low carb, karate & weightlifting

StormWarrior

Does anyone here do martial arts whilst eating low-carb? Do you think it would be possible to perform well in karate class if you haven't eaten any fruit or grains, but had eaten a big salad of starchy vegetables like parsnips, beetroot, carrot, etc, that day?

Do you think it's ok to weightlift after a breakfast of eggs, prawns, mushrooms and olive oil, with no carbs?

corkcomp

StormWarrior wrote: »

Does anyone here do martial arts whilst eating low-carb? Do you think it would be possible to perform well in karate class if you haven't eaten any fruit or grains, but had eaten a big salad of starchy vegetables like parsnips, beetroot, carrot, etc, that day?

Do you think it's ok to weightlift after a breakfast of eggs, prawns, mushrooms and olive oil, with no carbs?

it might be possible in you eat enought root vegetables but ive never been able to do anything remotely near my potential if not taking in carbs. why would you want to avoid fruit if you are that phyiscally active? having an apple + banana before karate class wont make you fat

J-Fit

corkcomp wrote: »

it might be possible in you eat enought root vegetables but ive never been able to do anything remotely near my potential if not taking in carbs. why would you want to avoid fruit if you are that phyiscally active? having an apple + banana before karate class wont make you fat

Me too. Absolutely killed my strength when I tried going low carb and I'll never do it again. Ignore the people who say you don't need to eat carbs. Yes, it's true there are no carbohydrates that are essentail to survival but there those that will compromise your ability to perform to your best. The low carb movement was not initiated by high level athletes but it's somehow snuck it's way in there. The advice above is what to do.

ragg

J-fit - was it you that said you once cut & carbs were more then 40% of your diet?

If it was you, can you elaborate on that a bit?
Im finished strict dieting now and plan to reintroduce more carbs - I have a small bit of bodyfat left that i'd like to lose, maybe 2%.

If it wasn't you, ignore my ramblings...

J-Fit

ragg wrote: »

J-fit - was it you that said you once cut & carbs were more then 40% of your diet?

If it was you, can you elaborate on that a bit?
Im finished strict dieting now and plan to reintroduce more carbs - I have a small bit of bodyfat left that i'd like to lose, maybe 2%.

If it wasn't you, ignore my ramblings...

Yeah it was me who said that. I've maintained a fairly low bodyfat for the last few years but always went the low carb route when cutting. It always frustrated me that my strength diminshed when I did so - obviously due to low calories but also due to low glycogen levels. I finally decided to keep carbs in the diet when cutting the next time. What I did was by no means rocket science. When I bulk, I usually go 40/40/20 - C/P/F. I used the exact same ratio for cutting and all this entailed was adjusting my meal portion size and nothing more. I did supplement with BCAAs just to ensure that I had sufficient protein intake but other than that I didn't do anything different. It was great because I wasn't totally carb depleted and this meant that I wasn't suffering awful cravings and stuff. I also retained most of my strength and that proved a great platform to get even stronger on the rebound. Sometimes the oldest and simplest methods are the best.

corkcomp

J-Fit hit the nail on the head there. there is a common mis-conception that cutting must = low carb but it all comes down to calories in vs calories out, and obviously cutting out crap carbs like sugar and white products.

ragg

thanks J-fit. Im going to start upping my carbs at the expense of fats in my diet and see how it affects the waist line.