I have always prided myself in being able to eat pretty much whatever I desired as long as I reasonably balanced the calorie intake with exercise. Through my 20’s and 30’s this approach kept my weight gains below the national average (in 15 years I think I gained about 10 lbs). However, I had borderline high blood pressure and tended to “binge” exercise (no consistency, 4 hour mountain bike ride on the weekend but nothing throughout the week). In my early 40’s I decided to renew a commitment I had made to my self as a teenager to always stay in shape. I started by commuting by bike to work which was an efficient way add some weekday workouts. Eventually, I rode more, got faster and became interested in endurance mountain bike races. This allowed me to reduce my blood pressure and lose the weight I had gained over the years. During long races; however, I had digestive issues which would often limit my ability to eat and maintain energy levels. While riding with Gale one weekend and whining about my digestive challenges with long races and concern over high carb’s sports drinks effects on my teeth, Gale suggested that I may benefit from the “Fat-Burning Machine” diet.
I decided to become a Fat-Burning Machine and have been very happy with the results:
- I am now able to race while consuming far fewer calories which has eliminated my digestive issues.
- Eliminating high carb sports drinks from my training rides has reduced the tooth pain I had been experience after long rides.
- I have significantly less joint pain after long rides which has allowed me to increase my training intensity.
- I have less peaks and valleys in my energy levels at work in the afternoon due to eliminating the sugar spikes from high carb snacks
- I sleep better at night.
- I lost approximately 12 lbs (now weigh the same as I did my junior year wrestling in high school).
All that and I’ve still improved my race times. My Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race time was almost an hour faster than my previous best despite being 8 years older.
