Athletic peformance while LCing??

[bkettle]

High this is my first time posting here. I started LC dieting 1/2/02 and have been pretty good about both the diet and excercizing so far.

In my last couple of workouts, I am seemingly not able to sustain the same speeds/duration in cardio work or get the same number of reps when lifting. Its a small difference for now, but its there. Is this normal? Is it a sign I need more protein, like I dont each a lot already.

I have been weight lifting for a year and it can be discouraging to not get that little incremental improvement session over session, much less back slide, any insight would be appreciated.

As for the diet itself, I started at ~240 and 30% BF, now 8 days in the scale bounces between 233 and 237 from day to day. So I think I am slowly dropping.

Thanks, Bruce

[Natrushka]

Bruce, I'm no expert here, but I can suggest a few things. Are you eating enough - enough calories AND enough protein and carbs? I'm also doing PP nutrition and lifting and I find if my carbs get too low everything else suffers - Are you keeping track of how many grams you're eating a day?

I'm going to assume that using PP you've figured out your lean body mass from the charts/ forumlas - did you up your protein to take into account the weight training? I typically eat 1 - 1.3g of protein per lb of LBM (this works out to 150 - 185g a day for me).

As for the carbs, you do need some - more than the typical PP follower - usually at least Phase II nutrition (50 - 70g a day).

I'm sure you'll get more input, in the meantime I hope this helps some,
Nat

[Trainerdan]

Since you and Nat are both on PP, I would take her advice since she's been down the road before.

I noticed the same thing when I swtiched to LC ... when glycogen is depleted, naturally performance will suffer. Your options are:

- include more carbs in your diet (as was suggested)

or

- use a weekend (or any other 48 hour period) carb-up to store lots of glycogen in a short period of time and feed off of that during the week (the basis of a CKD, more or less)

It seems that either option would work in your situation.

[bkettle]

Thanks for your rapid responses.

As for your questions Nat, I have used a few formulas to calcutate % BF and lean body mass, but not been measured. The result of these formulas range from 22 - 29% BF, which would translate to 170 - 187 lbs LBM, and at 1 - 1.3 g protein I get a pretty big range, 170 - 243 g protein per day. I may be on the low end of this range, need to start tracking better. Do you think getting measured to a more accurate %BF number is worthwhile?

I realize I need more carbs when I am on some sort of maintenance diet. But wouldn't consuming 50 - 70g of carbs prohibit weight loss, at least acheiving ketosis? I have been shooting for about 30g and planning to increase when I get closer to my goal weight, 200. I guess I need to reread PP and get a better handle on this.

Thanks again.

[Natrushka]

Originally posted by bkettle
I realize I need more carbs when I am on some sort of maintenance diet. But wouldn't consuming 50 - 70g of carbs prohibit weight loss, at least acheiving ketosis?

Bruce, I regularly consume 60g a day and when I was checking (back at the beginning) I was still in ketosis - my LBM is around 142 lbs right now and was 137 when I started BFL (Body for Life). Being male, you've naturally got more muscle mass than most women; adding the lifting into that - I am sure you can handle more carbs. If you're interested, I have kept a detailed log of what I have been eating and the breakdown in my Journal since day one (November 11th).

30g a day is probably what's zapping your strength - the fact that you just began your LC program is probably also a factor - the Eades do recommend that you wait at least a week before resuming exercise and to go at it slowly. It does take time for your body to adjust to burning a new fuel - I know it took me a good 2 weeks to get back up to my old level of intensity.

Best of luck,
Nat

[easygreen]

Hi,

I've been low carbing for about 90 days now. I had the same problem with reduced performance after I started LCing. I
asked the same question to this forum. I had several replys that helped. One was to increase both potassium and magnesium intake. I started using No Salt ( salt substitute ) and a magnesium supplement. That helped, but did not completely return my performance level. Then, TrainerDan had a discussion about a little caffeine before working out. That helped, also.

But, given time, my performance has returned to normal. I've stayed on the 20g/day induction diet the whole 90 days. I've been in Ketosis all except 2 days ( Thanksgiving and Christmas,
of course ). Before LCing, I could do 4 miles on a NordicTrak in
60 minutes with high resistance. When I started the LC diet,
I dropped to 3 miles in 60 minutes. Now, I'm up to 4.8 miles.
I think my body just adjusted with time.

I'm not losing much weight. I'm doing an hour of cardio 3 times a week and I lift weights for 60 minutes three times a week. My weight has stayed about the same. My strength has increased.
I have to assume that I'm losing fat, but gaining muscle ( I hope ).

What is the proper amount of protein one should eat? Is too much protein bad? Someone said I could damage my kidneys by eating too much protein. Any truth to this?

Thanks,

Mark