Jump to content

Low body fat, Whole30, and athletic perfomance


amymorgan31

Recommended Posts

I'm on Day 14 of the Whole30.  I'm doing it with my nutrition group as a means of supporting them and as a way to further experiment with foods and my body.  It hasn't been a huge dietary change for me overall, just had to eliminate some dairy, peanut butter, and occasional glass of wine.  I was already at a low body fat when I started and I've lost more...down to 15.5%.  This week I have noticed that my athletic performance has literally gone in the toilet!  I'm an avid CrossFitter and workout 4-5 times a week.  I literally feel like I've never worked out before.  Very rapid decrease in performance and, quite honestly, I'm feeling pretty depressed.  Totally different from when I started this 2 weeks ago.  Can anyone provide me with any advice regarding this?  Low body fat and the Whole30?  Thank you!! :)  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you were relying on carbs for energy previously, it will take a little while for you to become fat adapted and start to perform better. It is worth it! Most people report that this has worked itself out by the second or third week. Make sure you are eating enough, including starchy carbs like sweet potato. Eat them any time EXCEPT right before the workout (before your workout have protein and fat only).

 

ps: How do you know you are down to 15.5% body fat? If you are measuring body fat by a body fat scale, be aware that those don't work very well at all, and any change you notice probably has more to do with hydration levels, etc. than actual change in body fat percentage. oh and if it is a scale, it isn't allowed during a whole30 anyway.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your reply.  I can say that I definitely was NOT relying on carbs previously.  My normal diet is in alignment with the Whole30 anyway, minus some dairy, peanut butter, and occasional alcohol.  I've been fat adapted for quite some time as I've been eating this way for years.  I know this for sure.  I'm a nutrition counselor and practice metabolic typing.  My body does very well with good fats, fattier meats, and lots of veggies.  I'm running this Whole30 challenge at my CrossFit gym and am doing the Whole30 basically just to support my group.  I also wanted to see what happened when I eliminated dairy.  I got on the scale and took my bf because I am looking really lean.  Seeing muscles I didn't know I even had.  People have been commenting that I look really skinny, and not in a good way.  For me, it's more important to make sure that I'm not losing too much.  Like I said, I'm just doing this as support and as a little experiment to further my own nutritional awareness.  From what I can see, this is not the norm for most who are doing the Whole30.  Most people need to clean up their diets, reset, and lose some weight.  My biggest concern when I started this was that I was going to lose too much.  I'm eating more starchy carbs than I usually do and am definitely eating more.  I like how I feel when I'm not working out, but my CrossFit workouts have suffered tremendously and my performance is at a level of embarrassment.  So, I just wanted to see if there was anyone else out there who may have been in my situation before.  I'm going to stick out the 30 days, but will obviously have to cut back on my training.  It's only 2 more weeks, it's just unfortunate timing with the Open.  :(  Oh well!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Obviously, if your performance is suffering then something is different about how you are eating now compared to how you were eating before. Maybe you were relying on calories from dairy and peanut butter more than you realized? Losing weight and poor performance implies either trouble utilizing food energy (like I originally suggested) OR not enough food energy period. I wouldn't give up in the gym just yet (who cares what other people think of your performance!) but I would try eating more and see if that helps.

 

and read this: http://whole30.com/2013/12/keeping-weight-whole30/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Maybe cutting back on the CrossFit workouts could help you out. Crossfit is pretty intense, and by reducing those workouts to maybe 2-3 times a week instead will let your body rest more and lower cortisol levels that might be pretty elevated from constantly working out. EVen with the Open coming up, you might find the extra recovery time will bring you some gains since your body will have more time to repair. Think of this period as a "deload" and focus on your nutrition; some people who do this find they come back even stronger than before.

 

Best of luck and I hope you find something that works for you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

The first two weeks I took the advice in It Starts With Food and went easy on the workouts. The one long hilly trail run I did, I definitely struggled. Like you I was eating somewhat along the lines of the Whole30 for probably a year (except for my sugar addiction, some alcohol and small amount of dairy in coffee).

It is not hard to under-eat on the Whole30. I often had trouble eating all of the food on my plate (have always been a hearty portion eater). I found if I did not eat the recommended Meal Template amounts though, I got hungry before the next meal.

Try more sweet potatoes, beets, parsnips, and more fat. You will get to where you want to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...