Exercise is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. When dieting, combining exercise and healthy eating can be a great way to feel better, lose weight, and reach fitness goals. People also exercise build muscle and strength and build confidence. Knowing how to exercise properly is vital to meeting any health and fitness goals you set yourself.
Specifically, when on a Ketogenic diet, it is important to know how to exercise in a way that will benefit your health and fit the food diet you are following. When we are restricting calories or certain types of foods, you might need to change your exercise routine to build muscle and take care of yourself properly. Here is a guide on how to exercise when on the Keto diet.
What Is The Ketogenic Diet?
First, it is important to understand how the Keto diet works. In a nutshell, it involves following a high fat, moderate protein and low carb diet. Ideally, on this diet, your daily intake of foods should be about 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs. Eating the right foods will help your body to reach Ketosis. This state means that the body will stop using carbs as energy and start burning fat.
To make this simple to understand, it means that your body will be burning fat quicker, which will cause you to lose weight. It is also known to improve or prevent health conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and can even help prevent cancer growth.
What Does This Have To Do With Exercise?
If you know anything about exercise, then you know that your body needs carbs for energy during workouts. If your body is only getting 5% or so of your daily intake of carbs, then how can it make it through a grueling workout? This is where knowing how to exercise while on the Ketogenic diet comes into play. When working out, your muscles need access to sugar, which comes from carbs. When carbs are restricted, there is not as much sugar for muscles to get the job done when working out.
How Can I Work Out On Keto?
Don’t fear! You can still work out while on a Keto diet. The key is to eat the right kind of foods, so you don’t deprive your body of getting what it needs. If you are an active person, you want to make sure you are eating the right amount of macronutrients. Protein is going to be your top priority because it is very different than carbs and fat. If you don’t eat enough protein, then you will not gain enough muscle mass.
In fact, muscle mass can decline if the body doesn’t get the right amount of protein. The recommendation for protein is .6-.9 grams per pound of body weight. This means the protein intake will vary for each person. For someone who is very active, 2.2 grams of protein per pound is suggested.
When it comes to carbs, the recommended amount is 35 grams or less per day. For those who do high-intensity workouts, it is possible to up carb intake a bit to improve performance. While following this diet, getting the right amount of fat is also extremely important. It is almost as important as the protein intake.
After figuring out how much protein and carbs you should have, the amount of fat should be about 70% of daily calories. Depending on what goals you have, you can increase or decrease the amount of fat. If you would like to rapidly lose weight, you will want to decrease the fat. If you’d like to gain weight, you can increase the fat intake.
1. Cardio
When doing cardio, high-intensity workouts are not essential to reaching your fitness goals. Exercising while on the Keto diet is going to be a lot easier for those who are not hard-core athletes. The most important part of cardio is your heart rate, which can be regulated, even when eating fewer carbs while on the diet.
In order to find your max heart rate, subtract your age from 220. The number you are aiming for should be about half of the number you get after subtracting. For example, a 30-year-old would be 220-30 = 190, so 50% of that would be 95bpm to 70% which would be 133bpm. You would want to aim for that number while doing cardio to be successful.
2. Weight Lifting And Muscle Building
Weightlifting while on the Keto diet is a little bit different than cardio. The key here is to do sets that last no longer than 10 seconds. Ideally, each exercise should be about 5 sets with no more than 5 sets in order to build muscle faster. This will help to increase strength and power. Due to the amount and types of macronutrients, this is the best way to exercise when on a high-fat low carb diet.
3. Supplements
Another piece of advice for those on the Keto diet who want to work out is to take supplements to help the body through a workout. Here are some supplements that should be considered:
- Taurine – This supplement is more effective than caffeine. It can help to supply energy even though there is carb restriction on this diet.
- Exogenous Ketones – This will give the body energy bursts. It is best to take it along with MCT in order to keep the liver’s ketones production.
- MCT – Medium Chain Triglycerides will make their way to the liver and be converted into ketones to give you energy during a workout.
- Creatine – This safe and useful supplement will help you through workouts. Just take about 5g per day.
4. Pre-Workout
There is also the option to have a pre-workout drink or smoothie to help your body get the most out of the exercise you choose to do. Pre-workouts will help you to make sure you get what you need before working out. They can help you to have the energy and feeling of being full during the workout.
Now that you have more information about how to work out on the Keto diet, you can make sure to keep yourself safe from getting hurt. Working out is very important to leading a healthy lifestyle, but if it is not done properly, you can get injured and become sick. Make sure you are eating enough of the right foods, getting in a pre-workout and considering supplements that can help you through workouts. Understanding what your body needs to perform at its best is important to meeting your fitness goals.
