Feeling weak on low carbs

[morethanmutts]

Hi I'm type one, and I'm 5 days in on low carbs under 50g a day, I love going to the gym 4/5 x a week . But I'm feeling as weak as a kitten in the gym please tell this gets better any help would be great thanks

Peter

 

[Emmotha]

Can't help as I'm on day 10 and hypo every time I exercise. Can't figure out what to do before i start.

How are ur BG levels whilst at the gym?

Any tips anyone?

 

[Robbity]

Are you replacing your "lost" carbs with sufficient fat and protein - you need either carbs or fat to supply your energy, so you need to make some adjustments here too, especially if you're doing a lot of exercise.

Some people can suffer from "low carb flu" whilst their body is adapting to its new low carb regime. Drinking plenty of water, and ensuring you take enough salt should help, but things should improve.

I'm type 2 so can't really advise you re insulin, but I believe you may need to adjust your doses to accommodate your lower carbs intake.

Robbity

 

[Diamattic]

As mentioned before you can't just cut carbs, you have to raise your fats and proteins as well to cover the difference.

People who mostly ate higher carbs tend to feel weaker then those who were already on the low carb side of things.

This will either go away if it's that, but if your diets not balanced it won't. I suggest you look into your diet again.

 

[Brunneria]

Have a read of these threads - you are not alone.

But it will pass.

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/new-to-lchf-diet.69809/

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/low-carb-flu.69937/

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/what-is-your-number-1-lchf-tip.67929/

 

[Daibell]

Hi. Yes, raise fats and proteins and have a little carb before the gym if your sugars go too low during the gym

 

[morethanmutts]

Hi all thanks for your help, my break down at the moment is 10% carbs 50% pro 40 % fat on about 2500 cal, a day I'm 5 .8 and was 14.11 at the start of the week now 14.7, so it is working as I'm trying to cut some fat, but my lifts are suffering ! But as I read more it should get better

 

[Totto]

Hi all thanks for your help, my break down at the moment is 10% carbs 50% pro 40 % fat on about 2500 cal, a day I'm 5 .8 and was 14.11 at the start of the week now 14.7, so it is working as I'm trying to cut some fat, but my lifts are suffering ! But as I read more it should get better

That is A LOT of protein and too little fat. Surplus protein is converted to blood glucose you see while fat as (almost) no effect on bg at all. I aim for 5E% carbs, 15E% protein and 80E% fat and manage to keep my bg perfectly normal as long as I stick to it but then I'm type 2.

The most common mistake when low carbing is to keep fat too low.

 

[morethanmutts]

Hi yes is a lot of protein but need it for muscle growth and recovery I thought

 

[tim2000s]

The difficulty with lchf is that if you are spending a lot of time weight training, and you do it with a higher fat content, you start to lose muscle mass as the body uses the amino acids from breaking down protein (muscle) to fuel the muscles. I've found that this week. Typically I ate around 60g of carbs on training days and sub-30 on non training days. This week I've been sub 30 every day and the result is glycogen depletion. This makes lifting significant weight a lot harder.

I'm forming the opinion that weight training at very low carb levels is extremely difficult as muscles don't use fats well for this type of exercise.

 

[LucySW]

That is A LOT of protein and too little fat.

This is bang on I'm afraid. Too much protein won't do you any harm if your kidneys are okay, but it will send your blood sugars up. Half of it gets converted to BG. And it makes you hungry. It's not satisfying.

You'll work out what suits you on the end if course, but my experience was miserable and hungry and needing snacks, till I discovered butter coffee and started slurping butter and cream and olive oil in everything.

Those days are gone for me - happy and satisfied

 

[tim2000s]

@LucySW Be very careful what you prescribe! If you are weight training and using lchf as a mechanism to reduce body fat, as I think @morethanmutts is, and you are type 1, having a diet with a high protein split is okay as long as your blood protein levels are okay.

My experience is that the macronutrient split should be 40:40:20 or 45:45:10 for protein, fat, carbs. You also need to eat a larger amount for lean muscle mass gains. You need this amount of protein if you are doing multiple heavy weight sessions per week to allow your musculature the required ingredients to recover and grow. I'm also surprised that you felt hungry as on these splits I don't.

It's not quite the same as doing lchf for weight loss and blood sugar control.

Regardless, if you stick to lchf and don't replenish glycogen, it does affect your ability to lift heavier weights as your body runs out. This is why I now carb reload at the weekend so that I am running glycogen for the muscle workouts and when not under high strain, can operate on fats in normal circumstances.

 

[Totto]

40:40: 20 or 45:45:10 are neither LCHF. Low carb, yes, but not high fat.

If you can do serious weight training on LCHF depends on if you are keto adapted or not and it can take a while to get there.

 

[tim2000s]

With my blood ketones at 1 mmol/l, I struggle to do the weight programme I'm working to. After a couple of rounds of really heavy lifting, the remainder of my programme is much harder to do. Many of those who train ketogenically do a heavy weight, low reps programme which helps increase strength but you are limited to the length of time you can keep it up for. If you are looking to bulk, it doesn't work terribly well.

There's an interesting article here about it. http://www.musclemag.com/the-ketogenic-diet-for-bodybuilders/