Exercise Improvements After Going Gluten Free?

[BarryC]

Hi

I have been working out regularly for the past ten years (52 year old male). Other than better cardio, and a slightly firmer body, you would never know I exercise as miuch as I do. I wonder if glutemn intolerance in some way impedes any gains? Just recently I am able to jog every day, when before I needed at least two days to 'recover'. Thanks for your thoughts!

[tictax707]

Hi! I am not 100% sure I understand your question. You were wondering if not being able to have gluten impeded gains with exercise? Because at the end of your post you said that you can now jog every day when you used to not be able to. That's a gain, isn't it?

I can say for me personally, I've gotten much stronger and faster after getting into the gluten free diet. I think you will find a lot of people who do as well. Of course everyone is different and everyone has different amounts of healing they need to do, so the healing and improvement time course is going to be highly varied...

[TeknoLen]

Loren Cordain in his book Paleo Diet makes the assertion that a paleo eater should be able to better perform physically and athletically than someone who eats SAD (standard American diet). I seem to remember he had some pretty good rationale and some anecdotal case histories to back up his claim. If your gluten-free diet is similar to a paleo diet, then maybe some of your workout improvement is in fact diet related. It makes sense, cavemen had to be physically fit if they wanted to catch something to eat...

[dilettantesteph]

I saw a huge improvement in exercise gluten free. I do a 200,000 m rowing challenge each year between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I have records going back 10 years. I looked through them and I got progressively worse each year, as you might expect due to aging.

I was diagnosed at age 47, and that year there was a big improvement. The next year I was better than any previously recorded year. There were other changes too, but this one was the most documented. I've always been a bit of an exercise fanatic, so it cannot be attributed to an increase in physical activity.

[NorthernElf]

I am a fitness instructor & have been gluten-free for almost 10 years. I saw great improvements in endurance and fitness going gluten-free...I was sick & tired a lot before.

Having said that, I am a careful eater and I like to cook. I eat a lot of brown rice and sweet potatoes/yams. I eat a lot of salads and vegetables....and a lot of meat/protein (throughout the day). I try to eat clean most of the time (unprocessed) but my favorite go to cheat is Food Should Taste Good multigrain chip nachos. ;-)

I've been an instructor and fitness geek for over 15 years and have worked with a lot of different folks, a lot of different ages. Diet is important, but more in terms of healthy food and volume of food. Eat food for what it can give you - nutrition wise - and don't over do it. I'm 42 and find interval training once or twice a week really helps lean things out. I'm not a calorie counter but a big believer of only eating when you are hungry and grazing throughout the day. Hydration is important too. Good luck !