“I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” – J. Wellington Wimpy
Cyclists are by and large a weight conscious, neigh, weight obsessed group of people, ergo the coined descriptor ‘weight weenies’. While this obsession manifests itself in many forms I’d like to focus on the body weight variety, you know, the denominator of the Watts/kilogram equation.
In the quest for that holy grail that is increased W/kg, cyclists are willing to undergo all manner of evils, not the least of which is dieting. This would seem to be a permanent condition for the cyclist being that, as pointed out in Climbing Weight, no matter what your current weight, your ideal weight is given by the equation weight ideal = weight current – 1kg.
For completeness, I should point out that that isn’t strictly true as explained in The hell of 2012: A Neopro Cautionary Tale, not that it’s the case for 99.9999% of us.
Just sayin’…
I find it interesting that in both Me llamo es hamburgueso, and You’re starting to look like a hamburger, the object de craving as it were, is the hamburger.
When I was dieting, before doing the ketosis thing, I had all sorts of cravings as well, but they were along the lines of brownies…
Or chocolate cake…
Or chocolate cake with chocolate icing…
Or chocolate cake with chocolate icing and chocolate ice cream on the side…
Or those ‘Chocolate Stampede’s’ they have at Longhorn…
Or even a DQ ‘Brownie Earthquake’…
Or… wait… where was I?
Ok, I’m back.
Anyone who’s been on this ‘quest’, and truthfully, anyone who’s done any sort of calorie restriction can attest that this ‘craving’ thing is all too real. Also, that you constantly feel hungry and it’s difficult to not think about food and eating.
Fortunately, being in ketosis, it hasn’t been that way for me at all, and I have a theory as to why that is.
If Noakes is to be believed, and if I understand his ‘central governor’ theory correctly, the brain governs all sorts of things, not the least of which is metabolism. The brain will increase and decrease metabolism in accordance to what it calculates as appropriate given a multitude of variables including fueling and nutrient supplies.
In the ‘normal’ situation, not being in a ketotic state, the brain is fueled by glucose. Since glucose is the fuel for the brain, and the brain is the ‘central governor’, the brain is going to see to it that it gets sufficient glucose to function.
If the brain calculates it isn’t getting enough glucose it will signal for more, sometimes very loudly…
Evolution has seen to it that humans store excess food energy, in the form of fat, in the eventuality of a period of starvation. So, for the brain to signal, or allow storage goes along with human evolution and doesn’t violate any ‘central governor’ programming.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to what the brain will signal or allow to be stored given a surplus, and there seems to be a plot a foot to keep the ‘storage’ and not signal for it’s reduction, or a least not while the blood sugar is always being down regulated.
Something like that…
In the case where a person is in ketosis, the brain runs on ketones, which are created from fat. Everyone, even those of Schleck like proportion, has a plethora of fat.
So, if the brain runs on ketones, and ketones are made from fat, and everyone has plenty of fat, why would the brain signal for more fuel? Why would the brain down regulate metabolism in the face of a perceived shortage? I don’t think it does, at least in my experience there isn’t the sort of signal that in any way resembles the cravings I used to have before I went into ketosis.
Ketosis isn’t a panacea, and I’ve talked about how I seem to be short of top end power. But, I can’t attribute that solely to the ketosis, and there may be a work around.
What I can say, since my body is primarily fueled by fat, is that if I had a craving for hamburgers, I could have one, or two, with…
Cheese, oh yes please…
And bacon, lots of bacon…
Chili…
Lettuce, tomato…
Guacamole even…
I just can’t eat the bun…
