Low-carb diets and soccer

CAN LOW-CARB DIETS AND SOCCER BE COMBINED?

Dieting is an issue for many soccer players, especially after the long winter break and the many gingerbread and cookies during the Christmas season. Since low-carb diets are often advertised with tremendous success, they are also often chosen as a form of diet. But do low-carb diets work in combination with soccer? Or is this diet a good choice for you as an amateur soccer player?

Let's have a look at that.

WHY ARE LOW-CARB DIETS SAID TO BE SUCH A BIG SUCCESS?

By reducing carbohydrates, the body should be brought into a metabolic state called ketosis. In this state, the body is forced to obtain so-called ketones (alternative energy sources to replace carbohydrates) from fat reserves, meaning it is virtually forced to break down fat. The low intake of carbohydrates keeps insulin levels low and prevents the release of insulin.

Carbohydrates or any form of sugar are an absolute no-go in the low-carb diet (0-30 grams per day) and users avoid carbs like the devil avoids holy water. In their eyes, sugar is often the cause of all evil, the trigger for many diseases of civilization and has supposed addictive potential such as narcotics. That's the theory.

OUR EXPERIENCES WITH LOW-CARB DIETS IN SOCCER

Christian Wolf recently also addressed this exact topic and wrote an almost 30-minute video about it on YouTube. However, his explanations are really in-depth and require considerable previous knowledge.

We have therefore briefly summarized the findings from the video (the scientific data and the video can be found at the end of the article) and our experiences with low-carb diets and soccer for you:

1. Low-carb diets work, but only because of the calorie deficit achieved.

2. Low-carb diets and soccer or diets combined with performance-oriented soccer training are very difficult to implement and should be taken with caution.

3. Sugar doesn't make you fat and there is no sugar addiction!

4. Keeping insulin levels low (by avoiding KH) has no effect on your fat loss.

28.2.2018

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Reading time 3 min

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU AS AN AMATEUR SOCCER PLAYER?

You can definitely start a low-carb diet and if you maintain a calorie deficit, you will also lose weight. But is that compatible with soccer? difficult. You should really only resort to this type of diet if you have actually already dealt with the topic extensively.

It is hardly feasible to go on a low-carb diet as a beginner and at the same time maintain performance for the preparation phase of the second half. That's why our tip: If you actually want to learn the basics of a soccer-specific diet, you can sign up for our free Nutrition coaching sign in.

FOR EVEN DEEPER KNOWLEDGE: “TRAIN-LOW”

If you want to deepen your knowledge further later, you could slowly approach such a diet using the principle of “train-low”, for example. There is a great article about this by Philipp Rauscher, which we can highly recommend to you.

But here too, you should already have reasonable previous knowledge. With this approach, you can activate your fat metabolism, increase aerobic capacity and achieve a glycogen-sparing effect at the same time. Nevertheless, you must expect short-term performance losses in training.

You can find much more information on interesting topics on Christian Wolf's YouTube channel, click here for the video. You can also find out more about vegan nutrition and vegan nutrition as a soccer player on our blog.

Your nutrition coach Andi

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As a state-approved nutritionist, personal trainer and UEFA license holder, Coach Andi is able to convey exactly what he himself has been looking for throughout his soccer career: better performance through smart nutrition and targeted training.

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