Carl Lewis was Vegan? Get your mind right @HCP 9 - Carl Lewis - Track Athletics With 9 Olympic Gold medals, Carl was one of the best-known athletes of the 1980s. He also set a world record for indoor long jump set in 1984 still stands. Carol adopted a vegan diet to assist him in sports and continued it into his retirement. "I've found that a person does not need protein from meat to be a successful athlete. In fact, my best year of track competition was the first year I ate a vegan diet. Moreover, by continuing to eat a vegan diet, my weight is under control, I like the way I look."
Yeah, but Bill Walton was a vegetarian and look how his body fell apart. But seriously, if Dame is going vegan, I'm betting he does it the smart way and gets advice from a nutritionist.
A vegan diet can be very high protein and low fat. I was never vegan or vegetarian (I always included boneless, skinless chicken breast in my diet, but I ate it over a salad), but by far they healthiest I have ever been was when I was strictly following a high protein, low fat, low carb diet. I always had so much energy, was never injured, slept great and was never tired during the day. I had a very low body fat and actually added muscle mass at an age when most men are losing significant muscle mass every year. This is me three years ago at age 53. I'm 6'4" and my weight was between 195 and 200. So, basically about the same as Dame (but twice as old): BNM
Not a source I'd consider to be one of the top ones, but the content is correct. You can find Phinney and Volek YouTube videos about their studies of elite athletes and diet. One of the more interesting bits is about "the wall" that people who run long distances (for example) hit. You can only store so much energy from carb intake, to use when you exercise (or move about, fidget, whatever). If you do the @Denny Crane diet (ketogenic diet), you burn fat stores for energy for exercise. The difference is something like 2000 kcal max for carbs, and something like 40,000 kcal max from body fat. You cannot be fat burning adapted AND carb up. http://fitfluential.com/2016/11/ketogenic-diet-for-endurance-athletes/ So what is the ketogenic diet? A ketogenic diet is a high fat, moderate protein and very low carb diet. It is set up (depending on your goals) with your calories coming from approximately 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs. This can be tweaked depending on your activity level or what feels right for your body. The goal of eating high fat and low carbs is to bring your body to a state of ketosis. Ketosis is when your body reaches a state where it is deprived of glycogen (which is energy that comes from carbs) and it begins burning fat for energy instead. Since glucose is only stored in limited amounts in the body, you have just that – limited amounts. When the glucose is all burned out, you’ll “hit a wall” or begin to fatigue. When depending on ketones and fat as fuel, you have a much larger supply of energy, which can effectively prevent you from hitting that wall. But getting to this state of ketosis doesn’t happen in a day – it can take about 3 to 5 weeks to adapt. To become keto-adapted requires a lot of discipline, so you’ll have to take a rain check on those cheat meals for a while. Dave Scott, a six-time IRONMAN® world champion and a big proponent of the ketogenic diet who shares tips here, shares, “As I’ve become keto adapted, I’ve noticed that my hunger signals are more in check, likely as a result of no longer having the insulin surges that follow a carbohydrate-rich meal or snack. I feel that I have a better pulse on when I’m really hungry compared to my previous way of eating in which I always felt hungry and my satiety signal was never really, well, satisfied.”
OK, for lunch I had a big salad of various greens, scallions, carrots, celery, roasted beets, peppers, avocado, black beans, tomatoes, pickled jalapeno, cilantro and a sprinkle of toasted pepitas. For dinner I am having a smaller green salad and some gazpacho I made from my garden - tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, cukes, scallions, basil, along with tomato juice, sherry vinegar, spices, salt. And a pita bread (white & whole wheat flour, salt, olive oil, yeast, water). Some fresh figs from my tree for dessert.
We also share our birthday with Princess Di. Not sure what her diet was like, but I'm inclined to believe it included crumpets, just because to an American, that sounds like something everyone from Great Britain probably eats. BNM
