Keto Diet And Exercise – Should I Exercise On A Ketogenic Diet?
Yes and No! If you are just starting out on a ketogenic diet and you don’t normally exercise, then NO. When you just start out, you are likely to have some keto flu symptoms. Get through this period first. Then YES, definitely incorporate exercise into your life! Once your body becomes fat adapted, you may find that you have much more energy anyway and actually want to exercise. I know this may sound hard to believe if you normally don’t have the energy or the desire to exercise. If you have always exercised, then YES! You definitely want to continue to exercise. If, however you initially feel a little weaker than normal, just listen to your body and slow down for a bit. Your energy will return. We all know exercise is important no matter what eating plan or lifestyle we follow. However, exercise can be way more efficient when following a ketogenic diet compared to a high carb diet. As a sweetener, the results achieved from exercise whilst fat burning can be much better. Just remember, that you cannot “out exercise” bad eating. Eating good healthy and nutritious food always has to be the starting point if you want to change your life. It is your diet that essentially supply the building blocks for your desired outcome. Are you interested to know exactly how exercise can support you while on the ketogenic diet? Then read on and find out… Exercise Improves Insulin Sensitivity Unfortunately, for many of us, insulin sensitivity decreases as we age and many of us become less active. Inactive people are more likely to have elevated levels of blood glucose. They tend to have higher levels of insulin secretion over the course of a day and as result have excess body fat. This is also the first step on the way to metabolic syndrome and may lead to pre-diabetes. Or ultim Continue reading >>
The Interplay Of Exercise And Ketosis – Part I
I embarked on a self-experiment last weekend to see if I could better understand the interplay between the different types of exercise I do and ketone production (beta-hydroxybutyrate, or B-OHB, to be specific). To be clear, nothing I do with a sample size of one “proves” anything, but sometimes self-experiments can help you formulate hypotheses and, if nothing else, understand how your body works. Consider the parable of the black sheep. If you see even a single black sheep in the field, depending on your field of training, you can draw conclusions: Three scientists were on a train and had just crossed the border into Scotland. A black sheep was grazing on a hillside. The biologist peered out of the window and said, “Look! Scottish sheep are black!” The chemist said, “No, no. Some Scottish sheep are black.” The physicist, with an irritated tone in his voice, said, “My friends, there is at least one field, containing at least one sheep, of which at least one side is black some of the time.” My point is, even a self-experiment of one can be good for something. To test the relationship between exercise and ketosis I decided to examine my blood levels of glucose, B-OHB, and lactate immediately before and after three different types of workouts on three successive days. This interplay is complex and no one knows “everything” about it, including the world’s experts (which I am not pretending to be). I’m going to try to balance a fine line in this post – I want to be rigorous enough to explore the ideas with substance but not too detailed to put you to sleep. I hope I am able to balance these forces adequately. If any of you are not familiar with the work of Jeff Volek and Steve Phinney, but you are interested in the biochemistry of nutritional ketos Continue reading >>
5 Surprising Benefits Of Exercise On The Keto Diet
As with any type of diet, there are a lot of myths surrounding exercise on the keto diet. Despite what you may have heard, exercise is safe and effective while in ketosis. In fact, there are even some major benefits in choosing to exercising on the ketogenic diet rather than the standard american diet (SAD) or a high carb diet, which is often touted by exercise fanatics. I exercise regularly on keto and even while intermittent fasting. Not only do I love exercising on the keto diet, but I feel more energetic during my workouts and don't feel the need to eat immediately before or after to keep my energy up. Why, you ask? Let's take a look at some of the benefits of exercise on the keto diet in order to understand. 1. You'll Burn More Fat Who doesn't want to burn more fat while they exercise? Keto burns more fat for a couple of reasons: If you're already fat-adapted your body will resort to burning fat for fuel easily during your workouts, rather than burning off excess carbs. The larger amounts of fat and (healthy) cholesterol consumed on a keto diet support your testosterone levels, which leads you to burn more fat. In contrast, carbs cause your testosterone to drop, making you store more fat. 2. You'll Have More Energy When you train your body to consume fat instead of carbs for energy, your energy stores are deeper. A person can only store 500 grams of glycogen at a time for energy. Fat stores on the other hand are more or less bottomless. Keto dieting athletes can burn mostly fat for fuel at up to 70% of max intensity, compared to only 55% in high-carb athletes (source). In fat, ketogenic dieters have burned the most fat during exercise ever recorded in a research setting. In addition, low carb dieting can prevent fatigue during prolonged exercise and help you lose m Continue reading >>
Pre & Post Workout On Keto – My Experience
This is about a question that I often get, which is what what to take/drink/eat before and after working out. My mindset about this has changed a lot over the past few years, so I wanted to share my own experience. Who knows, maybe you can relate to this. Before starting Keto 1,5 years ago, I used to be obsessed with timing my carbs and protein perfectly pre- and post workout. If I didn’t have a big portion of rice or pasta approximately 2 hours before working out, I felt less energy and my performance would suffer as a result. Then, after working out I had to have my double Protein shake mixed with cheap carbohydrates in the form of maltodextrin. As soon as I got home, I would force myself to eat as big of a meal as possible, consisting of carbohydrates and protein, as I thought all of this was essential to build muscle and to maximize protein synthesis. I was always really tired and crashing after working out, so my day was pretty much done after that. Doesn’t sound like too much fun, right? Now, lets fast forward one and a half years later. Thanks to the Ketogenic Diet, I’m able to only work out once/week in the gym since August 2015 while maintaining the physique I want. As an example, here is what my weekly workout day looked like last saturday: – 7 AM: Cup of coffee with coconut oil after getting up – 12 PM: Lunch: Cabbage with butter and some Mackerel – 6 PM: Full body gym workout with my girlfriend Zsofi. We both felt tons of energy, she managed to beat her own bench press record. We finished after 45 minutes, without the slightest energy crash and still being able to make the best out of the rest of our evening. – 8 PM: Dinner: Buttered Cauliflower-mash with ground beef That’s it. No supplements/boosters/aminoacids/carbs or other powders before, Continue reading >>
How To Lose Stubborn Belly Fat Through Ketosis
Losing stubborn belly fat is one of the biggest challenges when getting in shape. Belly fat is not only aesthetically unappealing, it has health consequences. It can make you vulnerable to many conditions such as diabetes and heart problems. In this blog, we will share with you why belly fat is so ‘stubborn’ to burn, explain what exactly is Ketosis and how you can lose stubborn belly fat through Ketosis. We will also share a specific exercise and a diet plan to help burn this belly fat. What is Stubborn Belly fat and why it is bad for our health? While you may have fat all over different parts of your body, it isn’t the same. Stubborn belly fat is the soft layers of fat around the waistline that covers your abs. To be more precise, there are three types of fat: Triglycerides– A fat circulates in your blood Subcutaneous Fat– The layer of fat directly below the skin’s surface. This is the fat you can grab with your hands Visceral Fat– The dangerous fat. This is located beneath the muscles in your stomach Belly fat unfortunately does not just sit still. Some visceral fat is necessary, but too much can lead to health problems. You can estimate whether you are carrying too much belly fat by measuring your waist with tape. Anything over 80 cm (31.5 inches) in women and 94 cm (37 inches) can provoke health issues. Carrying excess visceral fat is associated with an increased risk for: Coronary heart disease Cancer Stroke Dementia Diabetes Depression Arthritis Obesity Sexual dysfunction Sleep disorders Why is Stubborn belly fat so “Stubborn”? To understand what makes belly fat so difficult to burn,let’s dive into the biology. Burning fat is a two-part process: Lipolysis is the process whereby fat cells release molecules of stored fat into the blood. Oxidation Continue reading >>
The Keto Workout
Duration 3 Days Exercises 15 Equipment Yes Training when your body is in ketosis forces you to pick your weight room battles carefully. Without carbs in your system, you simply can’t perform the same kind of high-volume bodybuilding or CrossFit routines you’re probably used to and still expect to recover from them—at least not until your body has fully adapted to using fat for fuel. But that’s fine. By learning to be judicious about your training and choosing only the best exercises for stimulating muscle, you’ll keep size while the fat comes off, eliminate the risk of overtraining, and speed up your workout time. How It Works This program turns the volume way down. You’ll train your legs only one day per week, which will allow ample recovery time—a must, given the lower-body intensive cardio sessions you’ll be doing. You may feel like you’re not doing enough sets, but remember that it’s your ketogenic diet that is responsible for most of your fat loss. To see that muscle isn’t lost with the fat, you’ll be going heavy on most exercises, and prioritizing the bench press and squat. Big compound movements like these recruit maximum muscle mass, sending your body the message that even though the number on the scale is going down, it’s not allowed to get small and weak. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Fam Continue reading >>
Keto Gains: Ketogenic Pre-workout And Intra-workout Supplementation
Keto Gains: Ketogenic Pre-workout and Intra-workout Supplementation (Breach & Clusterbomb) Many want to believe that ketogenic or very low carb diets are just like the latest fashion, here for the day, gone tomorrow. However, ketogenic diets are here to stay and have been studied as far back as the 1950s. Infamous bodybuilder legends such as “The Iron Guru,” Vince Gironda (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s trainer), routinely practiced very low carb diets with his athletes to build some of the most incredible natural physiques ever seen since the golden era of bodybuilding (the 1970s). No matter what your view is on carbohydrates when it comes to your diet, one thing that is certain is that carbohydrates are very efficient for increasing exercise performance and if they are consumed, are best used for such goals. Growing up in a world that’s been putting the emphasis on carbs since your childhood, can make getting a ketogenic or low carb diet to work for you difficult. The beauty of low carb dieting is that it is very effective for weight loss. It primes your body to burn its own fat, allowing you to get lean easier and reach single digit levels of body fat. However, building muscle can prove a challenge for some, ketogenic diets are not commonly known for being used for bulking and building mass. There is, however, steps that can be done to change that. Targeted Ketogenic Diets and Carb Cycling In his book “Unleashing the Wild Physique,” Vince Gironda proposed that when on low carb diets, you make sure to do a carbohydrate refeed every 3-4 days. This is to refuel muscle glycogen allowing you to still train hard and build mass, even on low carb diets. During the last few decades, Vince Gironda’s ideas have evolved further into something we today call the targeted ke Continue reading >>
Mythbusting: Training On A Keto Diet
There’s a number of myths, misconceptions, and misinformation floating around that are confusing a lot of people about the ketogenic diet. They’re teaching that when you’re training, whether for strength or for endurance, that carbohydrates are necessary in order to get the best results. This is not true, and I’ll tell you why. You Need Carbs To Build Muscle People that tell you this don’t understand how muscle building really works – it’s entirely possible to be gaining muscle mass while on keto. In a simple way, the 3 easy steps to build muscle are: Eating enough protein – For mass building between 1.0 – 1.2g / pound of LEAN body mass. Eating a calorie surplus – You can’t build muscle without eating more calories than you need, and these come from fats in a ketogenic diet. Training correctly – You need to promote hypertrophy in your muscles. Are carbs good for building muscle? Of course they are – they promote insulin release and help restore glycogen in the muscles. With carbs you gain mass quicker, but that’s because you’re also gaining fat. What exactly is glycogen? It’s a molecule that our bodies use as energy. What exactly does glycogen do? Wikipedia explains it nicely: In humans, glycogen is made and stored primarily in the cells of the liver and the muscles, and functions as the secondary long-term energy storage (with the primary energy stores being fats held in adipose tissue). Muscle cell glycogen appears to function as an immediate reserve source of available glucose for muscle cells. Other cells that contain small amounts use it locally as well. As you can see, glycogen is being used as a secondary source of energy, where fats are being used over it. Once your body has become adapted to using fats (you’re in ketosis), then Continue reading >>
Exercise And Ketosis
I saw some of your other questions regarding this, and it looks like you're doing a lot of high intensity type training. High intensity training is, by definition, glyocolytic- meaning it rapidly burns through glycogen stores because fat can simply not be converted into energy quickly enough to fuel the activity. You may feel like you have "energy" to train, but it is not clean energy- it's catecholamines- and eventually your CNS will burn out. During the time, your muscles will be incur some rapidly diminishing contractile force capabilities, and will start being broken down (and not rebuilt) to be turned into glucose for the continued exercise. Carbs that are stored as glycogen will provide the protein sparing affect you're looking for (i.e. allow you to continue to train with a high intensity and NOT at the expense of your muscle mass, which ultimately is what allows you to get lean- and healthy- in the long run). I would recommend keeping the calories at an amount where you are in a deficit (although, maybe nto even in a deficit if all you want to do is improve your body composition, and not necessarily lose weight), and swapping some of the fat you are eating out for some carbs. I would have fruit (somewhere around 30 grams of carbs) and protein immediately post exercise, and then eating 1/2 of a sweet potato in a pre workout meal and then the other half of the sweet potato in any post workout meal. That's a total of about 75 grams (300 calories) of active carbs if all your other carbs are from leafy greens. If you are balancing this out by dropping approximately 33 grams of fat (300 calories), you will end up less stressed, leaner, healthier, and by extension, hotter. Just do fasted cardio in the morning before your first meal and then weight train in the afternoo Continue reading >>
Take Your Training To The Next Level With Ketosis
One of the most popular critiques of a ketogenic diet – a diet that’s high in fat and low in carbs – is that it isn’t good for athletes. The argument is usually that you need carbs to produce glycogen, a stored form of sugar that fuels your muscles. As a result, most doctors and trainers suggest high-carb diets for athletes. If you’ve been working out while eating Bulletproof, Paleo, keto, or any other variation on a high-fat, low-carb diet, here’s some good news: brand new research shows that you not only don’t need carbs for athletic performance, you can actually gain an advantage if you cut them out. Let’s talk about how ketosis can kick your athletic performance into a higher gear. Why you don’t need carbs to train hard A groundbreaking new study out of UConn found that low-carb endurance athletes perform just as well as high-carb endurance athletes, if not better. The results challenge nearly 50 years of research saying the opposite. Until now, most studies have concluded that you top out at around 10% of energy recruited from fat [1] and for the rest you rely mostly on glycogen, a form of sugar stored in your muscles and liver. That’s the main reason high-carb diets have been the standard for athletes for so many years. With a low-carb diet, your glycogen stores empty quickly, you run out of fuel, and you start breaking down your muscles for energy. Right? Well, maybe not. If you teach your body to prefer fat for fuel you can work out intensely without any problems, according to this new study. The paper’s authors measured the performance of ultra-endurance runners who regularly run upwards of 100 miles. Here’s how they set it up: Half of the participants ate low-carb (<20% of calories from carbs) for 6 months The other half ate high-carb ( Continue reading >>
Ketogenic Diet : 5-week Plan, Exercise Routine, Benefits & Tips
ketogenic diet is a low-carb diet plan that has helped many women and men to lose up to 15-18 pounds in five weeks. This unconventional diet plan requires you to be on a high-fat (77%), moderate-protein (17%) and very low-carb (5%) diet. Here is the science behind the success of this high-fat diet. Carbs and proteins get converted to glucose in the body, but not fats! Excess glucose gets converted into fat. But, in the case of the ketogenic diet, the body is deprived of carbs or proteins, leaving the body no choice but to utilize fat as the energy source. Since fat cannot be converted to glucose, it is converted into ketone molecules. This process is known as ketosis. When ketosis kicks in, ketones are used instead of carbohydrate or sugar for fuel. This helps the body to burn the stored fat and lose weight. You will be totally amazed to see the results. But you have to stick to the plan till you reach your goal, otherwise, ketosis will stop and you will stop burning fat. In this article, you will find a detailed 5-week plan, exercise routine, benefits, and a keto diet shopping list! Let’s start. 1. Ketogenic Diet Plan Week 1 Early Morning (7:00 am) Options: Warm water with lemon Warm water with 1 tablespoon Triphala powder Breakfast (8:30 am) Options: 1 boiled egg + kale smoothie Oats and milk Quinoa Lunch (12:30 pm) Options: Vegetable soup Mushroom and lettuce salad with high fat dressing Chicken, carrot, bell pepper, and green beans salad with high-fat dressing Post Lunch (2:30 pm) 1 cup Greek yogurt and 2 almonds Evening Snack (5:00 pm) 1 cup green tea with a dash of lemon Dinner (7:30 pm) Options: Shrimp and zoodles Mashed broccoli and potato with sour cream Mushroom and cream soup Why This Works In the first week of the ketogenic diet, there is a greater loss in Continue reading >>
Working Out On Keto: 7 Exercise Programs I’m In Love With
Exercise is important, but it doesn’t have to be boring or frustrating! These exercise programs are for those wanting to up their healthy lifestyle by not only eating well, but staying active. Nothing feels quite as good as moving your body in some way, shape, or form. .. BUT moving your body doesn’t automatically translate into gym torture… workouts do not have to be long and grueling sessions of pain and misery. They can be fun, quick, and enjoyable while yielding fabulous results for your state of mind, body, and sense of connection to your body. Working out takes… well, work. Work can be fun and rewarding, though. That is what we’re going for here, and these exercise programs and resources are designed for just that. Start with what works for you, then adapt them to suit your needs. If you’re like me, you’ll find that you like a whole bunch of different things, and it’s okay to do something different every day. The aim here is to move, and enjoy moving, wherever that takes you. Highlights… How to work out while eating keto for women Workouts by Coconuts and Kettlebells (plus a free eBook!) How to make nutrition and exercise work for women Fat Fueled Audiobook The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance Bikini Belly Workout Program Keto workout recovery VIDEO: EXERCISE + EATING “HIGH FAT”… FOR WOMEN Click here for the transcript of this keto video While keto is not just for women or men, it might be hard to find good keto workout programs for women. The reason this is a problem is that women burn fat and build muscle very differently from men, thus causing problems when trying to find a good exercise program. If you can relate, this keto video is definitely for you! Highlights… How to change to keto without failure The most successfu Continue reading >>
Is It Dangerous To Exercise While On A Ketogenic Diet?
Ketogenic diets restrict carbohydrate consumption. Dieters employ ketogenic diets for rapid weight loss. When subjected to a ketogenic diet, your body enters ketosis. Carbohydrates serve as the primary source of energy for the human body. Fat acts as a secondary source of energy. Because ketogenic diets restrict carbohydrate intake, energy needed for exercise comes from other sources. Scientists differ in opinion on the safety of exercise during a ketogenic diet. During ketosis, keto-acids build up in the blood, and are eliminated from your body through your kidneys. If keto-acids in the blood build up beyond the ability of the kidneys to eliminate the acid, fatigue, irregular heartbeat or dizziness may occur. Avoid exercise if you experience dizziness or irregular heartbeat while on a ketogenic diet. Both may represent serious conditions like dehydration or electrolyte imbalance. The aim of a ketogenic diet is to burn fat instead of carbohydrates. The human body uses fat as the primary source of energy during extended ketosis. Initially the body will use stored carbohydrates for energy. After depleting carbohydrates, the body switches to fat for fuel. Keto-acids or ketones, the end-product of incomplete fat metabolism, serve as a source of energy. While on a ketogenic diet, ketones provide energy for brain function. In their book "The Treament of Epilespy," Dr. Eric Kossoff and Dr. Eileen Vining note that ketones maintain 65 percent of brain energy when in ketosis. Inuit populations in the Arctic survived on low carbohydrate diets prior to the introduction of modern carbohydrate-based nutrition. Dr. Stephen D. Phinney, professor of Medicine Emeritus at University of California at Davis, suggests the carbohydrate-restricted diets of the Inuit population prove that ketog Continue reading >>
Do You Need To Exercise On Keto Diet?
It is often said that one of the best things about following a ketogenic diet for weight loss is that you don’t have to adopt an exercise regime to lose weight. Many people don’t like the idea of working out, or think they don’t have time, and this makes the ketogenic diet appealing to them. But is it true? Constant Fat Burning Through Ketosis In essence, yes, you can lose weight, and at quite a good rate, without adding additional exercise to your daily routine. This is for two reasons inherent to the way the ketogenic diet works, which are different to the way a traditional low fat diet works: Firstly, when you are on a ketogenic diet, your body is in a state called ketosis where it is burning fat you eat and your own body fat for energy. Energy of course, isn’t just used up by exercise and conscious activity, but by everything you do. Even when your sleeping, your body needs fuel to keep itself going. Because all of this fuel is coming from fat, you don’t need to exercise to burn it off and lose weight. Secondly, because a ketogenic diet curbs your appetite, even though you don’t count calories you are likely to be eating a low calorie diet naturally. This means that your calorie use every day is likely to exceed your calorie intake, even without burning through extra calories by exercising. So, this is good news for people who are too unfit to exercise safely, or who can’t exercise because of injury or disability. It is also good news for people who just don’t want to exercise, however, don’t rule it out just on that basis… Why You Should Still Work Out if You Can If you are able to work out, from a physical perspective (everybody can make time, so being too busy is no excuse!) then you will find it has an even greater impact on the speed and eff Continue reading >>
Exercise & Ketosis
This is a summary/extract from The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald. When muscle glycogen falls to extremely low levels (about 40 mmol/kg), anaerobic exercise performance may be negatively affected. Individuals following a ketogenic diet who wish to lift weights or perform sprint training must make modifications by consuming carbohydrates for optimal performance. During long term ketogenic diets, muscle glycogen maintains at about 70 mmol/kg (113-115) leaving a ‘safety factor’ of about 30 mmol/kg at which time glycolysis will most likely be impaired. Low-intensity aerobic exercise, below the lactate threshold, is useful for both establishing ketosis following an overnight fast as well as deepening ketosis. High-intensity exercise will more quickly establish ketosis by forcing the liver to release glycogen into the bloodstream. However it can decrease the depth of ketosis by decreasing the availability of FFA. Performing ten minutes or more of low-intensity aerobics following high-intensity activity will help re-establish ketosis after high-intensity activity. There is a caloric threshold for exercise to improve the rate of fat loss. A calorie deficit more than 1000 cal/day will slow metabolism. Further increases in energy expenditure past that level does not increase fat loss. In some cases, excess exercise will increase the drop in metabolic rate seen with very large calorie deficits. This value of 1000 calories per day includes any caloric deficit AND exercise. Meaning that if 500 calories per day are removed from the diet, no more than 500 calories per day of exercise should be performed. If someone chose to remove 1000 calories per day from their diet, no aerobic exercise should be done to avoid metabolic slowdown. The decrease in metabolic rate seen with very lo Continue reading >>
