LCHF vs HCLF for athletic performance

Executive Summary

* This week's study involved some professors known to many people in the low-carb world: Noakes, Volek and Agostino.

* The study was a randomised controlled trial involving 10 men, who averaged 40 years old. They ran an average of 50km per week and had been running for an average of just under 10 years. Crucially, the men were not used to fuelling on fat.

* The men were randomly assigned to either a low carb high fat (LCHF) or a high carb low fat (HCLF) diet. They did their assigned diet for 31 days and then did the other diet 2 weeks later.

* Some of the many key outcomes were that:

- Performance did not drop when the athletes were forced to fuel on fat.

- Glucose levels and variability were lower on the LCHF diet.

- Weight, BMI and body fat improved more on the LCHF diet.

* Professor Noakes developed Type 2 Diabetes after a lifetime of being a carb-fuelling athlete. In this study, 30% of athletes had fasting glucose measurements consistent with prediabetes.

Introduction