if you surveyed all the top athletes surely most of these would be using carbohydrate as their primary fuel source. For our purposes since there are plenty of examples of people eating no or little dietary carbohydrate it is
factually correct that such are
unnecessary for either endurance or strength or any other athletic trait. In other words the anecdotal evidence as well as the labratory/medical requirements are what suggest this. When it comes down to what is
optimal for such, you are going to get a wide range of opinions but even these won't correspond necessarily with what is healthy long term nor are there any definitive answers. The definitive is that people
do not require carbohydrates for any athletic pursuits so the argument is then in the direction of if they are
optimal or not for best health or performance.
Most people that take things to such extremes like a mostly pure animal fat diet arn't usually going to do so based on some edge in performance. The reason is these things can be achieved much easier through short burst toxic foods and supplements as well as illegal drugs and that doing so is incredibly arduous for most both physically and otherwise. Again for our purposes, many times people that do choose such would not be able to perform athletically at all on higher carb diets. For them eating excessive carbs would merely cause a wide spectrum of problems and most importantly primarily inhibit proper assimilation of necessary fatty acids for healing..never-mind the
extra efficiency needed for athletics which can take
months/years - the main reason why most people bail on such attempts (particularly athletes).
For those that are without many health problems a CKD (Cyclical Ketogenic Diet) is still seen by some as an
optimal way to put on body mass and in a way similar to how meat/high carb eaters (if/when they existed) could have eaten in nature. So even if there is value to overfilling glycogen with dietary carbs there is still suggestion that primary adaptation to fatty acids is best for our makeup, overall health, AND best athletic performance.
The ideal may be some varying level of carbs for the activity level of the person. It might be an issue of glycogen OR it could just be avoiding heavy protein need as a replacement, or in the advantages of the
nutrition in the carbs themselves, but having excessive dietary carbohydrate is simply not necessary for either basic endurance or strength training.
In regards to what to eat before or after or such things..I have no idea but here are some other folks who are low to no carb. If I was anything other than a total hack non-athlete..I would probably refer to a guy like this for micromanaging my intake:
Keith Norris
http://theorytopractice.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/what-to-eat-prior-to-a-workout/As well as others who restrict all types of carbs to various levels:
Ultramarthoner Jonas Colting:
http://www.carbwire.com/2009/06/15/swedish-triathlete-jonas-colting-low-carb-high-fat-diet-extending-my-athletic-careerZC Marathoner Charles Washington
Kieba (endurance swimmer, bodybuilder)
then other Primal Diet BB's like Randy Roach (50) and Josh Trentine
---
of course some of these are not technically low carb by the strict definitions, and many of these people might intentionally use some carbs for their performance (as opposed to just eating them or for other health, nutritional purposes, or addictions) but they are all extremely low compared to other athletes int heir respective fields.
Also worth noting is almost all Mark Sisson and co and cross-fit type folks are low carb-ish, and not dealing with excessive glycogen through dietary carbs. These folks generally have both cardio and strength than your average amateur runner or athlete in my experience and seem much happier and healthier.
Again as per the point about Bass's article, I can't vouch for the healthful of any of these peoples' programs..only that
they can and will perform on lowish carb to VLC to ZC.
People can also look to whatever other examples are on this forum as there is at least a few endurance and strength folks on some level.
Personally so far I have yet to figure out if dietary carbs have any potential positive effect at all on performance, just the obvious that eating such inhibits my ability to properly uptake the fatty acids which would make eating the way I do fairly non productive.
