I’ve been working out intensely for about 6 years now and a lot of friends and family ask if being on a low-carb, ketogenic diet negatively impacts my weight-lifting and training regimes.
I think this is a really important question to ask for anyone who is serious about their performance in the gym. For me and many others, working out on a ketogenic diet can be tough for the first week or so on the diet. As time goes on, I actually notice that my physical performance gets even better while on a low carb diet.
There are some great explanations all over the internet that address the fact that many low-carb athletes can often perform at the same level or even better than high-carb athletes. One of the major reasons why this is true is that the body becomes incredibly efficient at deploying the small amount of carbs that it has available when on a ketogenic diet.
Low-carb athletes have often been able to perform longer than high-carb athletes for this reason. If you think of it like a tank of gas in 2 different cars - let’s compare them as being a hummer (high-carb athlete) versus a hybrid (low-carb athlete). The hummer has a larger tank of gas, but will run out of gas much quicker because it’s far less efficient than the hybrid. The hybrid has a much smaller tank, but is far more efficient at using the little gas that it has to go longer distances.
The Study:
This study formed 2 groups of ultra-marathon runners. 1 group was put on a low-carb, high fat (ketogenic) diet. The other group was put on a traditional high-carb, low fat diet. Then the researchers had both groups run for 3 hours straight. The researches then ran a series of tests on both groups.
Their findings were really interesting. One thing they found was that both groups had the same amount of glycogen left in their muscles at the end of the run. Let me illustrate this with some numbers:
Imagine that the people from group 1 (the low-carb group) had about 70g of carbs in their bodies at the beginning of the race and group 2 (high-carb) had about 350g of carbs in their bodies at the beginning of the race. At the end of the race, they both came down to equal levels of 40g of carbs left in their bodies - regardless of being low-carb or high-carb to begin with.
Based on this study and the numbers I gave above, you can see that the low-carb group was immensely more efficient at utilizing the little amount of carbs that they had at the beginning of the race when compared to the high-carb group who burned through the vast majority of the carbs in their bodies.
Day 12 Log (and 11):
Weigh-In:
| Start Weight | Goal Weight | Weight Lost |
|---|---|---|
| 198 | 173 | 4 |
| Day 11 Weight | Fat Mass (%) | Body Mass BMI |
|---|---|---|
| 194.2 | 24.3 | 26.3 |
| Today's Weight | Fat Mass (%) | Body Mass BMI |
|---|---|---|
| 193 | 23.6 | 25.6 |
Workout:
Back/Bi Day:
| Movement | Weight lbs | # Reps | # Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deadlift | 275 | 8 | 4 |
| Cable Low Row | 160 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Hammer Lat Pull Down | 135 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Bicep Curl EZ Bar | 70 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Preacher Curl EZ Bar | 70 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Cable Rope Curl | 40 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Cardio | 10 Minutes - Stair Master |
What I Ate Today:
| Meal | Food |
|---|---|
| 0 | Bulletproof Coffee (2 TBSP Half & Half, 2 TBSP MCT Oil) |
| 1 | 4 Eggs, 2 Slices of Cheddar Cheese, 4 oz deli turkey |
| 2 | 8 Oz Chicken Breast Sauteed in Garlic and 1 TBSP Olive Oil, Broccoli topped with butter |
| 3 | 8 Oz Ground Beef and Stir Fry Vegetables with 1 TBSP Olive Oil |
| 4 | 1 FitCrunch Protein Bar, 1 Avocado, 1 TBSP MCT Oil |
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
QOTD: Have you ever questioned if physical performance would be better or worse on a ketogenic diet? What do you think about the findings in the study on ultra-marathon runners?
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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