Two weeks ago, on May 8, Michael McKnight arrived at his home in Smithfield, a town near Yellowstone National Park in the United States, at night, and prepared dinner. He was hungry and it was logical: he had gone running. But several details of his training made an action as daily as eating at that moment become something extraordinary, memorable. McKnight had gone for a run, yes, but he had done it at dawn, 18 hours and 40 minutes earlier, he had completed a 160 kilometer circuit and during the entire race he had not ingested calories, he had only drunk water with salts and potassium. When he returned that night, he was also in perfect condition.

"At no time did I feel bad or suffer from starvation and, in addition, I have recovered frankly well," McKnight commented the following day on his social networks and added: "It is true that I had good physical and nutritional preparation, but I still he asked why it was so easy. " "It was an advantage to run close to home. I was seeing family and friends. I had the route downloaded on my watch, but I didn't really need it. I knew where I could fill my soft flask with water or where I had coverage to call my wife if I ran out of it, "said the long-winner runner.

Because, not surprisingly, McKnight is no rookie in mountain races and was also unaware of the benefits and risks of training on an empty stomach. Seriously injured in 2012, at the age of 22, while skiing, he started running shortly thereafter and discovered his gift: in 2017 he had already won the extremely tough American Triple Crown, three races exceeding 200 miles, the Bigfoot 200, the Tahoe 240 and the Moab 200. By then he was flirting with a change of diet that he would establish later. For a long time the main obstacle to his victories was his own stomach, digestive problems that weighed on him, so he tried various oddities until he discovered the one that best suited him: the keto diet or keto.

According to the principles of this, you must consume very few carbohydrates for the body to enter ketosis and obtain energy from fats. According to several studies, the risks of following between eating patterns are high, but the effectiveness in losing weight is remarkable. For Knight, that diet, taken to the extreme and prolonged, was the way to never suffer from her stomach during the races. And he wanted to try how far he could go. He did 30- or 40-kilometer workouts without consuming calories, but the cancellation of most races due to the coronavirus presented him with the opportunity to go further.

"I maintain my fast for 18 hours a day. It only allows me to eat at 1:00 and 7:00 p.m. Mainly I maintain a carnivorous diet based on meat, eggs and bacon and only as fruit to replace the glycogen that I lose when I run. Since I maintain this diet I have felt a great difference in the effectiveness of my body both in the races and in my daily life, "commented McKnight after his unusual training.

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