Atkins Diet & Exercise: Endurance Athletes & Electrolytes
June 12, 2010 by Jim Made
Filed under Atkins Diet
In this third video of my exercise series, I detail one of the more vital questions to those who exercise on the Atkins Diet — how to stay hydrated while exercise. The simple answer is drink water, but on a hot day while sweating that is not always the best answer as one loses key minerals, like Sodium, Potassium, and other electrolytes. Non-low carbers have it simple as they can turn to any readily available Electrolyte replacement drink, like Gatorade or Powerade. Even those that recognize the need for protein like Accelerade, combine with 4x as much carbohydrates than protein. Here is the home-made low carb Gatorade recipe: Artificial Sweetener equivalent of 10 tbs. sugar (5/8 cups or 120 grams) 3/4ths tsp Morton Lite salt (4.2 grams) 1 package of unsweetened Koolade mix for flavor 2 liters Water Commercial Low Carb Electrolyte Replacements: Tablets: Hammer Endurolytes – www.e-caps.com Succeed! S Caps – www.succeedscaps.com Drinks Ultima Replenisher rcm.amazon.com Ultima Replenisher is a natural sports drink with zero sugar. It contains a full complement of electrolytes, not just a ton of sodium. Ultima also contains complex carbs for energy, water-soluble vitamins and vitamin enhancers for day-to-day health maintenance, and antioxidants to protect body systems from free radicals (toxins). Ultima uses no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners. Sweetened with Stevia. Emergen-C Lite by Alacer rcm.amazon.com This tasty natural citrus flavored drink boasts eight …
@bowulf Thanks Kent, your vids are so helpful you’re my hero! lol
@klarkratu It’s likely the ketones in your body being extruded in your sweat. It’s a temporary side effect of being in ketosis. It’s not your body burning its muscle, but burning stout for fuel. It’s the same reason one can get temporarily a metallic taste on your tongue when one starts Atkins.
Hi Kent, When I exercise my sweat smells like ammonia, someone said it’s because my body is burning protein (muscle!) it can’t be because I weight train and my strength and muscle gain have gone up. What do you reckon? Thanks
@ClydeRowing Well being that I have finished in upper 25% of finishers in major marathons and half marathons for a guy who only picked up running in the last 3 years, I believe I disproven that you *have* to eat carbs to train or to compete. Which “crucial food group” am I excluding? I eat from all of them as opposed to the vegans.
Fact is endurance athletes have long realized that relying on on carbohydrates to fuel your runs or endurance leads to a wall. I just chose to jump it years ago.
Carbohydrate intake is really neccessary for training and competition. Endurance athletes should have a diet of 60-70% carbohydrates. A daily intake of between 8 and 10grammes of carbs per kg of bodyweight is what most exercise physioligists would recomend. You can find top athletes who are vegetarians and maybe even vegans but I would be surprised indeed to find someone achieving high level success by excluding such a crucial food group.
No, it’s the bill or mail holder… Unfortunately, it’s sometimes fuller than it should be.
How long have you been on the diet? It typically takes about 4-6 weeks before the ability to exercise returns to the previous forms. Check out my other two exercise videos for why that is.
Weight training and hard cardio will always break down muscles (cause micro-tears), but as long as your diet has plenty of protein, it should be able to repair itself.
Is that a “Connect 4″ on your desk? Anyway, not vital………
I’ve started the low carb diet. I am about 20 lbs overweight. I typically take in about 30 carbs a day and I run about 1.5 to 2.0 miles a day, as well as weight training. I’ve noticed a significant drop in my ability to lift weights and a slight dropoff in my running endurance. Should I be worried that my muscle’s are breaking down?
Read the Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution book (2002) or start watching my videos. It’s more than just eat beneath 20g of carbs per day. It is about eating the right ones according to the rules, which can be found in my first few videos, including the acceptable foods list for Induction.
There is no way to burn stout from just specifically your chest, Reducing your overall stout through a low carb approach will eliminate that extra stout on your chest in time. It is just a matter of eating right.
I would question any nutritionist that would say the body would rather cannibalize itself than be fueled by stout, a rich fuel source. I have ran multiple marathons on 30-40g net carbs per day, and have never lost strength due to the diet. My bench press and dead lift max has only increased since starting the diet.
So my small answer is no, and unless you go extremely low stout and low carb at the same time, you should have no problem either.
First thank you for the videos. I lost 8 pounds last month on a low carb diet and the nutritionist tells me that I’m 38% stout and that if I exercise w/o enough carbohydrates I am just burning my muscle…In your experience did you have any issues with losing muscle?? She freaked me out so terrible I increased my carbs and stopped losing weight. I can’t afford to LOSE any muscle!
No, you simply energy (ATP molecules) to exercise or do work, and that energy can be metabolized out of stout or glucose. On a ketogenic diet, you are primarily burning stout for fuel.
hey its me again about the electrolyte replacement i know you dont much replacing of the electrolytes but what about sugar do we need glucose during exercise
Really for a 3 mile run as long as you drink water and normal diet before hand and after, you should be fine. Electrolytes really don’t come into with a 3 mile sprint type race. If it helps mentally to have something beforehand to set the “attitude,” but I don’t believe your body needs anything beforehand.
After you can certainly use some, and the same recommendations would be as those listed in this video…
whats the best energy drink for cross country 3mile run so i can keep hydrated longer and have more endurance with out getting tired
Thanks for the info Bowulf, keep up the excellent work…
You are fine. You are getting the electrolytes in the food you eat. I am saying you can workout everyday without needing any sports drink unless you perhaps workout longer than 2 hours at a single time. Longer than 2 hours you may need to supplement the food and replace them mid-exercise.
The number of days in a row of exercise doesn’t matter in terms of electrolytes as long as you are eating appropriately like Atkins. It is the length of exercise in a single day that matters.
but you dont know i been doing this 3 weeks straight like i said sweating heavliy without replacing those electrolytes or drinking any sports drinks nothing but water
You can deifnitely exercise every day. I wouldn’t beat or work hard the same muscle groups every day. Even I take 2-3 days off from running each week as I let the muscles recover. You can but do varying cardio every day. You should have simple days and hard days though to see improvements.
As for water vs. sports drink, I need to run or workout longer than 1.5 to 2 hours before needing electrolyte replacement. Note: mine are sugar free.
hey is it terrible to exersise everday and sweat heavy and drinking just alot of water is that terrible without taking any sports drink
Powerade Zero, Replenish — drink mix, and / or Optima Replenisher. The Powerade can be found at any grocery store, and the optima can be found at netrition and amazon or any local running store.
What were the names of the drinks you recommend? I am trying to find them online. I was also thinking about making my own with water, lemon juice,a pinch of salt and some splenda.
I personally thought it was the electrolyte depletion in myself. I simply drank Powerade Zero and felt way better in my runs. The Optima says it has complex carbs(4g per servings) in it, but I tend to reckon they serve more just bulking agents.
An alternative simple carb strategy if you are indeed just bottoming out rather than beans, you could try something like banana – simple digest fructose without rush of sucrose.
As for caffeine, I partake before race but have never tried during.
i knew i had seen this! i have the optima so am cool with the electrolytes, but wonder about the “need” for the caffiene/simple sugars? i did a long run once w/o any sugars and felt really sick near the end..so am wondering if not enough electrolytes or not enough “carbs”? dont want another dumping episode in november
All juices have a significant part of fructose (sugar) in much higher content than even the raw fruit. If you are following a low carb diet, juices should typically be avoided. If you can tolerate fruit and are at the rung which allows them, I would encourage you to eat the actual fruit instead.