Strategic Carbs are the final tier of the OFM Pyramid (OFM=Optimized Fat Metabolism) before putting it all together into your individualized OFM Performance and Health Matrix. 

What are Strategic Carbohydrates?

The term Strategic Carbohydrates was a term that I coined in 2008 when we had already been working with athletes for years (I had been personally doing it since 2001).  We started bringing carbohydrates back into the “fat adapted” process, because we saw an uplift in performance when this was done.

In the last 10 years, we have refined this process to the point that strategic carbohydrates not only improve performance, but we see the athlete get stronger, fitter AND healthier.  Strategic carbs are concentrated forms of carbs, strategically placed in the diet and race fuelling (if doing endurance sports).

One of the things we have seen in the literature and in understanding physiology,  is that strategic carbs make sense when you:

• get properly fat adapted (building that huge aerobic base on a fat based physiology)

• get the proper nutritionally balanced diet 

• start developing the building blocks to get stronger

The result?  

The window of carbohydrate tolerance opens right up, so instead of following the 20-50g that the Keto camp likes to set as a carbohydrate intake, we see it open up so most athletes easily tolerate 75-200 grams per day when training. This makes the diet easy and because you are fat adapted non-restrictive. In fact, a metabolically fit young male can take up to 300-400g per day of carbohydrate before a race.   Then on a race day (of an ultra endurance event), they may be getting 80% of their calories from carbohydrates, even though this only equates to 20-30% of their energy output.  

I encourage you to experiment to check out the following articles or to setup a consult with one of our coaches who can provide you a programme to get fat adapted with strategic carbohydrates.

Other articles on Carbohydrates and performance

> Podcast with Judy Baker - Carb Wars
> Carbohydrates - a legal PED
> Interview with Mike Mutzel on Ketosis, Fat Adaptation and Glycogen