Keto made easy

Dosing Carbs for Hard Workouts on Keto: The Unedited Original

2017-08-24

This is the uncut recording behind my YouTube video Dosing carbs for hard workouts and competition, uploaded the same day. The content is the same, sign-off included. The original just has about 20 seconds of dead air before I start talking. The full write-up, including why the gram amounts here are smaller than the ones I gave three weeks earlier, is on the YouTube post. This page adds what came after.

In this recording

Then vs now: from "probably skip it" to metabolic flexibility

In 2017 my answer was mostly "you probably don't need it". A year later I was talking about a different kind of athlete. In a September 2018 live I described a fighter who had recently gone keto and was being told that keto and competition don't mix. My view by then was that the warnings about carb bloat and missing glycogen were fair, but that someone who is fat adapted could use that flexibility to carb load right before a fight, have glycogen on board, and still be metabolically flexible (live GKYD4230).

That's a real shift. In 2017, carbs around training were a small dose you might need. By 2018 they were a tool a keto-adapted athlete could use on purpose. In the same 2018 live I also said exogenous ketones have a place for some performance athletes. In 2017 I'd said I don't recommend them and didn't think they were necessary (video cTGYIFOTPl8). That was about beginners and weight loss; the 2018 comment was about competition.

Two months later I was still training on keto: in a November 2018 live I mentioned coming straight from kickboxing and sparring, hungry (live GBSN3916).

What stayed the same is the order of questions. First, does the workout need explosive power? Second, would a little less punch actually cost you anything? Only then, how many grams and when.

What the evidence pages add

None of the evidence pages has a trial of carb timing on a ketogenic diet, so the windows and grams here are my 2017 starting experiment, not a checked protocol. What the pages do cover is protein, which matters more for most people training on keto. The International Society of Sports Nutrition puts most exercising people at 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg of body weight a day, in 20 to 40 g doses every three to four hours (ISSN 2017). Across 49 trials, protein supplements added to resistance-training gains in fat-free mass and strength, levelling off around 1.6 g/kg a day (Morton 2018).

If you take insulin or other medication that lowers blood sugar, adding or removing carbs around exercise changes your risk of going low. Plan that with your doctor.

Key points