[TrainingTalk] Low-Carb Snacks of the Week
Some alternatives for your Periodized Nutrition experiments
Since I started talking about periodized nutrition, I’ve received quite a few questions about food options, hence this blog with two recipes I tried this week!
For context, it’s Base training time (see how I define Training Phases here), which for me is the best time of the year to periodize my nutrition more and work on metabolic flexibility (something I discussed in depth here). This is the case as during Base training I spend many hours exercising, but my long days are low intensity, and my hard days are rather short (< 1 hour), hence the body can do very well with fewer carbohydrates with respect to race-specific phases where days become both long and hard, and therefore require higher carbohydrate intake. My diet is never chronically low in carbohydrate intake, as one or two days per week include intensity, and I fuel these sessions as recommended (and also, I love carbs), but far from races, I work proactively on my metabolic flexibility, given the results I’ve shown in the past, and the clear benefits for my health and performance.
A common misconception of lower-carb diets or periodized nutrition (which does include a few lower-carb days per week, depending on the demands of training) is that we end up in a caloric deficit or risk energy deficiency. Well, if we skip the carbs and don’t replace them, sure, but that’s not really what periodized nutrition is about. Appropriate intake is key to foster training adaptations; hence, my caloric intake doesn’t change, it’s just the macros that change (I haven’t lost any weight since I stopped the caloric deficit back in February).
The principle at this time of the year is rather straightforward: Training hard? More carbohydrates. Not training hard? More lower-carb options, but still plenty of calories, as I might be training for a few hours per day.
Low-carb snacks are often low-quality foods and pretty low in calories, as the goal is not really to support athletic performance, but they might be geared more towards weight loss. Hence, it’s much better if you make your own.
Here are two snacks I made this week that are high in calories but low in carbs, which I can use to maintain weight and stay in energy balance while exercising many hours per day.
Breadsticks: mix 200 g of almond flour with 60 g of grated Parmesan and 50 g of chia seeds. Add 4 egg whites and stir until a thick dough forms. Shape into breadsticks or spread into a rectangle and slice into sticks. Bake at 180°C for 20–25 minutes until golden and firm. Let cool slightly before serving. A bit of Prosciutto around them, and you are good to go.
A few sticks (e.g., 50 g) would give you ~180 kcal and < 3 g of carbs.
Chocolate chip cookies: mix 150 g of almond flour with a pinch of stevia sweetener and a small pinch of salt. Add 1 egg and 40 g of melted butter, then stir until a dough forms. Chop 30-40 g of 90% dark chocolate into chunks and fold into the dough. Shape into small cookies (makes about 16 as per the picture below). Bake at 175°C for 10–12 minutes until edges are golden. Let cool before serving, they’ll firm up as they rest.
Two cookies (e.g., 40 g) would give you 200 kcal and also < 3 g of carbs.
Normally, I prefer to rely on different types of food for lower-carb days, more than trying to replicate the type of food I am rarely eating (such as bread or cookies). My go-to snacks for low-carb days normally would be eggs or egg whites, avocado (maybe combined in an omelet), salmon, homemade hummus, Greek yogurt, peanut butter (100% peanuts or almonds), a smoothie with protein powder, nuts, and fresh cheese. However, this week I’ve started playing with almond flour, hence the recipes above!
As athletes, we often need to eat 2-3 times our basal metabolic rate, depending on how many hours per day we train, and as such, outside of the main meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner), where I heavily rely on all sorts of vegetables and some kind of lean protein (meat, fish, tofu, eggs, etc.), I add plenty of snacks, such as the ones above. Keep in mind that lower carb for a few days per week shouldn’t mean lower energy or a caloric deficit. Personally, I refined my strategy over the past 6 months, not just to support ultra-endurance racing but also to reduce cardiovascular risk. I’ve reduced saturated fat, increased omega-3s (lots of fish), and relied heavily on snacks, focusing on protein first. Then I also added to my diet lots of fiber from foods like farro, legumes, chia seeds, flax seeds, etc. Check out this section of my periodized nutrition blog for implications for blood biomarkers. Never lose sight of what matters the most.
If you have any recommendations or other recipes, feel free to drop them in the comments below.
Recipes aside, together with Alessandra, I’ve been setting up a Lab here in Brisighella, which will serve both for Yoga classes and for Metabolic Testing.
This week I’ve also ordered a metabolic cart, which I can’t wait to have! - to test all things metabolic flexibility, running economy, and durability.
I will be offering this service to a small number of people, and in particular to the athletes I coach, whenever they’d like to visit.
We should be set up to start by the end of the year or early next year. More updates on all things FAT/CHO oxidation and more, soon!
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Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching. He is a certified ultrarunning coach.
Marco has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.
He is co-founder of HRV4Training, Endurance Coach at Destination Unknown Endurance Coaching, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.
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Do you find it hard to eat enough on lower carbohydrate days when you do train a lot?
I always thought it should be easy to rely more on fats, although probably most of the tasty fatty foods are packed with a lot of carbohydrates as well.
Personally sometimes I struggle to eat my calories from carbs on really big training blocks. Then I turn to a much higher fat intake, regretting I didn’t eat more on the bike.
Those are just my thoughts.
Really Interesting stuff!
and now the met cart !!! what a dedication !! Did you buy a medical grade/hospital like device or a mere mask suitable for field testing like Calibre / Cosmed K series?
(and brace yourself for more questions as I am seriously digging your podcasts ang blog notes ;)