Does a High Fat Diet Help Reduce Lactic Acid Buildup?

When I started eating a low carbohydrate high fat (LCHF) diet, I noticed that my athletic performance started to improve once my body made the transition to burning fat over carbs as its fuel source. I had also started Zone 2 training about two or three weeks after I changed my diet. During the first 10 days or so of switching to LCHF, I was extremely sluggish. Not only was my body moving slowly, so was my brain. The sluggishness subsided and the performance improvement started becoming noticeable within a month. I also noticed that my legs did not get the same burning sensations it did when I ran at the faster paces and that my recovery time was cut down substantially! A few podcasts I heard during that time discussed how others eating LCHF had also seen athletic performance gains and had faster recovery times. This totally intrigued me!

Hello World!

I created this blog to start documenting the journey I am currently experiencing.  I want to share the lessons, struggles, and surprises I have learned going from being a 6' 1" out-of-shape, overweight, middle age man to a fit endurance freak.  I was 265 pounds in mid-2007. By November 2013, I was racing Ironman Florida at 172 pounds.  Since then, my weight has settled into a range between 180 to 185 pounds; however, I am leaner, stronger, and faster than when I weighed 172!

July 2007

The start of my story is probably not much different than many of you out there.  Each year, I gained a little weight even when I tried to eat healthy -- well, I thought I was eating healthy.  As I gained weight, I always thought I could lose weight easily and achieve the mental picture I always had of myself - lean, toned, and fit. But yet, each year I continued to get fatter and fatter and I always lied to myself saying I was just a little overweight!  I was wearing size 40 and 42 pants and XL or XXL shirts. By the way, I now wear size 34 pants and Medium shirts!

I was unhappy about life in general. Then my 15-year marriage fell apart at the end of 2007. Due to stress and lack of appetite, I quickly lost 20 pounds. I looked in the mirror and was thinking I could quickly and easily achieve the body of my self-image.  Well, I have to say, it took significantly longer than I had anticipated.  Looking back, I like how it panned out since I learned so much during this time. Believe it or not, I still had to adjust my brain. Even though I was working hard to becoming fit and getting toned, I kept acting as if I was that shy overweight guy I had been for so many years!