Hello Keto fam, I’m not new to Keto (2+ years), but this seemed to be an appropriate section for my question. Work has been a bit dull lately and I have a gym in the same building. To help kill some time, I’m tempted to start walking for 45 minutes or so on the treadmill everyday. I know of course about the small health benefits of exercise, I also know that Weightlifting or HIIT are superior, and lastly I know that exercise is pretty much useless for weight loss which is my current goal. With all of that said, here is my question…will light exercise hinder my weight loss? The reason I ask is because me being a dry sponge in the Ketogenic sea of information I recall that exercise can raise cortisol levels. Also, in the context of a Jason Fung understanding of metabolism, is my body going to panic and adjust my metabolic thermostat due to the exercise? All in all, I simply want to enjoy the therapeutic effects of light exercise but not affect the great weightloss progress I’m making with Keto alone.
Exercise hinder weightloss?
Newbie with questions as prolific as bacon in a Keto diet!
Heart Rate Problem After Cardio, Time To Quit Keto?
Sure, it might hinder weight loss… I can tell you from my personal experience, exercise helps alleviate some of my stress, and stress causes me to gain… only one way for you to find out what it does to you… 
A well formulated diet along with exercise will be far more beneficial. The benefits of exercise are not small. You want to focus on body fat % and not weight as well. If you do have a gym with weights i would find a program and implement them. Exercise will increase your appetite so if unchecked you could increase body fat.
For me eating Keto and walking definitely helped me lose weight on the scale. I have been doing CrossFit for 2 months now and haven’t lost a lot of weight on the scale (maybe down 3-5 lbs.) but I have lost a ton of body fat, lost inches and have gained muscles that were hiding under the fat. I may weigh close to the same but look and feel way better with the addition of the HIIT exercises.
WALKING at a calm pace is probably more relaxing than anything. Doing a good clear your head walk could be beneficial. Maybe if you were running for 45 minutes and jacking cortisol…but I doubt just walking will do it. Abs are totally made in the kitchen.
Exercise could increase your weight a little bit, but this is essentially water weight and wouldn’t really slow down fat loss in any way. The only real danger I can think of is if exercise results in you not getting enough rest or calories which could put undue stress on the body and cause you to catabolize lean tissue more than fat, but this is a real risk only for elite athletes or someone with an exercise disorder.
Cortisol, inflammation, increased blood sugar, all these things we think of as bad are only really bad when they’re present in a chronic state, and even then they’re more of a symptom of an underlying derangement. Exercise will only increase them temporarily which is how they’re set up to work in the first place, and this also has hormetic effects that protect the body from chronic exposure.
Does with me. I tend to have symptoms of cortisol the next day (neck lump and my stomach and face swell up). I find even walking for a long time the next day also increases my blood sugars as well the next day. I have done most of my weight loss (80lbs) without any exercise except a few walks.
Me as well, I lost 115 lbs in 15 months (down to my ideal weight) without exercise. I fell off of the bandwagon for 6 months and am trying to get rid of the weight I regained.
@John Best wishes to you as you get back on track. In the same boat here. I personally do feel that hard exercise hinders weight loss (anecdotal). Also, as I watch friends and read many of the posts here about people struggling long term to lose, so many of them have pretty intense exercise regimens. I just think that while exercise is a stress reliever to our minds it is still a stressor on our body and it can reach a tipping point. I think the body kind of hangs on to weight as a survival mechanism when the exercise gets too stressful. That said, I think light exercise as you mentioned would be beneficial as it’s giving you the mental relief and it’s also moving and stretching your body without being over the top. I just think we can sometimes do too much. More isn’t always better and I think the body naturally reacts when we try to do too much. Again, all this is anecdotal to me and what I’ve witnessed. Best wishes!
Exercise seems to make me gain a couple pounds, but it’s just water and when the weight goes down in a couple days I frequently am at my new lowest.