More than the years when I was Ironman training, I was always on the appear-out for a diet or diet supplement that would enhance my training and improve my Ironman race times and recovery.
It was practically by chance that I happened upon “coconut oil” and its use as a diet plan supplement. I was cruising the net one day and came across an post on the subject and like numerous other intriguing diet plan “concepts” I’ve stumbled upon in the past, decided to give it a attempt.
I’ve usually believed that I had no enterprise writing about any diet unless I had tried it myself. To my way of thinking that is the only way to pass on relevant, honest info to readers. As a result I’ve tried a assortment of diverse diets and supplements more than the years and coconut oil is 1 of them. To be fairly honest, I was just blown away by the outcomes I experienced when I incorporated coconut oil into my triathlon training diet.
Very first a bit about the science behind the coconut diet:
Coconut oil is comprised of fatty acids referred to as “medium chain triglycerides” or MCT’S. In nature, coconut oil has the largest concentration of these MCT’S outside of human breast milk. Vegetable oils, on the other hand, are created up mainly of “lengthy chain fatty acids” or LCT’S. For very some time now scientific literature has claimed that LCT’S tend to create fat in the body, whilst MCT’S promote what is called “thermogenesis”. Thermogenesis increases the body’s metabolism, producing power.
This has been typical expertise in the animal feed business for years. It you feed animals vegetable oil, they acquire weight and create much more fatty meat. If you feed them coconut oil, they will be quite lean. Tests on rats published in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” concluded that MCT rats gained 15% much less weight than rats fed LCT’S. The conclusion:
MCT diets result in decreased body fat related to elevated metabolic rate and thermogenesis. Similar tests had been conducted on humans at Vanderbilt University in 1989 with the very same simple results.
Regardless of scientific study result, I prefer to attempt these points on my own and see the outcomes first hand.
More than twenty years of competition and quite a few diets, the LEAST I ever weighed was 150-151 pounds. This was my competition weight. If I were to weigh myself on any given race morning, my weight would be in this range, give or take a pound. That all changed when I included coconut oil in my diet plan.
I weighed myself on the initial day of the diet as I often did when I tried something new, and wouldn’t step on a scale once more for 1 month. I live by this rule when attempting one thing different in my diet plan. My begin weight was as usual, 151 lbs.
I added five tablespoons of coconut oil per day to my meals. Normally when you obtain coconut oil it will be solidified. I just leave mine at room temperature and in few days the whole container is liquified. I don’t store it in the fridge since it will solidify again. If it is solid, its simple adequate to melt down into liquid form if you are in a hurry. I added it to my oatmeal in the morning, to my pasta, and utilized it in smoothies. I often use olive oil in my salads and began adding two tablespoons of coconut oil to every salad. It is an amazingly versatile item. You can quickly come up with your own cooking uses for it.
When you use it in food its not an unpleasant taste and most of the time you will not even know its there. Combine it with your food anyway you like, but aim for at least five tablespoons a day and stick with it. Like any diet, there is actually not a lot point even starting unless you are committed to it.
Nicely, I did this for exactly one month. Then I stepped back on the scale. WOW! 142 pounds!
I was 10 pounds lower than I had been over the past 20 years! I “could not” believe it. Bear in mind that for the month I employed coconut oil, I was in full Ironman training. Any diet plan you ever try ought to be carried out in conjunction with a fitness regimen. So I think this is an ideal addition to any Ironman’s diet. Or ANY physically active person’s diet for that matter.
A few things I noticed:
Along with losing weight, my power level increased.
Even although I lost 10 pounds, I seemed to have the very same amount of over-all strength. This is crucial to an athlete. What makes some athletes so wonderful is their strength to weight ratio. In other words, you can be a 120 pound woman, but be very powerful for that weight. Take it a step further and picture the consequences if you turn out to be 110 lbs and don’t shed any strength and have increased power.
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Imagine your self running a marathon carrying a 10 pound bag of potatoes on your back. Now imagine running the exact same marathon without the bag of potatoes and a lot more power.
A perfect example of what I mean by strength to weight ratio is Lance Armstrong.When he was fighting cancer he lost tons of weight of course, but when he won that battle and became healthy, he never did acquire back all of the weight that he originally had. Yet, he became stronger. In other words, his strength to weight ratio changed big time. It seems that his body chemistry changed for the greater. When I watched him climb those endless mountain passes in the Tour, it was just wonderful how powerful he was and how high his energy and endurance levels had been.
Of course we cannot all be the exceptional athlete Lance was at his peak, but I truly believe that incorporating coconut oil into ones diet plan can have a profound effect on any athlete’s training and racing results, and can also assist any person burn off excess fat as lengthy as they are active on a typical basis whilst they are using coconut oil in their every day diet.