Keto Safe Drinks for Workout Energy + Building Muscle

#1

Hi there,

So I train in a competitive sport, where each session lasts usually 3 hours or so, and I find that I start losing steam around the half way point (or 1.5 hours), making training more and more difficult as every minute passes. It’s not super high intensity, but more endurance based. I almost always eat a full, healthy meal (Keto friendly of course) 30-60 minutes before training, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to keep me going. Any recommendations for healthy, keto safe energy drinks (not any of that crap such as Redbull, Monster, etc)?

On the side of building muscle, I’ve read that even on Keto you still need a caloric surplus to gain muscle, so what should my macros look like to minimize fat gain and maximize muscle gain? I’m 5’7" and I typically hover between 150-155 lbs on any given day. I’m over 2 months into my Keto routine, and while I have lost around 15-20 lbs that I gained during this current public health crisis, and I am pretty lean pretty much all over my body now EXCEPT for around my midsection. The fat around this area absolutely refuses to go away, and it’s extremely frustrating.

If anyone could care to offer any suggestions or opinions, I would be super grateful!

Cheers!

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #2

How long have you been keto? That’s relevant to performance, especially endurance.

In the meantime, make your own energy drink from whipping cream and whey isolate, to proportions to match you keto ratios. I make my own ‘keto coffee’ which contains a lot of fats. But I drink that hot so the fats blend well. Whipping cream and whey will blend cold with no problem.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

Muscles are made out of amino acids, which are found only in proteins. For muscle gain, you need somewhere around 2.0 g of protein per kg of lean body mass per day. You also need foods containing the essential branched-chain amino acids, leucine, iso-leucine, and valine. (The body can manufacture the other BCAA’s that it needs). You do need enough fat to fuel the muscle growth, but eating to satiety should allow you to get enough, without having to measure. Keep your carbohydrate intake under 20 g/day, to avoid storing fat (the high insulin level resulting from eating too much carbohydrate traps fat in the fat cells and promotes visceral fat, which is dangerous). It also helps to keep your consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids as low as possible, to avoid causing systemic inflammation (yes, this is exactly the opposite of how we are told to eat, but there is solid scientific data underlying these recommendations).

The problem with most macro calculations is that they are based on percentage of total calories/day, which is not very helpful.

Note that BCAA’s in quantity promote systemic inflammation and liver damage when over-consumed, so people who are not trying to build muscle need a very small quantity of them in their diet.

(Edith) #4

Fat adaptation starts to improve around the two month mark, but it will take several more months for your muscles to be completely fat adapted.

At first the muscles feel like lead. But, you don’t suddenly wake up at the two month mark and say, “Wow! My muscles feel great!” They just gradually start to feel less and less lead-like. It could be six months or even a little longer before your muscles feel completely back to normal and you burn fat more efficiently.

I think some people have experimented with exogenous ketones or coconut oil during endurance events, but it could be that you just need some extra salt since it is a long workout.

#6

I’ve been on Keto for roughly 2.5 months now, and no matter what I have tried, the last bit of Visceral fat absolutely refuses to go away. I’m about 5’8" and I hover around 150-154 lbs on any given day, and while I realize that I’m well within a healthy weight range for my height, gender, etc., it has come to the point of aggravation that the fat around my midsection won’t go away, despite being lean practically everywhere else. I follow Keto in a pretty strict fashion, so I’m unsure what I’m missing. I participate in a competitive sport 3-4 days a week, plus I have a physical full-time job, so as to why the visceral fat isn’t dropping off remains a mystery.

As for the muscle building part - do you suggest taking a BCAA supplement? I already have a very high quality New Zealand Whey Protein Isolate, Grass-Fed Collagen Protein, as well as a clean L-Glutamine powder that I use, so there’s those. I’d like to pack on maybe 10-15 lbs of muscle, which is already difficult for me having what I assume to be an Ectomorph body type (at least that’s what my Naturopath tells me).

Any suggestions/recommendations for diet or otherwise would be immensely helpful as I feel like I’ve hit a brick wall in terms of my progress.

Cheers!

(Edith) #7

How much fat are you eating each day? It is possible to be in ketosis, but all your energy is coming from dietary fat. If you ingest too much fat, your body has no reason the use its own stored fat. You may need to up your protein and lower your fat intake.

(Kenny Croxdale) #8

Three Hour Workout

First of all what competitive sport are you in?

Secondly, a three hour training session will wear anyone out.

Finally, three hour training session are not conductive to increasing muscle mass; especially endurance training.

Endurance Training is more catabolic (decreases muscle mass) rather than being anabolic (muscle building)

Protein

As Paul noted, protein is required for increasing increasing muscle mass.

Approximately, 30 to 40 gram of quality protein per meal is required. That because it provides you with the amount of Leucine for building muscle.

To trigger the anabolic response, you need around 2.5 to over 4.0 grams of Leucine per meal.

Around 2.5 grams is required for young individuals. Over 3.0 grams is required for individual over around 30 years old.

That because it take more protein to elicit the same effect for an older vs a young individual.

Abdominal Fat

As per ViriniaEdie, “It is possible to be in ketosis, but all your energy is coming from dietary fat. If you ingest too much fat, your body has no reason the use its own stored fat.”

In other words, you may be consuming more calories than you need. Even on a Keto Diet, you need to be in a calorie deficit to burn body fat.

It might also be a genetic issue. Some individual tend to naturally store fat in the abdominal area (be Apple Shaped) while others store it in the hips and leg (be Pear Shaped).

Ectomorph

Most Ectomorph have a harder time of increasing muscle mass and/or gaining weight.

Ectomorphs usually respond better to a lower volume of training; training session that are an hour or less.

Kenny Croxdale

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

Visceral fat is usually not visible. It is the fat that surrounds or permeates the organs in your belly. If you’ve been eating low carb for any length of time, your visceral fat is probably long gone. What I’m guessing you are talking about is love handles, which is sub-cutaneous fat. Visceral fat usually shows as a hard, protruding belly. Sub-cutaneous fat is the jiggly stuff. It is unsightly, perhaps, but not a sign of metabolic dysfunction. And yes, it can be very hard to get rid of.

As for BCAA supplements, I tend as a matter of principle to prefer diet to supplements, but I don’t see any reason (except for the expense) to not take them. However, it does occur to me that if you really do have visceral and not sub-cutaneous fat, BCAA’s might be part of the problem. There is a metabolic pathway in the liver that deals with ethanol, fructose, and BCAA’s, and overloading that pathway can cause fat to accumulate in the liver (true visceral fat). If you have any indication that you might have fatty liver disease, be sure to limit consumption of alcohol, eliminate all sugar from your diet, and cut way back on the BCAA’s. The good news is that liver fat starts to be eliminated very quickly after we stop overloading that metabolic pathway.

#11

Yes sorry for the confusion, I only just realized I wrote Visceral Fat instead of subcutaneous Fat. I would estimate that remaining abdominal fat to be no more than maybe 5-8 lbs. I have tried a variation of different things, including cutting carbs even further below the 20g per day limit, reducing overall daily caloric intake, etc., but no success so far. That last remaining fat and the “love handles” are certainly my current nemesis.

As for my competitive sport, it’s Gymnastics based, and there are quite a bit of breaks between routines, passes, so I guess that can be considered endurance, albeit less fatiguing than actively participating for the entire 3 hours.

#12

I just incorporated Intermittent Fasting (16 / 8) just over a week ago, so we’ll see if that makes any difference, though it seems like mission impossible at this point. I’ve been on strict Keto since June 8th, but the last 5-7 lbs of abdominal fat refuses to shed for whatever unknown reason.

I’m not sure what else there is to do in all honestly.

(Nicolas) #13

I would eat more protein than fat tbh.
Dont under eat tho, that would make matters worse, the body will store whatever can have it hands on to fat.
I usually drink 1 lemon juice with x amount of Magnesium and Potassium and salt after a session of cardio.
Cardio will help a little bit more on using fats than hyperthrophy, in the long run, more muscle means you will need more energy, but not that much. I usually run at the burning fat zone (70% of your max heart rate).
Somatotypes means nothing, I can give you a gym routine to make you Mesomorph, and I also can tell you to eat crap all the time to make you an endomorph.
Also, give your body time to repair, give it rest, you burn fat when in your resting periods.

#14

I feel like you only ended up with one answer to your question so I will add another option. I use amazing grass green superfood, watermelon. I can’t handle large amounts of caffeine, like in soda or coffee, so green tea is the only caffeine I enjoy. It has 2 net carbs. Now, my husband hates the taste so, don’t invest until you have tried it first. I love the taste but I also really like the taste of matcha too.
Additionally, there is a brand of meal supplements, ketologic, that i use. They have a couple of caffeine drinks as well. I haven’t looked into them but there may be options for you. Wait for a good deal to pop up if you end up deciding to order anything as they seem to run sales pretty frequently. I did get a few samples to taste and they taste like candy. Too much like candy for me as that is my weakness.
My husband, who also doesn’t drink coffee, uses amino pro with energy. I will probably mess up the manufacturer name, dymatize? He says it tastes like Gatorade. It is low in carbs but not sure if it has anything not officially keto in it.
I am sure after you Google a couple of these, you will have plenty of other options showing up in your advertisements. Good luck.

(Bob M) #15

Unless I starve to death, I’ll never be an ectomorph. I’m definitely a mesomorph.

@Jayce98 I don’t mean to depress you, but I still have body fat, and I’m going on 7 years low carb/keto. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll never look like Ted Naiman. I’m OK with that.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #16

I wouldn’t want to look like him, anyway. But Thomas Delauer or Mike Mutzel—whew!

(Nicolas) #17

Sign here and here :smiling_imp: use ‘these’ and you will have that body in a couple of years.

#18

So what I’m taking away from everyone’s responses is that there is essentially nothing I can do to get rid of the literal handfuls of fat around my midsection? If so, that’s really depressing.

I figured Keto would do that trick, but no. Incorporated Intermittent Fasting, and still nothing. Seriously, what am I missing?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #19

Keep calm and keto on. Persuading the body to do precisely what we want can get tricky, unless we know exactly what we are doing. (Remember the Law of Unintended Consequences.)