June 2018 – Low Carb Studies Athletics Site

MAF 5K Walk with 5K Warmup

I did Chef Joe’s Omelette Run today at my MAF heart rate (112-122 bpm) this morning. I got to the race early to make sure I got a shirt and walked a 5K as a warmup before the 5K race. I did the race and warmup walking only (no running).

5K Warm-up for 5K Race

I did a 5K walk as my warm-up on the track.

Here were my splits in the warm-up.

Here are the statistics for the warm-up.

I did pretty good at keeping in my MAF heart rate range of 112-122.

It took about 20 minutes to get up to my MAF range. The warm-up ended about 25 minutes before the race but I kept moving after the warm-up.

The 5K Race

Here’s my heart rate during the race. I stayed in the MAF range for the most part. Because I was already warmed up I got into my MAF range in just a couple of minutes.

Here were my splits for the race (walk). My race splits were better than the best warm-up splits.

Here was the route. Not too much hills considering it is here in SW PA. I did find it challenging doing the walk with other people since I tried to keep up with the women in front of me but that made my heart rate go up over the MAF number. When that happened I breathed deeply and held in my breath at the in breath. That seems to drop my heart rate a few points quickly.

As you can see I hit 137 bpm at one point. I did throttle back pretty quickly. It was getting hot even at 9 AM but the temperature above is recorded as 69.5 F.

I had fun. And I represented keto…

Heart Rate Calculator

Check out our on-line heart rate calculator. It is especially useful for Heart Rate Training calculations.

FASTER Subject 43

Damian Stoy was also a participant in the FASTER study (Jeff S. Volek, Daniel J. Freidenreich, Catherine Saenz, Laura J. Kunces, Brent C. Creighton, Jenna M. Bartley, Patrick M. Davitt, Colleen X. Munoz, Jeffrey M. Anderson, Carl M. Maresh, Elaine C. Lee, Mark D. Schuenke, Giselle Aerni, William J. Kraemer, Stephen D. Phinney. Metabolic characteristics of keto-adapted ultra-endurance runners. Metabolism, Volume 65, Issue 3, March 2016, Pages 100-110.).

put up his VO2max test results (UConn FASTER study and blood test results) and it is really interesting.

Damian is a male, 32 yrs old, 66″ tall vegan who weighs 128.6 lbs. Damian had a VO2max (of 63.4) which exceeded Ben Greenfield’s VO2max (61.1) (Rewriting The Fat Burning Textbook – Part 2: Why You’ve Been Lied To About Carbs And How To Turn Yourself Into A Fat Burning Machine.). I don’t see what the termination conditions were for either test. Damian’s VO2max had not flattened out as far a I can see and neither had Ben’s. In fact Damian’s RER of 1.21 is supposedly past the RER of 1.15 that I was told was a termination co-condition.

Ben did cross over the 1.0 RER number at 10:31 into the test and Damian crossed over at 8:02. It could be said that Ben is a great fat burner but it must also be admitted that Damian is a darned good carb burner.

They may have both dropped out due to RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion). Again, there’s nothing here that account for what ended their test.

RER vs Ben Greenfield

What is fascinating is the RER numbers. The lowest RER value Damian ever got was 0.85 and it happened at a very early point in the test (26.5 or 43% of VO2max). That indicates to me that Damian is very adept at burning carbohydrates but not at all adapted to fat burning.

I wonder if his very low body weight affected the result? Now an “advantage” that Damian had was that he weighed quite a bit less than Ben Greenfield (128.6 lbs vs 173.9). The VO2max number is divided by body weight. Ben’s Max VO2 (not adjusted for weight) was 4.75 and Damian’s was 3.71 so Ben is using a lot more air volume but he’s larger so he has to.

Damian is also a professional runner (What is Wholistic Running?). Ben is an all-round athlete.

His Other Vegan Bloodwork

Damian posted his Fasting Glucose number and it was 94 which is in the reference range of 65-99 but somewhat high for an athlete. Not unexpected given his high carbohydrate diet.

His platelet count is also low at 137 (reference range 140-400).

Muscle Protein Synthesis Meal Spacing Maximum

I asked Dr Donald Layman the following question:

@donlayman My question is about the three hour PMS window. The maximum happens at 90 minutes and the return to baseline is at 180 minutes. Does that mean that the cycle can be repeated every three hours? Is there a study showing the minimum interval between PMS cycles?

He responded!

Great Q! No clear study on 2nd meal timing. IMO 3 hr is too soon Our data shows initiation factors still fully active at 180 min, so meal effect should be limited at 3 hr Initiation factors do not reset until ~5 hr However, van Loon shows night meal effect @ 2.5hr post dinner

IMO, to max meal effect, I target meals at 4 to 5 hr apart, with 3 to 4 meals per day, and 1st and 3rd meals at ~45 g to max mPS response.

I am changing my eating pattern in response to this information. I am leaving Intermittent Fasting window and I am going to eat breakfast starting today (I ate breakfast).

7 AM, 12 Noon, 7 PM (after workout or earlier if it is an “off” day).

Fat Plus Protein Doesn’t Affect Muscle Protein Synthesis

Another related study shows that adding fat to protein doesn’t slow or stop Muscle Protein Synthesis (Gorissen SHM1, Burd NA1, Kramer IF1, van Kranenburg J, Gijsen AP, Rooyackers O, van Loon LJC. Co-ingesting milk fat with micellar casein does not affect postprandial protein handling in healthy older men. Clin Nutr. 2017 Apr;36(2):429-437.).

Co-ingesting milk fat with micellar casein does not impair protein-derived phenylalanine appearance in the circulation and does not modulate postprandial myofibrillar protein synthesis rates.

Spreading Out Protein is Better for Muscle Protein Synthesis

Spreading our your protein intake is better for Muscle Protein Synthesis than taking fewer larger protein meals (Areta JL1, Burke LM, Ross ML, Camera DM, West DW, Broad EM, Jeacocke NA, Moore DR, Stellingwerff T, Phillips SM, Hawley JA, Coffey VG. Timing and distribution of protein ingestion during prolonged recovery from resistance exercise alters myofibrillar protein synthesis. J Physiol. 2013 May 1;591(9):2319-31. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2012.244897. Epub 2013 Mar 4.)

20 g of whey protein consumed every 3 h was superior to either PULSE or BOLUS feeding patterns for stimulating MPS throughout the day.

This study provides novel information on the effect of modulating the distribution of protein intake on anabolic responses in skeletal muscle and has the potential to maximize outcomes of resistance training for attaining peak muscle mass.

Providing 20 g of protein every 3 hours stimulates MPS more than providing the same amount of protein in less regular doses (40 g every 6 hours), or more regular doses (10 g every 1.5 hour).

A related study shows the importance of spreading out protein over a day rather than eating most of your protein at a single meal, say dinner (Mamerow MM, Mettler JA, English KL, Casperson SL, Arentson-Lantz E, Sheffield-Moore M, Layman DK, Paddon-Jones D. Dietary protein distribution positively influences 24-h muscle protein synthesis in healthy adults. J Nutr. 2014 Jun;144(6):876-80.).

The consumption of a moderate amount of protein at each meal stimulated 24-h muscle protein synthesis more effectively than skewing protein intake toward the evening meal.

Blood Sugars Go Up After Protein

In many (maybe even most) people blood sugar levels often goes up by a small amount following consumption of protein. I did an experiment which showed this in myself (Blood Sugar Responses Compared). This effect is temporary and the levels often go lower after a few hours than before the protein was eaten.

This increase of blood sugar is actually a good thing. It indicates that your body is spending a lot of energy on Muscle Protein Synthesis. Muscle Protein Synthesis has a 3 hour window after eating protein (MPS peaks at 90 minutes and returns to baseline in 3 hours) (Protein Guru). This is similar to the effect from exercise where your blood sugar will go up immediately after intense exercise – even when you are fasted. Your body is mobilizing energy in the form of glucose from the liver (Protein Gurus – Part 2).

Contrary to a lot of misinformation out there this is not Gluconeogenesis (GNG) from the Protein. It is GNG that comes from the fat in your liver and bloodstream (Xinhua Chen, Nayyar Iqbal, and Guenther Boden. The effects of free fatty acids on gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis in normal subjects. J Clin Invest. 1999 Feb 1; 103(3): 365–372.).

This is basically the same as exercise where your blood sugar goes up with intensive exercise but if you look at the glucose levels over time they are lower averaged out over the entire day from higher protein consumption. This has been demonstrated through CGM.

GNG from your liver comes from the glycogen already in your liver which came from the fat in your bloodstream and liver. And believe me, we all need lower fat in our livers. That’s the main cause of T2D (in my opinion and that of many others).

If you are low carb your body has to produce glucose to make up for what you are not getting in your diet. Your body can produce glucose from any of the three – Carbs, Protein, and Fat. The body is really bad at doing it from Protein but if you only ate Protein and you ate an excessive amount the body would be forced to use Protein to make the needed glucose.

What is not commonly appreciated is that the liver only produces the glucose that it thinks that it needs. It’s not producing based on what you eat (outside of carbs). When you eat protein your body needs more energy to perform MPS so it sends up the glucose a small amount. Glucose for muscle building is a good thing.

Carbs, on the other hand, send up blood glucose by a large amount and are not a good thing when it builds up.

Protein Wisdom

This post is to distill my previous thoughts and posts on Protein.

Overfeeding Protein does not lead to weight gain (Too Much Protein?).

Leucine is an important component of Protein which is key to Muscle Protein Synthesis. It takes 3 grams of Leucine to achieve Muscle Protein Synthesis. It takes around 30g of protein to get 3g of Leucine. That’s around 4 ozs of lean chicken for instance (Protein Guru).

Protein should be eaten first (before vegetables, etc). Protein should be spread out by at least three hours between meals. (Protein Gurus).

That is the basis for my own strategy.

Another Protein Guru (Dr Van Loon)

Dr Van Loon is interviewed here (Optimizing Protein Intake with Luc van Loon, PhD). Here are the referenced studies:

Notes from the interview

How much protein?
- 4-5 meals a day
- 20-25g of protein per meal
- Maybe more for elderly (45g?)
- Maybe more for sedentary
Very little evidence for damage from too much protein
What happens to the 20g of protein?
- 10g is retained in the gut
- 10g of the 20 is released into the circulation
  - 2.2g of the circulated protein are being incorporated into muscle
    - By about 6 hours after the meal
Supplementing protein to older patients via tube into stomach increased MPS during sleep
- Eat casein before bedtime can get additional muscle mass and strength
- This doesn’t harm the next morning’s response to protein
Adding carbs or protein doesn’t affect muscle protein synthesis
Carbs help for regaining glycogen stores but they are not needed for MPS
Consuming Protein in the 12-hours after exercise increases MPS
During exercise MPS increases due to increased blood flow to the muscles when protein is available

Protein Gurus – Part 2

Another great article on Muscle Protein Synthesis (Researchers Point to the Optimal Protein Dose, Timing & Distribution to Maximize Muscle). They have the following takeaways from the scholars:

Muscle protein synthesis is an anabolic response that occurs in response to protein feeding and resistance training. On the protein front, it specifically relates to leucine intake. To maximize the MPS response, ~2.5g of leucine is required. This is known as the “leucine threshold”.
To maximize the muscle protein synthesis response over the course of a day, it seems that 3–4 evenly spaced meals that surpass the leucine threshold is a prudent strategy.
A meal containing 0.4 grams of protein per kilogram of bodyweight (g/kg BW) from a high-quality protein source will allow an individual to hit the leucine threshold. For most people this is somewhere between 20–40g.
The best sources of protein for this purpose are animal proteins (particularly whey protein) due to their high branched-chain amino acid composition. Plant-based protein sources will mean a higher protein intake is needed to hit the required level of leucine.
When MPS is “spiked” in response to a protein feeding, it will drop back to baseline within 2–3 hours. This drop will occur regardless of whether protein or amino acids continue to be fed and leucine remains high. This is potentially due to high demand of ATP required by cells for MPS (i.e. MPS is an energy-expensive process and the cell will stop MPS to conserve energy).
MPS is only a proxy measure for muscle hypertrophy, not an exact correlate. Net muscle protein balance (MPS vs. muscle protein breakdown) matters more. And further, there are many other factors than influence actual hypertrophy outside of MPS and MPB.
Of all the macronutrients, it seems that timing and distribution (versus simply total daily intake) is most important when it comes to protein. However, there are pragmatic examples of scenarios where we may not theoretically maximize MPS, yet still preserve and/or build plenty of muscle mass. For example, daily intermittent fasting.

The whole article is worth reading.