Low Carb and Workouts

Hi everyone,

So I am working out pretty hard at the gym these days. I am also trying to eat pretty low carb. My question is, people always say to eat carbs to fuel a workout. Is this true for us? What do you eat pre workout? I am trying to lose regain and am 4 years out.

I think carbs are important to fuel your body for everything, not just working out. I work out 4x/week with a trainer, and jog/cardio 4-5x/week. When I started five months ago, I was at about 700-800 calories and eating mainly protein. But with working out, I was starving and exhausted. I now am on a 1200 calorie plan, with all snacks and meals portioned out by protein, fat and carbs. My Nut made it for me. I struggled for a while with choosing the "right" carbs, not wanting to eat carbs at all because I was afraid of weight gain, and not know how much is the right amount. But I consulted with my Nutritionist and she helped a lot. Now I find that for me, making each snack and meal as close to correct proportions as possible has helped a lot. I've read a lot about how fat, protein and carbs work together so take strides to make each meal/snack correct.

So I do not eat anything special before or after workouts. I eat a "correct" snack about an hour and a half prior to working out, then eat a normal dinner. Sometimes I grab a banana from the basket at the training studio and eat half of it on the way home. Just make sure you leave at least an hour between eating and working out, or you could get sick.

There's a lot of literature out there about what to eat before and after working out. I was getting confused and trying to fit what I was learning into the WLS way of eating. I finally gave up and now just follow the food plan my nut gave me (she knows how much I am working out). If I've worked out more than usual, or am feeling weak or like I am not able to give it my all for all or most of a workout for a few days, I'll eat a little more. On days I don't work out at all, I eat a little less. Seems to be working for me for now: I have enough energy to stay focused thru my workouts, and am still losing a pound or two a week. I am almost at goal though, so it seems that every morsel counts. I've been eating this way for about two months now. When I run a 5k or go hiking, I will bring a protein bar or something. But on a regular daily basis, I am just sticking to my 1200-calorie routine.

BTW my wife, who had RNY two weeks after I did (8 months ago), started working with the trainer a month ago. She is still at ~ 800 calories and is finding that this is good for her right now. She is about 50 pounds heavier than I am. I don't know if eventually she'll need to up her calories/carbs to fuel her body, but I'm guessing she will. She still focuses on protein. It seemed to me that at a certain point, I couldn't just eat whatever I wanted and work out a lot and lose a lot of weight....eventually it got to a point where I had to look hard at exactly what I was eating, and fiddle around to find the right balance for me.

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Here are example of snacks I eat on a regular daily basis (15g Carbs/7-14g Protein):

1/3C Hummus + 1C snap peas or 1C carrot sticks or 1 portion of whole grain crackers

1 oz cheese + 1 small apple or 1/2 pear

3 oz plain greek yogurt + 1/2C blueberries or 1C strawberries

1/4 Boboli pizza shell + 1 oz low-fat feta or mozz cheese

6 whole grain crackers + 1 TB peanut butter

1/2 banana + 1 TB Peanut Butter

6 whole grain crackers + 1 oz low fat string cheese

etc etc

I cut down on the fruit on non-workout days, I found the sugar is too much and my weight loss stalls.

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Sorry I don't have a pat answer, but hope this helps in some way. Let us know how it goes for you.

I am very active around the farm and do 3-4 one hour classes a week, Zumba and muscle pump which is a weight class to music, moving pretty fast so it is strenght and cardio.  I have not added carbs to the plan and haven't felt the need to.  I still eat 4 meals a day and 4 protein suppliments.  My protein total is usually around 150 and I seem to need that to keep my level up.  My carbs come from cheese, nuts and veggies.  Occasionally I will have berries and have started using carbquick baking mix to make rolls.  It works for me.  I do take a protein drink to the gym to hydrate with during and after exercise and if dinner isn't going to be pretty quick, maybe some nuts.

I think I would stay low carb until goal and then add carbs carefully. Nothing wrong with leafy greens now, but things like fruit and grains, not until goal.

--gina

Agree with Gina. I'm a trainer, not a nutritionist, but I have some background here.

Everything depends on your goals. If your goal is to win a race, yes, adequate carb stores, immediately available, increase performance for short periods of high intensity exercise.

If your goal is weight loss, low carb is the way to go. The first 2 weeks are rough. Your body uses carbs first and when they aren't available, will use other fuel sources- hopefully fat. This is why adequate protein consumption is important. Preserve muscle and butn fat. Yes, exercise is a little more difficult this way but you'll burn more fat.

If you are doing weights, you may want to incorporate creatine supplement in small doses which will allow muscles to retain water and power during carb depletion, but this makes hydration extremely important. You'll feel a little fluffy if you use it

Ps- continue to eat a variety of healthy green vegetables- spinach, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, etc. For carb craving, try cauliflower rice or mashed potatoes.

Making cauliflower rice and adding grilled chicken and buffalo sauce is super yum!

I have recently increased my exercise intensity.  i go to the gym at 545 am,so I can manage to drink a glass of milk on my way out the door, but that is about itl   I drink a liter of water while I am working out, so i can't really eat anything, as then I would have to wait half an hour and wouldn't get those fluids in.  So far I am tolerating the workouts fine, but  in the late afternoon I feel like I am crashing a bit.  So I have been debating in my mind what to do with my carb levels.  I know my nut wants my calories up, but still only able to fit only 900ish in. i am able to eat some fruit and dairy without triggering anything and still keep losing. but i am concerned about bonking in the afternoon   

I ate more carbs than a typical WLSer but way less than the average person particularly the average endurance athlete.

What I do is time my carbs around my workouts. So what carbs I do eat tend to be focused around workouts and not spread around the day.

For example, I have 100-200 calories within 2 hours before a heavy workout that is carb-based and then 100-200 calories after the workout that is protein-based and, if the exercise is going to go for 2 hours or more, I also have carb-based snacks during it of around 200 calories per hour.

But the rest of the time I eat low carb.

So when some of you say you are eating "low carb", what exactly does that mean? None at all? Or a limited amount? How much? I'm assuming you mean complex carbs, right?