Low Carb and Running

A_Dabauer

I've been doing some form of low carb or slow carb for 10 plus years. (So much for those people who say this isn't a maintainable lifestyle.) For the most part I've been successful, but a few years ago I got ill and lost most of my mobility. Now that I've my medical issues under control, I realize what a blessing and privilege it is to be physically active and fit. As a result I've been working on running (a life long dream but never the motivation to make it stick before) but I'm finding my muscles fatigue easily. My trainer suggested I need some carbs and hour to half hour before I go for a run to increase the glycogen stores in my muscles and this will fend off the fatigue. (My trainer knows I low carb for medical reasons - I've PCOS.)

At the moment I'm not doing keto, I range around 50-75grams of carbs a day. I know of ketogenic adaptation but certainly not an expert on this subject. Do I need to drop my carbs to utilize fat instead of carbs? Or should I take my trainer's advice and have a bit more carbs on run days?

My question is what is other peoples experiences with running while low carbing and if I'm just trying to push too far too fast, if I really need a few extra carbs on run days, or if instead I should be dropping into keto?

Thanks for any advice or experiences you all might have!

Dbeach418

I hope you're taking a daily multi-vitamin along with your low-carb diet. I am a 46 year old female. I was on a low-carb plan most of last year. Last Fall, I fractured my pelvis during a run. I had a bone density test that came back good. I wont go into it completely, but following the injury, I had a blood test that showed some big deficiencies that may have lead to the fracture. Regarding the carbs before you run: I know that when I was on the low-carb thing full throttle it was hard to finish a long distance run. I found that an apple or a 1/2 serving of oatmeal before my run really helped. Good Luck. ~ Dee

kirkor

Check out TKD "targeted ketogenic diet"
http://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains/wiki/index#wiki_tkd

Once you're well keto-adpated, you consume a bit of dextrose before & after workouts for that extra bit of performance boost.

FIT_Goat

Dbeach418 wrote: »

I hope you're taking a daily multi-vitamin along with your low-carb diet. [. . .] I had a blood test that showed some big deficiencies that may have lead to the fracture.

This is a claim that would really benefit from further elaboration. What exactly were you deficient in? What were you eating? Do you know that things were not low before low-carbs? Etc.

Even if low-carb causes specific deficiencies, a multi-vitamin wouldn't be the right approach. We'd want to target those specific minerals or vitamins that are deficient and supplement only those. Personally, I track most of my nutrients and find no need to supplement (and that's with the most unbalanced low-carb diet imaginable).

Anyway, before raising an alarm about people getting deficient, it would be nice to have some specifics. Most people eating low-carb are probably eating more vegetables and a more varied diet than they ever were before.

april731

I'm a relatively new keto-er (~10 months) and even newer runner (~6 months), but I'm doing half marathon training on keto just fine. I've made pretty steady progress on increasing speed and distance and haven't changed the carbs I eat at all. I actually do about half of my runs fasted.

Are you comparing your fatigue to when you ran before?

A_Dabauer

I have inflammation based arthritis. So yes I have some physical limitations. What I mean by fatigue is day one I run quite well next day I do a anaerobic workout. Third day my leg strength in my legs is so poor I can hardly run more than a few minutes.

nancytyc

I am an extreme biker, doing 100+ miles in one day at times. Initially, I suffered muscle fatigue and burned out in keto. So, I did as I was told and consumed energy gels on my long rides. This caused drastic weight gain for me (12 pounds after one 118 mile ride and the weight stuck to me like glue). Since then, I have done a lot of research and found that I can do the same exact rides, well keto-adapted, and not consume the carbs. I run better on fat, in a ketogenic state. I have more energy, endurance, and power. It did take me a while to get there, but once I was, things went well during the long rides. I was well adapted for about three months before the endurance came up and the muscle fatigue went away. Now, my body is accustomed to quickly converting fat for energy. I think, the longer your body does something, the better it gets at doing it. I suggest getting a Ketonix or a Ketone Meter, to ensure that you are in optimal ketosis, stay there for about three months, and then try your runs and see how they improve/decline while testing out different levels of ketosis. I find I have to stay around 20 net carbs per day, in order to stay between 1.5 to 3.0 mM. With that said, I try to consume most of my carbs in the meal immediately AFTER my rides, as the muscles quickly take up the carbs, helping to minimize insulin release. Hope this helps.

dawlfin318

Listen to Dr. Stephen Phinney on youtube. He is an ex ultra- marathoner and knows how to use ketogenesis to fuel long distance running.
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dawlfin318

And Timothy Noakes- really knows the science of ketosis and exercise!

A_Dabauer

Perfect thanks! I'll keep with it, and I'll experiment with dropping my carbs lower. That was my gut feeling but wanted a few other opinions.

Foamroller

A_Dabauer wrote: »

I have inflammation based arthritis. So yes I have some physical limitations. What I mean by fatigue is day one I run quite well next day I do a anaerobic workout. Third day my leg strength in my legs is so poor I can hardly run more than a few minutes.

Sounds to me your performance problem is muscle fatigue, not carbs. After heavy anaerobic exercise you need to let the muscles rest for 1-3 days depending several factors. You can workout other parts of the body, though. Hence concepts like "leg day".

Possibly you're in carb twilight zone: Too many carbs to get far adapted and too little to power your gym time. Make a choice and stick to it for some weeks. You can always change the variables later.
Tweak and try, find a key that works for YOUR body.

Like @nancytyc, I find LCHF powers my workouts even better than being a sugarburner. I logged 57 hours of exercise in last 30 days. I finished 4,5 hours of spinning today, and even managed to press in a sprint into 93% at the end. No way I could do this fuelling on carb heavy metabolism.

So have some faith and patience and it'll probably work out.

EDIT: If you haven't really exercised in some years, maybe you're just not in muscle condition to perform like you used to? You didn't say if the problem was endurance or explosive.

nsoss

Dbeach418 wrote: »

I hope you're taking a daily multi-vitamin along with your low-carb diet. I am a 46 year old female. I was on a low-carb plan most of last year. Last Fall, I fractured my pelvis during a run. I had a bone density test that came back good. I wont go into it completely, but following the injury, I had a blood test that showed some big deficiencies that may have lead to the fracture. Regarding the carbs before you run: I know that when I was on the low-carb thing full throttle it was hard to finish a long distance run. I found that an apple or a 1/2 serving of oatmeal before my run really helped. Good Luck. ~ Dee

What big deficiencies did you have? How were these related to a low-carb diet? And how were they cured with a multi-vitamin? Please provide more information.