Simple question about nutrition and its effect on exercise

[luvaulos]

First Ill provide a little bit of background info:
I have been overweight all my life. I am a 6 foot tall 18 year old male. I moved from the "flatlands" to a mountainous region in August, weighing 225 pounds. Now I suppose its just the hills and the culture (the people here eat alot more "hippie food"), but by the end of October, I was down to 210 pounds without even making any effort. For my new years resolution I quit smoking and started running, and in February, I started adding push ups and crunches and things of that nature to my workout. I went to the doctor yesterday and weighed in at 193. Anyways, 2 days ago, I decided to cut my carbohydrate consumption and ramp up my protein intake to further increase my weight loss/muscle building potential, however, the past few days, I found it EXTREMELY hard to run only 4 miles, when before that I was running 7 or 8 miles a day with no problems. Now Im figuring that the reason for this is because my body is conditioned to burn carbohydrates before its own fat for energy, and after a little while, I will adjust and be able to get back to running 7 or 8 miles a day. Please correct me if I am wrong, as I dont want to reverse all the good work I have already done.

 

[chouston]

First Ill provide a little bit of background info:
I have been overweight all my life. I am a 6 foot tall 18 year old male. I moved from the "flatlands" to a mountainous region in August, weighing 225 pounds. Now I suppose its just the hills and the culture (the people here eat alot more "hippie food"), but by the end of October, I was down to 210 pounds without even making any effort. For my new years resolution I quit smoking and started running, and in February, I started adding push ups and crunches and things of that nature to my workout. I went to the doctor yesterday and weighed in at 193. Anyways, 2 days ago, I decided to cut my carbohydrate consumption and ramp up my protein intake to further increase my weight loss/muscle building potential, however, the past few days, I found it EXTREMELY hard to run only 4 miles, when before that I was running 7 or 8 miles a day with no problems. Now Im figuring that the reason for this is because my body is conditioned to burn carbohydrates before its own fat for energy, and after a little while, I will adjust and be able to get back to running 7 or 8 miles a day. Please correct me if I am wrong, as I dont want to reverse all the good work I have already done.

Runners do need a lot of carbohydrates. Instead of cutting carbs, you can can change they type of carbs you eat. For example, whole wheat pastas and breads, brown rice, oatmeal etc. If you don't want to increase your carbs, try eating your carbs an hour or so before you plan to run and see if that helps give you more energy.

 

[Jeanette401]

If it's only been a couple days, I'd give it a little longer to see if your body adapts. Some people have a harder time adjusting to the lower carb intake than others. You may also want to have a higher carb snack right before running to see if that makes a difference rather than changing your eating all of the time. I don't think you could undo your work by going another week or so like you are to see if things change - and if you see no improvement in a week, then you should look into increasing calories or having some carbs right before your run etc.

Just my opinion