydrates that you’re eating, it can’t all be used right away. So insulin sends signals telling your body okay, store some of this energy as fat, we’re going to use this later. Okay, and then we’re going to lock it up in here, and we’re going to hold on to this fat and we’ll use some of this later for fuel. This is fine as the way our bodies are designed to work.

But when insulin is elevated all the time, your body is constantly in this state of storing fat. And now we’re getting to the gist of the problem, you’ve got to get your body out of that fat storage mode and get your body into fat burning mode. Okay?

So insulin is high, you’re storing fat, the fat cannot be used for fuel, we got to bring the insulin down so that you can start burning the fat. And don’t just take my word for it. There’s a fantastic book out there that lays all of this out, it explains the science in great detail. It’s called The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung. Awesome, awesome book.

So it’s not just about the calories you’re eating, it’s more about what types of calories you’re eating. So when you’re eating a diet that’s high in sugar, and high in other highly refined carbohydrates like flour. This is going to keep you in that fat storage mode because insulin is always going to be high.

So when we remove those problematic carbohydrates from your diet, this helps switch off the insulin signals and helps to get your body into the fat burning mode. All right. My whole coaching program is built around helping runners become fat burning machines. Okay.

Everything we do is like we want to be burning fat. Fat is a great source of fuel for running, and it’s how you lose weight. But here’s the problem. Here’s what it looks like for a lot of runners. A lot of runners will eat a very high carbohydrate diet, right?

So they’re eating pizza and ice cream and donuts and you know drink a lot of beer and stuff like that. So you’re just like consuming carbs all the time, your body is just full of carb energy. And so carbohydrates get turned into glucose, which gets stored in your muscles as glycogen, you know, so glycogen is great. This is what fuels you know, running and things like that.

But the problem is, if you’re fueling up on carbs all the time, your glycogen is like always topped off. And so a lot of that energy has to get stored as fat. So typical runners eat tons of carbs, and they’re just, you know, a lot of the energy they’re eating is getting stored as fat. Okay.

And then, you know, in the days leading up to a long run or a race you like do carbo loading. So you’re eating even more carbs, you know, pasta, spaghetti dinner, you know, and all this. And then, you know, before your run, before you head out the door, you’re fueling up with, you know, pancakes, or bananas, or what other other carbs that you need energy drinks in order to top off, you know, your carbs stores are even more.

And then while you’re running, you’re sucking down the goos and the energy drinks and all this sugar. And you’re using carbs as fuel while you’re running. And then when you’re done running, what do you do? You replace all those carbs, you burn with more carbs, more pancakes, and, you know, more energy drinks, and recovery drinks and all this stuff.

And you’re only ever burning carbs, you’re just like in carb burning mode all the time. And a lot of that energy cannot be burned, so it gets stored as fat. So you’re burning carbs, you know, almost exclusively. And storing a lot of that energy is fat, and you never get into the, into the fat you never get into fat burning mode. Right.

This is why you can run a million miles and still be overweight. This is why you gain weight a lot of times when training for a marathon or an ultra marathon is because you’re just overloaded with carbs. Okay. And again, like my whole program here is to help you become a more efficient fat burner.

And the two reasons are number one, fat is an amazing source of fuel for running. So fat delivers more energy per gram than carbs, like you get nine calories of energy per gram of fat. Whereas from carbs and protein, you only get four calories of energy. So this is more than twice the amount of energy from fat.

Also, your body can only store a small amount of carbohydrate in the form of glycogen in your liver and in your muscles. So it works out to something like 100 grams or so of glycogen in the liver and around 400 grams of carbohydrate in the form of glycogen stored in the muscles.

On average, you know, the average runner can probably store around 2000 calories of total energy in the form of glycogen in the body. Once that’s depleted, you have to keep adding more or you’re going to bomb this is when you hit the wall because you’ve run out of fuel.

Whereas your body can store an almost unlimited amount of energy in the way of fat. So I’m pretty lean, I have around 15% body fat, which equates to around 20 pounds of fat on my body. And if you wouldn’t know that by looking at me, but there’s about 20 pounds of fat on me, which is good as healthy, right?

That’s over 9000 grams of fat, or, like 81,000 calories of stored energy available at any given time, like I could not run enough to blow through all that energy. So not only does fat provide more than twice the energy of carbs, but you’re carrying around an almost unlimited supply of fat all the time, even for the leanest of us right.

So when you become a fat adapted runner, meaning you’ve adapted your body to burning fat more efficiently, you’re burning fat as your main source of fuel. When you do this, when you make this switch, you become virtually bonk proof. Because you always have plenty of energy on board. You just can go okay, so that’s number one.

Like these are why I’m talking about fat burning, why it’s so important. Number one is fat is an amazing source of fuel for running. Okay, and the second reason why it’s so important to become a fat burning machine is because there’s this amazing side benefit to burning fat, you lose weight.

When you start burning fat instead of all the sugar, you’re actually able to lose weight. You’ll burn through the extra fat that you have on your body. It is very, very difficult to lose weight while eating a high carbohydrate diet. Okay? If you ditch the sugar, ditch the refined carbs, like flour, and lose weight, it’s going to become so much easier for you.

And here’s a question I get a lot from people. It’s like, don’t I need carbs for running? And like, yeah, a lot of people have been, you know, coming to me with this, and I just need the carbs to run. I need the carbs to run. And this is kind of old school thinking it goes back to like the 70s.

There was a guy, Professor Tim Noakes, who wrote a book. This was like the runner’s Bible it’s called the Lore of Running and he talked about it. He wrote a whole section in there about carbo loading, for running and how you need the carbs to run, and how carbs are so great as fuel for running, and not too long ago.

But it was many years ago that he did this, but he completely had an about face around all of this. He’s like, you know, carbohydrates are a problem for a lot of people. And he totally changed his tune. He’s like, you know, runners really don’t need carbs to run, they can really fuel themselves very, very efficiently, with fat instead.

And they will reduce all these metabolic issues. He was a tofi. He was one of these guys that was thin on the outside, but fat on the inside. He had run like 70 marathons and was diagnosed with type two diabetes.

And so he did this thing, he was at a book signing, and he very dramatically, like, tore out that chapter from his book on carbo loading and said, This is irrelevant. Now I’ve learned that there’s a better way to go.

So just, you know, he tore it out of the book, I think that’s really cool. So, you know, it’s kind of old school thinking, you know, it goes back for, you know, 40-50 years or whatever. And yeah, carbs will give you fuel for running, but they have this big side effect, they make you hold on the fat, like they’re storing fat. And some people can handle this, some people can handle a high carbohydrate diet, you know, there’s something like maybe 15% of the population who can tolerate a very high carb diet.

Most of us though, cannot. Most of us are what is considered carbohydrate intolerant. That means that when we eat carbs, we put our body into this fat storing mode that we just cannot lose weight and we gain weight incessantly.

So if you’re a part of that 15% or whatever that number is great. Eat all those sugary gels. You want carbo load with pasta before your races, eat all the bread, drink the beer and enjoy. Like you’re you’re one of the few, okay. But for the rest of us who have tried that, and it doesn’t work, or maybe it used to work when we were younger, it’s not working anymore, we need to take a different approach.

So I’ve been following a pretty low carbohydrate diet for a while now. And I have to tell you, I’ve never bonked, I’ve run several marathons, I even ran a 50k without the need for any goos or gels. I don’t use calories for my runs, and it feels amazing. Honestly, I feel like I can run all day. I’ve run two marathons and 50k all on zero calories just using my own stored body fat as a source of fuel. That’s it.

And it’s not just me that thinks this is a better way to go like there are a bunch of new elite runners, even elite ultra runners who are turning to a low carbohydrate approach to fueling for running. Tim Olson, years ago, he won the western states 100 miler following this low carb diet and he was one of the first people to do something like this and people are like, what is this guy doing?

Zach Bitter held the world record for running the fastest 100 miler up until recently. His record was broken recently, but he ran 100 miles in 11 hours and 19 minutes. Holy smokes, this guy is fast. And he does basically a very low carb diet. And, you know, he’s setting records and he still holds the record for the 12 hours, you know, running the most miles in 12 hours.

Mike McKnight this guy is known for winning like 200 mile races like this is his, you know, preferred distance is that – 200 miles. And just for kicks, he ran 100 miles on zero calories just to show that you can do it as a fat adapted runner, you know.

Dave Scott six times, six time Ironman champion. He now trains athletes on a low carb approach. Even Michelle Hearn, Michelle Hearn is so awesome. She’s a registered dietician, and she’s the author of a book called The Dietitians’ Dilemma. So she had this dilemma where she was working as a diet registered dietitian in hospitals.

And she was forced to, to give diabetic patients, you know, orange juice and bagels and sugary breakfast and pancakes with syrup and all this stuff. Like this was what she was told to give these people. And it was just making their diabetes worse, and they would just have to up their insulin that they were giving them and all kinds of problems. She was just like, this is crazy. Something has to change. If you guys want to read a really interesting book, it’s very eye opening, Dieticians’ Dilemma.

But Michelle Hearn is also an ultra runner. And she recently ran a 50k in like 3 hours and 56 minutes, like she’s super, she’s badass. And she does like a carnivore diet, like she is just like a zero carb person. So she’s really cool.

I think something like 4 of the top 11 ultra runners in the world back in 2020, we’re following some sort of a low carb approach. And they were doing it not because it was like, weird, or you know, fringe, but they were doing it because it enhances their running performance. They were performing like, these are some of the top runners in the world. And they’re following this approach. Because it’s good for running. It really is amazing, right?

So a big question a lot of people ask me is like, how do you make the switch? Like, how do you switch from being a sugar burner to a fat burner? Like I get it, Patrick, I want to be a more efficient fat burning machine, right? How do I do this?

So really, the, the, the way you get started is pretty easy. It’s not. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. I’ll say it that way, you’ve got to stop eating the most problematic types of carbohydrates. This is mainly sugar, and flour. These are probably two of the most unhealthy things you can eat.

Sugar and flour are in everything. And it’s really hard to get away from this stuff. But if you can, then you will absolutely begin to change the way your body works, you’re just going to feel amazing, I promise you. Sugar, flour, and vegetable oil, these things are really bad for you. Try to stay away from those three things, okay? If you could just make this one change, it will help you so much, you’re gonna you’re it’s gonna go a long way to becoming healthier.

And, you know, like I said, it’s a simple thing to do, just stop eating sugar and flour. But it’s not easy, because in order to become fat adapted, you reduce your carbohydrate intake, and then you’ve got to train your body to adapt to using fat for fuel, this is the part that people don’t like.

Because fat is not as easily accessible as fuel. At first, it takes a little while for your body to adapt to this. And it can take anywhere from like two to six weeks. And a lot of people who start with they’re like, this sounds like a great idea, I’m going to do this. And then they start, they cut out the sugar, and they start running and they keep running and then all of a sudden running becomes hard. And it’s uncomfortable.

And a lot of people just quit, they can’t hang, you know, running is gonna be hard for a few weeks. And what I need to say to you guys right now is that if you want to do this and you want to give it a shot, you got to stick with it, you have to stick with it, because the results of the things that you get on the other side of this adaptation process are amazing, okay.

But it is uncomfortable. And it feels like you have no energy because you don’t, your body is not used to using fat for fuel. So you have to train it to do that. And the way you do it is you just go out there and run.

And I work with my clients on this and believe me they have issues like it’s, it’s challenging, you know, but it’s a little different for everyone. Okay, everyone’s a little bit different. Everybody has different metabolisms, different fitness levels, different goals and stuff. So, you know, I work with my clients and put together a very personalized plan that works for them.

And some people can get through this tough part pretty much unscathed, like they can handle the first few weeks and get through that tough period. Other people it takes a little bit longer, but we tweak things and we’re always trying to make it a little bit easier. There’s a few things you can do to kind of alleviate some of this discomfort you know, during those first few weeks.

But I will say this, and I tried this a few years ago on my own it was very hard. I had a very hard time doing this. And most people trying to do this on their own just can’t do it. They just give up because it kind of sucks. Learning is hard for a while. But I promise you, if you stick with it, the resort the rewards are like so worth it, it’s truly life changing.

So some of the things you can experience when you become a lean fat burning running machine, when you try, you know, transform yourself from a sugar burner to a fat burner, obviously, you lose weight, because you’re going to give your body a chance to actually start burning the fat instead of storing it right, you won’t feel hungry all the time, you’ll feel more full and more satisfied for longer you won’t be, you know, obsessing about food all the time.

Because when insulin is high, it kind of jacks up your hunger signals and your satiety signals. So when we can bring insulin levels down, those things start working properly, okay, you’re not going to need to eat every, you know, one to two hours, like when you’re eating a high carb diet, because you’re like, I’m hungry all the time. Right?

That’s, that’s not normal, right? You can go 8 or 10 or 16 hours without food, and you’ll be fine, you know. And you can kind of get off of that, you know, addictive response that we have to sugar and carbohydrates. You can still have them here and there. But you won’t feel like you need them, you won’t be obsessed about them.

Some of the things you can experience when you become more efficient at burning fat is you don’t really need to bring fuel on the long runs, right? I always take water and electrolytes with me, but I don’t have to bring goos. I haven’t had a goo and a year and a half.

You know, you don’t have to have sugary carbs with you every 30 or 45 minutes during a run I do all these long runs up to 50k. So up to 32 miles so far, unfueled, you know, with just running on my own body fat, zero calories, right? You don’t have GI distress from all the sugar that you’re eating right. A lot of people have GI problems when they’re eating a lot of sugar.

You basically have limitless fuel on board, right? So you become virtually bonk proof. There was this couple Meredith Loring and Sammy Innokin. And they were rowers. And they set a record by rowing from California to Hawaii in a rowboat, in 45 days. And they did this on zero sugar, zero carbs, they follow a low carb diet. And they did this without all the sugary fuel, you know what I mean?

So like, there’s just unlimited things you can do. You know, when you make this switch, you will improve your body composition, for sure. Because you’ll be preserving lean muscle mass, you’ll you’ll be able to build and keep more muscle tissue, you’ll be able to increase your power to weight ratio, which means you can be a more powerful runner, a faster runner, you’ll have more sustained energy throughout the day, you won’t be crashing from these, like when you have to eat a bunch of carbs in the afternoon.

Or you know frappe or a Jamba Juice from Starbucks in the afternoon. Because you’re just like, I need some energy, you know, and then you come crashing down and you take a nap after that like that just goes away. Also when you’re burning fat, you have more mental clarity, more mental focus, better concentration, because your brain actually needs fat to work properly.

And a lot of people experience this, they’re like Patrick, I don’t have this brain fog anymore. Like I didn’t even realize I was so foggy in my brain. But now I feel you know, like, everything is more clear to me now. And listen, you’re just gonna feel better about yourself, because you’re becoming healthier overall, you know, so you’re optimizing your health and your happiness.

And you know what? Running becomes more fun when you lose weight and you and running is lighter. Like if you’re 30 pounds overweight, carry around a 30 pound weight with you and run with it. This is really hard to do. You know, I imagined myself carrying around one of those 45 pound weights from the gym, you know, trying to run with that home. I got up but I was running with that not that long ago, throw that weight down and start running and how much easier is it going to feel? Oh my gosh.

So here’s a little secret for you guys. This is not really all about weight loss or even being able to run all day without bonking. Those things are awesome, though. But this is about becoming the healthiest human being that you can possibly become right? It’s about becoming fit and healthy and not just for a little while.

Not just you know, for a month or two, but this is like, what this is what we want for the rest of our life. Being healthy is not some destination you’re trying to get to, it becomes a way of life. It’s about Running Lean for life. So here’s the thing, the most challenging part of all of this is how do I make it last for life? How do I sustain this? Making it last.

This is like the biggest challenge that I help my clients with. This is the biggest challenge with any kind of diet, any kind of lifestyle change, the number one issue people have with sticking to any kind of healthy eating program losing weight, whatever it is, anyone can follow a diet for like, a minute, anybody, you know, follow weight loss program for a few weeks, or maybe a month or two, but several years? Most people just can’t do it. Most people give up, they quit, it’s too hard.

So this is a huge, huge part of what I do. This is why I’m a coach. I give people the tools and I teach them exactly how to make it last for life. This is the work that we really do together. I’ll help you break all those old habits and establish new healthy habits that just become part of how you live your life going forward and becoming healthy becomes who you are. It’s who you are. And it’s what you do. Making it last is so important.

It’s such a big topic that I’m doing a whole other podcast episode on just this part of it. Okay. So, you know, be on the lookout for part two of this discussion, which is going to be all about how do we make this last for life. Listen, I’m always striving to become more, I’m always striving to become healthier. I’m always striving to become, you know, to learn and grow. And I want that for you too.

I want you to become the most healthy, most badass version of yourself yet. Because I’ve done it. I know what it feels like. It’s amazing. I’ve done it for myself, I help other runners just like you do this every single day, and I want you to want this for yourself.

I want you to do this because you are worth it. Your health for the rest of your life is so worth it. I want you to make being healthy, just part of who you are what you do. Okay, so making it last. That’s all coming up in part two. So if you haven’t already done so be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you get part two of the discussion as soon as it comes out.

All right, I talked a lot today. I hope you got something out of this episode today. And if you did, please consider sharing it with a friend. I love you all, keep on Running Lean. I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

71. Zero-Carb Marathon Training

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I recently decided to do a little nutrition experiment on myself. I trained for a marathon while following a zero-carb diet, and then I ran that marathon without carb-loading and without the use of …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Well, hey there, and welcome to episode 71 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray, the weight loss coach for runners and today I’m talking about zero carb marathon training. What the heck is this all about? Well, recently, I decided to try a little experiment, a little nutrition experiment on myself.

I trained for a marathon or at least, you know, did the good portion of my training while following basically a zero carb diet. And then I ran that marathon without carb loading without the use of any fuel at all. And why would I do this? Why would anybody do this? How did the training go? How was the race? Did I crash and burn? Is this something you should consider trying for yourself?

Well, in this episode of the Running Lean podcast, I answer all of those questions. I’m going to share my results of this experiment. And I’ll talk about what it was like to train for a marathon and then run that marathon without the use of carbohydrates as fuel. So that is all coming up shortly.

If you have not already checked us out on Facebook, you need to come join us join the Running Lean podcast community over on Facebook, it’s a group of runners who share similar goals, who encourage support and motivate each other to reach goals to accomplish things they maybe feel like are hard for them to stick to it when they don’t feel like it. It’s a cool community of people that is just there for each other and we can lean on each other. Okay.

So if you want a little bit of inspiration, you want a little motivation, you want a little support, encouragement, come and join the Running Lean community on Facebook, we have fun we do. We laugh, we have fun.

Here’s a another five star review of the Running Lean podcast. This is from TimeToChange71. And they said, “Life Changing podcast. I’ve been listening to all the episodes many several times, and they’re so motivating and so informational.” Thank you very much, TimeToChange71.

If you enjoy the podcast, it would mean a lot to me. If you could just take a moment and leave a five star review. It’s a way of just saying hey, thanks, Patrick. I appreciate what you’re doing here. And it helps other people to kind of find the show.

So whether you listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or whatever, definitely leave a review if you can, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

And then here listen, I know I talk a lot about diet, nutrition, weight loss, and all of these things, you know, running without carbs becoming fat adapted and all this stuff. And it can probably seem a little overwhelming. And I get it I totally understand. And I got you covered too. You know, as a coach, this is what I do every day is I help people make sense of all this to help you apply these principles to your own weight loss or running journey.

Whatever your goals are. Listen, we’re all different. We all have different body types, metabolisms, different goals, different likes and dislikes. There’s not one approach that works for everyone. And what I’m talking about today, this whole zero carb training thing, this is not for everyone, okay. It’s just something I was playing around with.

I’m going to share that whole experience with you. I think you might find it kind of interesting. But if there was one thing that works perfectly for everyone, we wouldn’t be having these conversations, you know, there would just be one thing that we all did, but it doesn’t work that way.

So with coaching, what I do is I work with you to come up with a plan that works for you based on your metabolic profile based on your health and fitness goals based on your likes and dislikes. And then we put together something that is tailored to help you reach your goals. Okay.

And this isn’t just about losing weight. It’s not just about diet. This is about becoming the healthiest human being that you can possibly be physically, mentally, and emotionally. You know, I work with runners who are tired of gaining and losing the same 20 pounds over and over again.

I work with runners who are maybe already pretty fit but need help dropping those last 10 or 15 pounds, so they can run lighter and faster, maybe they want to qualify for Boston. I have worked with people who aren’t really runners, they want to lose, you know, 50 or 100 pounds, and they can’t run, but they want to be a runner.

They desire to turn their life around and become a healthy person who could be a runner, they want to become a runner, they wanted to their whole life to be a runner. But they need to lose this weight in order to get there.

So whatever your health and fitness goals, I’m here for you, I’m here to be your guide to show you the way to help you to become the most badass version of yourself. To learn more and apply for coaching, just go to runningleanpodcast.com/apply. And I’ll see you over there.

Alright, let’s talk about this zero carb marathon training. What did I do? And why did I do this? So first of all, what I did was, I adopted basically a zero carb diet. And some people would call this like the carnivore diet.

Okay, so I was not eating plants, I was eating, basically just animal based foods. So meat, eggs, cheese, you know, some dairy, but really no plants at all. Okay, so it wasn’t really like zero carbs, like, you really can’t do that. I mean, eggs have a couple of grams of carbs in there, I guess you could eat just like steaks or something like that. But I didn’t really want to do that.

So this is basically a very, very, very low, almost zero carb diet. And my goal was to do this for 30 days or so. And I decided to do this during the last part of my marathon training. So before I you know, I had all these long runs scheduled, and I wanted to see how it would affect my training. Okay.

So why would somebody do this? Why did I choose to do this? Well, I study nutrition all the time, and I’ve heard lots and lots of studies that show how eating plants can be somewhat toxic for human beings, like, plants have these built in defense mechanisms. Okay, so plants can’t really run away. So in order for them to defend themselves against predators, meaning animals that would eat them, they make it hard for animals to digest them.

So a lot of plants are not edible, right? And a lot of plants are very hard to digest for a lot of animals. The fiber content in a lot of plants gets passed through the human digestive system, right.

So we talked about, Oh, you want, you want to get your fiber, eat a bunch of plants, right, and you’ll get all this fiber. So there are some animals that have adapted to eating a lot of plants. You know, there’s, there’s animals like, you know, elephants and gorillas who are very well adapted to eating nothing, but plants eat a lot of grasses and things like that.

We cannot eat that kind of stuff. So it’s very, very difficult for humans to digest that stuff, our stomachs just don’t work that way. Some of these animals have developed ways of making plant materials more easily digestible.

For example, birds have this thing called a crop where they eat like seeds, and they sort of store them seeds and grains and things like that. And they store them in this little pouch in their like throat sort of. And in this little pouch, these grains or seeds will sort of ferment and sort of sprout a little bit and they become more easily digestible for some of these birds that have this crop.

Okay, so the nutrients from the plants are less toxic, and then more bioavailable. Some of the toxic traits of plants would be things like lectin, gluten from wheat, though, these are the kinds of things oxalates are the kinds of things that make it kind of difficult for humans to digest some plants, okay.

Also, nutrient absorption from plants is much lower than nutrient absorption from animal based foods. Alright, so you know, when you’re eating something that’s high in fiber, you’re not going to extract all the nutrients from that high fiber food because a lot of that is actually just going to get passed through you and digested.

Okay, with animal sources of food, like meat and eggs and some dairy, our bodies are really able to pull all the nutrients out of that very easily because there’s nothing blocking that process from happening, right? There are in plants, but not in animal based foods, okay?

Also, plant proteins are basically inferior to animal based proteins. Plant proteins are great for growing plants. You know, if you want to build plants, plant proteins are perfect for that. Animal proteins are designed for growing animals. And I’m not trying to say like, plant proteins are bad, I’m just saying that they are not complete proteins, they don’t have all the amino acids that you need.

And you have to combine them with other types of proteins in order to make it actually work. And there’s people that do this, and they have great results with that, whatever. But then animal based proteins are complete proteins. And they’re kind of the proteins that humans have been eating for millions of years.

And we’ve, you know, evolved from eating these things. And we’re very, very good at using animal proteins to, to build strong muscles and connective tissues and things like that. So they’re great for building humans. So I’ve been reading all these books, listening to all these experts sharing all these amazing results from, you know, going in more of like a carnivorous direction, like eating more of a carnivorous diet.

Okay, sticking with mainly just animal foods. And I thought, Okay, I just want to see what this is all about. I just want to see if this will make any significant changes in how I feel in my running performance. Like, is this all it’s cracked up to be? Is this a better way to go? Can you even run, you know, 20 miles or run a marathon without eating any carbs at all?

So these are some of the reasons why I did this. And these are some of the questions that I wanted to answer and just kind of find out for myself. So what did I eat? Mostly just, you know, meat, eggs, cheese and dairy. So I just skipped veggies, basically. Okay, so no big salad. I know, I love my big salad. And I just stopped eating that.

And stuck to a very high protein and diet of just, you know, a few basic food groups. Now the types of meats I would eat while I was eating were ground beef and steak, and pork. And, you know, fish, salmon, chicken. So I was eating a really wide variety of meats, eggs, a bunch of different ways, some cheese here and there, but not a ton.

And then some dairy, little full fat, Greek yogurt, maybe some sour cream, but not a ton of dairy either. Okay, so mostly the focus was on meat and eggs, you know, and like fish for the most part. So one disclaimer, I need to say this here, it’s almost impossible to eat zero carbs.

Like there are carbs in eggs, there are carbs in cheese and dairy and things like that. So it really wasn’t zero carbs, it was basically zero carbs. Okay, so for all intents and purposes, it was around, you know, my daily net carbs on eating a low carb diet, the way I have been eating for the past, you know, year, year and a half or whatever. Typically, my net carbs are somewhere around 30-40 grams a day, maybe less some days.

And my daily net carbs on carnivore were like seven or nine grams total, you know, and this is just from a couple of eggs, and a couple of grams of carbs that you get from eating eggs and some dairy. So but this is about as low as I could get them. Um, like I said before, like you could eat nothing but meat. But that just didn’t really appeal to me. So you know, these fine, tiny few little carbs were okay, no big deal. Okay. So that’s what I was eating.

And so how did my training go? Well, I gotta tell you, I felt pretty darn good. I just kind of stick stuck to my same running schedule. My same workouts, you know, I was running three times a week. You know, I started you know, I got into the longer 16,18, 20, 22 mile runs, and really was running fine.

Like I never ran out of gas. I had plenty of energy. I was doing my weightlifting twice a week. And I didn’t really notice any changes really. Okay, so I went from, you know, maybe 20 to 50 grams of carbs a day to like, you know, seven to nine, and really didn’t make much of a difference at all.

I’m already a very efficient fat burner, so I’m using fat as energy pretty much all the time. So as an efficient fat burner as a well established fat adapted runner, this was not a big transition for me, like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Now, I have to say this because I did not train to run a fast marathon. Alright. And you’ll know why I say that.

When I talk about the actual race, I was not training to run a hard, fast marathon. For the last several years, I’ve sort of backed off of like running hard and fast, I’ve just been like, headed, I’ve had this mindset, that I’m just gonna run slow. Like, I’m a slow runner.

The last time I ran a hard marathon was I think it was like 2016, or 2017, we’re talking like four or five years ago. And I had a terrible couple of outings. I remember having a terrible spring marathon and then a terrible 50k that I did about a month later. And I was just like, screw all this. I hate marathons, this is too hard. I don’t want to, I don’t need to run fast anymore.

In fact, I’m not going to do marathons or races, I’m just going to stick to like half marathons. And I sort of quit on myself. Right. And so for the last five years, I’ve been sort of like, you know, I backed off of running hard and running fast, and trying to hit some kind of time goal is just like, I’m just going to run and just, you know, get it done and enjoy myself and a strong that kind of that kind of goal for my races.

And that’s been my MO, right, even through last year, you know, I ran a marathon and 50k last year, but I didn’t like push the pace, it was just kind of like a, you know, casual, I guess, you know, kind of effort, right? Easy effort. So this is the way I was training. I was training to do an easy effort marathon.

Alright, so little foreshadowing, you’ll know why I’m talking about this in a minute. Okay, now I want to talk about fiber a little bit, okay. And I’m actually going to talk about poop for just a second. So if you’re eating right now, you may want to like take a break or something like that.

But here’s the thing. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how if you stop eating fiber, this is going to be a big problem for you, you’re just going to become constipated, you’re never going to poop again. You have to eat fiber, or this is going to be a problem. So I was like, fully expecting to like not poop for a week or something, right? And this is gonna be a big problem for me.

Okay, so I stopped eating plants, I stopped eating fiber. So I’m eating a zero fiber diet at this point, right. And up to this point, I’ve been super regular. I’m once a day pooper, I’m very consistent. It’s all good. No, no issues there. And then I have to say that I really enjoyed pooping on the carnivore diet, like it was fine.

I did not have any issues at all, no constipation, I was still completely regular, you know, once a day at the same like always, but the poops were maybe a little smaller, and a little more dense. Okay. And this is actually a good thing.

Because here’s what’s happening, the animal based foods that I was eating are much more nutrient dense. And since there’s no fiber to like, bulk up the stool, you are actually absorbing more of the nutrients from the foods you’re eating. So it means that your poops are generally a little smaller and a little denser.

So for me, my experience and a lot of people have this very same experience. No fiber is no problem. Okay. There’s a lot of misconceptions about fiber out there. Now, obviously, everybody has to like, experiment with this. But fiber I believe is kind of overrated. So people say like, Oh, if you’re constipated, you need more fiber, eat more fiber, eat more fiber.

Well, think about it like this. If you’re sitting in a traffic jam, the last thing you want to do is add more cars to that traffic jam. And that’s what it’s like if you’re constipated. To add more fiber, you’re adding more of the thing that’s kind of blocking you up in the first place. Okay.

So without having all this fiber to kind of block things up, things tend to just move very, very easily through the system. This is my experience, a lot of people have the same experience. Okay. So this part of the experiment, I will say, was a huge success and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed my poops on the carnivore diet. Okay, so I’m done talking about poop, I just want you guys to all know that it was not an issue.

Okay, so what about vitamins and minerals? What about all those vitamins that you get from eating, you know, vegetables, and don’t you need all the micronutrients? And, again, the animal, the animal based sources of, of macronutrients, so fat and protein contain all of the nutrients that we need to be healthy and to grow a healthy human being okay.

So all the fat protein we need is contained in animal based foods. Also, so are the vitamins and minerals, and they are much more bioavailable to the human body, there’s nothing blocking their absorption like there is in plants, okay, so you get more nutrients out of the foods you eat, when you’re eating animal based foods you just do.

Your body is able to absorb more of the nutrients out of the food. So let’s say you know you’re eating some liver. Now, I don’t really eat organ meats, I just don’t like them. You know, but the liver is just such a great source of all kinds of vitamins like vitamin C, and iron, right.

And if you eat a bunch of spinach, you know, the iron content or the vitamin C content of that spinach, you know, you’re going to get some of those nutrients from that some of those vitamins and minerals, but not as much as you would from eating liver because, again, the plants are going to pass through you a lot of that and digested, right.

So just know that you can get everything you need from eating animal based foods only. Okay, so that wasn’t really a concern at all. I wasn’t really worried about that at all. And I felt great. This whole time, I didn’t have any lack of energy, I didn’t have any nutrient deficiencies that I can really tell. So that was all good. All right.

So race week, here’s why I decided to do the week of the race. So about a week out. A week before the marathon, I made a decision that I was going to shoot for a time goal. Now this is what I was talking about earlier, when I was like I really wasn’t training to run a hard or fast marathon. But then I decided about a week out, I’m gonna like push the pace. I’m gonna run this thing hard. I’m gonna give it everything I got.

And so this was a little bit of a concern of mine, because I hadn’t trained to run a hard and fast marathon. Yet at the last minute, I’m like, Hey, I think I’m gonna run a hard and fast marathon. This is not recommended, by the way. I don’t think this is the way we should do things. Okay? So diet, nutrition, definitely a big part of the equation.

If you want to run a successful marathon, you have got to dial in your diet, nutrition, it’s so important. You’ve got to, you know, train, eat the right kinds of foods and train, you know, fueling yourself properly. Okay, whether that’s eating fat, you know, a lot of fat and protein and being fat adapted or eating a lot of carbs, whatever you want to do.

And listen, there’s no right or wrong answer here. That’s all good. You can do whatever you want. I’m just giving you a different way of doing things here. So diet, nutrition, are definitely a big part of the equation, but also specificity of training. This is a critical component of any type of physical endurance activity, like you have to train for the type of ratio you’re gonna run.

So if you want to run a fast 5k, you have to train, you have to run fast for that distance. You know, you got to train doing that. If you want to run a fast marathon. You got to do some fast long runs. Like those there’s just no way around it right? I didn’t do that. Alright.

I’d been doing my long runs like around a 9:30-ish pace or something like that, you know, which is okay. And that was so easy anyway, so that was kind of the goal that I was shooting for was alright, maybe I can just maintain like a 9:30-ish pace for this marathon, not something I had really been planning on.

So I just wanted to see what I could do. So here was the goal, the goal was to run a 4:10 to 4:15 marathon somewhere in that range. So, you know, that was the goal that I decided on at the last minute. And that was what I was going to shoot for, and just see what could I do? What could I do zero carbs, what could I do?

So now normally, when I even running, like in training, low carb, like I, like I have been for the past, you know, year and a half or so, I will add in some strategic carbs, you know, the day or two leading up to a race, you know, sweet potatoes, rice, you know, quinoa, oats, things like that, just to like, build up a little bit of glycogen stores.

And so you got a little extra fuel in the tank for a marathon or whatever. But this time, I decided not to do that at all. So no carb loading, not even one piece of rice, not even a sweet potato, nothing. So I just was eating the same animal based foods, you know, think the night before I had, you know, a steak or some chicken or something like that. And that was that no veggies, so no carb loading.

And and this was a big part of my experiment, which is, can I run a hard and fast marathon using just my own body fat as fuel basically having no glycogen stored up extra glycogen stored up in the muscles, just whatever my body naturally produces in our bodies produce, our liver actually produces glycogen, you know, glucose and it gets stored in our muscles. So we have all the sort of sugar fuel that we need and it just naturally gets produced.

So I wasn’t too worried about that part. But I’m so well fat adapted that I wasn’t really too concerned about that. But can I, you know, train for this marathon and then run a hard and fast marathon using just my own body fat as fuel? Would this be a success or would I totally crash and burn?

So the goal of 4:10 to 4:15, that was my time goal. And I really wanted to finish feeling strong. I didn’t want to be like dying at the end of this thing. So to me, that was also a big part of this. I wanted to finish feeling strong, feeling good. Okay, race day comes right Saturday, last Saturday, the morning of I do coffee as usual.

And then I considered taking, I have these newer energy gels which are very clean, slow burning fuel. They’re made for people that do low carb, they’re not super sugary. They use blackstrap molasses and sweet potatoes in the energy packets. And there’s just like four ingredients and they’re awesome.

So I consider taking one with me and like sticking in my pocket just in case I needed it. And then as I was getting ready and drinking my coffee in the morning, I’m like, you know what, I’m not even going to bring this with me. I’m going to leave it at home. So I’m just going to do this thing like naked I’m not even going to bring, you know, something you know as a backup just in case things go south.

No, I was confident. I was super confident right? So I do all my long runs fasted. I don’t eat beforehand. I don’t eat during, so I don’t take in any calories. I just drink water and electrolytes and I use that element recharged by elemental labs. It’s just a powdered drink that you can add to water and you can find it at drinkLMNt.com because people ask me all the time what do you use for electrolytes so that’s the stuff I recommend to people.

So I just brought that with me and I used that only, right, water and electrolytes. Okay, so the first half of the race, the first 13 miles I ran comfortably hard like I had that 9:39-40 ish pace, something like that. And maybe a little slower than that. And I was running comfortably hard now.

The reason I say maybe a little slower than that is because my watch died. around mile five. I have an Apple Watch. I use this for all my long runs. It’s works great. For the most part. I’ve had the battery die like during my 50k but I thought this is only going to be about four hours. It should be fine.

No, it wasn’t fine. My watch just stopped working. No more GPS, I had no idea how far I was going. I didn’t know what my pace was, I had a vague idea of what my time was. But that was just vague. So I was just kind of running blind. So I don’t even know, like, what my pace was, I can’t tell you what my splits were or anything like that.

So I’m a little bummed out about that, because I really wanted the data for this race. So I had to do this all by feel I was running on feel I was running on how did this feel to me, you know, we’ve got that rate of perceived exertion scale that RPE of like, zero to 10, like, you know, running like a three, four, it’s pretty easy pace, and then running like a five, six is harder, you know, that kind of thing.

So that’s what I was kind of using in my brain just to like, am I running fast? Felt like it. Yeah. Okay, so first half, comfortably hard. So I was, you know, trying to aim for that, you know, 9:30 ish pace or whatever, I have no idea where I was, it’s probably slower than that. And then I felt great at the halfway point. So I was like, Okay, I’m gonna pick this up a little bit, I’m gonna make the second half, uncomfortably hard.

So I’m going to run the next two hours, uncomfortably hard. And that’s what I did. I set out to with a faster pace, I picked it up. And that rate of perceived exertion, I kicked it up a notch or two. And I was just like, let’s see how long I can keep this up. And I gotta tell you, I felt pretty good. I never felt out of gas, I always have plenty of energy in the tank, like, but those last few miles were tough.

Those last few miles, my legs, were feeling pretty beat up, I was getting pretty sore and tired. And this is where the specificity of training would have helped me a lot. Because I didn’t really plan and train to run a fast, hard marathon. I planned and trained to run a nice, easy, casual marathon. But I pushed through the pain, I pushed through that feeling of like, I’m getting a little tired here.

And I just kept going and I finished feeling super strong and finished feeling amazing. And really the last half mile, I just was like not sprinting, but I was running pretty hard. And it felt so good. I literally had no idea what my time was, so I crossed the finish line. And this was a timed race, you know, we had a timing system and everything like that. So trip times.

So I didn’t know what my time was. And, you know, we could log into a website and you know, after about a minute or two, and then we could see where time was at. 4:16 was my time. This is almost exactly what I wanted to do. I felt so damn proud of myself because I was so close to my projected finish time without even having a clue what my time was while I was running.

So the fact that my watch wasn’t working, and that I hadn’t trained really, for this kind of thing is a testament to me being pretty fit, pretty efficient runner these days, and running only on fat as fuel like not having any carbs for my training, not having any carbs the day before. I did not crash and burn, I finished feeling strong. And I was so close to my time. I was so ecstatic with that performance really.

This is like the first time in five years or so that I set out to run a hard marathon and it was a big success. I felt super, super good about this. And, you know, I gotta tell you that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of talk about, you know, running and having to, you know, fuel up on all the carbs and carbo load to run things like that. And it’s just I think it’s a little overrated, honestly.

So here are some of the lessons that I learned from this experience. Okay, so number one is just that, like carbs, I think are a little bit overrated. I don’t think we need them. I don’t think they’re essential. Actually, they are not essential. And this is not just me, you know, my opinion that essential macronutrients are fat and protein.

If we don’t eat fat and protein, we will die as human beings. We have to eat those two things. But there’s no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. There’s nothing from carbohydrates that we have to eat, or we will die like we can go fine. We’ll be fine without eating carbohydrates. Okay.

Do I think you should eat zero carbohydrates? No, I don’t. And honestly, I don’t know that I have any big, amazing changes by trying this experiment. I just wanted to see, is this even possible, okay?

So my biggest lesson learned is just like, the carbs are a little overrated if you’re a fat adapted runner, which I am, and you can get there too, and you don’t have to do zero carbs to get there, by the way, but if you’re a fat adapted runner, you could run just fine, you can do all kinds of amazing things, and even run a hard and fast marathon without them. Okay?

Another lesson learned specificity of training is very important. Okay. I’m going to do this again. Well, I’m going to train for another marathon in the fall, I’ve got another marathon coming up in the fall.

And I’m going to take a different approach to that one, I’m not going to do this carnivore thing like I did for this marathon. I’ll talk more about that later another day. But I’ll definitely be changing my training plan, I’m definitely going to train differently for that one, because I do want to hit a time goal for that one.

So my big lesson learned around this is like, set your goal early, and then base all your training around that goal. So if you want to run a four hour marathon, train from day one, to run a four hour marathon, that means you’re gonna have to do the speed work, that means you’re gonna have to do the long runs those tempo runs, you’re gonna have to do the, the those goal paced runs, you know, which I didn’t do.

Okay, another lesson learned is that there’s a lot of truth to the carnivore diet, being healthy and being effective. And being just fine. Like, you can do just fine eating a carnivore diet. Like, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it necessarily. Okay. I think it’s a diet that humans have been eating for literally millions of years, and I think we’ve evolved eating a lot of animals and animal based product foods.

So I don’t think it’s bad, okay. And you can even train for a marathon and run a successful marathon without eating clients and carbs and things like that. Okay. Now, here’s one big lesson, I’ll just tell you, like, I didn’t see amazing results, I didn’t really see big changes to my energy levels, or how I felt or, you know, sleeping better or overall feeling better, I would say that I felt about the same as eating a relatively low carbohydrate diet.

So for me, there wasn’t that big of a change, honestly. And my original plan was to just do this for about 30 days, and then get through that marathon. But I felt good so I kept it going for I did something like 40 days of this, and it felt great, you know, but nothing, not a big difference from where I was before that, okay.

So since then, since the marathon, I’ve gone back to eating some carbs and eating my big salad every night. You know why? Because I love it. I love it. So I’m back to doing probably, I don’t know, 30 to 40 grams of carbs a day in the form of some veggies, avocados and things like that, I miss my avocados.

And I’ll report back to you in a few weeks and see if there’s anything big that I noticed that changes, but so far, after almost a week, like nothing is really different, no significant changes, everything is still functioning beautifully. Okay. So is this something I would recommend? Like should you do this? Honestly, I don’t recommend one way of eating or one diet over another.

Other than I suggest that most of us who are overweight, can probably benefit from eating a lower carbohydrate diet. So most people are somewhat carbohydrate intolerant, meaning that they, most people can’t handle carbs very well. And when they eat a lot of carbs, they tend to gain a lot of weight.

And I think most people can dramatically improve their health by ditching the problematic carbohydrates, okay, but other than that, like I don’t recommend anybody do plant based or vegetarian or carnivore, or whatever it is, you know, pescatarian I’m not going to tell you what to do. You’ve got to try stuff and see what works for you. I’m doing this because I’m just curious. I’m a curious person. I’m always learning and always curious and open to different things.

You know, if I was working with someone who was a one on one client, and they were having trouble losing weight, and you know, maybe they the weight was just not moving at all, or they were dealing with chronic constipation or something like that. I might suggest trying a carnivore approach for a few weeks to see if things change.

You know, like, I’m suggesting that for somebody that I was working with, and we would have to talk about exactly how you would do that, and what that would look like, and, you know, but here’s the thing, we are all an experiment of one, what works for this person over here may not work for you what works for me, may not work for for someone over there.

I didn’t see dramatic improvements in my health and well being on a carnivore diet. Right? It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t much different from what I was doing before. If you prefer to get fuel from plants, if you prefer a high carbohydrate diet, and this works really well, for you for running and for your health and for how you feel, that is amazing. That is awesome. Do you, absolutely. Right?

If you want to, if you’re a vegan, because of like, you know, religious reasons, or, you know, moral issues with animals and whatever, you don’t, don’t do this, like, it’s, I support that. I absolutely support that everybody’s different. Do what works for you.

You know, I’m not opposed to a plant based diet, I did it for like 10 years, and it just wasn’t, it wasn’t the right diet. For me, it wasn’t the best diet. For me, I feel so much better, eating more of an omnivorous diet. But if you trying something like this appeals to you, and you want to give it a shot, try it and see how it goes can’t hurt, can’t hurt.

So I’m always open to trying things for myself, I’m always kind of pushing the envelope a little bit to see like, what can I do? What can I improve my health? You know, will this help to improve my health? Will that make me healthier? Will make me stronger? Will it give me more energy? Will it improve my sports performance? I’m always trying stuff like this. Okay.

So one of the points I want to make here is that I wanted to show you and show myself but I really wanted to show you that we really don’t need carbs to function optimally, right? We don’t need carbs to run a marathon, we can do just fine without them. Okay, I’m not saying you should, but I’m just saying we can do fine without them. Okay. Listen, I love being a fat adapted runner.

I love the feeling of running a marathon and running it hard and relatively fast for me. Without having to worry about bonking without having to worry about hitting the wall at mile 18 or 19, which I’ve done so many times. I love all day energy. I love the clarity of mind that I get from eating a low carb diet. I love being fat adapted runner. The foods that I eat is very satisfying, very delicious and very satiating, right? I’m not hungry all day long. I don’t have afternoon crashes. I’m not thinking about food all the time. So I love this whole lifestyle.

All these things are amazing and really eating this way that I am now just being a kind of ditching the problematic carbs and being more of a low carb runner, and being fat adapted. This works really well for me and I feel really good eating this way. Right. And I can still be very fat adapted.

I don’t have to go strict carnivore, I don’t have to go zero carbs, I can still eat my big salad, and enjoy it. Alright, so that’s all I got for you guys today. I hope you got something out of this episode. I hope you pulled some little nuggets out of this today. And if you got something out of it, please consider sharing it with a friend. I would so appreciate that. Love you all. Keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you’re a runner and you’ve been struggling to lose weight or you keep losing and gaining the same 10 pounds over and over again. Or you’re finally ready to get to your natural weight and stay there for good this time then I have something you will love. I’ve created a powerful new training just for you called running lean for life. You’ll learn exactly how to transform yourself into a lean fat-burning running machine. So you can run without bonking, lose weight without calorie counting and develop the habits required to make it last for life. To get this free training right now go to runningleanpodcast.com/leanforlife and start your transformation today.

68. Our Complicated Relationship With Food

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When it comes to health and fitness, there’s no topic more controversial or more complicated than which foods we should eat, and which we should avoid. Some experts tell you this diet or that diet …

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Podcast Transcript

My name is Patrick McGilvray, and I’m an experienced marathoner, ultra runner, Sports Nutritionist, Master Life Coach, and weight loss coach for runners. I’ve dedicated my life to helping runners just like you properly fuel your body and your mind. So you can get leaner, get stronger, run faster, and run longer than you ever thought possible. This is Running Lean.

Hey there, and welcome to episode 68 of Running Lean. My name is Patrick McGilvray. And today, I’ve got a really cool topic for you. This is our complicated relationship with food. So when it comes to our health and fitness, honestly, there’s no topic that’s probably more controversial or more complicated, than what foods we should eat and what foods we should avoid.

And experts will tell you like this diet is the best one for everyone or that one is the best for everyone and, or maybe that it’s not about the food at all. It’s more a problem of willpower and self-control. Just eat whatever you want, just eat less of it and exercise more, and you’ll be fine.

And I’ve come to realize that it’s just not that simple. We humans, we’ve evolved to have a very interesting and very complicated relationship with food. So why is what we eat so complicated? And what does this mean for us? And most importantly, what can we do about it? So in this episode, I share many of the reasons why our relationship with food is complicated. And my hope is that by the end of this episode, you’ll have a deeper understanding of this complicated relationship we have with food, and maybe be able to make some more informed decisions about your own dietary choices.

But first, if you haven’t already done so come check us out on Facebook, we have this amazing group of runners, the Running Lean podcast community, on Facebook, and it’s a place where you can ask questions get help feel supported, hey, we all need to feel supported. Sometimes, especially when it comes to trying to accomplish something big, like training for a marathon or an ultra-marathon or maybe, you know, getting lean and strong, maybe losing some weight.

All of these things. We support each other in the Facebook community. So come and join us. You can lean into this community you’ll find encouragement, inspiration, and motivation. Just go to Facebook and search for Running Lean community. I hope you join us. It’s fun, we have fun.

I want to dive right into this topic today. Because I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now. And I really wanted to share this information with you guys and acknowledge the fact that our relationship with food is complicated. And I think it’s, we do ourselves a disservice when we try to simplify it, you know, just eat this or don’t eat that. And it’s more complicated than that.

And I want to just really acknowledge how complicated this really is. And that there’s a lot more going on than just, you know, these foods are good, these foods are bad, you know, that kind of mentality. I don’t think that serves anybody. Okay. So before I get into, like, why things are complicated, I want to just give a quick history.

And this is nonscientific. But I just want to give you a rundown, kind of the way we’ve evolved. Okay, so we had these hunter-gatherer ancestors, okay, who I’m assuming did not have a very complicated relationship with food. Alright, food was a means of survival. So they would hunt, they would gather, and they had this survival instinct. They told them that they needed to go forage for food or hunt for food, they got some food, they ate it, they shared it, it was probably from what I understand is probably a community effort.

You know, the whole community got involved with the hunting and gathering, the preparing of the food, and then the eating of the food. And so we evolved with this beautiful, healthy sort of relationship, I guess you could call it a relationship with food. And over millions of years, we grew these amazing brains.

You know, we became the most advanced living creature in the known universe. Think about this. There is no creature that is as evolved as we are that we know about in the universe. There might be, it’d be very cool if we could figure that out and meet some of these other creatures. But for now, it’s just us, okay.

And we evolved this way, because of our dietary choices, really think about it. And then we live this way for eons, you know, from literally millions of years. And then something changed in the last few 1000 years, you know, we started to see things like, people becoming obese and diseased. And, you know, there was a lot of overeating, gluttony, and things like that.

And you can see this in history, if you look at, like the Roman Empire. So this would have been, you know, just a few 1000 years ago, during the Roman Empire, being fat was a sign of being ugly, like they really admired the ideal human form. If you look at the sculptures and paintings from that era, they had this ideal that they were reaching for.

And people that were fat people that were overweight, this is a sign of ugliness, and a sign of being mentally unbalanced, like an unfit mind. And so they created things like gymnasiums, where they would work out to get stronger and improve their fitness and their health. And they held beauty contests for women, just like interesting, you know.

And then, like, early Christians, they thought that being obese was a sign of not being spiritual. And early on in you know, the early few 100 years A.D., you know, gluttony was deemed, you know, one of the deadly sins. And so we started out with really no, sort of, like, emotional, spiritual or mental, like, hang-ups around food, and our bodies.

And then as we’ve evolved, you know, all of this has become more complicated. And being overweight, or obese, you know, has been vilified. Okay. So, just know that you know, only in the last few 1000 years have we started to really have this super complicated relationship with food. And I would say, probably, within the last 100-120 years or so, have things really amped up, you know, especially in the era of the Internet, and social media. And we’ll get into that a little bit more in just a minute here.

But here’s the thing. We do need food to survive. Food gives us life. Food can also cause us harm, it can create a diseased state in our body, we know this. Science tells us this it can create a state of obesity, lead to debilitating diseases, and can even kill us. So when I talk about our complicated relationship with food, we need food to survive without it will die. But eating the wrong types of food too much food can literally kill us. This is where things start to get complicated. Okay.

So, one of the first real big complications I want to talk about here is that you know, the foods we tend to love the most the foods that we’re most drawn to, the foods that we fantasize about, seem to be the ones that are the worst for us. For example, sugar is amazing, right? When we eat sugar, we feel amazing. Feels so good. We get this rush of dopamine, our endorphins, you know get released.

Eating sugar lights up the same centers in our brain as when you do cocaine. So this is great, right? Like we’ve evolved as humans to seek out these kinds of calorie-dense, very sweet foods, you know, like honey, and berries. And we would eat these foods every now and then. But nowadays, these foods that we’re eating are being you know, developed in a laboratory, by food scientists, they’re deemed hyper-palatable.

So they really hijack the pleasure centers of our brains. So when we eat some of these hyper-palatable foods, we can’t get them out of our mind, you know. So we’re really, really drawn to these foods. So that’s sugar.

Flour is the same way. So flour is like, white flour especially, is a very concentrated form of carbohydrate, just like sugar is, but I didn’t know this until recently, but flour actually spikes your blood sugar even more than actual table sugar does. Because it’s ground so finely. So it is a very refined carbohydrate.

But because there’s so much more surface area in flour, because it’s so fine, it will create an even higher spike in your blood sugar. So when you’re eating things that are made of flour, and sugar, this is just like, off the charts, right? So the foods we love the most, the foods that we’re like, most drawn to seem to be the ones that cause the most problems, you know. So this, this makes things complicated, right.

And these foods, you know, we know that too much sugar is bad, and it causes us to hold on to fat, and we store fat when we eat a lot of sugar, and flour. And it’s making us fat, obese, and sick, and it’s slowly killing us. We’ve never been more fat as a nation. In the US, you know, obesity rates have more than tripled since the 1970s.

And the major culprit, I would argue in the science would argue is the highly refined carbohydrates, especially sugar and liquid sugar and soda and things like that. So this is complicated, right, in, in conjunction with that is, you know, is this addictive nature of food. So, you know, I really, I gotta say, in the big food industry, they use this idea of hyper palatability, and they create this food that is super, super desirable so that they can sell more food.

And, honestly, we are being manipulated in a way. I’m not like a conspiracy theorist type of guy here, but we are being manipulated by the big food industries, especially the big packaged food industries because they just want to sell us more food. They’re not concerned about how healthy or unhealthy these products are. They are only concerned about making more money.

And so they put a lot of money into making these foods as highly palatable as possible. And so, you know, this is where the complication comes in, right? Because these foods that we know are not good for us are incredibly addicting, and we just like we can’t get enough of them. Right?

They’re like the most the things we desire the most. Our desire is like off the charts for these kinds of foods. Okay. So, you know, most of us, most of us cannot handle these, these highly refined carbohydrates and most people, the majority of people are what is called carbohydrate intolerant – just means like you can’t handle a diet that’s really high in carbohydrates.

These highly palatable high carbohydrate foods, they’re just as addictive as a substance as something like alcohol. In fact, they turn on those similar pathways in the brain, they turn on this thing called the phenomenon of craving. It’s like once you start thinking about donuts, you can’t get it out of your head and you just gotta go have a doughnut.

It’s very similar to somebody who has an addiction to something like alcohol. When they start thinking about it. They can’t get out of their head. It’s this craving that they just can’t shake. You know, and the food industry they know this and they make these foods that do this to us. So that will buy more.

They even put it on their packaging, you know, once you, once you pop, you can’t stop. Like we acknowledge the fact that you cannot just have one potato chip. You know, like, you’ve got to eat this whole bag once you open it up, that was my experience. Anyway, I used to love those kettle chips. Let’s see, I think it’s called kettle brand chips, I don’t even know anymore.

But they’re these potato chips with like salt and vinegar on them and just the saltiness and, and the bitter like vinegar taste to these things. I could not stop eating these things, I would go through a whole bag, and I could not just eat just one. You’re right, food companies, I cannot stop once I pop.

And so there’s this like addictive nature to and there’s this hyper palatability to food. And on one hand, there are people you know trying to make the food as pleasurable as possible. Remember, our brains are really good at seeking pleasure and avoiding pain that’s our, our amygdala, you know, that ancient part of our brain that primitive part of our brain that is always seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. And this does it for us.

You know, seeking out these highly palatable foods creates this incredibly intense desire and pleasure for us. Okay, but it’s also super terrible for our health. So this is complicated, right? And then you’ll hear people say things like, well, you can eat anything you want, just in moderation. All foods in moderation. This is the slogan that a lot of registered dieticians use: all foods in moderation.

And I just don’t think this is necessarily good advice because, for some of us, certain foods can trigger addictive-like responses. So wouldn’t it be better to just avoid some of these foods? Just a thought. I mean, it’s kind of like telling somebody who has a drinking problem. And maybe they’re an alcoholic to just have a few beers every now and then. You know you can drink. It’s fine. Just you know, one or two.

But the answer for some of us is that the answer, really, for some of us is that we just have to avoid these problematic foods altogether. Because if we start we can’t stop. You know, when I used to drink alcohol, I could not stop at just one. I had to keep going. Because it lit up that pleasure center in my brain. And my brain, you know, maybe it’s wired differently than most people. I don’t know.

But I couldn’t stop it. Just I couldn’t have just one beer, I would see people that would like drink a half a beer and like, leave it on the table. I’d be like, what is happening here? Does not compute. How do you do that?

And it’s the same way with food for a lot of us like we cannot stop we you know, once you if you ordered dessert at the table and everybody’s like, oh, let’s just share, just have one bite, we can each have one bite? No, man, I’m gonna get my own dessert. Okay, I’m gonna eat the whole thing myself. You can’t, I’m not sharing it with you. All right, because I’m not I can’t just have one bite it just triggers this response inside me.

So wouldn’t it be better to maybe just avoid that? Okay. I don’t know that all foods in moderation is like the best advice, you know. And I’m gonna go on a little bit of a rant here just about registered dieticians and I love them and I have friends who are RDS but the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics so this is the organization that kind of the Governing Board of Registered Dieticians. This is an organization that over the years has been funded by big companies like McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola Company, Sara Lee, Abbott nutrition, General Mills, Kellogg’s, Mars, you know people that make candy. Unilever and the sugar association.

So of course their slogan is going to be all foods in moderation, eat some McDonald’s eat some you know, drink some Coke and Pepsi, eat your cereal, eat your candy bars. Sugar is fine, just in moderation, right. So this organization, the AMD is kind of in bed with big food. And in my opinion and the opinion of a lot of people in the nutrition world, it’s coloring their stance you know, by telling people that cereal and soda and candy bars are fine.

I don’t think this is good advice necessarily. Okay. That does not mean that every registered dietitian is telling people to go eat McDonald’s and Coke and things like that. But I’m just saying that again, this is complicated, right? That there are these relationships that those big companies have with nutrition governing bodies.

And, for example, like registered dietitians, they are the only people that can prescribe meals for patients in hospitals. And for type two diabetic patients. This is no joke. They will prescribe a breakfast of coffee, orange juice, a bagel, Rice Krispies, a V8, and a package of white sugar. This is for somebody suffering from high blood sugar hyperinsulinemia, type two diabetes, this diet is going to spike their blood sugar like crazy. This is not what you want to give somebody that’s a type two diabetic.

And then their solution is well then we just inject them with more insulin and the problem is solved. This is crazy right here. Okay. And if you want to learn more about this, there’s a great book by Michelle Hearn. She’s a registered dietician. And it’s called the Dietitian’s Dilemma.

And she talks about this place where she got to in her dietitian practice where she was like, I just, I don’t feel good prescribing people with type two diabetes, these super high sugary meals, I just can’t do it. But this is what they have to give them. It’s a little complicated.

And here’s the thing, I absolutely believe that we should be able to treat ourselves every now and then. You know, so yeah, some foods are problematic. Maybe for me, you know, sugar is a problem. And maybe I want to not eat sugar most of the time. But can I treat myself every now and then? You know, if it’s Christmas, can I have some Christmas pudding? Or if it’s Thanksgiving? Do I want to eat a piece of pumpkin pie with some whipped cream on it? Yeah, sure. If it’s my birthday, am I gonna eat some birthday cake? Probably yes.

And then I just go back to my regular diet, you know, the next day. But if treating yourself is having negative consequences, or if it becomes something that you can’t stop doing, is this good for you? Is this really a treat?

So, you know, I don’t want to go through my life, never eating a good piece of fresh sourdough bread again, or, you know, pizza, I love pizza for the crust, I’ll be honest with you, I the toppings, whatever, I love pizza, because it’s the crust, I just love the stretchiness of it. And so good. So good.

And I want to be able to eat that, again, I want to be able to eat some ice cream again. But I don’t want to be obsessed with these foods. And this is where things get complicated, right? Because we want to be able to do this every now and then. But for some, we just can’t do that.

You know, so maybe it’s better to just avoid altogether, for the most part, you know, avoid it altogether. Except for maybe some special occasions. I haven’t eaten sugar in a very long time. I think the last time I ate some sugar was on. Well, was it Thanksgiving, probably. And we’re in April now. So this was a while back. And I enjoyed it. But it wasn’t amazing. And I didn’t get obsessed with it, you know.

So for me, I don’t really want to. I just don’t want to eat sugar because I can’t stop once I start. So I’m just you know, the reason I’m doing this today and talking about this stuff is because we do have a complicated relationship with food. And I don’t want to ever say that it’s easy. And that it’s super straightforward.

Because we all have a very unique relationship with food. We all have strong opinions, we all have certain desires and things that trigger us, and it’s complicated. And I just want to acknowledge that.

So another thing that we’re told is that and I kind of mentioned this earlier is that you know, if you just eat less food and exercise more, you’ll be fine. So eat whatever you want, just eat less and exercise more and got nothing to worry about. And honestly, this just doesn’t work. And we’ve talked about this before.

It has been proven that this doesn’t work for the majority of us, you know if you’re overweight. So this is their stance is like if you’re overweight, it means you overeat, you’ve just got to eat less. If you had more self-control, you wouldn’t be overweight, because you wouldn’t eat as much.

And I just think this is so crazy because it’s just not true. There are so many people that watch their calories, and they exercise a lot. And they still gain weight. It’s not necessarily about how much you’re eating. It’s like, what kinds of foods you’re eating? And how is your relationship with it?

I have this client who had a running streak going and still does. But he’s had this running streak going since 2007. So this guy is an absolute beast, he runs at least three miles a day, since 2007. This is like well over 5000 miles, I believe by now. And in this process, he’s gained over 50 pounds. So this is an average weight gain of 3.8 pounds a year.

If it really took that long, you know, it really only came on in the last half of this. So really, it was more like six pounds a year or so. And just so you know, the average adult in the US gains around two pounds a year after the age of 20. And so this is a problem like you’re gonna be pretty overweight, as you get older, right?

But this person, this client of mine, doing this running streak was exercising like crazy, like crazy, and still gained all this weight, like, the answer is not to exercise more. And this person was not a compulsive overeater or anything like that, you know, for the most part, try to eat up a pretty healthy diet but still gained 50 pounds, the answer is not, you know, eat less and run more, it just doesn’t work.

And, you know, there’s a lot of experts out there that are doling out advice. And trying to tell us what we should do. And a lot of this advice, I think, is well-intentioned, and it may work for them. But a lot of these experts are, are thin people, and they’ve always been thin. And they’ve never been overweight, and they’ve never struggled with eating, and they don’t know what it’s like to be a fat person to be overweight.

And some of these experts that are that have always been thin, trying to tell us, you know, well, you just don’t have enough self-control, I think is really doing us a disservice. I used to follow these ultra runners who were following a high carbohydrate plant-based diet, and they’re like, this is what you do, you got to eat all these carbs eat a plant-based diet. And I’m like, oh if this is the way to go, that’s what I’m going to do. Because this is what the experts are telling me.

Well, you know, these, these ultra runner experts are, have been thin their whole life. And they run like 200 miles a week. Okay, they’ve never struggled with their weight a day in their life, maybe they’re not carbohydrate intolerant, they may be part of that population that can handle a high carbohydrate diet. Plus, you know, if you’re running 200 miles a week, you know, it’s gonna be really hard for you to put on weight.

You know, also these people are like, elite athletes are like the top 1% of athletes in the world. You know, and here I am just some average dude with, you know, who’s overweight, you know, trying to follow their advice, and it’s not working for me. Right? This is complicated. It’s not as simple as just doing what they do, because I’m not them.

We’re all different. We all have different needs. We all have different metabolic profiles, we all have different desires, we all have different likes, and we all have different goals. And we have to meet you know, we need to meet ourselves where we are. And we need to do what is best for us and what works for us and having thin people trying to tell us what to do, I don’t think is doing us a much of a service. Okay.

And then we get into things like our relationship with food being so complicated, we get into things like eating disorders, you know, there’s this body dysmorphia, which is a mental illness, you know, and it’s, it’s when people think, you know, they see a flaw in themselves, you know that this flaw they see in themselves, could be very minor or it could even be just something they’re imagining, but they spend hours just, you know, trying to fix this flaw.

You know, they may try to excel at exercise, or they do cosmetic procedures. And they look at themselves in the mirror, and they say, oh, I’m so fat. Or look at that, look at my nose, you know. And this is an issue that causes you to know, other eating disorders. So this body dysmorphia, like we were comparing ourselves to maybe this perfect ideal image we see on Instagram or something.

And it can lead to, you know, depression, anxiety, and other types of eating disorders. You know, like anorexia, Anorexia is a very distorted body image, it’s a super, like, intense fear of gaining weight or being fat. And so a lot of people that have anorexia are very below normal weight, they’re very unhealthy, they starve themselves, they exercise, they over-exercise.

And a lot of these people, need medical treatment, to get themselves back to normal weight. A lot of times they need therapy to help with their self-esteem. And with these behavioral changes, they need to make.

Bulimia is a similar disorder. You know this is binging and purging, you know, and people with bulimia. You know, they’re, they feel compelled to binge eat. And then they want to avoid any kind of weight gain. So they’ll purge, and this can be life-threatening, right, because, you know, with anorexia and bulimia, these people are not getting the nutrition that they need to be healthy.

So, you know, we’ve taken this idea of like, a healthy ideal, and it can go to the extreme. And it can be very hard for people to see themselves as healthy as well, especially when we compare ourselves to others. And if you or somebody you know, is struggling with you know, dysmorphia, anorexia, or bulimia, you need to get some sort of medical help, honestly, because these are serious eating disorders and could be life-threatening. So definitely seek out help with these kinds of things.

But see, there’s this complicated relationship we have with food, you know, and it’s just been, it gets more intense, you know, it can be very intense for people. You know, we have this physical, we have a physical relationship with food, like where we have to eat food, or we die, okay. But like I was saying, you know, we have these hyper-palatable foods, and that creates a physical craving in our body.

So our body gets addicted to these feelings of bliss that we get from eating highly refined carbohydrates, for example. So the way it works is you eat some sugar, let’s say, like, you eat some donuts, right? Blood sugar spikes like crazy, but then it comes crashing down. And in order to get back to baseline, your body needs more donuts, to get back there. So you eat more donuts, and then the cycle repeats, you know, blood sugar spikes then crashes hard.

And you know, we get a lot of energy from eating donuts, we get this like a burst of, of energy, but then after a couple of hours, we have much less energy, we’re more fatigued than before we ate the donuts. Okay, so we have this physical, this complicated physical relationship with food with certain foods especially.

And then we have this emotional relationship with food. We use food to comfort ourselves, we use food to soothe ourselves so that we feel better. When we experience a difficult emotion like we’re stressed out, or we have anxiety, or we’re bored or angry, or we’re sad, or we feel hurt, a lot of times we turn to food to make us feel better.

Some foods we call comfort foods because they come for us. They make us feel good. And this is fine. It’s fine to do this, okay. But if your comfort food has negative consequences, this may not be such a good idea. Obviously, it depends on the food you’re using to comfort yourself. You could cover yourself with a whole pizza like I used to do.

A large pizza and a pint of beer and Ben and Jerry’s and oh, that’s very comforting. But lots of negative consequences. I just kept getting fatter and sicker. You could also come for yourself with other types of food and people don’t think of it this way. But you could come for yourself with a big colorful salad. Or a thick ribeye steak. Or a piece of grilled salmon or yeah, with like butter sauce on it.

Oh my gosh, amazing. And it’s very comforting to eat healthy foods as well, it can be. So we don’t have to go to the highly palatable foods to comfort ourselves, sometimes we can use I know. It’s like, oh, really, Patrick? Like, I’m just gonna go eat a big pile of broccoli? And that’s going to comfort me? And, you know, sometimes, yes, sometimes, yes. Okay.

But we can actually choose comfort foods that do serve us, and that will support our good health. So we have a physical relationship with food that’s complicated, we have an emotional relationship with food that can be complicated. And then we have this mental relationship with food.

You know, just thinking about food can produce a physical craving, just the anticipation of eating food. It’s actually more enticing than the actual experience itself. Like, I remember. Yeah, for Thanksgiving, last year, I was all obsessed about this pumpkin pie. And I’m like, this is gonna be so amazing. And I’m gonna get the, you know, the whipped cream on there. And it’s just, I can’t wait to do it.

And the anticipation, I had this idea in my brain that it was going to be so amazing. And then, when the event actually happened, and I ate it, I was like, all right. It’s like no big deal. It wasn’t as good as it was in my brain, you know, beforehand leading up to it. So we have this mental sort of obsession with food. This is complicated, right?

We have food we see in our Instagram feed, you know, food porn, they call it, you know, and just do a search for the hashtag food porn on Instagram. It’s amazing, like, pictures of burgers and pie and cake, and doughnuts and all kinds of stuff. It’s pretty amazing, your mouth will just start to water just by looking at these pictures. And then there’s the role that, you know, the media plays, and we see these billboards with giant pictures of pizzas on them.

We were out running this past weekend and I don’t like, you know, pizza, really, from this one place here in town. But there was a big giant billboard with his huge pizza on it. And like I said, I don’t even like their pizza. But I saw that billboard. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I go for a big piece of pizza right now, because I’m looking at this thing. And it’s creating this trigger in my brain. Right. And they know that it does that to us.

You know, we see these ads on TV ads, social media ads, and magazines and stuff like that. And the food that they just, you know, they’re just pumping us full of, you know, these images of how amazing this food is, okay. And then we have the social aspects of food. So a lot of times, you know, we want to stay on our plan, but then we, we go out with friends or something, and we feel like we’re being judged by other people.

You know, we want to celebrate with food. But then we feel like we’re, we’re doing something bad. You know, there’s a lot of stereotypes to like, oh, you’re a runner. Oh, all runners are skinny people, all runners can eat whatever they want. They don’t have to worry about getting fat.

I don’t know about you, but that’s not my experience. I was fat. And I felt judged by people, like, oh, you’re a runner, and you’re overweight? Like you must be doing it wrong. And then we have all this fat-shaming that goes on, you know, there’s like so much judgment around this stuff, right? When we’re being judged by others, we tend to want to, you know, crawl back to safety. And so we don’t stick to our program because we feel judged.

You know, we don’t want to be the weirdo at the dinner party, or in the restaurant with our friends. You know, everybody’s eating bread, and you’re like, oh, no bread for me. And they’re like, what’s wrong with you weirdo? Now, of course, people probably don’t say that. But that’s what we think. And we feel judged by people.

There’s this social pressure and food pushers, you know, people that are telling us just eat, just eat it. It’s fine. It’s not fine. It’s not fine. And then, you know, we have this. Speaking of restaurants, we have this problem, I think with portion sizes and how much we eat and how often we eat. And we’re told that we need to eat three meals a day plus a couple of snacks plus dessert and so we end up eating six times a day.

So we’re snacking all day long, and we go out to eat and our portion sizes are humongous, and I think that overeating has become the norm, you know. And then there’s this, like self-torture that we, that we do to ourselves, like, we torture ourselves around food, like, I shouldn’t eat this, or I can eat that. And in order to lose weight, I have to suffer, I have to suffer my way to better health.

You know, if I’m not suffering, I must not be doing it right. So I’ve never had a diet where I didn’t suffer and feel terrible. And then there’s this guilt and shame, we feel and we don’t stick to our plan. And there’s an internal shame of feeling, you know, ugly or overweight. And we have this emotional distress around how much we weigh on the scale.

And if we gain a pound, it means we’re a bad person. And we’re a failure. And we have a bad day. And so we just go back to eating the garbage food, you know. And if you want to know more about the scale drama, check out episode number 66, all about eliminating skilled drama, because I take a deep dive into that topic.

So all of these things I’ve talked about here today, I know I’ve kind of been all over the place. But I did this on purpose because I just want to I want you to know that this is complicated. It’s not a subject that, you know, we can just talk about in black and white. It’s not black and white, there’s so much gray area here. And what works for one person doesn’t work for somebody else.

So what do we do with all this? What do we do with all this information? Yeah, it’s super complicated. So what do we do? Well, I want you to know that the reason I created this is because I wanted to create a massive amount of awareness, I want you to see how complicated our relationship with food has become. And that this is not easy.

This topic is controversial, it’s complicated, it’s complex. There are a lot of nuances here, a lot of gray areas, I want you to be able to make informed decisions about your own health. And I want you to feel good about what you choose to eat and choose not to eat, you got to do what feels good for you. I also want you to be open to different ideas. So maybe not the ideas that are pushed down from the big food companies. But maybe some more grassroots kinds of ideas.

You know, we are all an experiment of one. You need to figure out what works best for you take control of your own health and your own fitness and your own diet and do what feels best for you. If you want to be a vegetarian or a vegan, or do the Mediterranean diet or Weight Watchers, whatever you want to do is completely fine. I have no judgments about any of that stuff.

But if what you’re doing isn’t working, I want you to be open-minded to try something else. You know, I talk about this a lot here I have a bias towards a lower carbohydrate approach. It seems to be the high carbohydrate diets seem to be a problem for most of us. Okay. And so, a lot, just lowering some of these problematic carbohydrates seems to help most people achieve peak physical health.

And, you know, if you can adopt a lower carbohydrate approach, and become a fat-adapted runner, oh, that’s amazing. And if you want help with this, like, reach out to me, I’ll walk you through that whole process step by step. One of the main reasons why I chose this field to specialize in sports, nutrition, health, and fitness coaching for runners is because it is so complicated.

And because I want to take all of these complicated issues here, and I want to do my best to distill them down for you so that they make sense and that you can make informed decisions and you can take control of your own health and fitness. So I do my best here on this podcast and in my coaching programs, to help you to make good decisions and do what works best for you because there’s not one diet that works for everyone.

My job is to help you and help my clients figure out what’s best for you. What’s the best for your body type what works best for your metabolism, what’s going to help support your health and fit goals? What supports your likes and dislikes? Complicated, right? We have a complicated relationship with food. I’m hoping that you got something out of this episode today.

And if you did, if you could please consider sharing it with a friend that would mean a lot to me. All right, that’s all I got for you today. Thanks for letting me rant a little bit here. As always, lots and lots of love to every single one of you keep on Running Lean, and I’ll talk to you soon.

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