Fitness & Nutrition Hangout With Ben Greenfield

Okay, cool. It looks like we're live. So I'm Ben Greenfield, and actually I had a failed attempt yesterday to do this Google hangout with you. So I'm going to do it now. I'm down in Hawaii. I'm at a training camp where I'm getting beat up on a daily basis, swimming and biking and running. And I am racing at the end of the week and trying to qualify for Ironman Hawaii, which is why you're seeing this video instead of the usual Wednesday podcast with Brock. You're getting tired beat up Ben on a Google video hangout. So what I'm going to do is start off by answering some of the questions that you've asked me over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com and I'm also doing a screenshot video of this entire recording because. Because.

Yesterday we didn't really get the thing recorded. All right, so we're going to start right off into the questions. So the first question is from.

Megan, and Megan says, during a really tough week like this, what are the signs that you should back off in intensity? How do you balance doing as well as possible in the race at the end of the week with dominating all the workouts during the week? I'm curious as to your priorities and goals. Okay, so this is totally self experimentation. What I mean by that is destroy your body during race week and kind of see how it feels during the race. Now, there is a little bit of evidence to suggest that all the endorphins and kind of the zone that you get in from doing all of this intense training and voluminous training during race week may actually help you to compete better at the end of the week. And there are some situations where people have done really, really well at the end of a big week. Chrissy Wellington, for example, is a professional triathlete who doesn't do a huge, huge taper.

Now, in terms of listening to my body, I've had to do a little bit of that this week. I've had some knee issues that I had to go see a massage therapist for last night, and I've had some saddle sore issues and I've had issues where my heart rate isn't getting as high as I want it to be able to get during workouts. All those are signs and symptoms that you're pushing yourself too hard. However, part of this week is an exercise in pushing the body to its extreme limits and then seeing what it's capable of after doing that. This is pure unknown for me. Pure experimentation. And frankly, even though My body is telling me not to do what I'm doing. I'm doing it anyways just to see what happens. So I don't advise that you necessarily do this.

Next question is from Scott, who says, Ben, my questions or he says, Ben, I'm coming to taper for my first Ironman triathlon. I want to get some advice on nutrition. My two questions are should I keep the same quantity of calories as I've been consuming during training? And do I change the ratio of carbs, protein and fat.

As far as the quantity of the calories that you've been consuming? Basically, once you start to taper for a race or workout or something like that, you're going to.

You'Re going to basically be doing less training. Ideally, unless you're me this week, that will usually mean that you don't eat as many calories as you normally would. Now, as far as carbs, protein and fat, the way that I like to do it is I start off a week prior at about half as much carb intake as I normally take in. I already don't eat that many carbs, but I eat fewer very, very low carb for Saturday and Sunday before race the next Sunday and then I'll gradually increase carbohydrate intake as the week progresses to where by the time I'm one day prior to the actual race, I'm eating 80 to 85% carbohydrates. Now I do realize that carbohydrate loading has not been shown to be beneficial in research. However, that research was done on people who were not eating a higher fat lower carb diet, which is what I recommend. So if you're eating a higher fat lower carb diet, you're going to benefit from getting a higher level of storage muscle carbohydrate by increasing carbohydrate intake progressively as the week goes on. So I do recommend that you do that. However, as far as overall calories, you're going to need a little bit fewer calories unless you're just training a ton during the week. Okay, next question is. I got to switch back and forth here from my question screen to you guys. Next question is.

Show more comments. Here we go.

I was wondering if you planned any changes to your nutrition strategy for racing given some of the information provided by your recent guests on the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast. Okay, so this question is basically concerning the interview that I did with Stacy Sims that basically said that you that you should only eat glucose and sucrose based sugar sources during something like a race or a triathlon because those produce lower heat when they're oxidized or when they're metabolized compared to fructose or like maltodextrin. But the fact is that's something that should be taken into consideration if you get gastrointestinal distress from those other types of gels. My whole philosophy of this is if it's not broken, why fix it? I don't know if that's exactly how that phrase goes, but something like that. I have continued to use just regular gel. I'll use goo Roctane or powerbar gels or really whatever happens to be on the course because I know my body does fine with fructose and maltodextrin. However, if you you tend to get GI distress, start to look for gels and sport drinks that have glucose or sucrose in them because those, while they can't give you quite as many calories per hour, they're going to be easier to digest. It's one of those self experimentation things. The other thing that I use, quite a bit of that I'll be using on Saturday when I race is when the running gets really hot. I use Coca Cola on ice and just grab that from the aid stations because it seems to digest really well, especially in hot conditions. Okay, next question that we have, sorry about the bouncing back and forth here is from Renee, who says, is it better to train four days a week at less distance or three days a week at more distance when you're training for a marathon?

I always encourage whenever possible, whether it be splitting your training sessions up on a day to day basis or on a week to week basis, that you always split it up so that you're doing more workouts more consistently at higher intensities rather than fewer workouts at lower intensities with higher volume. So if you can do four to five runs a week at a higher intensity, that's going to be better than doing three runs a week at a higher volume. But you're not able to train quite as well because you're going for longer. Anytime you can do consistent workouts, that's better. This sounds like a pain in the butt, but I mean, if you had 30 minutes to run on the treadmill, if you split that into three seven or eight minute intense runs rather than doing one 30 minute run, research has shown that you get better benefits, you get better cardiovascular benefits and metabolic benefits from splitting it up that way. Anytime you've got that choice of do I work out more often at a higher intensity? Or less often at a lower intensity. Usually more often at a higher intensity. Especially when we're talking about comparing three days a week to four days a week. You do get to a point where if you're doing a CrossFit workout five days a week, you're going to just kill yourself. But I consider a CrossFit workout to be something that is working a lot of similar muscles day after day, putting you at high risk for injury. Running four days a week and maintaining a slightly higher intensity when you run is kind of a different ball game and not quite as intense as that.

Next question is from.

Danny who says, I was wondering if you have any experience with Generate Vitargo S2? Yes, Generate Vitargo is like a waxy maize starch. It's a big long chain of carbohydrates that is metabolized a little bit more slowly. You can use it post workout pretty efficiently because it gives you a big insulin spike which allows you to technically get a little bit more carbohydrate into your muscle. If you plan on working out again within four hours, that'd be a scenario. Or something like that would be logical. Another similar starch that doesn't have quite as high of an insulin release and keeps your blood sugar levels more stable is called UCAN Superstarch. I'm a bigger fan of using that stuff just because during the workout hey Brock, what's up?

During the workout you are going to get a little bit more stable energy levels. So I'm a bigger fan of that versus Vitargo, even though Vitargo is pretty good stuff too. It's kind of spendy actually, but it really is good. If I were say a bodybuilder and when I was a bodybuilder, some days I'd have two a day. Weights workouts and weight training is incredibly carbohydrate depleting. I'd use something like Vitargo if I would have had access to it back then, like right after the first workout of the day to just get carbs back into the muscle right away because that's what it's really good for. All right, let's go and check out the next question that is on the post.

That question is Ben. I'm trying intermittent fasting two days a week. I drink coffee during these fasts. Is putting milk into the coffee ruining the effect?

Technically, anytime you're trying not to interrupt an intermittent fast. If you add anything that can hit sugar in it to your pre fasted workout, then yes, that's going to shut down some of the Metabolism of fatty acids. What are the things that you could eat before a fasted workout and have it not have that effect? Something ketogenic like coconut oil or medium chain triglyceride oil for example, like a whole on fat or even butter. I know that some people like to add butter to their coffee and stuff like that. That's another example of something that would not be considered to be breaking your fast. Amino acids, like an amino acid powder. Whole amino acid powder, Branched chain amino acid powder. Something like that. Also wouldn't be the same as milk in terms of it having an effect of breaking the fast. Any of those would be fine. But I wouldn't do milk coffee.

That answers that question. And then Cynthia says, Ben, in your experience, how much body composition change can be made in a six week period of time and what would be the best way to achieve that result? So body composition changes what we're looking for or what we're looking at. Brock is looking great on this video hangout. You guys should see Brock. He's in on his clown outfit with his birthday cupcake. Wow.

Yes, we are going to be able to see him. Let me turn you on for a second, Brock. What's going on, man?

Just tuning in to hear all the good stuff and protecting my identity too. Yeah, you look great. Is that like bed head or are you just in party mode today? I just came from the salon. You like it? Oh, nice. Do they give you a complimentary cupcake? Yeah.

When they saw the state of my hair, they had to do something. I love it when the salons do that kind of stuff. It's awesome. Well, you look great. It's nice to see that you're getting some tlc. Thanks. I'll get back to your stuff now. Hi everybody.

Okay, that was Brock, by the way, folks.

So anyways.

Body composition changes. If you're brand new to exercise, you're going to be able to add anywhere from about 1 to 2 pounds of muscle per month. Any advertisements that you see that say add 3 pounds, add 10 pounds of muscle, that's just not doable. If you've been exercising a while, that number goes down. So if you've been exercising 6 months, 12 months, you might be able to put on 0.5 to 1 pound of muscle per month. So it kind of drops the more fit you are. Similarly, with body fat, generally you're looking at being able to reduce your body weight by about 1 to 2% per week. If you weigh 180 pounds, you'd be able to lose 1% of that 1.8 pounds per week as a realistic goal. If you're doing everything right.

If you've been exercising a while and you're already in shape, that ability to draw body fat drops and it can go as low as 0.3% of your total body weight per week. You can actually lose in terms of body fat percentage. What that means is you're typically doing a combination of weight training cardio a lot of times, like fasted morning aerobic cardio. You're doing some cardiovascular intervals, you're sleeping well, you're de stressing your life. You're. You're preferably using some cold exposure if you can, like some cold thermogenesis, cold baths, cold showers, stuff like that. All that stuff working together is kind of like the ideal way to maximize fat loss. Part of it does depend on your body type. I mean, I just put out a book on that over@getfitguy.com on how your body type affects that. Certainly.

That'Ll give you some realistic recommendations. Let's see if any other questions have come through here. I'll see if I can open up the chat.

Nope, no other questions. Okay, so I'm going to end this broadcast and then I will see if the thing actually recorded. I did a backup screencast though, just in case. So if you guys have more questions, leave them over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com be sure to track my race this weekend over at Ironman Live. I also went to a fantastic swim clinic a couple nights ago, took a bunch of notes on that. I'm writing a blog post for you guys, for those of you who are swimmers out there to teach you how to be a faster freestyle swimmer. So stay tuned for that. I'm probably going to publish that on Monday.

Again, any way I can help you out, look me up on Twitter, look me up on Facebook, come on over to Google, read the post we have going on over there. And stay tuned because I may do another Google hangout later on this week. So later.