I follow a low-carb diet, but I have not tried an ultra.

If I was going to do an ultra I would try pemmican. You can buy it on the Internet without honey in it. If there was someone to serve food to me I would eat a steak or plain hamburger meat.

When I ran a marathon I used salted water and L-Glutamine the entire way. I was tired, but no bonk. In my book L-Glutamine is a miracle substance.

i will be impressed if you can run 24 hours without carbs. I could not even fathom not running with sports drink, clif blocks, and ensure. Not even talking about all the food. You will have to be crafty on getting in all your calories and nutritional needs for 24 hours as well. would love a report of how you did and how you felt if you are brave enough to try it.

I'm nothing close to a low-carb eater, in any sense. However,
I use no carbs before or during training runs, and in some cases
I'll run marathons with no carbs. It's taken a lot of very specific
training to get me to that point, optimizing my training zones and
so forth, to teach my body to use primarily fat as a fuel source,
even at a pretty brisk pace. However, even if one were to train
this way in an optimal fashion (I don't know of anyone who has
focused on it to the extent I have or has even come close to my
results in this regard), there is still a significant amount of glycogen
that is used during a long run. When a race gets longer than about
5 hours, I count on taking in a mix of carbs, fats, and proteins.
I think you would really be doing yourself a disservice by restricting
your diet during a 24 hour race, making an event that is already
extremely challenging into one that is much worse. And in reality,
when you've been out there for 12, 14, 16 hours, and longer, I'd
be surprised if any such plan weren't to fly right out the window along
with your remaining sanity. Don't kid yourself. Ditch the diet during
the race and come back to it after recovery.

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i'd like to know how it goes for you. See how you do without carbs and sports drink.
The most common culprit of stomach issues at ultras is sugar.

Good luck in your race! I am another low carb long distance runner. Well not ultra-runner, I use Ultima Replenisher -- it is a good electrolyte replacement drink and is sweetened by Stevia. I hope everything went well with your race.

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Kent A
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And remember, although you can shift to MORE fat burning for fuel, it's still just a PROPORTION of fat vs. carbs. "Fat burns in a carbohydrate flame."

Kate