Induction and cardio

[forgop]

Perhaps I've just had too few carbs with a noticeable difference in energy, but how well does cardio work in conjunction with atkins? I've considered doing 20 minutes of cardio/day starting my 2nd week of induction.

[Grant]

Re: Induction and cardio

Atkisn works great with cardio. When you do cardio your body generally has to burn up some carbs before it starts burning up fat. I've read that takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. With Atkins youj are already burnng fat and so it takes much less time to get to that point.

[Kettlebell]

Re: Induction and cardio

I'm on day 4 and I made an active decision to wait 10 days until I resume my cardio...I wanted to make sure my body had time to make the changes and stabilized from everything that happens in induction. I know other folks may work out but I wanted to slowly and gradually ease back into my work outs, especially since I can feel alittle fatigued (not alot but even when I do steps in my house, I feel alittle weaker and I do attribute this to the induction changes).

Good luck!

[Kent]

Re: Induction and cardio

The first couple of weeks your body is still acclimating to burning fat for fuel. It is used to fueling your cardio sessions at least initially by an easy fuel of glycogen in your muscles. Now it has to burn itself with a more powerful fuel source (fat), which takes longer to burn. In the end, you should be able to fuel long cardio sessions while doing Atkins -- Dr Stephen Phinney did a study that showed after the first few weeks athletes were able to perform the same on ketogenic diets as high carb diets.

I just finished a half marathon yesterday. If it helps, I did a video on the myth of carbs and carbloading for exercise (http://www.network-admin.net/?p=407). The main point is wait out the period of acclimation before starting any new exercise program.

[SugarFreeSheila]

Re: Induction and cardio

Since I have always been cautious to take in adequate calories and fat, this has served as my sustenance for workouts and an active lifestyle in general. Eliminating starches and sugars from my diet and replacing them with vegetables - and later, low-glycemic fruits - has never gotten in the way of this. Not even while on Induction.

[Kettlebell]

Re: Induction and cardio

Phew...

I hope you guys are right as I am on Day 5 and just going up my stairs is exhausting!

Kent, I am happy you said that the adjustment can be longer as I really want to resume my workouts. I do alot of lifting and martial arts but I am lucky to have enough strength to wash my hair.

I AM ZONKED.

But down 5 pounds.



By the way, I cried when I saw your video. Not sure why as I am not an emotional girl but I found it very profound and it spoke to me in a very internal way. You are a true inspiration.

Sorry for the slight derail...

[Kent]

Re: Induction and cardio

Kettlebell -- the energy will come back. I promise you it will -- just give it time. Thanks for the comments on the video. If it helped at all, I am glad.

[thighsofthunder]

Re: Induction and cardio

How long did it take for your energy to come back?

[Kent]

Re: Induction and cardio

My example being over 400 is a bit different than most as my cardio levels were pretty low to start. Within about 3 weeks, I was back to riding bike and walking 2 miles at very slow pace. I had to build my stamina and endurance from basically nothing during the diet, so I am bad case study to determine when it returned.

[RainboZ]

Re: Induction and cardio

I just wanted to clarify something here....

For every calorie your body uses at rest, approximately 50% comes from fat and 50% comes from carbohydrates. Some studies have found that if you are a fit individual, 70% of that calorie can come from fat. However, we don't burn many calories while resting!!

As you increase your exercise intensity, going from rest to, let's say, walking briskly, you will burn less fat per each single calorie. As you increase the intensity even more by going from walking to running, you burn even less fat and more carbohydrate per each calorie your body uses. So it is true that the higher the intensity of the exercise, the less percentage of fat you burn. But that "truth" can be misleading because less percentage of fat does not automatically mean less total volume of fat burned!

When you run (exercise harder), you breathe in more oxygen than when you just walk. For every liter of oxygen that you consume, you burn approximately five calories. Therefore, at the end of a 30-minute run, you will have consumed a larger volume of oxygen (more calories burned) than if you had walked for the same length of time. High intensity exercise uses a smaller percentage of fat but a larger total number of calories burned.
An exercise physiologist named Owen Anderson, put it this way: a small part (smaller percentage of fat per calorie at a higher intensity) of a big pie (more total calories burned) can be just as big or bigger than a larger piece (bigger percentage of fat per calorie at a lower intensity) of a smaller pie (less total calories burned).

I did get this from a website, as I am not great at explaining things. I do hope it helps to clarify things.....

[Kent]

Re: Induction and cardio

What you write is correct for a normal person exercising, RainboZ. Their body will naturally prefer to use carbohydrates for energy. In a ketogenic diet however the stored glycogen has been already depleted, and therefore whatever the dieter does will be mainly burning fat to fuel their runs, step aerobics, or be it lifting weights. The body doesn't mfg glucose if it doesn't have to in the absence of excess fat/proteins.

[forgop]

Re: Induction and cardio

The big reason I asked the question to begin with was because I just didn't really even see how it would be possible to do any cardio with how weak I felt the first 6 days or so. Sure, I need to improve my sleep so that's part of it for sure.

I took the first step to tracking my activity by getting a pedometer to log my daily walking. I'm going to target doing 15k steps/day, which is quite easy in my job. I will probably start doing 20-30 minutes of cardio every day after work as I know it'll only help. I just didn't know where I'd get the energy from initially. I have leveled off quite a bit since I put some carbs back into my meal plan.

I'd like to hit another 7+ lbs this week and be down to 200 by the end of this month if possible. That would require a 4.5 lb/week average, so it's doable if I hit it hard.

[nturtle]

Re: Induction and cardio

I started my cardio and weightlifting 3 weeks ago and started Atkins 3 days ago. I have noticed less energy for the same exercises I had been doing, but I'm not going to stop because I think my body is getting more benefit from me keeping up the cardio than if I let it go and tried to start again at a later date.

Plus, I'd rather take all my misery at once! new diet, new exercise program....for me beginning both now is working becasue I just go a little easier on myself at the gym - but I'm still at the gym making the lifestyle change a habit. And I know for my body type I have to exercise to see real improvements. I can't diet alone and I can't exercise alone. I need both.

[Elizellen]

Re: Induction and cardio

The big reason I asked the question to begin with was because I just didn't really even see how it would be possible to do any cardio with how weak I felt the first 6 days or so. Sure, I need to improve my sleep so that's part of it for sure. . (snip) . . . I just didn't know where I'd get the energy from initially. I have leveled off quite a bit since I put some carbs back into my meal plan.

I am glad you started to follow the plan properly after your first few days by trying to get nearer to the 20 net carbs by adding your vegetables, forgop, and that doing so has given you more energy

As to whether you can achieve an average of 4.5 pounds lost a week, no-one can guarantee that however hard you work at your eating and exercise!

Your body will decide when it will drop actual scales weight, but if you do add exercise I am sure even if your weight goes up your body size will drop and you will lose inches - and inches lost = fat lost which is what we are all really striving for!!