Ari Klau burns out on plant-based diet

There are lots of vegetarian top athletes.

Here are some lists

thebeet.com

20 Who Athletes Swear by a Plant-Based Diet to Boost Performance | The Beet

hwelch

Before they went plant-based they were plagued with injury and illness, but now these top athletes are using a vegan diet to achieve optimal fitness and to win.

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livekindly.co

19 Vegan Athletes Who Swear By Plant-Based Diets

Audrey Enjoli

From weight lifting to running, these top vegan athletes are powered by plants. They prove you don't need meat to compete.

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businessinsider.com

These 19 elite athletes are vegan — here's what made them switch their diet

Alan Dawson

From Venus Williams and Lewis Hamilton to Colin Kaepernick and David Haye, these athletes credit being at the top of their game to a vegan diet.

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trailandsummit.com

8 Vegan Runners and How They Get Enough Protein

Madeline Hirschfeld

Many athletes in the ultra running community have opted for the plant-based lifestyle. Even elite runners have tested the waters of veganism and benefited tremendously. They have even gone so far as to credit their diet to th...

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Everyone does has a different metabolic system. Sage Cannaday has documented his struggle with being low on iron, high B12 acting as a mask(lack of folate).

It's great maybe if your a high subbed influencer partnering with blood tracker, supplement company a, b, etc. But as an omnivore there is no debate here as your denying a key bioavailable source that makes up your being. Yes plant Yes fish, egg, meat,

3 years ago Lionel was very mindful of carnivore food source ethics and then got too restricted and could not come up with a race effort. He's done a few videos where he has an entire pizza and speaks to the lack of macros but has never done a "day in the life eating" LS is really in strong form and Ari as his hired training partner I would hope is getting sorted...

All of these athletes are toast now. Some prominent head cases represented. As are all the fools in "Game Changers".

Not one long-term vegan made the men's O Trials in the marathon for Tokyo. . If they had they wold be blaring it all over social media. The record for a vegan 5K runner is just under 14:00. The guy ended up homeless in Alaska, and unable to run. And he was still young. Also failed to make the Trials

Veganism is a massive global scam with Billion$ of profit$ driving it. Manboobs, skinny fat and brain fog are the main tangible results.

Don't misquote me. I don't think I've ever been really low on folate....and my B12 is generally not super high. I monitor these things quite closely.

Last blood test my ferritin was dropping a tad (I'm at 7,000' and training up to 12,000' all winter)....it's usually around 100. My hematocrit was near 49.

Plants have tons of folate in them!

I do take an iron supplement as well as B12 and vitamin D. I also take Omega 3- fatty acids (DHA/EPA oil blend). I'd bet most Americans are chronically low on Vitamin D.

But have you never met a high mileage runner that eats meat/dairy but then still gets low on iron/Vitamin D? Tons of my teammates in the past had those issues (and they ate red meat like 3-4 times a week!). It's an endurance athlete thing....not even diet related really. You gotta check your blood all the time regardless of diet if you are knocking out high mileage and using your body.

his burnout wasn't the type of food he was eating, it was his approach to training and quantity of food to supplement himself

1) - he transitioned to a multi-sport even with little to no experience beyond running, drastically increased his training volume and then made some very bold claims of his targets before he'd even found his feet in tri.

he was very critical of his race performances, seemingly expecting himself to automatically be competing with the top guys and has tried to maintain a very high intensity of training without trading it off for the sudden increase in volume

in this video he mentions how he stupidly recently made a video about 'training through overtraining' but regardless of acknowledging that, then goes on to say he had some down time to recover.... which still included session. if he (like many athletes) continues to be driven by performance anxiety and not making sound logical training decisions (like always trying to chase down Lionel in sessions) then this wont change.

2) - all the above is underpinned by still needing to learn more about his nutrition strategy, frequency of food and hydration intake and so directly comparing himself (and diet) to what his new tri friends do, who have many more years experience than him, is not a good guide. to train more than you ever have, you need to eat more than you ever have (and then rest too).

His whole journey so far through his experience of Tri has had a real re-occuring theme of burnout and fatigue, showing that it is not a case of 'he cant handle it' but just 'he cant handle what he is trying to do so soon'. He wont go from a noob to one of the best in the world in a year, but this training-to-death mentality is routed in ego and what looks cool/impressive, not what will reap the greatest rewards.

I hope he does well, but saying you're burnt out and then talking about doing sessions whilst in recovery shows that he's still not learnt and he is not out of the hole yet, despite already beginning to build back up

Great comment.

I don't know anything about Ari Klau but I know that quite a lot of pro triathletes are vegetarians. The first famous one was Dave Scott many others followed.
Triathlon is a complicated sport you are not learning that in 2-3 years no matter what you eat.

Brain fog is a very generic term

Doesn't mean a lot in isolation

I don't have great insight on the specific topic of Ari's diet and burnout. But I do appreciate Letsrun's mindset and views on Ari. He's a great guy really, truly going for it, and not just obnoxiously doing it for the likes and views.

I genuinely hope he figures Tri's out and has success. I'm following his career and rooting for him.

Who?

There's no better way to grow old, fast.

Wow, I never knew that Veganism leads to homelessness.

Scott blamed that diet as a major factor for his eventual flame out and eats lots of meat now.

Walmsley is famously vegan

Nope, just junk food and beer, like Courtney.

This has nothing to do with a plant-based diet. Protein doesn't have to come from animals, and the American obsession with the idea that it does is sooo weird.

He's new to the sport - and he will continue to adjust to everything in these next few years. The triathlon is a whole different sport - especially at his level. It's going to be trial and error for years to come. I admire his big goals and think he will get there - it just takes time...more time than he may think. This "burnout" video is just a bump in the road to where he wants to get. It's all part of the journey and I wish him the best.

When you eliminate the most important class of foods for humans, which provide ALL necessary nutrients in proper bioavailable form, in order for some psychological reason to force your body to extract and utilize nutrients from plants that are not easily assimilated and are typically accompanied by plant defense chemicals (natural pesticides and anti nutrients) there is going to be a cost, and that is your ability to properly recover from hard training. Ari has found this out the hard way, as many of us have. "Don't eat meat? Prepare to get beat!"

Kudos to Ari for having a decent learning curve on this. If he had done this as just a runner, he probably would have a serious injury. Hopefully he gives himself time to recover from this serious metabolic and nutritional insult.

A couple of long-term successful vegan ultrarunners:

Harvey Lewis

Michael Wardian

Consider the MMA test instead of the standard B12 test.