[HAMR] Steve's new diet

[Chris S]

My opinion is this:

I think LCHF is absolutely the right diet for Steve. Attempting to adapt to it mid challenge? That's just nuts - he needed to be on it for six months prior to the challenge, as well as during.

[Mr Larrington]

If anyone watched Monty Don’s garden programme, he looked at meadow mowing before machinery. The mowers used scythes. They would swing their scythes from dawn to dusk, living on cooked meat, seasonal vegetables, fruit and weak beer.
Monty stated the mowers would consume up to 28 pints of beer per day.

If the mowers drank too much and didn’t finish their quota, they’d be ‘half cut’ for the day.

So what’s Steve’s “new” diet. Meat, veg, fruit and no beer?

Something similar with the recent six-parter on the history of [size= 7pt]BRITAIN[/size]'s canals.  An historian showed the presenter the typical day's nosh intake for a navvy working on the Manchester Shit Canal, at which she was suitably astounded.

[drgannet]

Attempting to adapt to it mid challenge? That's just nuts - he needed to be on it for six months prior to the challenge, as well as during.

That is the concern with the recent change. There was a problem, but whether this was a solution that will work remains to be seen (we do not have enough data to comment on either the problem or solution). However, for every day Steve is losing 50 miles, that menas an extra day of 260 miles (or 2 of 230) next year. Let's hope it's not too much...

[hillbilly]

Plus any other ground he has to make up if the winter holds back progress.

Hopefully Steve can circumnavigate the mountain he will increasingly face.

[Shreds]

The sudden change seems to have had the negative effect on the mileage. I suppose one must ask could this not have been a more gradual easing into the new order or was the 'problem' so acute it needed instant remedial action?

I have faith in Steve though, and if you look at TGs mileage curve, he certainly proved it was possible to crank up the mileage part way through the attempt.

[rogerzilla]

i would expect protein to be very important for overnight repair.  TdF riders live on pasta and chicken, I believe.  They are riding at a far higher intensity for a shorter period but they are doing it for a comparable (not as far, but in the ball park) daily distance over three weeks with only two rest days, and (at least until a few years ago, when the specialists appearared) they were sending most of the season riding some race or other.  Merckx was notorious for riding everything that came along and usually winning it, hence "The Cannibal".

[Shreds]

Although we don't know, the reigning back to about 150 mile target days could be a deliberate ploy for the time being?

I do wish we knew a little more.....

[bryn]

Stopped for 37 minutes presumably on the seat outside the ?village hall?.   Prior data points were below 10mph.

For heaven's sake, someone give the man a sausage!

Bryn

[swampthing]

swampthing, 10.8 stone on digital scales probably means 10 stone and 8 pounds - since your command of English is so impressive, you'll probably have noticed that the plural of stone is stone (but the plural of pound is still pounds!) - which, since there are 14(!) pounds in a stone works out to be nearer to 67kg (148*0.453).  Such is the innate logic of the Imperial system...

Thank you for clarifying! Added "stone [unit]" to my no-plural-list (though I hope I don't really need imperial weights often).

My immune system would surely complain, if I combined (1) cycling most of the day (2) in winter-weather and (3) losing weight.

Keep warm and keep going, Steve!

[Frank9755]

My opinion is this:

I think LCHF is absolutely the right diet for Steve. Attempting to adapt to it mid challenge? That's just nuts - he needed to be on it for six months prior to the challenge, as well as during.

Wilko's view was that Steve should be very efficient at fat-burning already, given what he has done for many years, hence his adjustment period should be less than would be the case for most of us.  However the way it has impacted his body weight and mileage suggests you might be right.   I would like to be proved wrong but I've not seen evidence to give me confidence that Steve is being advised by people who really know what they are doing and this diet thing rather adds to that impression! 

[zigzag]

i had my opinion about the tg's diet early in the challenge, mainly that eating junk food every day will lead to poor health. i'm not too worried what sort of diet Steve's on (carb, hflc, paleo etc) as long as the food is natural, good quality and provides enough calories for the job.
personally i'd stick to enhanced* porridge for breakfast, eat dried fruit/berries/seeds/nuts, oat biscuits, bananas, pancakes while riding, and two proper meals for lunch and dinner.

*with butter, dried berries/fruit, milled seeds, honey etc

[La Tortue]

i had my opinion about the tg's diet early in the challenge, mainly that eating junk food every day will lead to poor health.

How does this "good food" diet explain Kurts progress?  The boys primary foods are pop tarts and little debbie cakes.

[hellymedic]

Large quantities of 'natural' 'good' food might provide more fibre than a randonneur might need, reducing availability of some nutrients and wasting time as toilet time.
Some sorts of 'junk' might actually be quite good rolling fuel.

I will not try to suggest an optimal mix.

[Wowbagger]

I was wondering this.

Everyone needs a basic level of protein, vitamins and minerals. Presumably the need for these increases somewhat when the body is being put under the sort of stress that Steve & Kurt are currently doing. I am assuming that the increase would not be proportional to the work done. The big one is energy, and I would have thought that the requirement is directly proportional to the amount of work done. I recall discussing with my nephew, a GP, my calorie intake when I was doing over 7000 miles a year. He expressed an interest in this (he's a cyclist as well when he gets the chance).

From memory, his back-of-a-fag-packet calculation was that I was burning about 175000 extra calories a year compared to the recommended daily allowance. That works out to about 480 calories a day extra. Given that serious HAMR entrants are expecting to do 11 times as many miles as I was, that implies an additional 5280 calories a day over and above the 2500 recommended for adult males, therefore 7780 calories a day. Given that I was trundling round at about 11 mph and they are doing lots more than that, that will increase their calorific requirement compared to mine. That will be somewhat offset by the fact that I weighed about 115kg, lots more than them.

An extra 5000 to 6000 calories a day implies a lot of bulk intake. That's going to need a lot of output as well as input, I would have thought.

I am not a nutritionist, just an interested speculator on the internet.

[mattc]

i had my opinion about the tg's diet early in the challenge, mainly that eating junk food every day will lead to poor health.

How does this "good food" diet explain Kurts progress?  The boys primary foods are pop tarts and little debbie cakes.

And some smokers live to 110. Nutrition & health are not simple "If A Then B:" interactions.

[red marley]

Some of this conversation is leaving me feeling a little uncomfortable. I know speculation is what we all like to do, but I don't think it quite right to be discussing someone's health in this way if they are not part of that conversation. I know the OYTT is a public challenge, but Steve isn't public property. We don't know what the reasons are for a change in diet, nor precisely what that change involves. Let's hope it just a tactical change, but I think we should be sensitive to the possibility that there might be more to it than that.

[clarion]

Kurt's diet seems to be pretty junk, too.  I do wonder how he manages.

[hillbilly]

He's American.  Fast food is like fruit and veg to them.

[clarion]

Little Debbies seem to be his favourite.

[rafletcher]

I know the OYTT is a public challenge, but Steve isn't public property.

That's where I think you're wrong. The effort is public and publicised, so he is "public property".

"Appears Steve has started the day with an interview with BBC look east to be aired on TV tonight in their news programming at 6.30pm" - from the thread for today.

And it's not a competitive challenge - there is little doubt that Kurt will be the next record holder after Tommy, as long as he keeps up as he has been. So why the secrecy?  It's not going to give Kurt an edge knowing what's going on with TG. Secrecy breeds speculation. Want to stop the speculation, then give the audience (for that is what we are, some of us paying members) the facts.

[red marley]

I disagree, in that just because he is public about some things doesn't give us the right to insist he is public about everything we wish. It's a little like the telephoto pap shots of celebs that allow snide comments about cellulite (I'm not suggesting BTW that anyone here is being snide, but I don't think we have a right to know everything we wish about Steve).

The reason team Abraham are not going into detail about his diet might be unnecessary paranoia about competitive advantage. But it might also be because Steve doesn't wish some of the detail of his health to be discussed publicly. Or some other reason. The point is, we don't know, so speculating while insisting we should be given more info doesn't sit well with me.

[Wowbagger]

I'd say that there are some areas for speculation, and not others. Since it has been announced (by whom I don't know) that Steve's diet has changed (and anyone who has ridden with Steve knows how legendary his diet has become!) then people are bound to speculate about it, whilst still wishing him all the best.

Good luck Steve!

[hillbilly]

Maybe he shouldn't title his Strava rides with comments about his state of health, diet and weight loss if he doesn't want people to discuss it. 

[Bianchi Boy]

Little Debbies seem to be his favourite.

I would be careful about what is disclosed on the internet. It is not all fact. Like my history and home on my face book page and the amount of beer I drink. I have been a little economical with the truth for a hopefully light-hearted impact. Possibly the same has happened with Kurt's diet?

BB 

[clarion]

He has been seen eating them on video several times...