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Can high protein, low carb or Paleo regime benefit runners?
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Velloo - I am not aware of any real evidence but there seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence. I asked about paleo on my club's Facebook group last night and was overwhelmed with people saying that they follow a 'broadly paleo' diet and that it's vastly improved their running. I'll try and check out that book you mentioned and I agree that this stuff shouldn't be complicated.
Debra - thanks for the tips.
Big G - I echo what I said last night on FB, but you will probably find once you start delving deeper into it that you end up following some hybrid version of paleo/atkins/keto. As long as you're sensible and apply common sense, this ought to work (IMHO of course!)
Big_G what is a broadly paleo diet?
If they've cut carbs, and therefore calories and are losing weight then their running will improve. It would also improve if they lost weight doing whatever.
From my own anecdotes all the fast skinny runners I know eat carbs, some from vegetable sources, some from grains, some from nuts etc. I have never read any convincing study to back up the theory that cutting carbs in itself (not any associated weight loss) benefits running.
velloo - one chap still ate potatoes but ditched all other carbs. One chap still had milk, but other than that followed paleo. I'm not saying this is right/wrong but (to me) seems a reasonable compromise.
I agree about the weight loss probably being the main reason for running improvement but to be honest I'm not looking at it from a weight loss point of view and don't really want to lose weight (I've lost a lot of weight anyway). I am very interested in potentially running a marathon without using gels though.....
Lots of fruit and vege - not so much potato if I can - meat and quorn and fish - almond milk and some dairy. I have GF oats in the morning, maybe some rice/rice noodles in my lunch or tea (along with vege etc) and gluten free buns and pizza every now and again
When I was trying to loose weight I cut out all refined wheat/flour products and refined sugar - ate a little bit of rice but it was mainly fruit, vege and various protein sources.
A diet with loads of meat and veg and no cake sounds a bit rubbish to me.