My Public Apology to Anthony Colpo

Anthony,

I was surprised and kind of flattered in a weird way (you are the author of the ground breaking book “The Great Cholesterol Con” after all, which I now must read) that you wrote a long post in response to my comments to Castle Grok:

Reader Mail: Jimmy Moore, Michael Eades, Angry Dick, and Other Assorted Fat Loss Failures

I think I was among the “Other Assorted Fat Loss Failures”. I’m also flattered to be thrown in the same ring as Jimmy Moore, Dr. Eades and Richard Nikoley, but let’s overlook that for now.

My internet writing style has been described by others as polemic. I tried to objectively respond to Castle Grok, but perhaps it was polemic given your response to it. As you pointed out I didn’t fully read both parts of your post on low carb athletes. I lost interest after I didn’t agree with your account of how Phinney performed his first study.

However, now I’ve gone back and fully read both parts, and I think we can agree more than we disagree. I am sorry for characterizing your post as misrepresenting based on one oversight. Let’s be clear on the points where I think we agree, especially regarding my post that you referenced:

http://kellysayswhat.blogspot.com/2011/07/hitting-wall-part-3.html

About Phinney’s first study, I said:

“It would seem that keto-adaption greatly improved endurance, but the results were confounded by the fact that the average test subject lost about 10 Kg of body weight. Despite wearing loaded backpacks to equal their weight loss, the subjects had greatly improved exercise efficiency as measured by oxygen consumption decrease.”

About the cyclist’s study, I said:

“Despite the apparent success of Dr. Phinney's studies, I am still nagged by the effect of exercise intensity on the bodies’ ability to burn fuel from fat. In the middle of the 2004 paper he states:

"...high carbohydrate diets might be more effective in short-term tests of high-intensity exercise..."

And Dr. Phinney's concluding statement includes a caveat:

"...anaerobic (ie, weight lifting or sprint) performance is limited by the low muscle glycogen levels induced by a ketogenic diet, and this would strongly discourage its use under most conditions of competitive athletics."”

About Jonas Colting, I said:

“ Jonas Colting is an example of a very competitive, professional triathlete who embraces low-carb-high-fat nutrition. He has been interviewed by Jimmy Moore and posted on Mark Sisson's site. It's clear though that he doesn't strictly follow low-carb-high-fat nutrition. As he said, all rules are thrown out on race day. He calls it "train low, race high", in reference I think to muscle glycogen. He even is sponsored by the sugary drink manufacturer "Red Bull". However, he does say that his carbohydrate consumption is "a far cry" from the typical amount recommended by Swedish nutritionists for athletes, about 10 grams per Kg of bodyweight, or about 800 grams per day.”

Finally, I think we have common ground in my conclusion. I said:

“So it seems that some low carb runners like Kent, Cynthia and David correlate well with Dr. Phinney's research, as long as intensity levels are low to moderate. And Dr. Phinney isn't the only researcher to clinically show fat-adaptation doesn't impair endurance. Scientists at the University of Cape Town have published similar results. But it also seems unavoidable that competitive endurance relies at least partially on carbohydrates as per Jonas and Mark. I expect there will be more to say as I do personal experimentation. Til then.”

Let me repeat my final conclusion: "...seems unavoidable that competitive endurance relies at least partially on carbohydrates...". Can we agree on that middle ground?

Best Regards,
Kelly