Land fat on your feet

WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2000

Challenging the notion that a low-fat diet is the number one choice for elite athletes, a study has found that a diet higher in fat led to increased endurance in a group of trained runners, without increasing body fat.

Sports Medicine Institute researchers in Buffalo, New York, studied the effects of low, medium and high fat diets on 12 male and 13 female runners.

All subjects started with a dietary fat content of 16% (male) and 31% (female) over a four-week period incorporating their normal running program of 42 miles a week. Six men and six women increased their fat intakes to 44%.

The study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, February 2000, found:

endurance time increased from the low fat to the medium fat diet by 14%;
body weight, percent body fat, maximal oxygen consumption and anaerobic power were not affected by the increased level of dietary fat;
subjects who increased their dietary fat to 44% had higher plasma pyruvate (46%) and lower lactate levels (39%) after an endurance run.