Fasting and Improved Athletic Performance

Stark is ass over eyebrows at 70!

Athletic performance comes from your environmental exposure to stress. The stress of doing something that requires effort. This can be any form of movement, getting from A to B, or the Tour de France. The body adapts to the stresses you put it under and it has an amazing ability to do that. Think about the pyramids, and the Great Wall all built with sweat and lasting eons.

But what about us in today's world of chairs cars and planes (recent inventions)? What about our food culture of eating 16 hours per day - and what it is doing to the basic machinery of our cells, energy metabolism, and how it is affecting our longevity?

We are built to fast and go with very low caloric input for long periods of time. When we feast at the end of this cycle, the body makes fresh-stem cells; then tissues to repair at greater rates than before. Our genetics adapted us to slip in and out of eating and not eating. We even do this on a daily basis, and in fact "Breakfast" gives us a clue that overnight we have done a mini version of slowing down and repairing our bodies, only to renew with the first meal. Today 40% of calories are eaten after 7pm, literally killing our repair time effectiveness!

When we do a Whole-Foods Fasting-Mimicking Diet or a 3-Day Water Fast our bodies genetics kick-in and we adapt, shifting from carbohydrates as a source of energy to fat. This is normal and happens every night when we sleep, however, when you fast periodically over and over - say quarterly as part of your lifestyle, the body does something miraculous. It changes the amount of fat-burning mitochondria in each cell, making it easier to burn stored fat. Say what - fasting makes your body more efficient!

Here is an example; when you do a marathon, the average amount of carbohydrates stored in the liver and muscles makes it to mile 18. This is called "the wall" because if feels as if you just hit something impossible to get over. If you are a carb-loading, low fibre, and high-sugar foods and drinks - like most distance runners. You have about 8 more miles of pain to endure- breaking down mucle proteins for energy...

When you have more "beta-oxidation happy mitochondria" from repetitive daily, weekly,or quarterly fasting; you make the shift much easier and with the addition of "short chain fatty acids" from your plant-loving bacteria in your bowel - you have fuel for Africa - literally.

Ever wonder why the Kenyans are at the front of the pack in any distance event? They enter a fasting state every time they run, as they run out of energy with each long training session. This forces the adaptive production of the fat-burning mitochondria. Until the last ten years, science did not think this was possible. Now we know why, and how to make it happen to a much larger degree in all athletes.

The second trick the Kenyans have is fiber to feed the colon bacteria indigestible cellulose and lignin fibre, which as a by-product of their food choices produce short-chain fatty acids (SFA). We absorb this from our bowel, as energy - long after our liver and muscles have been depleted of glycogen/ glucose. How does this translate?

Eliud Kipchoge the world's best marathonist runs 2:50 per kilometer right out of the gate for the first kilometer. Forty-one kilometers later, he is seven seconds slower! His pace from 41-42 K and the finish line is an amazing 2:57 split. And, second place is a full five minutes behind him...

His diet? Traditional Keynan and is 80% cornmeal mush. High in fiber, minerals, and calories. Any of us who fast regularly feel a great boost to our stamina and when combining time-restricted feeding, intermittent fasting, and prolonged fasting techniques, it is as if we have a second set of lungs and legs to do whatever we want.

The Stark Protocol Master Classes allow for the uptake and mastery needed to take athletic performance to the next level. Join us on our journey.

Check the website for the next scheduled class and be there!