What The Fat?

www.whatthefatbook.com

The Professor

Grant SchofieldThe dieTiTian

Dr Caryn ZinnThe chef

Craig Rodger

Leaner, Fitter, Faster on Low-Carb, HeaLtHy Fat from the bestselling authors of What the Fat?

sports performance

WhatThe Fat?

www.whatthefatbook.com www.whatthefatbook.com

This overview is designed to give you a quick taste of Low-Carb, Healthy Fat eating for Sports Performance. Buy the book for the full story and all the details you will need to get right to ensure you experience better results!

Is Low-Carb, Healthy-Fat for Sports Performance right for me?

‘A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.’—Frank Zappa

It was 1985 and the world had just been through a fuel shock. Not food, but oil. Prices had gone way up. People were looking for new ways to use less oil. In New Zealand the government had already introduced and then abandoned ‘carless’ days – a scheme where every car had a windshield sticker with a day of the week printed on it in large letters. If you chose ‘Monday’ you weren’t allowed to use your car on Mondays. If you were caught doing so you were fined, and after enough repeat offending the car was impounded.

That scheme didn’t really help much and the next trend was converting petrol engine cars to run on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG – really just propane as you’d use for your barbecue) or compressed natural gas (CNG). The conversion cost a bit, and you ended up with a massive extra gas bottle in the back of your car, but you now had a dual-fuel car.

I (Grant) had a metallic blue 1972 Vauxhall VX/490 (Google it, you’ll see what I’m talking about!). It had been my grandfather’s and then my dad’s before I inherited it. It had overdrive on all four gears and a black interior with an FM radio-stereo and tape deck. (Okay, you have to be old to know how cool that was!) It wasn’t a great car, especially by today’s standards. Mostly it was just unreliable; it overheated on hot days and wouldn’t start on cold days. We converted it to CNG anyway.

The dual-fuel system on that old Vauxhall tells a great story about how different fuels have different

advantages, and this same story applies to you as a human. Humans have two really useful fuels – fat and carbohydrate. Knowing and taking advantage of each will help you be the best you can be. Being able to use both fuels efficiently is called ‘metabolic flexibility’ and that is what this book is all about.

When using the natural gas the Vauxhall was awesome for the same reasons fat is. The CNG cost $1.50 a tank and burnt cleanly. In fact, you’d virtually never have to change the oil. The big disadvantage with the gas was that while it was extremely economical and clean burning, it had no high-end engine power. For high-end engine power you needed to be burning petrol. Petrol, like carbs, gives great upper-end power, but the disadvantage is that it burns dirty. The by-products of petrol-burning damage your engine and you’ll need to change your oil often to protect from the damage. The same goes for carbs – they burn dirty and produce reactive oxygen species which your immune system needs to mop up.

The human body is a bit more evolved than the old Vauxhall (thankfully). We can burn both fat and carbs at the same time. When we are metabolically flexible we can change the mix depending on what we want – high speed or economy. That’s a big deal, but because of our carb dependence most modern humans have never set ourselves up to take advantage of the dual-fuel mixing system.

Taking advantage of an unfair advantageRetraining your body and brain and turning on your fat burning almost seems like an unfair advantage when it’s applied to the sporting environment. For decades the brightest minds in the athletic-performance nutrition field have had carbs pegged as the ultimate good guy. You have been told that the best way to fuel the active body is through carbohydrates, by consuming extra carbs before, during and after exercise. As a result many of us have been enslaved by an outdated mantra which has pushed us to eat carb-laden food to fuel our performance. This approach robs the human body of the flexibility it craves to switch between different energy systems and ways of burning fuel.

As we outlined in our first book What The Fat?,

consuming a high-carb diet is likely to lead to inflammation and poor health in the long run. For fit people, this is a tragedy. The people who value their health and well-being highly, the people who have done exactly what they have been told, have often ended up sick, tired and injured because of a high-carb, low-fat diet.

In this practical guide we present compelling evidence, inspiring real-life stories from some very successful athletes and simple ways to eat Low-Carb, Healthy-Fat (LCHF). We need you to step outside the square and reset. We will ask you to forget everything you were taught by your old-school sports performance nutritionist and learn how to become the ultimate fat burning athletic machine.

Let the games begin and let food give you a competitive edge.

Prof Grant Schofieldthe professor

Dr Caryn Zinnthe dietitian

Craig Rodgerthe chef

Leaner, fitter, faster onLow carb, Healthy fat

sports performance

WhatThe Fat?

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Prof Grant Schofield,

Dr C

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Wtf?www.whatthefatbook.com

Discover why fat is your body’s premium fuel, and why most athletes are better served by a diet lower in carbohydrate.

The Fat Professor, the Whole-food Dietitian and the

Michelin-trained chef will show you how to switch on fat burning and unlock

your potential.

www.whatthefatbook.comwww.whatthefatbook.com

Cauliflower Risotto with Leeks, Parmesan & Smoked BaconPrep time: 15 minutes | Cook time: 15 minutes | Serves: 4

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets 1 medium-sized leek 1 tbsp (15g) butter1 tbsp (15ml) extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 4 rashers (100g) smoked bacon (streaky, back or shoulder), chopped 50ml wine (optional) or water 1 cup (250ml) cream 2/5 cup (100g) mascarpone 3 tbsp (20g) grated Parmesan (or a cheese you prefer) 1 tbsp chopped parsley 1 tbsp chopped chives Pepper to taste

• Place the florets in a food processor and blitz until it resembles rice – keep some pieces slightly bigger for a variety of textures.• Cut half of the green part from the leek and keep it for use in a soup or stew for another time. Slice the leek in half lengthways then finely slice across to get fine semi-circles. Add the leek to a large pan with the butter and olive oil. Slowly cook the leek over moderate heat until it softens. Add the garlic and smoked bacon to the leek and increase the heat in the pan a little to allow the bacon to colour slightly.

• Add the cauliflower to the pan and stir to allow all of the cauliflower to be coated in the butter and oil. Cook for 3 minutes stirring often. At this point, add the wine (if using) or water; then add the cream, mascarpone and Parmesan and allow to reduce slightly until it thickens. • Add the parsley and chives to the risotto for their flavour and colour – adding some chopped capers will elevate it to a sophisticated flavour also. Serve the risotto immediately with pepper, a little extra grated Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil.

Carb Count

4.1g per serve

Why and when to choose LCHF for Sports Performance If you agree with one or more of these statements, this book has the potential to help you.• I want to perform at my very best while still

staying healthy• I find that my existing nutrition plan doesn’t

allow me to meet my training or body composition goals

• My training often leaves me tired and run down• Whenever there is something going around,

like colds and flu, I get it

• I keep running out of energy during my training or events

• I just can’t get in shape no matter how hard I trainIt’s our view that completely rethinking how you

fuel your body for peak performance is a worthwhile activity. Okay, the energy demands for different sports are completely different, and we are all individuals, but conventional wisdom around what to eat as a high performer isn’t optimal. The science and practice have moved on, it’s time you did as well.





sports performance

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your potential.

www.whatthefatbook.com www.whatthefatbook.com

more electrolyte (salt mainly). He also ate more grams of carbs per hour than he’d consumed before. These tweaks made all the difference – from last to first!

For the tri-geeks out there, here are some of his splits for race day:

Swim: 3.8 km: 51:53

Bike: 180 km: 4:58:36

Run: 42.2 km: 3:04:11

Overall: 9:00:59; age group place 1st; overall

place all age groups 1st; overall rank including

all professional athletes 9th.

He was the first age grouper home by almost 15 minutes, and inside the top ten including all pro athletes. Even better were his run splits which

were incredibly consistent and Bevan never came close to running out of fuel.Split Pace

7.4 km 4:14/km

14.2 km 4:11/km

21.3 km 4:14/km

28.0 km 4:27/km

35.0 km 4:36/km

42.2 km 4:28/km

Overall 4:21/km

Okay, he’s a really classy athlete and was anyway. But LCHF and fat-adaptation have taken him to a whole new level. Buy What the Fat? Sports Performance to get the full story.

Bevan is a classic n=1 experimenter. He’s totally underpinned by accurate and consistent measure-ment, and the ability to fail fast and learn quickly from mistakes. All this underpinned by a commit-ment to LCHF eating with supplemental carbs.

How to win the Ironman on LCHFBevan McKinnon smashed the age group field at Ironman NZ. He set a personal best of 9.00.59. Not bad for an old guy with eight weeks of specific preparation. We have been working with Bevan for a couple of years now at AUT-Millennium in our high performance labs, trying to understand how we can tweak the LCHF

approach to become a fat-burning machine.In previous work with Bevan in our lab

we had great lab performance data showing improvements after switching from high-carb to LCHF the previous year. Bevan improved his bike power from 130 W to 300 W for a 50/50 carb and fat fuel use.

We were a couple of tweaks off converting that into a stellar race performance. Bevan was leading last year throughout the bike and faltered on the run with severe cramping. So that year was a DNF (did not finish). It was a failed experiment really.

After assessing what could have been contributing factors in the onset of cramp, Bevan altered his pre-race and race nutrition plan this time to include

‘One great thing about LCHF is my new found

ability to get my weight under 80

kg – I’ve never ever been able

to get my weight less than about

82 kg. That’s just too heavy for Ironman

racing.’





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your potential.

Bevan McKinnon

1918

SUCCESS STORY

01Insulin is part of a complex hormonal and neural system that affects all parts of our body.

Insulin is a protein hormone produced by the pancreas. It helps in the regulation of nutrients and energy around the body. It is best known for helping move glucose (carbs) into cells so that it can be used for energy. That’s a crucial function – without insulin you will die. Type 1 diabetes is a failure of the pancreas to produce insulin. To survive, Type 1 diabetics must inject synthetic insulin.

02If you are insulin sensitive, then insulin works in low amounts to move glucose into your cells

for energy.

03If you are insulin resistant, then it is hard for insulin to open your cells to receive glucose. So

your body will need lots of insulin to achieve the same thing as an insulin-sensitive person.

04Metabolically dysregulated is a term used to describe someone who is insulin resistant as a

result of their poor lifestyle. The body is out of its normal operative mode and stores energy as fat easily, and does not easily burn fat.

05Fat adapted or ‘metabolically flexible’ are terms we use to describe people who can easily

burn fat as a primary fuel source, and use the by-products (ketones) as an energy source when carbs are low in their diet.

06Ketones are an important fuel source for humans when glucose (carb) supply is low.

Ketones can be used by the brain, organs and muscle. When you become fat adapted (or meta-bolically flexible), it really means that your body is learning how to use ketones as a fuel. People with high-carb diets hardly ever have to use this system, so the body requires some re-orchestration when going through this process.

The triggers that led me to LCHF were a steady increase in weight and a rising blood-sugar count whenever I had my Commercial Pilot Licence medical check. Pilots are generally very health-conscious; our continued employment depends on it. If you end up with diabetes, that’s the end of being a pilot. Fellow pilot and long-term friend Gary Hayman convinced me of the perils of excessive sugar in our diet, so I started off by drastically cutting down on sugar. The results were a 6 kg drop in weight, but little change to the rising blood-sugar levels. I was perilously close to Type 2 diabetes, and to being unemployed.

It was only then that I visited Dr Caryn Zinn, who put me on a carb-restricted, healthy-fat diet to lower my blood sugar levels and further reduce my weight. She also got me to download an app for my iPhone for tracking my carb and protein intake (Easy Diet Diary). Following Caryn’s eating plan, the results were immediate and dramatic. After three months eating the low-carb way, I had lost another 11 kg (17 kg total) and my HbA1c blood-sugar reading had gone from ‘pre-diabetic’ to ‘normal’.

I have been absolutely delighted with the results and am committed to LCHF eating long term. Fortunately, I have had excellent support from my wife and family, who have also embraced the new way of eating. This whole experience has been a huge benefit to me. Just having my weight and blood-sugar levels under control not only gives me the security of employment, but also makes me

12 key terms you need to understandIn What the Fat? we will use some terms you might have heard of, and others you may not have. Here we list the 12 key terms essential to getting the most out of this book.

Diabetes averted: 17 kg weight loss without effortGARY BRIDGER, 63, AIR NEW ZEALAND A320 CAPTAIN

07Carbohydrates (carbs) are found in many foods, but exist in high levels in starchy and

sugary foods and refined and processed modern foods. This includes breads and cereals, pasta, potatoes, rice, sugar and honey. Carbohydrates mostly break down into glucose, the simplest carbohydrate in the body. Although we need glucose to live, the body can produce enough of its own through various means, so eating carbs is not essential for life.

08Protein (made up of amino acids) is essential for life, and we have to get many of the

‘essential’ amino acids from food because the body cannot produce them.

09Fat is a component of the whole foods we see as being part of a healthy diet. Fat comes in

different types and sub-types. Most of us have heard of the basic types: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated.

10Monounsaturated fats are high in foods such as olive oil.

11 Polyunsaturated fats are high in some plant foods, such as nuts and seeds, and all sorts of

animal foods, including fish. There are two types of polyunsaturated fat that are called ‘essential fatty acids’ – omega-3 and omega-6. These cannot be produced by the body and must be obtained through eating foods containing them.

12 Saturated fats are higher in mainly animal foods, such as meats and dairy, but are also in

some plant-based foods, such as coconut oil. Most foods as they occur in nature have a combination of all fats. For example, lard is about one-third mono, poly and saturated fat.

feel much more energetic than before. Because I have benefited

so much, I have continued to spread the word among

fellow pilots, family and friends. Many have taken up the challenge and all have had similar results.

The hardest part of LCHF eating for me was

finding suitable meals at work and away from home. Many

cafés simply don’t offer LCHF options, but with a little imagination you can adapt. For example, a Caesar salad without the croutons is a good solution, or a burger and salad and just leave the bun and fries. I also take small packets of nuts with me as snacks to tide me over until I can find suitable meal options.

For favourite foods, I do enjoy breakfast with eggs, bacon or sausage, mushrooms and green vegetables for a good start to the day. That breakfast for me is the key, and keeps me going nicely until lunchtime. For lunch, always a salad at home, and the SumoSalad bar at the Auckland Airport domestic terminal is an oasis for LCHF eating! Family evening-meal favourites include roast lamb and ratatouille with cauliflower mashed with butter, thickened cream and Parmesan cheese. Other favourites are lasagne with sliced courgettes instead of pasta and ‘potato top’ pie with mashed cauliflower instead of potato. We have been eating more fish than before and, of course, more ‘above ground’ vegetables. I have also been cooking Malaysian (our favourite ethnic food) chicken or fish curries with plenty of added vegetables and cauliflower rice instead of conventional rice – divine!

THE SKINNY ON LCHF

age: 44

heighT: 180 cm

WeighT: 80 kg

occuPaTion: Professional triathlon coach

sPorTs: long course triathlon; ironman; half-ironman distances

Available online at

www.whatthefatbook.com or at all good book stores.





sports performance

WhatThe Fat?

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Dr C

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your potential.

WT

F?

It’s time to flip the pyramid and break free of the fat phobia. This book is more than just a diet plan or a

cookbook – written by the Fat Professor, the Whole-food Dietitian & the Michelin-trained Chef – it’s a new way

of eating that will change your life. For good.

whatthefatbook.com

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What the

Fat?

THE PROFESSOR

Grant SchofieldTHE DIETITIAN

Dr Caryn Zinn

FAT’S IN, SUGAR’S OUTHow to live the ultimate Low-Carb, HEALTHY-Fat lifestyle

Foreword Professor Tim Noakes Introduction Pete Evans

THE CHEF

Craig Rodger

whatthefatbook.com

What the

Fat?S !>

THE PRO FESSOR

Grant SchofieldTHE DIETITIAN

Dr Caryn ZinnTHE CHEF

Craig Rodger

The Low-Carb, HEALTHY-Fat Monday–Tuesday Fasting Plan

How Monday and Tuesday will change your life

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Want to drop a few kilos, stay sharp and get your health on track? By simply not eating breakfast and lunch on

Mondays and Tuesdays and supercharging your dinner meals, you will become a super-faster.

Super-Fasting allows for super wellbeing, from effortless weight loss to enhanced immune and brain function. Become a super-faster and unlock the biology of super

ageing to live a long, healthy life.

The low-carb, HEALTHY-fat Monday–Tuesday fasting plan, from the bestselling authors of

What the Fat?

WTFast_case_BR_v2.indd 1 15/01/18 10:37 AM

Take advantage of an unfair advantage.Retraining your body and brain and turning on your fat burning almost seems like an unfair advantage

when it’s applied to the sporting environment.

For decades, the brightest minds in the athletic performance nutrition field have had carbs pegged as the ultimate good guy. You have been told that the best way

to fuel the active body is through carbohydrates, by consuming extra carbs, before, during, and after exercise. As a result, many of us have been enslaved by an outdated

mantra which has pushed us to eat carb-laden food to fuel our performance.

This approach robs the human body of the flexibility it craves to switch between different energy systems and ways of producing fuel.

What The Fat?

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Transcript of What The Fat?