[at-l] Optimum Weight maintenance on a Thru=-Hike

[sloetoe@yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

> Hey, thanks for the depth of detail.
> Please speak more of the fat/dead leg thing. I eat alot of fat
> on the weeklongs, and haven't felt "dead legs." Or, maybe I
have, and I will fly once the metabolism sorts things out.
> But I know you are speaking of a metabolic shift. I just
> wanted to learn more. Please steer.

> > ### GORP, nutritionally and calorically, is an AMAZING
> hiking fuel. N' Besideswhich, it tastes *mighty* fine. BTW,
stay away from fats as *hiking* fuels until your body is well
versed in converting consumed fats directly to muscle glycogen.
Fat early in your hiking diet will satiate your apetite and
leave you with dead legs -- a situation that *sucks*.
> > ### (This is another reason to 'train' for your hike, btw,
> > otherwise this fat->glycogen ability will take hundreds of
> > painful miles.... 

### Here's the REALLY SHORT version:
Our bodies consume fuel preferentially from sources according to
immediate need and the source's location. The body's goal is to
leave that glycogen located on the muscles to the absolute last
thing.

Thus, in low intensity activities, we burn fat, converting it to
a body-preferred simple sugar. As the intensity builds, we burn
a small proportion of glycogen, as we're not converting fat fast
enough. Building the activity's intensity more, and liver
glycogen, and then muscle glycogen, become the primary sources. 

There's always some fat burning going on, but the proportion of
what gets consumed to get us down the road which comes from fat
conversion decreases as the effort increases. Eventually (as in
a flat-out sprint), the intensity overreaches even our ability
to metabolise normally (aerobically), and we go into anaerobic
"after-burner" metabolism -- taking fuel from the absolute
nearest sources, and burning it (comparatively) inefficiently.
Our evolution has handily equipped us with an energy
conversion/consumption mechanism that hits that energy most
easily stored (but least easily converted) first (fat), that
conveniantly stored (and converted) second (liver glycogen), and
that *most*-conveniantly stored (and now VERY quickly converted)
last (site-specific muscle glycogen).

[Phew!] Thus, when a runner goes on a run done specifically
slow, the runs are sometimes called "fat-burners." When a tuned
marathoner exhausts available glycogen, and the consuming
muscles complain of lack-of-fuel by [painfully] turning to wood,
the runners have "hit the wall." (Right about 18 miles/3 hours,
for most real humans. For David Horton and Brian Robinson, it's
somewheres around 11 months or 14,000 miles.)

Our bodies respond to performance stresses by ramping up
responses over time. Thus, when our bodies are tuned to perform
at some activity level X, and we push it to some level X+10 with
cycles of rest and stress, our bodies will respond by covering
the needs of new level X+10. With the body's fat->sugar
conversion mechanism, operating your body at a level where
sugars run low while the activity level is maintained will
stress the body to respond sooner/stronger in terms of
converting fat to energy. 

There are *many* ways to stress the body to increase its speed
of fat metabolism. One peripatitic dimension might range from
doing 2-hour slow runs once a week to 45-minute moderate runs
every other day to walking 10 miles in 10 hours every day. But
the idea is to give the body the (uncomfortable) exposure to
running low on the easily-converted fuels, and needing to
increasingly rely on fat sources.

Contrary to late-night TV infomercials, increasing your body's
rate of fat metabolism will *not* be comfortable:
Glycogen replacement ("Carbo-REloading") is recharging the
muscles after an intensive workout -- JUST as important as the
"carbo-loading" we all hear about. WITHOUT RELOADING, our
muscles will be stiff, sore, and royally honked at us. Go do a
workout (run three miles hard) and take in water but nothing
else w/in ten minutes of stopping, and drink only water for 1-2
hours afterward. You'll feel like real crap 3-4 hours later, as
well as the next day. Two days later, repeat the run, but
*immediately* upon finishing, eat a plain bagle with the water,
or drink a quart of Gatorade, or water and a PowerBar, and feel
the difference. WOW. Carbo-REloading. Just fat-burning stress in
reverse.

The point of it all is that 
1) your body seeks fuels preferentially based on activity, fuel
type, and fuel location;
2) your body's conversion of stored fat to fuel can be stressed
to an increased response;
3) increased speed of fat conversion, like post-activity carbo
reloading, will provide your body with more timely fuels, and
leave your muscles less sore, leaving you A HAPPY CAMPER.

### There are *lots* of sources on this, but the single best is
Timothy Noakes' _The_Lore_of_Running_, widely available, hugely
thick, mildly scientific, quite definitive. ... ... I wonder
what would happen if you put "Noakes  fat  conversion 
consumption" into a search engine..... Hmmmmm.

Happy, painfree, Trails, all.
Sloetoe

=====
Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.

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