Re: Paleo Advice from Elite Endurance Athlete

This is a Paleo Diet Debate Forum, and you asked for some Paleo endurance athletes. A race is a very small window of time in these athletes lives. Overall he's Paleo, follows a Paleo diet and performs at a very high level. I've added and highlighted in blue, the parts of each of his answers that you intentionally omitted.

"He may be lower-carb, but he is certainly not low-carb"  

Again, he follows a Paleo Diet. Lower-carb, low-carb, whatever you want to call it, it's in the Paleo diet realm. 

 Notable quotes from his interview:

- The main time I supplement is during races that I anticipate performing at or above 75% of my max heart rate (MHR) for 90-150 minutes (what I would consider cross country pace).  At this point I’m anaerobic and relying quite heavily on carbs rather than fat. However, I don’t believe in sports drinks that only have carbs, and I don’t need much carbs.

No one is zero carb, and of course we all need carbs. So what's your point here? You asked for Paleo endurance athletes. Are you saying that he isn't Paleo, or are you saying that he isn't Paleo enough by your standards? It's more likely that you don't even know.

- For races in the 4-6 Hour range I definitely need more carb intake because I’m likely running at 80% MHR the whole time. I’m still burning quite a bit of fat, but also burning a lot of carbs.

-  Again, I’m mostly burning fat, but I am burning carbs here and there and need to replenish them if I wish to continue at the intensity it takes to win the race.

- In this case, I rely on Puresport, caveman energy bars, beef jerky, and fruit, especially grapes, strawberries, and bananas. I might even use some Organic Brown Rice Syrup

All Paleo.

- If I need a big boost late in the race I've been known to eat pizza, bread, or other forbidden processed carbs like muffins or cookies just to get me through it.

So what's your point here? Do Kenyans never eat processed foods? Do vegetarians not eat muffins? Do people on low fat diets never eat pizza? Does everyone follow their diet perfectly? At least the guy's honest.

- Keep in mind that the Paleo Diet is not really a low carb diet. It's low by modern standards, but these standards are just grossly out of proportion. Fruits and vegetables do indeed have carbs.

Yes, that's correct. Thanks for highlighting that there's a misconception about the Paleo diet being "low carb".  It's really more about trying to eliminate grains, especially gluten, starchy vegetables, processed foods, junk food, legumes, dairy, alcohol, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, high GI fruits and hydrogenated oils.

-  So, if I find myself craving carbs, I’ll just eat more fruits and sweet vegetables like carrots and capsicums.

All Paleo approved.

- Caveman energy bars: Dates, Cashews, Coconut flakes, Local honey, 100% Cocoa powder

Yes, that's his own recipe for what he calls "Caveman energy bars". All are Paleo approved, although some super hardcore Paleo followers might exclude dates and honey, even though both were likely available to our Paleolithic ancesters.

I try to live and eat by the 80% rule, which states if you follow the diet 80% of the time, you will get almost all the benefit from it. There are times when it’s next to impossible to follow the diet, like when you’re travelling or having dinner at a friend’s house and they have slaved away at preparing baked potatoes, bread, rice, etc. and it would be downright rude to not eat anything. 

Tweet