When you’ve been trained to think of fat as “bad” for most of your life, starting the ketogenic meal plan, which focuses on healthy fats, can take a little getting used to. After all, it’s the very thing you’ve been told to “burn off” during your workouts. Does eating more of it mean you have to work out even harder? Or maybe you’ve heard that the fat-focused meal plan is directly connected to staying within the fat-burning zone. Is there any truth to that?
I called my doctor to give direct information. Not only has he been working on the ketogenic diet plan for over a decade (long before it became popular), but he also has all the scientific research on the new diet. He even took it upon himself to understand how ketosis affects exercise. Are you ready to learn what to say?
What Your Body Relies on for Energy
“If you have a ‘normal meal plan,’ 70-80% of the energy your body uses will come from the sugar found in carbohydrates,” said the Doctor. “That means fat is only making up 20 percent of what you’re burning.” And because your fuel source is changing, he explains, how you feel during certain types of workouts will likely change, too.
“If someone is used to doing high-intensity workouts, they’re going to have a harder transition than if someone is used to doing more yoga,” my doctor says. This is because when you work out super intensely for short periods of time—like a spin class or series of running sprints—your body is used to burning that aforementioned glucose first, such as the oatmeal you had for breakfast. Now that you’re on a low-carb ketogenic meal plan, you don’t have that glucose store to pull from for energy, and you’re likely to feel more fatigued than you usually do.
But for activities like barre, Pilates, or light jogging—where your heart rate isn’t as high—your body relies on fat for energy. This makes sense: Fat stays in the body longer than carbohydrates, so the body can rely on it for longer, more intense workouts.
“You can burn fat for more exercise, but it takes time to do that,” my doctor said, adding that it’s difficult to know exactly when your muscles start using fat instead of glucose. Here’s the formula: “If you exercise at a rate of 4 or lower on a scale of 1 to 10, your body will burn fat. But if you exercise regularly at a rate of 5-7 or higher, then you will get some exercise.” To be comfortable in ketosis because most people need glucose
“Fat burning zone”
Does this mean you have to stop changing days every week to progress, yes?) According to my doctor, no? exactly, but most of the time you won’t get the same energy you use when you eat carbs – At least for a few weeks, or even months. “This is difficult biochemistry because we don’t know exactly which muscles are used to adapt,” he said.
At the same time, exercise that keeps you in your fat zone (i.e. exercise where your heart rate is between 60 and 75) will increase your body’s ability to use the products you eat as fuel. Cardio enthusiasts can still understand this; it didn’t just involve going out for 45 minutes. (Some fitness classes, like OrangeTheory, for example, have been known to follow this model.) Other exercises to get you involved: Floor running, floor classes, and strength training.
As with all exercise and diet, my doctor says the most important thing is to pay attention to how you do it. Your body will tell you a lot about what works and what doesn’t; You just need to listen.