I've been on IP for a month now. The first month went great. I went from 336 to 309!

Here's my situation: In six weeks I am taking a group of teenagers from my church on a 50 mile hike over 6 days. I really need to lose another 20 - 30 pounds before this, but I also want to train for it...hiking, weights, cardio...stuff like that.

Then at the end of September I'm going on a 108 mile bike ride. Same story. I need to lose a bunch of weight before then, but I also need to train hard for it.

I don't see how I can have it both ways. How can I maintain the rapid weight loss of ideal protein but have the carbs/energy for the substantial amount of training I need to do?

My coach told me to just have an extra item on the days I'm going to be exercising, but I don't think she realizes just how hard I'm going to be exercising for these events. I'm a school teacher so I'll have plenty of time for long bike rides and difficult hikes.

Please help!

I think all you can do is all you can do.

If I were in your shoes, I'd focus on the training for the hike initially. No matter your weight, if you aren't strong enough and don't have the endurance for it, it won't matter if you lose the amount you want to lose beforehand or not. If you're strong and improving your cardio, the weight will move eventually.

I know that probably isn't the answer you want, but that's what I'd do. Good luck and have fun!!

I agree with Rachel - 100%. You need the strength and muscle power. I'm training for an up and coming race and my losses aren't what they when I was doing strict IP, but I want the cardio and endurance. And I always pump up my protein for recovery. I have a bit if a 30g protein shake prior and the rest within a 1/2 hr after exercising. BTW, I'm still losing and shrinking so, no worries there.

I workout pretty heavily every day, and I found that switching around my eating schedule was the key:

8AM Breakfast
11AM Lunch (I have my 8oz meat here to give me more energy for an evening workout)
4PM Snack
6PM Hit the gym
8:30PM Leave gym and have a RTD shake
9PM Dinner (Packet and veggies)

If you're planning on doing, like, P90X level training, I'd move into Phase 2 or 3. I've been able to make Phase 1 work for me, but it really can't handle this level of training.

Also, you WILL lose weight a bit slower... but you'll have WAY better stamina from the continual workouts. Progress isn't just measured in pounds!

Are you saying I should just take a break from IP and eat the foods (carbs) I'll need to eat to be able to do the training needed for the hike/bike ride?

So are you still doing some form of IP? But just adding more carbs and protein?

I'm ok with losing weight a bit slower, as long as I'm getting in better shape. My main concern with trying to do these workouts while on ideal protein is the endurance. Trying to do a 2 or 3 hour bike ride with no carbs is pretty much impossible.

There is no question about it. This is the correct answer. I don't know what kind of condition you're in now but if you sit on your butt for the next six weeks and then attempt to hike 10 miles a day you're going to end up in wishing you had taken this advice at best and potially end up seriously injured.

The good news is that at your size you can lose fat plenty fast while building your endurance and in six weeks you can get into much better shape.

I'd personally suggest an intake of about 2,000 calories on training days, and 1500 on off days. This should be adequate intake to power your training while still creating a deficit that leads to plenty of fat loss.

If you're not in that great of shape now, don't kill yourself right away. Start to ease into it and increase intensity every time you train.

Why are you trying to do these extreme physical events when you are on a diet that advises you not to go beyond moderate exercise at most? Are you looking for a reason to stop the diet? It doesn't matter to me what the answers are, but you should be honest with yourself and make your decisions accordingly.

Yes, I am still following the IP protocol but exercising and on those days I add protein. I am not working out for 2-3 hrs and technically I do not add carbs. On a rare occasion, I will have a handful of nuts (carbs and fat). If you are just starting your training, you won't be doing 2-3 hrs either. If you do, you'll end up injuring yourself and won't have to worry about hikes with the kids. Know what I mean? When you get to that level, deal with your nutritional requirements then.

Start slow and build.

While I agree that many people could do light exercise on the IP diet without a problem the bottom line is that any adaptation requires energy so you'll be slowing down the needed adaptations to take on such an effort by sticking to the IP protocol.

With six weeks to train you need to get all the adaptations you can and therefore need calories.

Thanks for the advice guys. You make some good points. The training I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks will not be too intense, so i can probably stick on IP and just have an extra packet after exercise.

however, it won't be long before the training gets much longer/harder. I plan to hike one day and ride the next (I'm a school teacher and Friday is my last day of the school year, so i'll have lots of free time).

Is this a possibility: Stick on my current routine for most days knowing that I won't be doing more than an hour or so of exercise. But then on the days when I know I'm going to be doing something big (long ride or difficult hike) have a big, high carb meal the night before. I will probably only do the big days once or twice a week at the most.

Is that a reasonable solution? Or is it pointless to even be doing IP if I'm going to be eating that big meal once or twice a week?

Thanks!

You don't need a high carb meal for any kind of the activity you're talking about.

I'm confused. Every cyclist I've ever talked to says to eat a high carb meal the night before a long ride. Especially if going more than 40 - 50 miles.

Can someone give me some solid specifics on what I should do? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Do i stay on IP but just add more packets and calories?
Do I do a modified version of IP?
Do I just eat whatever and workout as much as I can?

HELP!

I'm not on IP... But from what I know about it... It's not compatible with doing 40 to 50 mile bike rides... So my word of advice there is to not even attempt trying to combine IP with that amount of biking...

I do a lot of biking though... and I've done Ironman... so I would routinely do 120 mile training rides for that... I wouldn't carbo load in the traditional sense before hand, but I definitely was eating in the 50% to 60% range on daily basis... The KEY to long rides is fueling as you go... Once you go past the 2 hour mark it really becomes important to be taking in the right amount of calories to keep you going.... But I usually start taking in calories in the form of sports drinks and gels from the 1 hour mark on.... and then soild foods later on...

High carb is not what matters. More calories to facilitate muscle recovery matters. The "carb load before events" mindset is kind of old philosophy, there are many athletes that stay low carb even before big events and are quite successful.

This is a link to the Athlete's protocol for IP, which may be a good option for you while you are training. Give it a go, if you find that once things get more intense you are not feeling well (weakness, fatigue, etc) then you need to increase your calories more. At that point it might be worth doing something more like Phase 3, but the bottom line is listen to what your body is telling you.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/3950642-post19.html

If you're interested in trying to do low carb along with endurance training... You might want to take a look at "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performence" or "The Paleo Athlete".... I've tried them both, but they didn't work for me.... I've found through trial and error that lowest I can go with my carbs is more like "Zone" levels, so a 40/30/30 approach...

And even though I've read about people who are apparently able to run marathons and do Ironman in a "keto-adapted" state... I have yet to actually meet any yet.... All the endurance athletes that I know and train with... Even the ones who consider themselves "low carb" are still eating between 100 to 200 g of carbs a day... and they are definitely taking in carbs while training and racing...