breakfast carbs and exercise

[ScarlettInSpace]

At the back end of last year I lost a stone, fairly easily, by cutting out obvious carbs (bread pasta rice potatoes) replacing with salad & veg and a combination of running & shredding.

I've kept it off but not lost any more and now, with 10 weeks to my wedding (eek) I want to drop some more.

Back into the paleo style diet & exercise regime for the last 2 weeks and I'm struggling with fitness levels & haven't lost a pound.

On Friday for the first time in months I had toast for breakfast and managed 2 work out sessions, running for longer than I have in months. Saturday I struggled with stamina again, Sunday I had toast and once again I absolutely nailed the gym, running further still than on Friday.

Is it the carby breakfast giving me extra energy/stamina and should I stick with it on gym days? My OH says I've just found an excuse to eat bread again

IMHO you can't train effectively without a balanced diet including carbs
Obviously these need to be the healthier options of brown bread, brown rice etc

My PT advises carbs at breakfast and lunch but none after 2pm which I find easy to stick to.
Typical breakfast is granary toast with smoked salmon and poached egg, eggs and soldiers or beans on toast

You can train very effectively and to a very high level without what we think of as carby foods. If you're not able to it's only due to not yet being fully keto-adapted, which makes sense if you've only just gone back into lowcarb eating. Two weeks is not enough time. Or if I've misunderstood and you're not in the first two weeks of lowcarb then you're possibly not having enough fat intake. You need a lot of fat to maintain good energy levels.

Also paleo is not actually low carb s such. If you're eating lots of fruit and the more carby veg you will not be keto-adapted.

I find exactly the same thing so on gym morning days I have non sugar cereal and apple / pear - No banana as that repeats on me . Or wholemeal toast and honey _ I find I excercise much better.

The reason you train much better with carbs, is because on paleo, you are still a carb burning machine (so to speak). You need to become a fat burning machine, in order to fully get the benefits. If your body isn't adapted to burn fat, then it will run better if you carb load before training.

If you want your body to run off your fat stores, you need to be keto adapted before hand (can take 4+ weeks)

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I've probably not given it enough chance and gone for a quick fix.

I do like the feeling of running faster and for longer that I've been getting with the small carb intake but not sure if it's worth it if I'm just burning off the carbs I've eaten

I'll see how I get on over the coming weeks, thanks again for taking the time to respond

Scarlett you might be running off the carbs you have eaten, but it's my understanding that paleo is a carb energy system. Depending on how many carbs you are eating in a day, you will probably be unable to access your fat stores if you are not keto adapted. I would guess this is true, by the fact that you train better off more carbs. I could be wrong.

If I wanted to lose weight for my wedding and train without needing a carb load, I would go for a keto diet.

Read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" by Drs Vinny and Pholek.

You can train/workout/perform just as well - if not better - if you are a low carber.

But you have to be consistent and make sure that you've switched your body into fat-burning mode and away from carb-burning mode.

All you're doing is keeping yourself burning carbs - which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - you will continue to need carbs to exercise.

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to read up a bit more on the science I think; and yes I definitely need to be more consistent with my approach.