Hi there! I am new to keto …about 23 days in. I have been struggling a lot with exercise fatigue and dehydration. My blood ketones are steady at the 3-3.9 mmol/L range and I am wondering if that is too high and I should put more carbs back in? I have a typical 75% at, 20% protein 5% carb macro breakdown and hit it pretty much daily with 1500 calories. I keep my net carbs below 20 grams and I keep my Himalayan salt intake high and take a good multi vitamin along with about 2-3 liters of water.
Maybe my body just needs a few more carbs pre workout? Any suggestions for a pre workout carb/drink? I do running (about 3-4 days a week)and work out videos with weights(about 3 days). I even backed off for a week and just did light running without any real change in muscle fatigue. It just seems my fatigue is lasting longer than it should and the scale is only down about 7 lbs in 23 days. Thanks for your help!
Exercise fatigue
So eat some extra carbs for workouts and come back here and say what happened. I’m keto for 4.5 months and keeping it strict like you and I’m experiencing energy issues even now, but there can always be confounders. Issues for me might include sleep and training volume. I’m loath to disturb my keto with carbs so how about you be the n=1.
I respectfully disagree with @charlie3. Do NOT add in carbs.
This is a perfectly natural occurance in the adaptation phase for many people. What’s happening is you are no longer giving your body carbs for energy but your body doesn’t know how to efficiently burn ketones for fuel. It’s like a gas tank with a hole in it. You’re fueling it but it’s all running out and you aren’t getting as far.
Once you become fat adapted (typically 6-8 weeks) this will all work out and you will have more energy/endurance than before. Keep your electrolytes up as this will help, but it may not aliviate it all together. I’m afraid you will have to suffer through some of it. Go easy on the exercize until you feel better.
But adding carbs will only prolong the adaptation phase, taking you longer to become fat adapted.
I went from running 4 miles regularly pre Keto to only being able to walk 2 miles between 3-4 weeks into Keto. It WILL get better. Now 4+ months in and I just ran a half marathon.
P.S. ZipFizz helped me get my electrolytes AND a nice energy burst at the same time. I love that stuff. But I only have 1 per day as it has 2 carbs.
Thanks for the support! I will give it more time…do you work out in a fasting state or do you have some kind of pre workout exogenous ketones or anything?
No do not add in carbs, you’ll never get fat adapted. It’s still very early days, your performance and energy levels will dip at first, but push through and once you’re adapted, they’ll stabilise and likely increase.
I don’t use anything pre-workout, except sometimes a salt capsule to make sure my sodium levels are ok.
Always fasted with just a ZipFizz 1 hour before runs. I also add salt to the ZipFizz.
That’s good to know! Thank you!! I usually run half marathons and do at least 4- 5 miles, so this is a bit unnerving for me. I will give it more time…I have another question…sooo my blood meter has been between 3-4.9 mmol/L consistently since I got it about 2.5 ish weeks ago. I test my ketones at random times. My blood sugar is always 80-81. I can find tons of stuff on the internet about to what to do if it’s too low, but I find conflicting information about what to do (if anything) if the ketones are higher than optimal range. Can this be a cause of my fatigue?
Thanks!
Oh, and also, since it has been 4.5 months for you, have you considered changing up your macros? That seems like such a long time to still be adjusting your energy and having sleep issues, right? -maybe that’s normal? I am not sure I could continue with the fatigue for 5 months… :-/.
My greater concern is a full time light headed condition that slightly effects balance. It is VERY consistent. It might be caused by something other than diet but I’d make a $20 bet that the diet is in play somehow. My perception of the condition is it’s all about energy systems. I’ve considered a carb test to see if that changes anything but it’s not so bothersome to do that yet. I might start a thread about this to see if others might be experiencing something similar. BTW my blood pressure is below 120 lately but 5 months ago it was 40 points higher. The improvement was accomplished with diet and exercise.
That sounds like an electrolyte problem to me. My BP is naturally low, so if I don’t keep up on my electrolytes, I get a lot of dizziness. It’s a lot better now but it can still get out of wack if I run on a very hot day. And I get nauseous.
I don’t have any energy or sleep issues now. About 9 weeks in it all worked out for me. That when I became fully fat adapted. The 3-5 weeks was the worst for me with really low energy and I couldn’t get my electrolytes in balance.
Week 5 I ran a 5k and it was pretty bad, but by week 9 I ran a 10k and it was a breeze. Yesterday I hit a half marathon. It wasn’t a breeze, but I hit it a full month ahead of my training schedule. And today I was back out for 6.5 miles.
Stick it out and I think you will be very happy with your energy/endurance levels. You just have to get to fat adaption.
Electrolytes is next. Cronometer says I’m getting half the potassium recommended. Getting the entire recommended amount does not seem to be easy. Among other things I was eating a whole avecado daily and stopped doing that a couple of weeks ago and those were may be 25% of the total. I believe sodium and magnesium are covered.
I would agree that it sounds like electrolytes…or maybe calories? Do you have a blood meter? How’s your glucose? Why in the world you stop eating avocados??LOL…sooo many questions…HAHAHA…
but seriously though, you should just go ahead and get a physical with CBC, Chem 24, thyroid panel Vit D and iron, ECG…I don’t know how old you are or your medical problems but getting checked out certainly wouldn’t hurt anything and might shed some light on the issue. You don’t want ot be missing something serious…or easy to fix.
Hi LeeAnn, I was looking up ZipFizz on Amazon and it turns out it has the artificial sweetener sucralose in it? I have heard that sucralose is a no no due to possible hormone disruption and sugar spikes? How do you feel about sucralose? Maybe it does’t matter in small amounts pre workout…I like all the other ingredients and I am looking for something to take pre workout.
Have you ever tried the keto magic exogenous ketones?
Thanks!
All artificial sweeteners have been shown to raise insulin in some people. It’s a very individual thing. It hasn’t been a problem for me, but it’s well worth experimenting if you’re not sure. If you feel like it’s contributing to stalls, eliminate it and see what happens. If you continue to lose weight, you probably don’t have any issues with it.