Exercise And Keto: Weight Loss Friends Or Foes?

Exercise is an important part of staying healthy and can help to stimulate the body's metabolism and burn calories. It is especially important when following a keto diet, as the high-fat foods eaten contain many calories. Burning calories through exercise can help a person reach their desired weight.

Incorporating more physical activity into your lifestyle is vital when trying to lose weight on a ketogenic diet. Exercise lowers your risk of chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and obesity. It also helps build muscle, which can give your metabolism a boost by increasing the amount of energy burned at rest.

Exercising while in ketosis accelerates weight loss. This is because glycogen stores run out the longer and harder you work out. Combined with a very low-carb diet, which also reduces glycogen, you will take your weight loss to the next level.

However, it is important to note that a lack of carbohydrates may negatively affect your exercise performance. Having high levels of glycogen is necessary for strenuous workouts to boost your output. This explains why exercises that entail bursts of energy can be more difficult for people on a ketogenic diet.

Resistance training

When you work out, there are tiny fibres in your muscles that tear apart and then repair, regenerate, and grow back together, which is also known as muscle hypertrophy. To do this, your body releases anabolic and catabolic hormones. Your anabolic hormones, like testosterone, build muscles up, while catabolic hormones, like cortisol, break them down. Your goal should be to release enough growth hormones to overpower your breakdown hormones.

To do this, you need to introduce a stimulus that challenges your body just enough that you see growth, but not so much that you can't recover. This is known as "progressive overload". While adding weight is one way to increase resistance within a given exercise, you can also get creative with your workouts by introducing a source of instability, speed work, increasing your reps, or decreasing the amount of rest between sets.

For beginners, resistance bands, medicine balls, and your own body weight can provide plenty of resistance and a killer workout. Once you feel comfortable with certain exercises, you can move on to barbells and free weights at the gym.

If your goal is aesthetics, your strategy will be different than if your goal is strength. To accomplish aesthetic goals, your job is to burn out your muscles. For example, if you want to build your biceps because it's aesthetically pleasing, you won't do five bicep curls at your maximum weight. Instead, you'll add volume (or reps) to your workout, performing 12-15 curls.

If your goal is to build strength, you'll want to increase the amount of resistance. If you're using bodyweight movements in your strength training program, you may want to progress to using light weights, and eventually heavy weights targeting major muscle groups with exercises such as deadlifts, squats, and bench presses.

To increase your athletic performance, you will first shift from bodyweight exercises to weighted exercises. Then, you may test your balance. Instead of doing a regular squat, you could try a Bulgarian split squat, which requires you to stand on one leg.

When weight training, you may need to increase your protein intake. Some people find they need to eat up to one gram of protein per pound of body weight in order to see muscle growth. This is completely doable on the keto diet, with protein coming from animal sources such as ground beef, chicken breasts, and seafood, or from supplements.

Low-intensity cardio

When starting a keto diet, it is recommended to dial back the intensity and frequency of cardio workouts for the first three to six weeks. This means trading more intense cardio sessions for walks, yoga, Pilates, easy bike rides, or other gentle forms of movement. To ensure your cardio workouts are in the aerobic, fat-burning zone, it is recommended to maintain a heart rate below 180 minus your age in beats per minute.

Once you have adjusted to the keto diet, you can experiment with different types of cardio exercises. However, it is important to listen to your body and make sure you are eating enough to support your activity level. Tracking your food intake for a few days can help ensure you are getting enough calories and nutrients.

In addition to low-intensity cardio, other types of exercises that can be beneficial for weight loss on the keto diet include strength training and resistance training. It is also important to get enough sleep, manage stress, and consume nutritious, low-carb foods.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT)

HIIT is particularly attractive because it continues to burn fat and calories during rest periods and even hours after the session is over. A well-rounded HIIT workout combines cardio with strength training to stimulate the whole body, increase the heart rate, and promote weight loss.

• Lunges: Start with feet hip-width apart, take a controlled step forward with one leg, keeping your back straight, and lower your hips until both legs form a 90-degree angle. Repeat with the other leg.
• Burpees: Start in a standing position, move into a squat with hands on the ground, jump your feet back into a plank position, then jump back into a squat and stand or jump.
• Jump Squats: Begin with a regular squat, engage your core, and jump up explosively. Lower your body back into a squat position.
• Push-ups: Facing the floor in a plank position, place hands at shoulder-width, engage your glutes and core muscles, and bend your arms to lower your body. Straighten your arms and push yourself up.
• Mountain Climbers: Get into a classic plank position, activate your core, and bring one knee forward under your chest. Keep switching legs and increase the pace.

HIIT is an excellent complement to the keto diet as it supports ketosis by helping the body burn stored carbs and deplete glycogen stores. The combination of keto and HIIT can catalyse weight loss as the body requires more fuel to meet the calorie requirements of high-intensity exercises. However, it is important to closely monitor both your diet and training plans to avoid overexertion.

Some benefits of combining keto and HIIT include:

• Reduced inflammation: The keto diet reduces inflammation by supplying tissues and muscles with the right nutrients to withstand the intensity of HIIT training.
• Improved sleep quality: The combination of keto and HIIT can lead to reduced glucose levels and relaxed muscles, resulting in improved sleep quality and duration.
• Reduced tissue damage: The keto diet facilitates the repair of muscle tissues that may rupture during HIIT, preventing long-term damage.
• Increased rate of fat burning: HIIT exercises break down and utilise body fat, and the keto diet contributes to this rapid fat-burning process.
• Improved endurance and stamina: The keto and HIIT combination increases oxygen levels in the bloodstream, allowing for easier recovery for muscles and the respiratory system after a workout.

However, it is important to be cautious when integrating keto and HIIT. Overdoing either can lead to complications such as liver problems and mood swings. It is recommended to stick to a beginner's routine of up to 40 minutes of HIIT exercise for no more than 3 days a week.

Intermittent fasting

There are several different types of intermittent fasting routines, including the 5:2 method, the Warrior Diet, and alternate-day fasting. The most popular method is the 16/8 method, which involves eating during an eight-hour window and fasting for the remaining 16 hours of the day.

Combining intermittent fasting with the keto diet may offer some benefits. Firstly, intermittent fasting may help your body reach ketosis more quickly. This is because, during fasting, your body shifts its fuel source from carbohydrates to fats, which aligns with the keto diet's premise. Additionally, combining these approaches may lead to greater fat loss. Intermittent fasting boosts metabolism and may help your body utilise stubborn fat stores. It is important to note that there is a lack of rigorous research on this combined approach, and it has not been proven effective for weight loss.

Before combining intermittent fasting with the keto diet or making any significant dietary changes, it is essential to consult your healthcare provider to ensure that it is safe and suitable for you.

Sleep

Additionally, those who are chronically stressed are often sleep-deprived, which has been linked to weight gain. Not getting enough sleep negatively impacts the hormones that regulate hunger, such as leptin and ghrelin, causing an increase in appetite. Aim for at least seven hours of sleep each night. Getting adequate sleep will not only reduce hunger and cravings but may also increase your motivation to exercise the next day.

Some people starting the keto diet experience "keto insomnia", which refers to sleep disturbances caused by the strict restriction of carbohydrates. The immediate shift to a low-carb diet may lead to a reduction in sleep-regulating chemicals like melatonin and adenosine. However, this is not universal, and the body typically undergoes an adjustment period, after which sleep patterns tend to normalize as it adapts to the new metabolic state.

A 2023 study found that 65% of participants who followed a low-calorie keto diet for a month reported sleeping better. These improvements were linked to weight loss and other weight-related factors, which are known to impact sleep. While some people experience sleep disturbances when adopting the keto diet, others report sleeping better.

If you are experiencing keto insomnia, there are strategies you can use to manage it:

• Make gradual changes to your diet.
• Stay adequately hydrated.
• Get at least 30 minutes of natural light early in the day.
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends.
• Optimize your bedroom environment for sleep by making it quiet, dark, and relaxing.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol close to bedtime.
• Use the right mattress and sleep accessories.

Frequently asked questions