Exercise

xosummerrainxo

What role does exercise play in putting you in ketosis and keeping you there? And what are your daily or weekly goals when it comes to exercise?

kpk54

When I ate keto (52 weeks for reason other than weight loss), exercise played NO role in putting me into ketosis or keeping me there. NONE. When I started keto, I might not have even known that exercise could play a role. I don't recall.

I strive to allocate 40-60 minutes/day/5 days a week to exercise of some sort. The general goal is health/fitness versus ketosis or calorie burn. For me.

trish55011

I am currently 30+ min/day 5-6 days per week. Not counting any regular life/work activities. Unless I am deep cleaning my house. Down on my knees scrubbing floors, moving furniture, shampooing carpets etc. I am not sure what exercise does to help put me into ketosis. Never really thought about it, to be honest.

nvmomketo

I believe exercise just empties out your muscles' glyogen stores a bit faster so you need to rely on fat or ketones for fuel faster.

KnitOrMiss

You can use exercise as a tool to help you burn any carbs you do consume (this ONLY works really if you eat workout carbs immediately before working out so they can be burned for immediate fuel - and not processed fully elsewhere and stored...and there's no guarantee it won't kick you out anyway)...BUT that will slow down long term fat adaption/keto adjustment...

As the statement always goes, weight/fat loss is in the kitchen. Fitness is in the gym.

You can't out-exercise a bad diet...

It is a tool some can use to fuel their process, but inherently, it doesn't directly do anything unless you manipulate exercise in specific ways. For some folks, it can even be counterproductive - adding more stress to the body, making folks struggle with electrolyte balance, creating too steep a calorie/nutrient deficit, constant fueling/refueling of muscles, etc.

Long term, you absolutely want to include it in your process, just for whole body health. Short term, most folks are recommended to dial back and get adjusted to keto (12 weeks usually) before adding or increasing exercise...

Phinney and Volek "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance" might have more info on how they use exercise to enhance their ketosis, etc.


EDITED TO ADD: It might help to remember, too, that Nutritional Ketosis as a dietary plan was originally created for the treatment of seizures in children, if I remember correctly. Obviously in that case, it was built solely on dietary compliance. Exercise was zero part of that initial plan and program, as many of the participants were unable to do ANYTHING AT ALL... So if the medical form of the diet can be done without exercise, so too should the weight loss/body recomposition variant be able to be utilized without exercise being added. Exercise is an added tool than can be used, for sure, but it is not a requirement in any form or fashion for long term ketogenic success.