What you’ll find if you don’t eat refined carbs regularly is that you can get through long runs without much nutrition. Some Banting athletes have done up to 25 hours of exercise a week with not one shot of Energade or even an energy bar. Generally, you should eat large fatty meals loaded with cheese, butter or coconut oil and eat your fill. If you are doing a 12 hour set then perhaps stuffing yourself would be the right thing to do. This should be done the night before or very early in the morning. Sweet potato is the closest one should get to a carb but we hardly make a point of loading up on them. We would recommend eating a large meal a few hours before or the night before and then only drinking water during your session. Also make a point of drinking a decent amount of water between sessions. Coconut water is great too and is one of the most effective natural isotonics. Getting your body used to Banting and extreme exercise takes up to six months so one needs to be patient. Jonno (our chef) swims up to 100km a week while Banting only supplementing with sweet potato and butternut occasionally. People also get confused between ‘hitting a wall’ and just simply running out of fuel. We are of the opinion (insert disclaimer here) that you can’t run out of fuel unless you have zero per cent body fat, so our assumption is simply that we are training too hard.