I recently learned about SuperStarch, an energy supplement, through Peter Attia’s excellent site, www.eatingacademy.com. Because I will be training on long rides, 3+ hours, I needed to know if my body would need anything “extra” to get me through the long rides where my heart rate is often elevated.
Peter has been experimenting with nutritional ketosis for a few years now, and he is also a cyclist, so I was very interested in what he had to say about long periods of physical exertion while in a state of ketosis. For those of you who are impatient (like me) the basic conclusion is that your body, after a certain period of time burning fat, will look to glycogen for energy. Glycogen must be produced by the liver if there are no carbohydrates available that can be converted to glycogen. If you deplete your liver of glycogen (and there is a danger of doing so while in ketosis and after a long period of exertion), then you will bonk and the results of that are not good, as many of you reading this know.
My dilemma, however, was what to eat to make sure my liver had adequate glycogen storage if and when my body needed it. I did not want to take a gel or other high-carb supplement because with carbs in my system my body would stop burning fat and switch to burning glucose. The solution? Finding foods that release insulin slowly or inhibit insulin release, allowing my body to continue burning fat but not depleting my liver of glycogen completely. Cashews, almonds and peanuts can serve this function. Through Peter’s site I was introduced to an energy source called SuperStarch (available through www.generationucan.com) that, even with a high carb content, is specially formulated to inhibit insulin release so it has minimal effect on my blood sugar levels and allows me to continue burning fat.
Before you place an expensive order, please take the time to view the excellent video from Peter on this product, but more importantly, how your body burns fat and glucose. It’s about an hour long, but worth every minute.
I used SuperStarch for the first time last weekend and felt great. I drank one of the energy drinks 30 minutes before a 65 mile ride (just over 4 hours) with just under 2500 feet of climbing. This took place the day after a 43 mile ride (just under 4 hours) with 4700 feet of climbing so I was pretty tired the day I used SuperStarch! I had energy throughout the ride – a noticeable difference from the prior day when I did not use SuperStarch.
I’ve only used it once, but will be trying it again this weekend when we do long training rides again. Stay tuned!
