From Gym to Ketones: Achieving Ketosis with Exercise

If you’re on the ketogenic diet, there’s no question that what happens in the kitchen plays a huge role in your success. Those of you who fail to consistently keep your carbohydrate intake below the maximum level will not see the benefits of the diet. Keep an eye on the different signs of ketosis to ensure you’re on the right track.

However, even though you need to watch what you eat, that’s not necessarily the end of the story. While following the keto diet is a great way to boost your metabolism, so is exercising. If you decide to combine them, you could benefit from a synergistic effect that provides spectacular results.

So, what exercises should you consider doing? Below, we outline the forms of exercise most likely to help you achieve your physique and fitness goals on the ketogenic diet.

Fueling Fat Loss: The Top Exercise Strategies to Kickstart Ketosis

Ketosis occurs when your body doesn’t have enough carbs to fuel its energy needs. As a result, it turns to burning your fat stores, producing ketones, molecules that provide an alternative energy source.

Exercise is an excellent way to reach ketosis because it helps deplete your stored carbs quicker, ensuring that your body switches to fat for fuel. Combining exercise with a low-carb diet could speed up the ketosis process and help your body remain in that state for longer.

Now, let’s investigate some of the best exercise methods for this purpose.

Aerobic Exercise

This is steady, moderate-intensity cardio in which your heart remains between 50% and 70% of your maximum heart rate. As a rule of thumb, calculating your max heart rate involves subtracting your age from 220.

For instance, if you’re 40, the relevant number is 180 (220 – 40). Therefore, in this scenario, you want your heart rate to remain between 90 and 126 beats per minute (bpm), within the “aerobic exercise” range.

Examples of aerobic exercise include jogging, brisk walking, cycling at a steady rate, or swimming. This type of exercise gradually depletes your body’s glycogen levels without overwhelming the body. Consider exercising in this fashion 3-5 times a week and keep sessions capped at 30 minutes if you’re a relative novice.

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

At the other end of the scale lies HIIT. As the name suggests, it involves short, intense training for brief periods with your heart rate reaching 80% to 90% of its max rate.

Examples of HIIT involve sprinting, rowing intervals, and bodyweight exercise circuits. HIIT burns through your glycogen stores quickly as it needs immediate energy, which causes your body to burn through its fat stores rapidly. You may also benefit from fat-burning via a boosted metabolism after your workout.

As HIIT is potentially grueling, begin with two sessions of 20-30 minutes weekly. Remember to create an adequate work/rest ratio. For instance, you might pedal as fast as you can on an exercise bike for 15 seconds, rest for 45 seconds, and repeat several times.

Weight Training

For this type of exercise, you must use resistance, such as weights, bands, or your body weight. Examples may include squats, push-ups, pull-ups, deadlifts, lunges, bench presses, and so on.

During strength training, your body uses glycogen for quick energy during muscle contractions. As a result, it burns glycogen stores fairly rapidly and promotes greater fat usage. Also, if you add muscle mass, you’ll benefit from a higher resting metabolic rate, which means better fat-burning at rest.

Consider aiming for 2-4 weight training sessions a week, depending on your goals. If you’re stuck for time, focus on compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, cleans, and presses, keeping sessions in the 30-to-45-minute range.

Fasted Exercise

An interesting option is to try exercising on an empty stomach. The most convenient time to try this is in the morning before breakfast. If you’re unused to fasted exercise, begin with lower-intensity work like light jogging or resistance training.

After fasting overnight, your glycogen stores are low, so your body is far more likely to use fat as its primary energy source. Consequently, fasted workouts are a great way to encourage ketosis and optimize fat burning.

At first, keep sessions below 60 minutes to avoid mental exhaustion and muscle fatigue. Drink water before and after (and during, if possible) your fasted workouts, as water helps support metabolism.

Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS) Cardio

LISS is a fantastic way to meet your daily exercise needs without going overboard. It involves maintaining a steady pace that enables you to converse comfortably. Your heart rate should remain in the 50% to 60% range, which is at the lower end of the aerobic exercise scale.

LISS is a fancy term for gentle aerobic exercise. Examples of LISS include light hiking, walking, and leisurely swimming. This form of exercise requires low energy demands, but because it is performed for a longer time, it still burns fat.

One downside of LISS is that it’s time-consuming. You should aim for sessions of up to an hour. However, it’s ideal in the early stages of a ketogenic diet because intense exercise may prove too excessive at that stage.

A Quick Exercise Plan

Although I’ve mentioned that you should look to complete certain types of exercises a specific number of times a week, you can mix and match for better results. As you develop a better fitness baseline, look to exercise at different intensities to help your body adapt to burning fat as fuel.

By combining the exercises listed on this page, you can become more of a fitness all-rounder. Here’s an example of what a week of exercise might look like:

• Monday: 30 minutes of Aerobic Exercise
• Tuesday: 40 minutes of Strength Training
• Wednesday: 60 minutes of LISS (Casual Walking)
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: 30 minutes of Fasted Aerobic Exercise
• Saturday: 20-25 minutes of HIIT
• Sunday: 30 minutes of Strength Training

Granted, that may seem like a challenging week, but set yourself an attainable target based on your fitness goals.

Conclusion: Exercising for Sustainable Ketosis

Regular exercise can do wonders for your cardiovascular health while enhancing the benefits of a ketogenic lifestyle. A high-fat, low-carb diet lays the foundation for ketosis, while adding exercise helps accelerate the process. As a result, it becomes easier to maintain this metabolic state.

Remember, this is a long-term journey, so there’s no need to rush things. Products such as our Keto Capsules can help you along the way.