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Carb-loading feels like overeating
May. 12th, 2010 11:25 pmI have been mostly "resting" since the 20-mile nearly 2 weeks ago - just my normal-life walking around plus a lot of leafletting for the election. A few timed fast walks have had me come in at
23:15, 23:20, 23:30 for 1.65 miles => 14 - 14.2 min/mile
so that fitness is still up. Things are looking good, and I am almost over the grumpiness of the 20 mile walk enough to look forward a bit to Saturday night.
For a change, some diet notes:
I have been gently calorie-restricting throughout this training, mostly to stop the exercise leading to weight gain through increased appetite, which is what happened during half-marathon training last summer. Mostly I've eaten 0-250 kcals below maintenance, and this has led to gentle weight loss. It's not hurt the training, and has cut back about half what I gained last summer.
For the last few weeks I've been paying attention to the composition: the percentage of calories from carbs, protein and fat. My default had become about 50/10/40, and I decided to shift to a low-fat diet of 60/20/20, which seems to suit me quite well, even if it takes more time to plan. I have been amused to discover (again) that low-fat food really does fill you up more because it's less energy-dense. Or at least it takes longer to eat.
Today I stuck to the usual 250-below-maintenance calorie level, but shifted to 70% carbs (I don't care how the other 30% distributes itself really) and it's actually been hard to eat it all. My plan is to do 70% carbs on my maintenance calorie level for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I've at least 72 hours of carb-loading before Saturday night. I'm just not sure how I'm going to manage to eat it all!
On Sunday I will eat whatever I like, or more realistically, whatever I can get down. After the 20-miler, I had an uncharacteristically low appetite for about 24 hours, when I was expecting the opposite. Some strange reaction to excess exertion I guess, just like my body really doesn't seem to like hydrating during and immediately after walks over 8 miles or so.
On Monday, back to the 60/20/20 plan, for the next nine months at least. But that's the topic of another post.
23:15, 23:20, 23:30 for 1.65 miles => 14 - 14.2 min/mile
so that fitness is still up. Things are looking good, and I am almost over the grumpiness of the 20 mile walk enough to look forward a bit to Saturday night.
For a change, some diet notes:
I have been gently calorie-restricting throughout this training, mostly to stop the exercise leading to weight gain through increased appetite, which is what happened during half-marathon training last summer. Mostly I've eaten 0-250 kcals below maintenance, and this has led to gentle weight loss. It's not hurt the training, and has cut back about half what I gained last summer.
For the last few weeks I've been paying attention to the composition: the percentage of calories from carbs, protein and fat. My default had become about 50/10/40, and I decided to shift to a low-fat diet of 60/20/20, which seems to suit me quite well, even if it takes more time to plan. I have been amused to discover (again) that low-fat food really does fill you up more because it's less energy-dense. Or at least it takes longer to eat.
Today I stuck to the usual 250-below-maintenance calorie level, but shifted to 70% carbs (I don't care how the other 30% distributes itself really) and it's actually been hard to eat it all. My plan is to do 70% carbs on my maintenance calorie level for Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I've at least 72 hours of carb-loading before Saturday night. I'm just not sure how I'm going to manage to eat it all!
On Sunday I will eat whatever I like, or more realistically, whatever I can get down. After the 20-miler, I had an uncharacteristically low appetite for about 24 hours, when I was expecting the opposite. Some strange reaction to excess exertion I guess, just like my body really doesn't seem to like hydrating during and immediately after walks over 8 miles or so.
On Monday, back to the 60/20/20 plan, for the next nine months at least. But that's the topic of another post.
