Becoming Your Own Health Advocate

Becoming Your Own Health Advocate

For decades, athletes have been guided by a set of established nutritional “rules,” the most prominent being the necessity of a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet to fuel performance and the simplistic “calories in, calories out” model for managing weight. At Rollfast Coaching, we believe in Riding Faster, Being Stronger, and Living Longer, and a growing body of evidence suggests that this conventional wisdom may not only be suboptimal but potentially detrimental for many individuals.

The most powerful takeaway for any athlete is to shift from being a passive follower of dogma to an active and informed health advocate who uses self-experimentation to discover what truly fuels their unique physiology.

The Flaws in Conventional Wisdom: Why We Question the Status Quo

The foundation of modern dietary advice, particularly for athletes, is built on what we believe at Rollfast Coaching is shaky ground. The low-fat, high-carbohydrate approach that became mainstream was largely based on weak scientific evidence that wrongly vilified dietary fats, including saturated fats. This led to a nutritional landscape where athletes were encouraged to consume large amounts of processed carbohydrates—gels, bars, sugary drinks, pasta—to keep their glycogen stores full, while actively avoiding fat.

This dogma fundamentally ignores the powerful role of hormones in regulating metabolism and body composition. The “calories in, calories out” theory, for example, treats all calories as equal, failing to account for how different foods affect the body’s hormonal signaling. Our central argument at Rollfast is that it is not merely the number of calories, but their hormonal effect, that dictates whether we store fat or burn it for energy. As such, advice from doctors or dietitians, while well-intentioned, may be based on outdated or incomplete information, making it crucial for individuals to question and verify the guidance they receive.

The Hormonal Framework: Understanding Insulin’s Role in Performance & Longevity

To effectively experiment with nutrition and truly enhance your Longevity, an athlete must understand the central role of the hormone insulin. When you consume carbohydrates, particularly refined ones, your body releases insulin to move the resulting glucose from your blood into your cells for energy. However, a primary function of insulin is to promote fat storage; when insulin levels are consistently high, your body is effectively blocked from burning its own vast reserves of stored fat.

For a Rollfast endurance athlete, this has profound implications for both Speed and Longevity:

• Fuel Limitation: A high-carb diet makes you dependent on a limited fuel tank (glycogen), requiring constant refueling to avoid the dreaded “bonk.” This creates unstable energy.
• Fat Storage: Constantly elevated insulin levels, driven by frequent carbohydrate intake, can lead to fat accumulation, even in athletes with high training volumes. This can hinder Speed and overall health.
• Inflammation and Recovery: Diets high in sugar and processed foods are linked to chronic inflammation, which can impair recovery, and disrupt mental and physical well-being. This directly impacts your ability to be Stronger and reduces Longevity.

By shifting the focus from calories to hormones, a Rollfast athlete gains a new framework for self-experimentation. The goal becomes eating in a way that keeps insulin low and stable, thereby allowing the body to access its vast and stable energy reserves in body fat. This is the foundation of true metabolic flexibility.

The “N-of-1” Experiment: Your Path to Personalized Performance

The most effective way to become your own health advocate is to conduct what is known in research as an “n-of-1” trial—an experiment with a sample size of one: yourself. Rather than blindly accepting advice to “carb-load,” we encourage you to systematically test an alternative approach and observe the results.

The Rollfast Experiment: The core experiment we suggest is to systematically reduce or eliminate processed carbohydrates and sugars while increasing the intake of whole foods, quality proteins, and healthy fats. This doesn’t mean eliminating all carbohydrates, but consciously shifting the focus away from processed grains and sugars toward nutrient-dense sources like vegetables, fruits (in moderation), and quality whole foods. Some may find they thrive on a very low-carbohydrate or even a meat-based “carnivore” diet, which can serve as an ultimate elimination diet to identify foods that cause personal inflammation or distress.

Observation and Measurement: Trust Your Body’s Data As you change your diet, pay close attention to key performance and health markers. Your body provides invaluable feedback:

• Energy Levels: Do you experience more stable, sustained energy throughout the day and during long training sessions, without the sugar crashes and cravings? A balanced diet can profoundly affect your mental state and clarity, enhancing your overall Speed and enjoyment.
• Body Composition: Do you notice positive changes in your body fat percentage and muscle mass? Controlling insulin is the most direct way to signal your body to stop storing fat and start burning it. Muscle integrity and Strength are supported by adequate protein and hormonal health, not just carbohydrate fuel.
• Recovery and Health: How do your joints feel? Is your sleep improving? Do you feel less “inflamed”? A diet based on nutrient-dense, whole foods can significantly reduce the inflammatory load on the body, improving recovery and overall resilience, contributing to your Longevity. Hormonal balance, heavily influenced by diet, is also a key factor in overall health and recovery.

Ultimately, listening to your body means trusting your own experience over externally imposed dogma. The principles we champion at Rollfast Coaching—prioritizing hormonal balance, reducing processed foods, and embracing healthy fats—provide a powerful starting point. By adopting an experimental mindset, you can break free from one-size-fits-all advice and build a personalized nutritional strategy that enhances not only your performance but your long-term health, Strength, and ability to Live Longer.

Share Your Experience: Have you experimented with your fueling? We’d love to hear your insights in the comments below!