Lionel Sanders admits himself to sugar rehab

Hello my name is Lionel, and I’m a sugar addict.

Consuming upwards of 1000 grams of sugar some days, Lionel Sanders said he is addicted to ultra-processed carbohydrates and admits he sometimes eats two pounds of sugar in a single day.

Sanders revealed he wakes up around eight times a night to go to the bathroom, and hasn’t felt good in over a decade. With such prolonged broken sleeping patterns and a sugar addiction that has him eating granola bars in the middle of the night, he took to his youtube channel to share that he’d hit his rock sugar bottom.

He said his frequent bathroom wake-up calls amount to 8×45 minute sleep intervals. And he’s fuelling those intervals with sugar, battling cravings throughout the night.

“People have been saying to me that I look like a bag of sh*t for a long time,” he said.

Sanders said he hasn’t slept or felt well for years, but that it has become his norm.

“I think I’m used to feeling horrible all the time when I train.”

Intense sugar cravings

This prompted him recently to get blood work done, something he has never done before. When the results came back his A1C numbers, which measure average blood sugar levels, revealed he was pre-diabetic. It was a trigger for Sanders to take a hard look at his nutrition numbers. When he crunched them they were off the charts. He often consumed 500 to 600 grams of carbs in a workout, and another 500 to 600 grams afterward.

“Those were aerobic days,” he added. “I wasn’t even burning that many carbs because the intensity wasn’t super high. And then a bunch of candy too on top of that.”

His issues went beyond his long training days. How he stacked his calories, he determined, was also problematic. Having very little for breakfast and only marginally more for lunch, the rest of his day became a carb laden binge that lasted throughout the night.

“Because I ate very little for those first two meals, I would also prioritize massive amounts of carbs. Insulin sensitivity goes down and the blood sugar remains elevated. So then I would eat a sh*t ton of carbs for dinner, and then I would have dessert, and then I would snack all night, for the most part on candy.

“And then I would also, in the middle of the night, have Nature Valley bars. And I would eat one or two every night.”

Validating the data

To confirm his A1C number, he wore a continuous glucose monitor. The monitor gave him the same result. He continued to wear the monitor and committed to making dietary changes for the next 10 days to track the outcome. His number came down from the 5.9 reported from the blood work, but even after switching to lower glycemic foods to control blood sugar levels over those 10 days, his A1C number was still above normal.

He said he’s as “lazy as they get” when it comes to eating. He is going all-in overhauling what he eats and when, convinced his poor eating habits are related to his poor sleep, feeling unwell and failing to train in a positive and adaptable way.

“My joke has been for a long time now, “I’m cooking tonight.” And I’d pull out my phone and say, “So what do we want? Jersey Mikes? Mod Pizza?” That’s my idea of cooking. I’ve created a culture of laziness, of lazy eating which involves ordering sh*tty food, eating grab-and-go garbage and snacking on peanut butter cups all day.

“That’s where my tastes are. That’s what I crave. I’ll crave MacDonalds and all these very processed things, the peanut butter cups. I’ve trained my body to fuel itself on that.”

Gaining new skills

No more. He is now on a journey to learn more about food and even learn to cook. To combat the “culture of laziness” around food in his home, he is doing more in the kitchen, going to the farmers’ market, the grocery store and asking himself if what he is eating is actual food or a “food-like substance.” He even cooked a steak.

He told himself, “don’t go super-polarized in one direction, but certainly moving more towards thinking about not eating super processed carb,” he shared. “Still eating a sh*t ton of carbs but eating a lot of it with fats and proteins in their more natural source instead of super highly processed.”

He wants to change the culture around food in his home by spending more time and energy considering what he is eating. Up to now he’s been motivated as much as anyone with 20×100 threshold repeats in the pool in their training schedule.

“I’ve not because I’m tired and not recovering properly, therefore I’m lazy and I eat like sh*t, which adds to me being tired and not recovering properly,” he said. He has since figured out a few of the mistakes he never considered until now.

“On an easy ride of an hour in duration maybe I burn 60 to 80 grams of carbs, but during that ride I would also consume 60 to 80 grams of carbs. The part that I didn’t understand was, well if you kept up with the carb burn then you don’t need to eat a sh*t ton of carbs after that session.”

No going low carb

His new mantra is “The more power, the more carbs. The less power, the less carbs.”

He isn’t planning on cutting out carbs completely or going low carb. As an endurance athlete he said he understands that’s not possible. Making a shift away from excessive carbs and processed foods, and being more involved and intentional about his nutrition has been enough to make a big difference already. Two months of behavioural change and he’s seeing results.

“I literally felt my whole life, my whole reality begin to change because I felt something I can’t remember the last time I felt. I was just walking around, about to begin a bike and I felt good. Last night, I peed two times. The night before I peed one time in the middle of the night and I’ve been sleeping soundly.”

Sanders is also motivated to make a change so he can provide a better diet culture for his little man, Levi. It’s been a rewarding journey, he added.

“I think when you start to have kids you realize you’re mortality a bit and you are ingraining a culture, a way of thinking and being on this little person. They don’t come in with any of the knowledge and you give them most of it for the first part of their life.”

It’s shaping up to be a win-win situation for him and his family. Fans will be watching closely to see how it impacts his upcoming season.