Originally Posted by WarrenG
High-Carbohydrate Vs. High-Fat Diets In Trained Cyclists - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included...
Even the "high fat" people ate 30-40% carbs. Number of training hours per week of only 6 hours at the low end indicates a person who isn't really much of a bike racer. Eat only 30-40% carbs on that amount of hours and it wouldn't matter much.
Measured performance by measuring VO2max. This is really poor because even with NO training VO2max does not drop very much. Measuring race performances would be much more appropriate, or at least measuring performance at a variety of intensities.
To explain further...
VO2max is a specific intensity but it does not say anything about how much power or speed a person is able to produce at a given intensity. In most ways it's like saying x% of MHR. What is much more important (in terms of evaluating performance at VO2max) is how fast a person can ride/run/swim, etc. _at_ their VO2max, or at some given percentage of their VO2max.
So a study that says, "after we fed the athletes x for 6 weeks their VO2max didn't change" isn't really saying much about their performance at the intensity referred to as VO2max.
If a person says, "My VO2max is 65mg/kg", the question to ask is, "Oh, and how fast can you go at your VO2max?" Training is used to improve how fast you can go at your VO2max.