Does it boost your workout performance or make it even worse?
You may have heard that eating carbs pre-workout can help your workout performance.
You may have also heard that, on a keto diet, not eating carbs before your workout helps you burn more fat.
Well, which side should you choose?
In this article, I’ll discuss which side you should choose & why specifically if you’re doing a keto diet.
What Is Keto?
The ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that forces your body into ketosis, a metabolic state where your body uses fat for energy. People on the keto diet are often looking to improve their metabolic state, lower their blood glucose levels, lose weight, fight various diseases, and more.
The main reason why people on a keto diet don’t eat carbs is to lower insulin heavily and thus force their bodies into a metabolic state called ketosis.
The most popular foods that keto dieters eat are:
- High-fat meats
- High-fat dairy
- Nuts
- Low-carb vegetables
- Low-carb fruits
Though keto dieters mostly focus on fats, they also eat a moderate amount of protein, while limiting their intake of certain high-carb fruits and vegetables.
Basically, keto is a diet where the goal is to make you efficient at using your own fat for fuel.
Why Do Carb-Eaters Eat Carbs Pre-Workout?
For carb eaters, in order to optimize your workout performance, your body needs to be fully fueled with sugars. This is why many athletes eat carbs before their workouts — to get increased performance.
That being said, the majority of the research on the topic of carbs before workouts is done on a carb-heavy diet like the Western diet.
Do Carbs Help Your Workout Performance?
The short answer: yes, if you eat a high-carb diet. This is because on a high-carb diet, carbs are the main fuel source and are needed to fuel your muscles as they work out.
However, the story is completely different if you’re on a keto diet where your main fuel source is fats.
Should I Eat Carbs Pre-Workout on Keto?
Generally speaking, if you’re doing a keto diet, you shouldn’t eat carbs before your workouts. This is because your body is used to using fats for fuel not carbs. So, when you give it carbs, it can’t use it for fuel that efficiently, meaning you’d be better off by eating fats.
However, while on a keto diet, your pre-workout meal doesn’t matter that much since you’re going to run off of fats either way. However, you still need to eat protein before or after your workout to stimulate growth & recovery of your muscles.
If you want to burn your own body-fat & lose more weight on keto when you exercise, you can try intermittent or prolonged fasting and training in a fasted state. This can lead to more fat loss since you can only use your fat as fuel.
For people eating high-carb diets, eating carbs pre-workout is a great way to increase performance. However, the opposite is true for keto dieters. That’s why, if you’re on keto, to not eat carbs before or after a workout.
If you’re interested in starting intermittent fasting to speed up your keto results, I have an article here detailing the benefits of OMAD fasting & how to start.
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