Question about low carb dieting + exercise

[brad310]

ive done low carb/atkins several times and am comfortable with it. However, Im doing it now in conjunction with excercise for the first time and I feel like i cant put out as hard running or circuit training.

Have any of you done a low carb (under 20/day) and experienced less energy doing this? I could run 2 miles no problem a few weeks ago, but after starting it this past week i feel dead at a mile.

 

[Zen0]

If you want to lose weight, that's not the way to go.

Low carb, high protein + slight calorie deficit + weight train = fat drop like crazy.

Ignore the cardio, that's only good for your heart and marathons.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

ive done low carb/atkins several times and am comfortable with it. However, Im doing it now in conjunction with excercise for the first time and I feel like i cant put out as hard running or circuit training.

Have any of you done a low carb (under 20/day) and experienced less energy doing this? I could run 2 miles no problem a few weeks ago, but after starting it this past week i feel dead at a mile.

Low carb is not meant to be done in conjunction with a lot of aerobic activity. Your glycogen stores are essentially depleted. If you're going to stay with the low carb approach, take the route posted above. If you want to run, up your carbs. It's that simple.

 

[Pantlegz]

I'm a bigger guy, 220ish, and 20g a day was too few for me. It effected my lifts some and was too low and stopped my weight loss after about 2 weeks. After bumping it up to 40-50 a day and cut milk; I've dropped another ~10lbs in the last few weeks. With no calorie counting, I don't stuff myself but I haven't counted calories in months.

Also the first week it was worse, I didn't have any energy at the gym. I started on N.O. xplode which helped with energy levels, not sure if I need it now but I still take it because I got it on sale.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

The reason people maintain carbs are evil is because glucose is metabolized quickly. Leftover is either stored as glycogen, or converted into fat. For people who do no exercise or take an excess of carbohydrate in the first place, especially in the form of simple sugars, it makes sense to cut carbohydrates. For people who are actively exercising, it is not a good idea because there is simply nothing else cells can use for respiration at the rate needed to sustain (i.e. for more than 10-20s) any reasonable level of physical exertion.

If you have no carbs, metabolism of fat is okay for your energy requirements at essentially rest. If you have no carbs and exercise on top of that, you basically hit a wall. Your fat is not metabolised fast enough to give you sufficient energy for the exercise. When you metabolise glucose, this wall is further away in the first place, and when it is hit, circumvented with anaerobic respiration, an inefficient method, but a way which does not require oxygen. No such pathway exists for fat. And because you have used all your liver glycogen on brain and kidney tissue, since they metabolize glucose preferentially, everything starts to grind to a halt. Your fat gets metabolized into ketone bodies, which are taken up by the brain and kidneys preferentially. Meanwhile, your muscles have nothing to metabolize, so they grind to a halt and you can't run (or cycle, or swim, or row) anymore.

And if you take away the fat as well as have a no-carb, caloric deficit diet, you start to die. Your body starts taking away muscle tissue for energy to preserve its last reserves of fat and glucose/glycogen for the brain, and then when this is depleted as well, everything starts to fall to pieces as the brain is forced into metabolizing things that it doesn't like at all.

 

[Pantlegz]

Thats true with no carbs, but low carb diets are done in such a way that you replentish glycogen stores and give the body a little bit of quick burning energy but also keeps the blood glocose low consistantly to keep the body in a fat burning state.

Everyone is a little different on how many carbs they need to function but I know a few pro MMA fighters that I train with that are on Cyclical Ketogenic Diets and have no issues with strength or training hard 3 times a day for hours at a time. I'm sure their low carb diets might be quite a bit different than a normal persons but keeping the body in ketostasis is a good way to keep fat off. I know a few of them buy keto strips to make sure they're getting enough carbs but not too many.

 

[spamsk8r]

In general stick to low to moderate volume weight training and low-level cardio (e.g. walking, slow bike ride) on a low carb diet for best results. You just can't bring the energy required for intense metabolic workouts.

Or you could do a cyclic ketogenic diet, where you bump up your carb intake once or twice a week to replenish glycogen.

Or you could just eat some sweet potato after a workout. Shouldn't affect weight-loss and will allow you to push harder when you need to.

 

[brad310]

Thx for all the advice guys. Since im starting to enjoy running again, and i still love lifting weights, it sounds like im just going to go back to a high protein diet and count my calories.

The reason low carb is so attractive to me is because decision making is easy in terms of food selection, and calorie counting isnt necessary because i never want to eat much.

Really good info all, tyvm.

 

[Zen0]

Thx for all the advice guys. Since im starting to enjoy running again, and i still love lifting weights, it sounds like im just going to go back to a high protein diet and count my calories.

The reason low carb is so attractive to me is because decision making is easy in terms of food selection, and calorie counting isnt necessary because i never want to eat much.

Really good info all, tyvm.

High protein diets are the same thing as low carb diets for the most part. When you increase one part of your diet by %, the other must come down, and fat of course, should not be the main part of your diet anyway.

If you run, you'll be hungry... It doesn't matter what you eat.

 

[Pantlegz]

High protein diets are the same thing as low carb diets for the most part. When you increase one part of your diet by %, the other must come down, and fat of course, should not be the main part of your diet anyway.

If you run, you'll be hungry... It doesn't matter what you eat.

Whats wrong with higher fat diets? My current diet is pretty high in fat which is where most of my energy comes from and helps keep me feeling full for hours after I eat. There's nothing like eating 3-5 slices of bacon with every meal.

 

[Zen0]

Whats wrong with higher fat diets? My current diet is pretty high in fat which is where most of my energy comes from and helps keep me feeling full for hours after I eat. There's nothing like eating 3-5 slices of bacon with every meal.

Horribly unhealthy...

 

[TheFamilyMan]

Horribly unhealthy...

Depending on the fat source...have to have that caveat in there...

 

[Zen0]

Depending on the fat source...have to have that caveat in there...

He said bacon lol.

If you eat fat, it should be fish fat, nut fat, and some others ... I love steak fat (I hate bacon though), but it's not something that is healthy to eat all the time.

 

[JS80]

The reason people maintain carbs are evil is because glucose is metabolized quickly. Leftover is either stored as glycogen, or converted into fat. For people who do no exercise or take an excess of carbohydrate in the first place, especially in the form of simple sugars, it makes sense to cut carbohydrates. For people who are actively exercising, it is not a good idea because there is simply nothing else cells can use for respiration at the rate needed to sustain (i.e. for more than 10-20s) any reasonable level of physical exertion.

If you have no carbs, metabolism of fat is okay for your energy requirements at essentially rest. If you have no carbs and exercise on top of that, you basically hit a wall. Your fat is not metabolised fast enough to give you sufficient energy for the exercise. When you metabolise glucose, this wall is further away in the first place, and when it is hit, circumvented with anaerobic respiration, an inefficient method, but a way which does not require oxygen. No such pathway exists for fat. And because you have used all your liver glycogen on brain and kidney tissue, since they metabolize glucose preferentially, everything starts to grind to a halt. Your fat gets metabolized into ketone bodies, which are taken up by the brain and kidneys preferentially. Meanwhile, your muscles have nothing to metabolize, so they grind to a halt and you can't run (or cycle, or swim, or row) anymore.

And if you take away the fat as well as have a no-carb, caloric deficit diet, you start to die. Your body starts taking away muscle tissue for energy to preserve its last reserves of fat and glucose/glycogen for the brain, and then when this is depleted as well, everything starts to fall to pieces as the brain is forced into metabolizing things that it doesn't like at all.

That explains why when I exercise in the morning I get dizzy.

 

[Pantlegz]

He said bacon lol.

If you eat fat, it should be fish fat, nut fat, and some others ... I love steak fat (I hate bacon though), but it's not something that is healthy to eat all the time.

I don't actually eat that much bacon, but I could... only if it's a little under cooked I hate the taste of crunchy bacon. The issue with nuts is they have carbs. fish is ok but it doesn't last long. Mostly get my fats from meats, eggs and oils.

 

[ckoons1]

if carbs are down fat intake must be up for energy and if you're healty doing this for short periods of time will not hurt anything. just don't make it a lifestyle

 

[darkxshade]

I'm somewhat on a CKD and I'm loving it. For some reason I feel great on low carbs, better than when I'm eating regular oddly enough. I've found that I sleep better and wake up more rested on less hours of sleep. I'm more alert and generally feel I have just enough energy to make it through the day. In fact I even have juice to do cardio 2-3x/week... not intense stuff... like 30-45 min of medium intensity cardio in the morning in addition to 3-4x/week of resistance training(1 split + 2 full body = 4 days). I haven't really loss any strength yet following this protocol. The only downside is feeling hungry really fast after a meal.

As far as diet goes, the way I do it is to work on my protein intake first and foremost by eating at least 1g/lb of LBM while limiting net carbs to under 30g. Aside from trace amounts from stuff like cheese, mayo, etc, my carbs will only come from veggies. So I'd eat about 20g net carbs in stuff like broccoli, spinach, cauliflower which helps a lot with staying full due to its bulk. I don't specifically aim to eat a certain amount of fat as the some people prescribe on a keto diet, I sort of let it automatically work itself out.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

If you are doing a low carb diet do you HAVE to induct it for 2 weeks like the atkins diet says or can you do it 2-3 days a week and get benefit? I don't think I can do this very long, meat runs out fast and everything lol.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

He said bacon lol.

If you eat fat, it should be fish fat, nut fat, and some others ... I love steak fat (I hate bacon though), but it's not something that is healthy to eat all the time.

Actually, if you look at research, even diets high in animal fats and low in carbs, individuals improve their lipid profiles compared to the high carb group. Bacon everyday is fine. Two pieces is like 80cal. And most of that is monounsaturated fatty acids. Everybody gets crazy with fat, but nobody reads the recent research. Eat fat. It's fine. Just don't get crazy and eat animal fat for every meal.

 

[brad310]

If you are doing a low carb diet do you HAVE to induct it for 2 weeks like the atkins diet says or can you do it 2-3 days a week and get benefit? I don't think I can do this very long, meat runs out fast and everything lol.

once you figure out what works for you, i found it super easy. Eggs w/cheese or bacon, tuna salad, peanuts, almonds, romaine + spinach salads, olives, jerky, sandwich meat & cheese, grilled meat...that's all i needed. Literally, thats all i ate. Coffee, Crystal light, or diet drinks for hydration.

I think that people give up on it before they actually try it. Once you get past the first few days, its easier because you have no cravings and you dont even want to eat much when you do eat.

I'll agree that i dont like it for the long term - ie more than a month or so, but for that period or less its pretty cool.

 

[Ksyder]

I would suggest using coconut oil, both as a supplement and to cook your food in. Also, butter from grass fed cows is great, such as Kerrygold butter, or perhaps Organic Valley brand pastured butter. Heavy cream is a good source of fats as well. If you are going to rely heavily on nuts, I'd suggest raw as the fats can be damaged from high heat roasting.

I also believe in the standard paleo dogma of cutting back on seed oils such as soybean. In fact, I've cut them out completely and noticed that I feel much better overall.

 

[JumBie]

Actually, if you look at research, even diets high in animal fats and low in carbs, individuals improve their lipid profiles compared to the high carb group. Bacon everyday is fine. Two pieces is like 80cal. And most of that is monounsaturated fatty acids. Everybody gets crazy with fat, but nobody reads the recent research. Eat fat. It's fine. Just don't get crazy and eat animal fat for every meal.

The back of my bacon pack says 200 cals for 2 pieces.

 

[darkxshade]

The back of my bacon pack says 200 cals for 2 pieces.

The heck kind of Bacon is that? Jumbo?

They're usually 80-120kcal for 2 slices.

What I usually wonder though is if that number includes the tons of grease that comes off of it? Which would mean cooked and drained would be a lot less? And how much calories is in bacon grease cuz I pour it into a jar and reuse it.