In an effort to optimize our performance and health, we, as athletes, will often tirelessly search for the best in nutrition, training and recovery to accomplish our goals. While a new way of eating seems to be published daily, the Paleo diet continually stands out as an effective template for the majority of goals that an athlete can hope to accomplish.

I don’t need to rehash all the amazing benefits of a way of eating that eliminates processed foods, artificial sweeteners, man-made fats, sugar and refined carbohydrates in favor of quality whole, nutrient dense foods, proteins, healthy fats, fruits, vegetables and in general, a better relationship with food.

However, no diet is perfect and strictly adhering to the Paleo Diet may impede or limit the chances of success with certain goals.

In an honest moment, we all will admit that we are chasing multiple goals at once. Sure, if you go to your doctor and your blood work is all over the place in a bad way, the need to improve your overall health supersedes your need to gain an inch on your biceps or add 10 pounds to your overhead squat. It’s easy to have one specific goal in the short term, especially as it relates to your present health, but I’ve never met an athlete who doesn’t chase multiple goals at one time.

What happens if you train multiple times per day?

What happens if you train upwards of five or six days per week?

In these situations, strict adherence to the Paleo diet can actually have some nasty consequences, including but not limited to chronically elevated cortisol, impaired sleep, lack of desire to train, stalled progress, and delayed recovery, just to name a few.

Aside from reexamining your training, what is another obvious missing factor related to intense training and all the symptoms that I just mentioned? There is a clear need for increased carbohydrate intake.

While it’s true that your body can produce a certain, smaller percentage of glucose while on a low carbohydrate diet, those levels can help you to survive, not thrive, as a high-performance athlete. This “do or die” attitude in relation to carbohydrates more often than not causes the athlete to fall deeper into a hole of thyroid dysfunction, stalled training progress, and overall HPTA axis dysfunction. Accepting that something isn’t working, regardless of how “right” it may be, is the first step to finding new success.

Not surprisingly, high intensity training relies on anaerobic energy production, which requires glucose. That’s like putting cheap gasoline in your brand new pickup truck. It’ll run, but not the way it’s meant to. As a matter of fact, cellular changes to the GLUT-4 pathway tend to shift nutrient storage toward glycogen storage and away from body fat storage, which creates an ideal environment for muscle growth AND fat loss with performance increases.

Hormonally, increasing carbohydrates has an impact on sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) by lowering this testosterone “locking” molecule. As a result, more free testosterone is bioavailable to exert all the wonderful effects of testosterone. Typically, then, cortisol decreases and the thyroid hormone T4 can be more readily converted to its active form of T3 to help establish a healthier metabolic rate.

There are mental benefits as well. Increasing carbohydrate intake boosts production of the “feel good” brain neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Better sleep and a more pleasant disposition? Now that’s something to get excited about.

How Do We Start Eating More Carbohydrates? 

When I work with athletes in this specific situation, I don’t just tell them to eat more carbs. Assessing variables (unique goals, muscle mass, level of body fat, metabolic and strength conditions and blood biomarkers, etc.) provides a very targeted nutritional approach.

For context, the International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends between 600-1000 grams of carbohydrates to maximize muscle glycogen. Following that guideline daily will likely lead to some serious insulin resistance issues, even in highly trained athletes. Conversely, many of today’s popular diets don’t even include specific carbohydrate recommendations, favoring quality over quantity. I’m not particularly worried about my athletes nailing 600-1000 grams of carbs every single day.

If my experience with athletes from all walks of life has taught me anything, it’s that people will voluntarily skip out on carbs for any reason, but they’ll be damned if they eat one less gram of protein then is called for. As a matter of fact, most people consume significantly fewer carbohydrates than they think they do.
The vexing scenario is determining the adequate amount of carbohydrates for the athlete, which is why prioritizing goals becomes vital. An individual who only moderately exercises or who wants to improve blood biomarkers is going to eat vastly lower amounts of carbohydrates than an individual who exercises twice per day for the CrossFit games or someone who is looking to increase muscle mass.

As a starting point, I typical advise between 1-2 grams of carbohydrate per pound of bodyweight. If fat loss is the goal, eat toward the lower end. If muscle mass or improved recovery is the goal, eat closer to the higher end, but just set a limit and stick to it.

The key is the continual assessment to your specific tolerance in relation to your digestion, recovery, sleep patterns, strength, muscle mass, hormonal profile and fat loss over the course of multiple weeks. Subtle carbohydrate tinkering can have a profound impact. I often drop just 5 or 10 grams from client’s plans by week when fat loss is the goal, and that is enough to result in noticeable gains.

The source of carbohydrates is where we get into the nitty gritty of how “Paleo” we stay. In addition to the fruits and vegetables that you already consume, I favor white rice, sweet potatoes/yams and white potatoes. There are even a few high molecular weight carbohydrate options that, if tolerated well, can help with post exercise recovery. I’ve found these to be the least offensive sources of starches that can drive results.

This may sound like a cop-out, but the amount and source of carbohydrates is going to be highly dependent on your goals and your response to them. Some people may do really well eating 100 grams of white rice per day, while other people may gain body fat when they consume 5 grams of that same white rice. Some people can eat multiple pieces of sour candy a day and lose fat because they're getting a lower glucose response than generally thought. This is just a starting point. Get experimenting!