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We have all heard it all of our lives in order to be fit, healthy, trim and happy. You need to move more and eat less, exercise, exercise, exercise, burn that fat off. I tried it for decades. You join a gym, you enter into sprint level triathlons, you join another gym, you get all the workout gear. Then you never go to the gym, or you try but it’s hard. Here’s the thing. Exercise on the keto diet is great. It’s wonderful for emotional wellbeing, great for core fitness and also great for bone density. Particularly those of us of a certain gender, over a certain age. There’s no real downside to moving more and being fit and getting your heart pumping, assuming you don’t have a heart condition. The thing is, it’s just not effective for fat loss. Sorry, it’s just not if the goal is to burn body fat. The easiest way to do it is to follow the ketogenic protocol, which is keeping one’s carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or fewer a day.
Exercise on the Keto Diet
So do you need to exercise if you’re following the ketogenic protocol? Nope. Can you? Of course. Should you? That’s up to you. How do you feel? Do you feel like exercising. It is good for you. There’s not really a downside. Do what you can. Lowering carbs and decreasing insulin resistance are the most effective for burning fat. It’s important to select exercise that’s enjoyable to you. It can be as simple as going for a walk, shooting some hoops, or being out in your garden. Just move! You can say I don’t exercise. I just dress like I do.
What Workout is Best on a Ketogenic Diet?
I lost weight gradually, but even that gradual remodeling of my body allowed me to move better, easier, pain free. So Iam naturally more active now. I started using workout equipment again that had been living in my basement for years. Recently, just in the last two months, started more regularly doing more very basic strength routines on my workout equipment. Spending no more than 45 minutes a day and I break that up through several times during the week and I feel great doing it. I’m doing that for core strength and bone density and discipline and, you know, just trying to be as strong as I can into my old age. If I’m going to live longer, which I intend, I want to be as strong as possible but in a safe and comfortable way.
Improve Overall Strength
If your primary goal is to get stronger, then you should follow a strength program. A strength program will consist of a lower number of repetitions and a greater amount of weight. You will also have more rest time between sets on a strength program to allow your muscles to recover for the next set. On most strength programs, squats, bench presses, and deadlifts are the core three lifts you’ll be mastering.
Increase Muscle Mass
If your primary goal is muscle growth, then you should be following a hypertrophy-training program. A hypertrophy program will consist of more reps, typically 8 to 12, with a shorter rest time. During hypertrophy training the goal is to stimulate the muscle to grow, and this is done through increasing your training volume and decreasing your rest time. You may have also heard that carbohydrates are required to stimulate muscle growth, but this is not true. What’s more important is getting enough protein in to stimulate the repair and growth of muscle tissue following hypertrophy training.
For Endurance
Endurance training, better known as cardio or aerobic training, is a type of training that relies heavily on your cardiovascular system. Endurance training also includes HIIT training and should be used when your primary goal is improving your cardiovascular endurance and is also a great way to stimulate fat loss, making it a fantastic addition to a weight-loss plan. Research has shown that the most robust improvement in exercise from ketogenic dieting is endurance performance due to the diet’s ability to utilize stored fat, a fuel source of more than 20,000 calories present in even the leanest individuals. This ability to tap into a larger fuel source means more energy to support endurance performance.
For Weight Loss/Better Overall Health
If you’re looking to add exercise to your keto diet to improve overall health, then you should be practicing a variety of strength, hypertrophy, and endurance training, since each provide different benefits. Plus, if you’re incorporating exercise for fat loss, a variety of these exercises will be helpful. Remember, keto makes fat the body’s primary fuel source. If you exercise, you will burn more fat at a faster rate.
Ketosis is Really Effective For Exercise.
You never go to the gym, or you try to, it’s hard. Here’s the thing. Exercise is great. It’s wonderful for emotional wellbeing, great for core fitness. Working out is great for bone density, particularly those of us of a certain gender over a certain age or, you know, people of a certain age. It’s really good for that. There’s no real downside to moving more and being fit and getting your heart pumping, assuming you don’t have a heart condition. The thing is, it’s just not effective for fat loss. Sorry, it’s just not if the goal is to burn body fat. The easiest way to do it is to follow the ketogenic protocol, which is keeping one’s carbohydrate intake to 20 grams or fewer a day. Total carbs, not yet. Eat fatty sources of protein. Don’t eat. If you’re not hungry, stop when you’re satiated. You don’t even need a food list.
Keep The Carbs Low
Just keep the carbs low. And why would that be more effective than pounding it out on the treadmill or the rowing machine or swimming half a mile in the swimming pool or getting on an exercise bicycle or on a road bicycle? Because exercise does not burn that many calories, you know, the average marathoner burns about 2400 calories over the course of twenty-six point two miles. That will vary. But, you know, you stop at McDonald’s on the way back and get a double cheeseburger, an extra large fries and a milkshake. There goes the marathon. When you reduce your carbohydrate intake sufficiently to where our liver stops pushing out glucose for fuel our body starts burning fat. Well, your are burning body fat when you’re in ketosis, that is what that means, burning. You’re burning fat for fuel, you being in ketosis is really effective for exercise.
Do I Need Carbs When I Exercise?
Endurance athletes, marathoners, cyclists who go long and far if they are carrying body fat on board. It doesn’t take much. You know, many people are quite thin, but even someone who’s eight percent body fat, 10 percent body fat, that’s tens of thousands of calories of energy still on board. Whereas if you’re a sugar burner because sugar is a fast burning fuel, you have to keep loading back up. So no you don’t need Carbs. Our bodies will produce what it needs on its own.
Conclusion
So is Exercise really necessary? It’s simply not necessary. You don’t need to exercise to be successful following the ketogenic protocol but If you’re looking to add exercise to your keto diet to improve overall health, then you should be practicing a variety of strength, hypertrophy, and endurance training, since each provide different benefits. Simply as a reminder, keep your carbs 20 grams or fewer a day total. Don’t eat if you’re not hungry and stop when you’re satiated. And if you are a person who exercises and then feel like, well, I just killed it at the gym today, so I deserve a nice big carb meal, just remember it will most likely set you right back to where you started, and you will throw all your efforts out the window. So try to stick to the protocol.