Endurance athletes can eat their fat and burn it too, here’s how. 

You barely broke bread during the carb-loading era. Nor did you raid Home Depot’s BBQ department at the height of the protein craze. But, the fat-loading trend? Once it arrived to the endurance scene, you and your shopping cart gleefully raced down the supermarket aisles.

Inevitably though, as with all other food group fads “fat loading” was dismissed by nutritionists along with your pints of Haagen Daz. The greasy meal plan was found to be both challenging to maintain and not very effective in improving athletic performance. However, "Effects of Dietary Fat, Fatty Acids, and Blood Lipids in Endurance Athletes," a recent article published in PULSE and written by Ann Johnson, MBA, MS, RD offers tantalizing news that will make olive oil lovers drizzle.

A recent study followed male and female runners training at least 35 miles per week while on iso-caloric diets comprised of 16, 30 or 42 percent of total calories from fat. At the month’s close, those who had followed the higher fat diet maintained their body-weight, body fat, resting heart rate, blood pressure, and LDL-C.

What do these figures mean for those of us who love to burn our fat and eat it too?

“The typically observed negative influences of diets rich in saturated fat may not occur in trained athletes. Dietary recommendations for total and saturated fat intake should be more lenient for avid exercisers,” says Johnson.

Essentially, while you are in the process of training for an endurance event, you may eat some of the forbidden foods that you’ve probably shunned while trying to reach your peak performance.

Eric Berkowitz, a triathlon and Ironman competitor usually eats four to five small well-balanced meals a day. However, the active athlete also appreciates incorporating additional fat into his daily intake. “Before I know I am going for a long workout the night before I tend to eat a little fattier meals and don’t count calories.” So what grants immunity?

Endurance athletes have a higher demand for energy to meet their goals, so the body will use its available source of fuel—fat or carbohydrate—to meet its caloric needs. Therefore, any additional source of fat ingested that coincides with activity level is immediately used, rather than diverted into storage, preventing weight gain.

How should a lipid-lover safely up the saturated fat acid ante?

Based on a 3,000-calorie diet comprised of 30 to 42 percent fat, one can consume 100-140 grams (900-1,260 calories from fat), as opposed to the average athlete who according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans should not exceed eating 83-100 grams (750 to 900 calories from fat).

Dietician Nancy Clark recommends adding the typical fat “goodies” like peanut butter, guacamole and almonds. Yet, should you desire to stray from such favored fats and indulge in the ones you equate with running an extra mile or the ice cream truck bell, go for it. Smear your bagel with regular cream cheese and even substitute a hamburger for your tofu burger. Ariel Goldwyn, 25 and five-time triathlete revels in her favorite fatty treats after especially grueling workouts. “Green mint chocolate chip ice cream and macaroni and cheese are my favorites. When I’m trying to get through a particularly grueling run, I think about which one (or ones) to reward myself with at the end.”

Though unconventional, these treats will still keep you on a positive nutrition track—according to Clark, “You don’t have to have a perfect diet to have a good diet,”

As exciting as it is to combine flax seed and cookie crunch toppings on your frozen treats, keep in mind that such indulgences will not shave minutes off your finish time, and at season’s end once your watch strikes “stop”, so will your fat-freebies.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.