World Record-Holder Reveals Key To Performance Success

101.77 miles. That’s the world record that Zach Bitter holds for longest distance run in 12 hours. In 2011, Zach changed his diet from a typical high-carbohydrate diet to the ketogenic diet. In December 2013, he set the world record, and he attributes part of his success to the ketogenic diet.

How keto fueled Zach’s record-breaking performance

Zach was following the traditional guidelines of a runner’s diet; high carbohydrate, healthy, and whole foods. However, Zach was having trouble sleeping, controlling his energy levels throughout the day, and noticed chronic ankle swelling. Once he switched to a ketogenic diet, he noticed his energy levels did not fluctuate so erratically, his sleeping problems went away, and the swelling in his ankles decreased.

A marathon, for well-trained endurance athletes, is a low to moderate intensity performance event. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the body’s energy currency that fuels human movement. Carbohydrates are very efficient at providing quick bursts of ATP. Fat, on the other hand, has the potential to create an abundance of ATP. However, ATP created from fat is not generated as quickly as the ATP from carbohydrates. This is because the fat has to be broken down by the mitochondria in the cell before it can utilize the ATP.

Fat is a perfect energy source for low to moderate intensity exercise because it produces a lot of ATP. That ATP can by utilized slowly because the intensity level of exercise does not require quick bursts of ATP. Rather, the low to moderate intensity exercise needs a consistent supply of ATP to perform but does not require so many bursts of energy. The consistent nature of Zach’s energy supply supplied him with the energy to break the world record.

Keto for improving performance?

For endurance runners, the ketogenic diet may be the best dietary approach for performance. Jeff Volek, a Ph.D. who studies the effects of the ketogenic diet in athletes, discovered a few interesting findings. First, glycogen stores in athletes become depleted between 15 – 25 miles of running (dependent on fitness level). As glycogen levels decrease, the need for fat increases. Dr. Volek found that the ketogenic diet increased performance in marathoners because glycogen was spared in favor of fat. Second, after twenty months of following the ketogenic diet, the athletes showed slower glycogen depletion compared to two weeks of following the diet. 1

These findings may be beneficial for endurance athletes, but what about resistance training athletes? Bouts of resistance exercise aren’t performed for a long enough time to warrant the need of fat. For this reason, athletes that resistance train, may experience a slight decrease in performance due to low glycogen levels, and the bodies resistance to deplete glycogen. However, over time, performance should return to previous levels. This would be due to a training adaptation, rather than an abundance of fuel.