low carb diet and energy?

Why are you cutting your carbs if you're that active lol ?

Hi I do 90 minute cardio sessions 3x a week and hour strength training with 20-30 minute warm up cardio 3x times on alternate days.

I say that because I need to set a foundation for the rest of what I am going to say. I train at least 90 minutes 5x a week. I found that I could not keep up that intensity on my low carb diet (under 50 carbs), no matter what I did. I added potassium and sodium. I added more fat, and more protein. I did pre-work drinks with BCAA (still do) and just could not achieve the intensity I wanted. In fact one day I had fatigue so bad I just got off my spinner and went home. This happened twice before I realized I just could not function on a low carb diet. I am a BIG fan of the philosophy but it did not work for me.

There are two approaches I would recommend. If you stay with your low carb diet, then go to website "The Eating Academy" and read everything written by Dr Peter Attia. The man is an animal Ironman athlete and has done it all on a seriously low carb diet. His secrets are eating lots of sodium (4 grams a day), lots of fat (leptin diet approach) and supplementing with something called super starch. His program works. I have family who live in San Diego (his home town) and use his approach for training (Iron man) and are really successful.

For myself, I just could not discipline my self to eat that way every day so I had to face the reality that I needed to up my carb intakeif wanted to continue my workouts. I now do 90-100 carbs (or less) on my strength days and 100-125 carbs on my cardio days. A third of those carbs are fiber and I do try to pick whole food carb options as opposed to simple carbs, but I am not so hard and fast with that rule. As soon as I went from 50 to 100 carbs my workout performance was amazing. Upping carbs work for me. But not over 100-125. I get sluggish on more than that.

I think for me it is because of my hypothyroid issue. I just must have carbs for my meds to absorb right.

Ok as far as your question of when to consume carbs I go with a carb load approach which is the DAY BEFORE a race or hard training. A good article is
http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-runners/fill-er?page=single
and
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/why-you-should-load-up-on-good-carbs-the-night-before-a-big-game.html#b

I carb load the weekend before a goal training session. For example I carb load one Sunday a month in order to hit a personal goal on that following Monday training session. I can not believe the gains I have made from carb loading. The trick is to do it and not make it a week long cheat week (ugh). Also be sure to be taking in plenty of protein, even on carb loading days

Hi I do 90 minute cardio sessions 3x a week and hour strength training with 20-30 minute warm up cardio 3x times on alternate days.

I say that because I need to set a foundation for the rest of what I am going to say. I train at least 90 minutes 5x a week. I found that I could not keep up that intensity on my low carb diet (under 50 carbs), no matter what I did. I added potassium and sodium. I added more fat, and more protein. I did pre-work drinks with BCAA (still do) and just could not achieve the intensity I wanted. In fact one day I had fatigue so bad I just got off my spinner and went home. This happened twice before I realized I just could not function on a low carb diet. I am a BIG fan of the philosophy but it did not work for me.

There are two approaches I would recommend. If you stay with your low carb diet, then go to website "The Eating Academy" and read everything written by Dr Peter Attia. The man is an animal Ironman athlete and has done it all on a seriously low carb diet. His secrets are eating lots of sodium (4 grams a day), lots of fat (leptin diet approach) and supplementing with something called super starch. His program works. I have family who live in San Diego (his home town) and use his approach for training (Iron man) and are really successful.

For myself, I just could not discipline my self to eat that way every day so I had to face the reality that I needed to up my carb intakeif wanted to continue my workouts. I now do 90-100 carbs (or less) on my strength days and 100-125 carbs on my cardio days. A third of those carbs are fiber and I do try to pick whole food carb options as opposed to simple carbs, but I am not so hard and fast with that rule. As soon as I went from 50 to 100 carbs my workout performance was amazing. Upping carbs work for me. But not over 100-125. I get sluggish on more than that.

I think for me it is because of my hypothyroid issue. I just must have carbs for my meds to absorb right.

Ok as far as your question of when to consume carbs I go with a carb load approach which is the DAY BEFORE a race or hard training. A good article is
http://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-runners/fill-er?page=single
and
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/why-you-should-load-up-on-good-carbs-the-night-before-a-big-game.html#b

I carb load the weekend before a goal training session. For example I carb load one Sunday a month in order to hit a personal goal on that following Monday training session. I can not believe the gains I have made from carb loading. The trick is to do it and not make it a week long cheat week (ugh). Also be sure to be taking in plenty of protein, even on carb loading days

Thank you so much for this detailed write-up. This week I decided to reduce my carb intake, and I've been curious how it will effect me. I run (have a half marathon in the morning) and I knew I couldn't maintain a strict low carb approach, so I was aiming for lower carb... and shooting for the 100 mark. I didn't have any real reason for it, but it just seemed manageable for me.

Sounds like I'm on the right track if my body reacts the same as yours.