I have read that it is okay to eat carbs immediately before a strenuous workout, up to 30 grams and not count the carbs for the daily Atkins total.

Has anyone had any experience with this? My weight loss is about 1 pound per 3 weeks, and I really don't want to go any slower than that!

Hi Joy,

I've never heard of this, but I'm a relative newbie to workouts and LC. My rational mind says carbing up before a workout will only slow down your weight loss. You might want to pop over to the Exercise/CKD forum to ask Fern2340 or TrainerDan, they are the exercise experts here.

Good luck in your hunt for information, Ruth

Joy, I moved your post to the Exercise forum where either Dan or Fern will see it and be able to comment quicker. Personally, I do workout quite strenuously; I do not carb up prior to a workout and I dont' suffer from it. I am doing an am cardio program on an empty stomach to burn more fat. If you check out the exercise forum there are some articles on just that.

Cheers,
Nat

Joy I personally would not add anymore carbs to your diet expecially before work out. I work out twice a day in the morning before I go to work and in the evening after I get home from work. I have been staying under my 20g a day and I have so much energy that I feel like I could keep on going for hours. Just make sure that you drink plenty of water through out the day and before you go work out and I would also take some water with you for while you are working out that will help that you don't feel worn out. If you have enough water in your body you also won't get muscle pains while working out because have that fluid in your body. People in my dance class have been asking me what I do to have so much energy and I just inform them that I am doing a Low Carb diet and I feel great.

You can do it!
Shondel

I'm starting to get into Mountain biking and hopefully going to race next summer. So, any competitive advantage I can get I would use.

I tried the carb loading thing because the other bikers said it is what they do. Long and short is I got sick, on the trail. It was just some regular white bread made into toast with some garlic on it. Usually, I would eat some pepperoni and cheese square before exercise.

From everything I have read, spiking the sugar level ultimately means it has to come back down. So as soon as you have deplited it, the advantage it gone. That is what happened was that I burned though the carbs in 25 minutes and then my blood sugar bottomed out, and dizzyness, nausea was the byproduct.

You won't catch me doing that again,
wsgts

Hi Joy,

Forgetting the low carb diet for a second, it makes more sense to carb up after the workout. The body is then in a state where carbs (ie. glucos) can readily amd quickly be converted onto glycogen. Normally this conversion process takes up to 24 hours. My own experience is that I get out of ketosis whenever I eat more than 15 grams of carbs, regardless of before or after exercising.

The other issue is why you want to carb up at all whilst on a low carb diet. As far as I can see, some of the reasons could include: -

(1) Protect muscle. This will only work if the insulin level is raised (insulin is anabolic). The amounts of carbs we are talking about here would not be enough for an anabolic reaction. Read Dan Duchaine's Body Opus if you are serious about manipulating the body's catabolic/anabolic abilities. I recommend eating a variety of protein sources as an anti-catabolic strategy.
(2) Maximise Creatine absorption. The is some evidence of increased creatine absorption when eating carbs (glucos acts as a transport system for creatine).
(3) Increase stamina (we all know we get much weaker in ketosis). I don't think this a good reason, as this weakness means that we burn ketones during exercise. By switching to glucos you lose the fat burning opportunity.

Lastly, the cardio work that seems to work best, having tried it on many people, is a modification of Bill Phillip's Body-For-Life. His weight training and eating regimes are useless, but the cardio routine is awesome. Do his recommended 20 minute cardio program, and then add 40 minutes of low-intensity cardio work (ie. 60-65% of maximum HR). I prefer a reclining exercise bike. This really rips the fat off!