LCHF and Weightlifting

taylok23

I’m a regular exerciser who has been eating LCHF for about a year and a half. I’m going to start focusing on lifting heavier weights and wanted to see if you have any advice with this way of eating, such as increasing protein, etc. I average about 114 grams per day now. Any pitfalls I should be aware of? Should I steer clear of intermittent fasting?

ccrdragon

Since you have been doing this for such an extended time frame, I think you are past the point of the major pitfalls - workouts tend to suck when you are first starting out in keto/LCHF, but after your body adapts to this WOE, they usually don't.

The IF thing will be a personal decision - I do IF daily and work out first thing in the morning (like at 4:30 am) and haven't had any issues doing either weights or cardio.

One thing you might notice is that when you are working out you might be able to eat more carbs (you would have to find out what your own personal threshold is) since those will usually be burned off during the exercise.

wabmester

More protein probably helps. Optimal seems to be around 2g per kg of body weight.

You can always just eat more meat. See Dr Shawn Baker for more info.

https://twitter.com/sbakermd?lang=en

tcunbeliever

If you are lifting more, then more protein is probably good - the amino acids will aid recovery. IF will also aid recovery, I do 16:8 and definitely find that I have less muscle soreness if I stick to my fasting, on days where I don't stick to the fasting I can tell in how much more sore I feel.

If you are going to be working out fasted for the first time, then just be aware there may be an adaptation time where your performance suffers or where you just feel like it takes way more effort to achieve the same performance. For me this was about a 3 week time period, but others have said it sometimes takes 6 weeks to adapt. Having extra salt pre-workout also seems to help me, so keep that in mind.

taylok23

Good to know about IF, @tcunbeliever. I also do 16:8 most days and workout fasted each morning. Sounds like I shouldn’t see much difference by adding heavier weights to my routine.