After being up since 3am with a very naughty toddler i just did 10k moorland run in the blooming sleet!! It was very steep and hard. Very hard. Some of it is practically climbing.
It took 1hr 40.
But i didn’t dare go low carb. I had my usual brown toast and banana before i did it. I just knew if i attempted low carb mentally i would have given in.

Any advice on what to eat??

Nice one! I’ll leave this one for the experts but really well done on the 🏃🏽‍♀️sounds fun but challenging! I am having a rest day today as ‘middle of the month’ 🙄 and I always get really bad stomach pain but planning for running tomorrow, I’ll see how it goes after 3 full days on the 800. Was down a 1lb more today hoping for another 1 or 2 tomorrow. Will be interested in what advice you get! All the best 💚

Happyhel,
I always had toast for breakfast before I started this. I have switched to Seeded Rye bread, but I just have one slice with butter a bit of salt and pepper and an egg. Sometimes at the weekend I have it with a slice of bacon, smoked salmon or avacado. Rye bread is low carb and high fibre – i toast it for longer than I did brown bread.
On other mornings I have mutual yoghurt with raspberries, nut and seeds. I find both breakfasts much more filling. Nuts and cheese are also a good alternatives for post workout snacks.

Hi Happyhel35, if you are not diabetic then having the occasional carb will do not harm except maybe slow down your weight loss. Having said that, a 10km hike might counter that. But you ask what to eat instead of carbs for heavy exercise. I am not into all the science or the macros but you need to know that eating carbs will make you hungrier as they are quick sugar hit and quick sugar drop. You would be much better off with a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and grilled mushrooms or any other combination, like poached eggs with mushrooms, boiled egg and avocado, there are lots of protein and fat rich meals available on this plan. The fats will keep you full for longer and the protein will help with muscles. Take something with you like a bag of mixed nuts (not roasted salted peanuts) with a little bit of dried fruit. Many people have started with the question, I exercise a lot can I have more calories/carbs etc and you will find much of the advice by using the Search key and typing in words to that effect. Good luck, small steps are better than none.

If you are going to eat before running then you need time for it to be digested before going out so you need to factor that in and ususlly puts a constraint on what can be eaten. I usually run in the early morning (at the moment that’s did as I am recovering from a hip fracture that I managed to acquire near the end of a marathon and running is not allowed yet) without eating first, just a mug of tea. I only take water with me if it’s really hot or over an hour. When I get back from a long run (I only do one long run a week) it’s usually 20g of “proper” porridge with crunchy peanut butter stirred in or a small banana and cocoa (I’m not diabetic, just prefer low carb eating for the majority of the time), or as sunshinegirl suggests eggs/mushrooms/avocado/bacon in various mixes, or just a glass of chocolate milk with cocoa stirred in for shorter runs. If you do need to eat before your run and the toast/banana combo works I’d go with that, but only a small or half banana and not “plastic” white bread, or a few nuts and if you are doing this for weight loss rather than diabetes reversal.
Sounds like it was an interesting run.

Hi,
You may find looking at the research by Dr Stephen Phinney who has published a number of podcasts, and his book the Art and Science of Low Carb Living is very helpful. He focuses on working with sports people who work out low carb, which may help reassure you on the benefits of going low carb for endurance athletes.

I’ve just seen your post on another thread about insulin spikes – so the porridge is out. I also saw you’ve been eating eggs and tomatoes before a run so if it’s working I would stick with that, or you could try full fat yoghurt with berries with seeds or avocado. The other thing I saw was that you carbo load before a run but would suggest that running 5k and 10k don’t really call for loading. Most people have enough body fat to keep them going for quite a while and it is generally accepted that there are glycogen stores to last around 90 minutes of running. You may feel a bit odd as your body switches over to fat burning but once that happens your body can switch quite happily and seamlessly between fat burning carb/glycogen burning. Personally the best thing I find is a good meal (no bad carbs and I don’t eat late) the previous evening then never having to worry about eating until after my run. If you google fat adapted running there is a lot of information.
I hope you don’t have another 3am start tonight and everyone sleeps well.

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I have to eat before i jog. I personally couldnt do 100 minutes without it, i would faint. I eat about 1 -1.5 hours before i jog.

I’m going to try a fast 5k on eggs/ cheese/ cherry tomatoes next week and build up to low carb for the 10k.
Its wholemeal nutty bread not white plastic bread. And I’m trying to keep the rest of day very low carb so it balances out . I don’t think I’m insulin resistant. And don’t have diabetes. Just pcos
Xx

Happyhel35, I have PCOS and I’m going to tell you what I wish the myriad physicians, Ob-GYNs and endocrinologists who did nothing for me over the three decades since I was diagnosed had told me.

Hyperinsulinemia is the underlying cause of every single feature of PCOS. If you’re not insulin resistant already, and you almost certainly are, it’s only a matter of time. Doctors never test for insulin levels, relying solely on blood glucose as a marker of dysfunction, but it could be decades before your blood glucose levels cross the threshold into pre-diabetes/diabetes. Meanwhile, your pancreas are producing more and more insulin as your cells become less and less sensitive to it. As I know from very hard, very painful personal experience, this can only lead to increasing weight gain, androgen excess, anovulation and all the rest of the symptoms PCOS inflicts on us.

There is only one fix for this. Cutting out carbs. They’re a crutch, not a necessity. You don’t need them to exercise. You have fat stores to supply your mitochondria with the fuel necessary to produce the ATP that makes muscles contract. Yes, there is likely to be a brief period of fatigue while you switch over from burning insulin-spiking grains, sugars, starches to burning fat, but it passes. Once you’re fat adapted, you will have more and more steady energy than you ever got from bread, whatever its color or texture. The world is full of marathon runners, body builders and athletes of every kind who eat ketogenic diets and never touch carbs.

You’re a jogger so you are more than up to the challenge. You push your body and mind every day and it sounds like you’re damn good at it. Go on step further and eliminate any foods that spike your insulin levels and materially harm your body long before your blood glucose shows any sign of danger. I did and it changed every aspect of my life. The 200 lbs I lost were only the most noticeable part.

Good luck!

Thank you Esnecca. I have copied that message so i can absorb it fully. I have about 28lb pounds to lose i think. I KNOW going low carb to jog is possible but it goes so against the grain. my running club still advocates carb loading. So im going to try weaning myself off the carb breakfast before i go . I’m going down to half a slice of toast next time. X