Ketogenic diet and sport, a winning combo

Ketogenic diet and sport, a winning combination?

The basis of a KETO DIET also called ketogenic , is the reduction of carbohydrates in its eating habits. Is this type of diet suitable for practicing sports. Indeed, practicing a sport requires a lot of energy from our body, does a keto diet provide enough nutrients to our body?

To combat preconceived ideas and help you discover how to combine the keto diet and sport, we will explain how to combine the two safely.

Are sports and the keto diet compatible?

It’s even recommended! Physical exercise is not only one of the main elements of your health, it also helps to complement your ketogenic diet . Indeed, sport can only be beneficial for ketogenic diets which, by definition, are high in fat.

Without dwelling on the benefits of sport in general, combining it with your keto diet will bring you many benefits:

• optimal health
• better cardio vascularization
• building lean body mass
• improving your mental health

All these benefits are provided by the high fat content of your ketogenic diet. All the nutrients present in this new diet will increase the benefits of your sports activity tenfold.

The Impact of a Ketogenic Diet on Performance

• Better recovery

Any type of training and sports practice impacts the muscle fiber. It is this stress caused to the muscles that allows them to be strengthened. This strengthening takes place during recovery. During intense sports sessions, the muscle fibers are destroyed. The destruction of these fibers results in muscle aches the next day or the day after. Not letting the muscles rebuild can lead to a loss of performance and injuries. Repeated sport therefore weakens the muscle fiber.

The keto diet will help, thanks to the nutrients it provides, to replenish the energy reserves your body needs. Indeed, the ketogenic diet promotes the hydration of your body and therefore muscle recovery. This optimized recovery time allows your muscles to repair themselves and adapt more easily to the efforts they must make. This higher recovery capacity thus allows the body to chain more training sessions, in better conditions. It is then possible to progress faster and more easily.

• Better endurance

During low or moderate intensity sports activities, the main source of energy used by the body is fat! In other words, the body looks directly to lipids.

This is where the ketogenic diet becomes very interesting for athletes who practice an endurance sport. Marathon, trail, etc. The idea is to increase the lipid reserve available in the body, in order to supply it with energy for longer. The keto diet is therefore the perfect diet for this type of practice. In the long term, it allows to considerably increase this reserve of lipids that athletes need. This will greatly limit fatigue during long events.

Keto diet for athletes, how to start?

If you want to start a keto diet as an athlete, there are still some precautions to take. This type of low-carb, high-fat diet must be adapted to your training. One of the great advantages of keto is that there is not just one type of diet, they are all adaptable to everyone's needs.

Before calculating your macros and other nutrients, the most important step will be to monitor the quality of the products you are going to consume. Origin, composition, additives, etc. You have to pay close attention to the quality of your food. This will allow you to maintain a healthy and stable state of ketosis. Délice Low Carb offers you a complete range of keto products, both salty and sweet, to guarantee you optimal quality of your food.

When you follow a keto diet, your body is in ketosis, which means that it uses the fat present in the body as its main source of energy. However, during a high-intensity sporting activity, carbohydrates are generally the main source of energy. As an athlete, the lack of carbohydrates can therefore be felt at the beginning of your diet. Indeed, certain exercises or activities may seem more difficult than usual. You need to give your body a few weeks to get used to this new lifestyle and adapt its metabolism.

Another solution if your workouts are very regular and often intense, is to adapt your keto diet. Indeed, for sprinters or weightlifters the so-called “strict” diet will surely not be suitable.

How to adapt your keto diet to your sports activity?

As we have seen above, the keto diet offers better repair of your muscles after sport. The recovery of your body after exercise is thus facilitated.

Your sports performance is not likely to decrease except during the adaptation phase to this new diet. This phase lasts on average about two weeks, the time it takes for your body to understand that it must now draw on fats and not carbohydrates.

There are therefore two solutions available to you to reduce the impact of the keto diet on your sporting activity:

1. Slow down the pace

During this adaptation phase, it is advisable to reduce the pace. Do fewer workouts, but above all with less intensity.

2. Adapt your diet

In a keto diet, there is an average of 30 grams of carbohydrates per day. (except in stricter cases). To improve and accelerate performance and weight loss, there are ranges of KETO FITNESS PRODUCTS, compatible with weight loss and drying.

During the implementation of a KETOGENIC DIET FOR ATHLETES, the phases of fatigue, the episodes of cravings, but also the discomforts should not be minimized.

Listen to your body and seek medical attention if necessary, who will understand and support your approach.