Every time I try to go keto, I find it very hard to exercise. I am a cyclist and there is nothing I enjoy more than a 2-3 hour bike ride once or even twice a week. I am probably about 15kgs overweight. My most recent keto experience, I had to walk my bike up the hills. I just didn’t have any energy. It could be because of calorie deficit and just no energy in general or is it that I really need some carbs for those bike rides? My fellow bike riders don’t get it and they say that it is dangerous not eating carbs. Total crap of course.
When I got back from the ride, I ploughed through bacon and eggs and even cooked a second helping!
I would really like to get everyone’s opinions. Particularly people who cycle or run. How long do you feel blah before the true fat adaption kicks in? Or do we really need carbs for those hills and long rides?
Exercise and keto. Help please
According to Dr. Stephen Phinney this will pass after 2-3 weeks in ketosis (plus you need to add much more salt in your diet).
Check out all his videos in YouTube and a great many of your questions will be answered. He is the at most authority in keto-adaptation and ketogenic diets.
Yep George has answered it, you need to adapt and that may take up to 8 weeks, the first 10 days or so will be the worse though
Thanks guys. I found the Keto Cycling posts and had a good read. I can see that if I am pepared to plough through that I will become fat adapted. Not so hard to get into Keto - just a ride will do that for me, but getting my body to actually burn the fat, now that is another story!
I went to YouTube and watched Stephen Finney for the umpteenth time. I think I get it. A light bulb moment perhaps. I read all the time that women are afraid to eat fat. We will do the low carb but really can’t get used to eating fat in the amounts needed to be successful. I went out this evening and bought avocados, olives and seed crackers with .2 grams of carb and heaps of fat. This week I’m just going to concentrate on the right combo at each meal. 
I think you’ve gotten most of your concern’s answered. But I would like to add one thing. After you become keto adapted, which can take months to a year, you will likely see performance gains.
All of my friends and clients that are keto went through the same slump you are. After a few weeks, they saw things begin to turn. So, stick with it and keep riding.
One strategy you can try during this adaptation period is to time your carbs such that you eat more of your daily allotment before you exercise.
Also, as you become fat adapted, you will notice a gradual improvement. It won’t be a sudden, “Wow, my legs no longer feel like lead!” It will be more of, “Hum, I had a little more energy today.”
I’ve been Keto since the middle of July, and I finally am feeling more energy. I never went through Keto flu, because I was pretty low carb, no white stuff before. So, I’d say it took about 3 months for me. I was fat adapted before, I think, but with barely enough energy to slog through the day. My old energy and positive outlook is back now.
So there is light at end end of the tunnel. I went for a 2.5 hour bike ride today. I cheated. I ate watermelon and 2 bananas before the ride. I rode the fastest time ever! I figured it went straight to the muscles. Back on keto after the ride.
Normally after a ride I get into ketosis but not today. 
Maybe too many carbs! I’ll just keep working at it until I get the right combination.
yes during adaption period try and keep carbs down …
Also have a look to start doing fasted rides as well as this super charges the process
I have similar concerns. I do brisk walking, stationary cycling, and strength training. Walking and cardio are progressing well enough but neither muscle size or strength from lifting have budged in months. I suspect lower muscle glycogen is a factor but I’m cautious about pointing blame.
I’ve increased net carbs from 20 to 60. My daily calories from exercise average 800, a third of total calories. Since that calorie burn is mostly in muscle I figure that when I eat carbs there are always hungry muscle cells to absorb them quickly so insulin isn’t elevated for long on account of glucose from food.
I’m trying the suppliment called creatine. The evidence persuades me it improves some energy processes that are relevent to muscle in about 2/3 of the people who take it. It’s a low risk experiment. The body already uses creatine. The suppliment just raises the level a bit. A 1 kilo bag for $20 will last 6 months to a year. Here is what I got. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E9M4XEE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 After some weeks I’m cautiously optimistic that creatine is making a difference for me.
I reduced the number of weight training sets per exercise from 3 to just 2 and focus on strength. Strength improvements are easier to judge in the short run. May be I’m just over trained. So far my I’m feeling stronger on the reduced number of sets so I’ll stay with this approach until strength levels out.
Recently I’m reviewing intake of micro nutrients and adjusting things to get all the conventional ones, not too much, not too little. Tracking with Cronometer is the only way I could do that.
Yet another thing I’ve done, starting several months ago is track with a biometric scale. Here is the one I got. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1UX8RW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 The data accumulated by the product app confirms what I see in the mirror and experience under the bar, body weight, fat percentage, muscle mass, etc. have not changed.
My personal experience is what I find reading about the experiences of others, that endurance is less effected by low carb than strength training.
Try some Pink Himalayan Sea Salt in your water? “The secret weapon of endurance athletes!”
We store more carbs than we need (lots of science to support my statement)! People just eat more carbs because they think they need them when they are more physically active, actually that is far from the truth!
Some-times I just get highly suspicious about the ‘what we been told’ placebo scenario about carbs for endurance athletes but thought these articles were interesting:
- Placebo effect of carbohydrate feedings during a 40-km cycling time trial. RESULTS: Changes in mean power in the second trial were: told carbohydrate, 4.3 +/- 4.8%; told placebo, 0.5 +/- 5.8%; and not told, -1.1 +/- 8.5%. The difference between the told-carbohydrate and told-placebo groups was 3.8% (95% likely range 7.9 to -0.2%). The change in performance in the not-told group was more variable than that of the told groups by a factor of 1.6 (2.6 to 1.0). The real effect of carbohydrate was a slight reduction in power of 0.3% (4.4 to -3.8%). CONCLUSIONS: (a) The placebo effect of a potentially ergogenic treatment during unblinded laboratory time trials lasting approximately 1 h is probably a small but worthwhile increase in endurance power. (b) Blinding subjects to the treatment increases individual differences in endurance effort, which may reduce precision of performance outcomes in controlled trials.
Two approaches to creating a state of low carbohydrate availability are often described simultaneously, as if they are simply different but equivalent ways of going about it:
a) exercising after an overnight fast - stores of carbohydrates are used while you sleep and not replaced before a workout, or
b) exercising after a prior heavy exercise bout - carbohydrate is used up during an exercise bout and not replaced before a second workout.
Despite being presented as equivalent options, the two approaches are different in their bioenergetics and will lead to different adaptations. This blog post is meant to clarify the physiology of the two approaches.
Concluding Thoughts:
Overall, exercising while carbohydrate stores are low may be something you choose to dabble with but it’s unlikely that doing so will have a large impact. And, you may compromise the efficacy of your training while you figure out what may work for you because exercising while carbohydrate depleted is hard and the quality of a workout (intensity, form, total work) usually suffers. …More
- Some peeps are breaking records all the time on keto, what would take four men to accomplish takes two men! More energy, strength, endurance and speed (by 15 min); increases without carbs (training wheels) the longer you remain keto! - Bunny …More