Originally Posted by
carnivroar
I'll say it again.
You do not need to rely on glycogen for low-intensity exercise.
A healthy human has anywhere from 10% to 20% body fat. Obviously, if you have a 5% body fat, you're either staving to death or are an elite athlete (who are not examples of good health).
And give me a break, 30+mph on a 95 mile hilly road? That's downright impossible and only shows your lack of better arguments.
I may not be a good example, sure, but that doesn't disprove my claim. See:
And let me repeat in case I wasn't clear enough. I'm talking about low-intensity, endurance activity.
I used to be a powerlifter and have squatted 405lbs for 3 reps three years ago. Those types of exercises do require glycogen stores, so I was eating more carbs at that time. Usually from white rice because it's easily digestible and doesn't contain gluten.
You're getting pushback because this forum is called "Training and Nutrition" and is a part of BikeForums. It's supposed to be about bicycling and the training and nutrition to support the goals of bicyclists. It's not a fad diet forum that's run by some guy who's pushing a pet theory to make money by selling his books.
The vast majority of people who visit and post here are interested in furthering their bike performance. The nutritional aspects of performance on the bike have been studied extensively and are well known. Your posts are at variance with everything that is known about performance on the bike, or athletic performance in any sport for that matter.
My wife and I, total age 133, just did an 87 mile ride with 3000' climbing, 70 miles of it upwind, with an average of 15.3. Which is nothing, nothing at all, mediocre performance. Corniche is correct, average speeds on long, hilly road courses have exceeded 30 mph. Average speed for the entire Tour de France has exceeded 25 mph.
Be that as it may, our crappy performance was only possible because we each ate over 1000 calories of carbs during the ride, with more carbs before and after. I was burning about 400 calories/hour for over 5 hours. Real Riders would be burning closer to 700 calories/hour. I believe maximum fat calories that well-trained humans my size can burn is around 160/hour.
So two things wrong with not eating carbs: no glycogen and no carb fuel = no performance, not even at my mediocre level. The numbers are not there, no matter what your fantasy is.
As I've said before, if you want to make extraordinary claims on this forum, post your palmares. Me: double imperial century in under 12 hours, 400k in under 15 hours, hilly 200k in under 8 hours, RAMROD (10,000', 154 miles) in 9-1/2 hours, and all that by a mediocre rider in his late 50s and early 60s. And I'm not making any extraordinary claims. I just eat what is normally recommended for endurance cycling. BTW, my blood lipids were described by my doctor this year as "Perfect." Your cycling palmares?
It's all about results, both for performance and health, which are pretty much the same thing.
Your not being a good example in fact does disprove your claim.