Low carb with diabetes. Hitting the gym but running out of gas in the second half of the workout. Bs in the 80/90 range most days. I think I need carbs to fuel my workouts. Doing combination moves with weights. Any ideas?

I'm thinking about a baked sweet potato befor my workout.

I never eat before a workout. When my BS is elevated I have NO energy and it goes up just by working out.

Now that I am eating better my BS are better but I am still exhausted by the end of the work out. I am happy my gym is in the basement and I don't have to drive home.

My fear is that I go into the gym with BS 80 and boink!

The sweet potato might work. How long are your workouts? Can you up the intensity, but shorten your time there?

1 hour workouts. I just run out of gas the second half of the workout.

I used to be quite a keen body builder when I actually changed to eating low carb during what I could consider was the peak of my bodybuilding efforts and I found that my stamina and endurance actually got better through eating low carb.

However I must point out that I was doing most of my exercises whilst my body was in ketosis that way it could make full use of any stored body fats as it required them.

So my question for you is are you actually in ketosis because whether you are or not will make a huge difference when exercising for an hour or so. If you're not in ketosis but are happy with the way that your weight loss is going I would suggest that you only exercise for half an hour as quite frankly that's more than enough providing you are challenging your body sufficiently and up the speed and or weights that you are moving.

One of the best exercise systems I can suggest for low carbers is Al Sears' PACE system. It's a far more rational system than any other I've come across and works with the body to promote muscle growth and fat loss.

Hope that helps,

Mark

I've been averaging 20-40 grams carbs for some time (a few years) and was pretty happy. My husband who had always been in shape and went low carb with me in 2009, decided to start body building competitively.He did all his research and long story short has carbs before and after workout only. Sweet potato before and banana after. It was an amazing transformation, so I decided, very reluctantly to try a little (2oz) sweet potato right before my workout with protein and fat. I feared a slippery slope where I would decide I could now eat a whole one with steak at night. Well so far so good, and let me tell you this small thing has allowed me to double my weight reps, and add sprints, doubling my workout time. Instead of running out of gas 30 mins in, I have an hour in me.
I started with weekends only as that is when I did my workouts....during the week was just walking. But I started a new job with a gym, and now I take 25 min a day for intense sprinting and heavy weight intervals. I don't necessarily need the sweet potato for the short workouts, but I can workout more
intensely if I do. Weight wise there has been a couple lb loss, but my body is tighter and clothes looser. Given I have added these 4-5 mini workouts a
week, not sure if it is that or the extra bump I get from the bite of sweet potato (it's under 20 grams of carbs and my daily total is under 45 grams ...and I'm still in ketosis) or just plain burning more calories. I'm a firm believe we don't need carbs, but of we exercise very intensely, they can give fuel during that time. I remain off carbs after a workout and for the restof the day.

Good info, Cleveland, and great progress pics, you're doing fantastic.

Thanks everyone. I think t he problem might be that I am eating at 2:00 and workng out at 7:00.

I often read how people are fine working out on an empty stomach. I just can't do it. I don't need a huge meal, but about 300-400 calories or protein and fat (and for my big work outs the 2oz sweet potato) and I'm good to go.

Breakfast 5:30 = sausage egg and cheese sandwich from starbucks sans bread. Venti americano half and half splenda.

9:00 20 oz green tea

lunch 11:00 big salad mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, cilantro, lemongrass, grassfed beef, organic chicken.

2:30 Sushi hand roll no rice salmon celery seaweed ginger

5:00 venti coffee whipped cream

6:45-8:00 workout. felt strong.

8:30 salad grilled chicken breast, 3 oz salmon water.

I've always preferred empty stomach workouts and find they work best for me. This is true for both cardio and resistance.

However, in my view, the best pre-workout food has always been a donut! Works quickly with no fat or protein to slow the absorption.

Easily burned off after a high intensity cardio or weights.

I am having this problem now, I just moved to a new role with a gym, and would like to use the facilities daily for both cardio and weights, however, I get so tiered and feel completely deflated, had a long talk with the trainer there about a pre workout snack, I really don't want to use the protein shakes, he insisted on half a banana, but I know I wont be stopping when I have the half, even though I agree, once I had about 3 bananas and went to the gym, I ran 5K with no issues at all even though I haven't been running for years, but its a no no at the moement, same goes for grape juice (another of his suggestion).

He then suggested nuts, I know some people have a 2tsp of peanut butter as a pre-workout snack.
I know liver is a good snack actually, gives me a lot of energy, but that's not going to be available daily.
The other options are a cup of Greek yoghurt, or cottage cheese, which sometimes is also recommended post workout.

Jeff Volek co-authored a book called the TNT Workout , which is a kind of paleo exercise book (many of the exercises use only body weight as resistance), built around low carb eating. There are 5 different plans depending on whether you are trying to build muscle and lose weight, build muscle and gain weight, 3 others (I forget the exact variations) which involve eating protein or carbs or both before and after workouts. It is available used from Amazon for 1 penny + $3.99 shipping. It may be helpful for those trying to figure out how best to fuel themselves.

Weighed in today at 225.5. Great week. Cut out the bud light and Captain morgan and diet coke.