FAT for Workout Fuel? High-Fat/Ketogenic Diets: Do They Work for Power & Fast-Twitch Athletes?

Often times in this digital world of regurgitated, anecdotal social media & bro-science information-dissemination we live in, one needs to pause every now & then and break out their Exercise Physiology text book and review the basics:  Ketones are a back-up/emergency energy source.  Just a friendly reminder: Ketosis for energy production is not optimal or ideal.  Ketoacidosis, should your 'Ketogenic-Diet' (75% daily calories from Fat & very Low net-Carbs), dieting attempt go wrong, (since you're just a bro and not a Dietitian), is seriously bad for your kidneys and health.  Sure, fat for fuel is great - just as are carbohydrates...the way biology designed us.  Most times we are simultaneously using both glycogen & fat for energy production, and it is all automatic and synergistic.  Why mess with this perfect physiology, unless you have an underlying clinically-diagnosed medical issue, like insulin-resistance, type-2 diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, or perhaps are trying to take advantage of the acute fat-burning/longevity-boosting affects & benefits of a controlled fasting strategy, like Intermittent Fasting?

Max Wettstein is a Fitness Professional: Cover-model, published fitness author, supplement consultant & Trainer,  He is also a Captain for JetBlue Airways.

Longevity & Athletic Performance: Is Intermittent-Fasting the Key Strategy to Achieve Both?

Background: My Training Progression & Evolution: Athlete ~ Model ~ Holistic Health

            As I age into my 40s I’ve witnessed my training & nutrition goals become more ‘holistic’ in nature and evolve through various phases, sometimes back & forth, from basically bodybuilding, to body-sculpting as a professional fitness-model, to training for athletic performance, to now training for holistic health and ‘longevity’.  I’d like to say that I’m getting wiser as I get older, but also I’m trying to stick around a long time too, being the father & coach of two daughters.  Ideally speaking, a truly complete training & nutrition plan should simultaneously and equally improve athletic performance, sculpt an aesthetically appealing physique, and, combat aging and age-related diseases.  If nothing else, to be sure, some kind of exercise every day, ideally outdoors, will go a long way towards accomplishing all of the above.  But if you’re a fitness aficionado there’s way more to this story, depending on what your primary fitness goals are.

For me personally, athletic performance and optimal function used to always trump all else fitness.  However, to be completely candid, there was a period during the peak of my fitness-modeling career when I was booking jobs weekly to include magazine cover-tries, that aesthetics actually trumped all my other training goals.  This amounted to me basically always striving to improve lean-body mass & body composition.  Being that I am a professional model and not a professional athlete, I have no regrets about focusing on aesthetics so much.  Now I’ve become more focused on total holistic-health, maintaining range of motion, and exploring longevity, AKA, anti-aging techniques.  I feel like this is a natural progression and evolution that most athletes will arrive at as they age and begin families.

Longevity & The Athlete's Dietary Conundrum...