Energy

Yes Boss

Hi All - I am on a low carb, high protein diet. I also train 5-days a week with a mixture of weight and HIIT training. I need to lose about 4 stone in weight, but have not exercised in years. I am following the above 2-months now, but don't feel a pick up in energy. Any recommendations?

Alf Veedersane

Have you been losing weight?

Yes Boss

Yes - I have lost about a stone in that time. But the energy is poor, which is holding me back from pushing on.

ford2600

I do huge amounts of exercise on a low carb diet, but it's primarily low/medium intensity, but at 40 years old I've been very active all my life. For HIIT you'd probably be better with adding a little clean carbs around your activity.

Keep breakfast low carb and add some carbs either side of the HIIT workouts.

Making a massive change in diet AND exercise/activity is going to take time to figure out best approach for you. If your inactive for a long time, your body is going to complain one way or other as you get fitter

MartyMcFly84

A few complex carbs as mentioned above will give you more energy.

Sweet potatoes / Brown rice, are always good.

Really the Key to weight loss is calorie count so as long as you are in a calorie deficit you will loose weight regardless of what you eat.

What you eat is important but not mitigating factor in weight loss, cutting out food groups almost completely is never a good idea in my opinion, particularly if this is new to you. Reducing or cutting down gradually has less of an impact on energy level in my experience.

Look at many Asian countries, their diet is based on processed white rice and they have the lowest obesity rates in the world.

How much you eat is the primary factor , and what you eat is secondary. The food groups you decided to eat will have a big impact on your energy levels.

Yes Boss

Appreciate the advice. I am off breads, potatoes, beer etc. I am on 4 meals a day consisting of:

In the morning i'm on 3 eggs and green veg and 100g of steak/beef.

Lunch is 200g of chicken/fish and 200g veg and 75g of bastami rice.

The third meal is 200g of chicken and 200g veg.

The final meal is 100g steak/beef, 200g veg and 40g of oats.

I am also on a multitude of vitamins.

I'm just not progressing up with the weight I am lifting due to the lack of energy.

Alf Veedersane

What kind of deficit does your diet give you?

Caliden

If you're on a cut it's difficult to increase strength at the same time.

Some fruit and/or coffee before your workout could help with energy levels, you may need to adjust your other meals in order to have the fruit.

Yes Boss

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

What kind of deficit does your diet give you?

What do you mean?

Yes Boss

Caliden wrote: »

If you're on a cut it's difficult to increase strength at the same time.

Some fruit and/or coffee before your workout could help with energy levels, you may need to adjust your other meals in order to have the fruit.

What fruits would you recommend?

MartyMcFly84

Appreciate the advice. I am off breads, potatoes, beer etc. I am on 4 meals a day consisting of:

In the morning i'm on 3 eggs and green veg and 100g of steak/beef.

Lunch is 200g of chicken/fish and 200g veg and 75g of bastami rice.

The third meal is 200g of chicken and 200g veg.

The final meal is 100g steak/beef, 200g veg and 40g of oats.

I am also on a multitude of vitamins.

I'm just not progressing up with the weight I am lifting due to the lack of energy.

What time are you training/hitting the gym? I would add in some carbs in the meal prior to your work out.

Have you worked out what your calorie maintenance is yet? i.e how many calories you would need to consume to maintain your current weight with current exercise levels?

When you have your calorie maintenance, work out what your calorie consumption is on a daily basis. This will let you know if you are in a deficit (-) or surplus (+). You need to be in a deficit to loose weight. When you know these figures you can jig your diet around to ensure you are keeping your energy levels up while still loosing weight.

Carbs are not bad. Excess carbs are; much like excess anything.

Alf Veedersane

Yes Boss wrote: »

What do you mean?

To lose weight, you eat less than you burn, i.e. a calorie deficit.

If you eat more than you burn, it's a surplus.

It's possible that what you're consuming is a lot below what you burn and you're lacking energy.

Hanley

Has anyone mentioned fat intake yet?

Most good low carb diets have at least the same amount of fat as protein on a kcal per kcal basis, and things like atkins or keto have 25:75 protein:fat.

Also - total calories.

WHIP IT!

Hanley wrote: »

Has anyone mentioned fat intake yet?

Most good low carb diets have at least the same amount of fat as protein on a kcal per kcal basis, and things like atkins or keto have 25:75 protein:fat.

Also - total calories.

What effect does this have on energy levels, H?

Yes Boss

No mention of fat yet. I will ask.

Hanley

WHIP IT! wrote: »

What effect does this have on energy levels, H?

Protein isn't a viable energy source in the body for activity really. It's a very inefficient way of getting glucose together for fuel.

You can use ketones for energy requirements, but not unless you have sufficient fat intake.

Biggest mistake people make on low carb diets is going high protein low fat.

Should be low-mod protein and high fat.

ford2600

Hanley wrote: »

Protein isn't a viable energy source in the body for activity really. It's a very inefficient way of getting glucose together for fuel.

You can use ketones for energy requirements, but not unless you have sufficient fat intake.

Biggest mistake people make on low carb diets is going high protein low fat.

Should be low-mod protein and high fat.

Yep, once you have enough protein for your activity level, no point in eating more.

ketosis is hard to get into, Fat has to be really high, 60-70% ballpark, low to moderate protein(protein too high will stop liver producing ketones) and very low carb. The transition period can be really miserable to for some.

It has it's uses at the extreme end of ultra endurance and some memory champions use it! other than that not really much use to your ordinary gym goer.

If ones goal is to run more on fat than glucose, occasional (once a week or so) fasted early morning training is much more convenient and doesn't require you to eat like a lunatic. It will force an adaption pretty quick

OP other than diet are you resting enough? From zero to 5 workouts a week is some change? How many HIIT sessions are you doing? Are you giving muscles adequate time/protein/sleep to recover?

Yes Boss

ford2600 wrote: »

Yep, once you have enough protein for your activity level, no point in eating more.

ketosis is hard to get into, Fat has to be really high, 60-70% ballpark, low to moderate protein(protein too high will stop liver producing ketones) and very low carb. The transition period can be really miserable to for some.

It has it's uses at the extreme end of ultra endurance and some memory champions use it! other than that not really much use to your ordinary gym goer.

If ones goal is to run more on fat than glucose, occasional (once a week or so) fasted early morning training is much more convenient and doesn't require you to eat like a lunatic. It will force an adaption pretty quick

OP other than diet are you resting enough? From zero to 5 workouts a week is some change? How many HIIT sessions are you doing? Are you giving muscles adequate time/protein/sleep to recover?

HIIT is once a week. The other days I work on particular areas i.e. shoulders and chest, legs, arm etc. I am sleeping better than I have done in years (approx 7-hours) but wake up tired.

MaxPower89

My 2c:

Start using an app to record your meals, thus you know your macros and cal intake exactly. I use myfitnesspro, and I find it excellent.

Up the sleep to 8 hours if possible.

Do you need the vit supplements? A few portions of fruit and veg should get you all you need.

You could be running at a large cal deficit, leaving you tired. You want this to be your new way of eating long term, not torture and something you end up hating.

Maybe a pre workout espreso/supplement might work to get pumped up.

ford2600

Have you any salt in your diet?

Mellor

You've been losing 2lbs a week on average. It's hardly surprising you don't hand bundles of spare energy. You are using it all. You don't need to "push on", cuurent rate of weigh loss if fine.

Looking at your deit, I don't think a lack of carbs is the issue. There's maybe 90g of carbs in the rice and oats, and the 4 serves of veg will increase that further - how much depends on the exact vegetables. Pron 120-150g total.
Protein looks fine too 600g of meat + 3 eggs is going to be 150g.

If anything that diet is more low fat, than low carb.
Add more fat and you'll feel better I'd guess.