Joe Henderson
protein grams daily. They'd limit my carbos to 120 grams a day. I could launch into a personal testimonial of benefits from shifting my protein-carbo balance, but will simply say the results have been pleasant so far. Instead of speaking personally, I'll let Drs. Michael and Mary Dan tell a running story.
They don't speak highly of our favorite activity, dwelling on the story of an ex-runner. In mid-book, four photos appear. They look like as many different people but are all the same one, Stan Kuter from Little Rock.
The Eadeses describe the pictures:
1. "Stan was 43 years old and heavily into running and low-fat dieting. He appears kind of wasted and emaciated because... well, he was. The constant running, 50 miles per week, was breaking down his muscles, and the inadequate protein component of his low-fat diet wasn't rebuilding them." Finally, the authors write sarcastically, Stan "had all the fun he could stand." He stopped running and his weight soared, as shown in the next photo.
2. "When he quit running, the combination of reduced metabolic rate and no exercise opened the floodgates of body-fat accumulation. This situation is one familiar to many who try to maintain their weight by running and other endurance exercises... When they quit or even slow down, they find their weight increasing at a frightening rate." The ex-athlete tired of lugging around this fat, so he entered the next stage of his metamorphosis.
3. "Stan decided to take a different approach to conditioning. He got a copy of Thin So Fast, [Michael Eades's] earlier book on the advantages of a restricted-carbohydrate nutritional program, followed it to the letter and began a regimen of weight training." This yielded a body-builder's physique. But again he couldn't stick with what he'd found in this phase, and he settled into the body seen in the final photo.
4. "Stan doesn't work out regularly anymore and doesn't always follow his restricted-carbohydrate regimen. But he still looks great... When he does gain a little fat, he simply cuts back on his carbohydrates slightly, and in just a few days the excess is gone."
Stan Kuter now shuns running. I wish he had completed the cycle and gone back to his original activity, to see what his new diet would have meant there.
CARBO LOWERING
A testimonial to protein-power eating (see "Pro-Protein" in this issue) comes from one of my longest-time friends. Jeff Kroot was the first runner I met after moving to California in 1967.
He was then an architecture student at UC/Berkeley who moonlighted as a photographer for
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