I think as long as your electrolytes are ok you'll be fine. I haven't had any issues working out on keto. In fact I found running to be much easier!

I'll summon this guy for you. @anubis609. He contributes here occasionally and seems a wealth of information from what I've read elsewhere in his MFP posts.

You might also want to do a little google searching or video watching with Dr. Jacob Wilson or Lyle McDonald and ketogenic in the search. Wilson is pro-keto. McDonald is just overall pretty well respected in the body building/body recomp arena and has done considerable research regarding keto.

I don't have any personal experience to offer. I just play around with stuff.

kpk54 wrote: »

I'll summon this guy for you. @anubis609. He contributes here occasionally and seems a wealth of information from what I've read elsewhere in his MFP posts.

You might also want to do a little google searching or video watching with Dr. Jacob Wilson or Lyle McDonald and ketogenic in the search. Wilson is pro-keto. McDonald is just overall pretty well respected in the body building/body recomp arena and has done considerable research regarding keto.

I don't have any personal experience to offer. I just play around with stuff.

Thanks for the shout out @kpk54

Firstly, how long have you been low carb/keto? The adaptation period is roughly 3 weeks if you're strict keto, usually defined by about <50g carbs per day. This 3 week period is the "period of suck" or reduced activity output. After that, most everyone generally tends to come back up to baseline performance, anecdotally described as an increase in performance. Technically, they didn't get better, they just went from normal to dragging *kitten* back to normal.

Secondly, your goal for activity is going to determine how well you perform overall on keto. If you're just doing it for general fat loss and activity, then being keto won't hinder much, if anything. In context, if this is your first time ever in the gym, or first time after not having been in years, then you don't really have any baseline data to say you're going to underperform. Conversely, if you're training for a specific sport that places a high demand on glycolytic activity (high intensity sports training like sprinting, olympic weightlifting, boxing/MMA, etc.) then being primarily keto may not provide enough energy substrate to handle those demands for long periods. YMMV. But for the purposes of general strength training and cardio, being low carb / keto is completely fine.

If you want to address lingering general energy levels, the first troubleshooting area should be your electrolytes: sodium, potassium, magnesium. If you're following a low carb and low salt diet, you're gonna have a bad time. The longer you're adapted to a low carb diet, the less demand your body will need for electrolytes, but in the beginning stages (6 weeks - 6 months), sodium will probably be your best friend. On training days, you may need upwards to 7g of sodium or even more. At one point it took about 9g (9000mg) of sodium just to feel relatively normal on heavy training days. The point is don't be afraid to salt up if you're feeling sluggish. I don't want to haphazardly advise superdosing potassium, but it's also another electrolyte to increase along with salt, if you're apprehensive about getting a lot of pure sodium in.

mskeyaj wrote: »

Thank you @anubis609. To fill you in some, the last couple of weeks I have not been keto. Fell off big time, but my focus is back and I have a goal to just get more active and fit. It's been about a year since I have been in a gym however I was off and on working out at home.

You're welcome. If that's the case, then don't worry too much about gym performance. Taking time off from both dieting and regular activity is also going to play a part in that. So treat yourself with care and approach the gym as if you're doing it for the first time and take it slow.

You will likely be in the early phase of "noob gainz" as far as experience and muscular response is concerned. The ideal scenario is that you will be incorporating strength training of some sort, but regardless of your activity, if you start off like a beginner and progressively increase the intensity or load, then you will see results over time. Don't rush it because the harder you push, the harder your body will push back. In other words, you don't need to feel beat the F up after every workout for it to be effective. In fact, if you feel better leaving the gym than when you first went in, you've hit the sweet spot.

I'm going to use the simple rule from Aadam Ali to apply to most people:

- For fat loss, your training supports your diet; meaning your diet is going to determine fat loss over anything and [strength] training is going to keep your muscles intact and minimize wasting

- For muscle gain and performance, your diet supports your training; meaning your training is going to determine how well you perform/how strong you get, and your diet is going to provide as much energy as needed to make improvements

To set up your diet, figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, then adjust down or up depending on your goals. You want to eat as much as you can that allows for fat loss (deficit) or minimal fat gain (surplus). Next, figure out protein; rough estimate is ~1g per lb of your goal weight. Next, focus on either higher fat/lower carb, or lower fat/higher carb, or equal combination of either, it doesn't matter, but if you prefer a low carb diet, then focus on higher fat.

That's it. The rest is up to you to stay adherent to both your diet and training. Following an 80/20 rule (80% of your diet/training is on point, 20% is whatever keeps you sane/happy) will provide decently good results.