What Should I Eat If My Body Is Sore And Tired After Exercise
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What Should I Eat If My Body Is Sore And Tired After Exercise?

People who haven’t exercise in a long time may be so tired from a strenuous workout that their whole body is sore for a week, making it easy to hate exercising. People on a long-term ketogenic diet can effectively utilize fat stores, adapt to fat as fuel, maintain normal muscle glycogen levels, improve energy utilization, produce less lactic acid, and have faster muscle recovery.

In October 2018, a study on mice was published in Nutrients that examined the effects of an 8-week ketogenic diet (KD), on protection against muscle and organ damage after exercise, and on recovery from fatigue.

The study randomized all mice into 4 groups for 8 weeks: daily diet group (control): consisted of daily diet + sedentary and daily diet + exercise ketogenic diet group (KD): consisted of ketogenic diet (KD) + sedentary and ketogenic diet (KD) + exercise.

  • Daily diet group (7% fat, 17.8% protein, and 64.3% carbohydrates).
  • Ketogenic diet group (nutrient ratio: 76.1% fat, 8.9% protein, and 3.5% carbohydrate).

The mice were then measured for endurance, field exercise performance, lactate levels, plasma, and oxidative stress.

field exercise performance, lactate levels, plasma, and oxidative stress

Results found:

→ Ketogenic mice, eat more, lose more weight

After 8 weeks, mice in the ketogenic diet group consumed more calories but lost more weight.

→ After 24 hours of activity, ketogenic mice recovered faster

At the end of the field trial, both groups of mice were exhausted, but 24 hours later, the mice on the ketogenic diet showed an accelerated recovery phase, walking around more frequently.

After the exhaustive exercise, the control mice had a large accumulation of lactic acid in the plantar muscles. Still, in the ketogenic (KD) mice, there was no large accumulation of lactic acid. In addition, mice in the KD group had a significantly lower baseline of lactate in plasma compared with controls.

Exercise-induced fatigue is associated with the accumulation of lactate and ammonia. Another metabolite that accumulates during exercise is blood ammonia, which may cross the blood-brain barrier to cause central fatigue.

The researchers explain: We also observed a reduction in blood ammonia in the ketogenic diet group, and low blood ammonia levels may reduce fatigue in the brain, thereby accelerating recovery from fatigue.

ketogenic mice recovered faster

→ In Ketogenic mice, no liver damage was observed

This shows that the ketogenic diet has a preventive-protective effect against forceful exercise-induced liver injury. These results suggest that the ketogenic diet may be a good choice for use as a fatigue prevention or muscle recovery diet for endurance athletes.

Ketogenic mice, no liver damage was observed

→ Ketone bodies increase mitochondrial respiration in muscle cells

In 2018, another study in mice also showed that ketone bodies can increase mitochondrial respiration in muscle cells without ATP consumption, less oxidative stress, and can increase cellular activity.

With ketogenesis, muscle soreness is reduced because there is less inflammation and lactic acid, and muscles recover faster. Of course, this is only an experiment on mice and can’t be fully applied to humans, so what would be the same performance in humans?

Experiments With Athletes, Consistent Performance

Experiments With Athletes, Consistent Performance

→ People on ketogenic diets have significantly lower post-workout lactate concentrations

A 2016 study published in Cell Metabolism, this one conducted 5 separate studies on 39 endurance athletes and found that:

Nutritional ketogenesis reduced muscle glycolysis, with lactate concentrations significantly lower (by 50%) 30 minutes after the start of exercise. Whereas glycogen depletion, lactate accumulation, and oxidative stress are considered to be the main factors causing exercise fatigue.

People on ketogenic diets have significantly lower post-workout lactate concentrations

→ Ultra-endurance athletes show adaptations to fat energy supply after long-term ketogenic

A study by Ohio University professor Dr. Jeff Volek was published in Metabolism in 2016.

The study was conducted on endurance athletes, with a control group on a traditional high-carb diet (carbs:protein: fat = 59:14:25) and another group adhering to a low-carb diet for 9-30 months (carbs:protein: fat = 10:19:70).

The ketogenic diet group had a diet with 5 percent carbohydrates, while the control group had a diet with 50 percent carbohydrates.

The study found that after at least 6 months on the ketogenic diet, the endurance athletes showed a higher rate of fat oxidation and a lower rate of carbohydrate oxidation during exercise. The study also found that after exercise, the ketogenic diet group had the same muscle glycogen levels and the same recovery rate as the control group.

This study suggests that adapting to a low-carb ketogenic diet causes the body to consume fat for energy during workouts, which seems to be an inexhaustible storehouse of energy, as well as conserving muscle glycogen, which is lost less and requires fewer carbohydrates.

However, it can take months to truly adapt to a low-carb diet, so athletic performance and recovery may suffer in the short term.

Ultra-endurance athletes show adaptations to fat energy supply after long-term ketogenic

→ Ketogenic diets have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that contribute to muscle health

In February 2019, a study found that over time, the body adapts to fat burning, utilizing fat as its primary fuel and that adapting to ketones improves athletic performance by providing a steady and rapid supply of energy.

And because the ketogenic diet has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, it contributes to muscle health, thereby preventing exercise-induced fatigue and injury.

U.S. Professional Soccer Team, Faster Muscle Recovery After Ketogenic

Steve Tashjian, the coach of the Columbus Crew soccer club, looked at the Twitter feed of Tim Noakes (a kinesiologist who was previously pro-high-carb and then pro-low-carb) and realized that it is possible to go about improving the performance of your players through dietary changes.

U.S. Professional Soccer Team, Faster Muscle Recovery After Ketogenic

Starting in 2015, he put them on a low-carb, high-fat diet, and over 80% of the athletes did it on the team, at home, and outside.

After 4 years of low-carb diets and tracking of their athletic data, it was found that their athletic performance ability and recovery had improved amazingly:

  • Athletic performance was greatly improved, and the distance run at high speed by the players, went up year after year.
  • There was no regression in the performance of the older athletes. In 2014, one of the veterans was 29 years old, and then began the ketogenic diet, according to the theory, 30 years old is already a veteran, running distance will become shorter and shorter, but, he did not regress, running distance and even have improved.
  • In 2015, the whole team in the whole league running distance ranked first.
  • The athlete’s injury record is greatly reduced. Before there was a low carbon ketogenic diet, in 2014, the injury rate was as high as 11%, in 2015, the injury rate was immediately reduced to 3.8%, and every year after that, the injury rate was lower than before.
  • Athletes Recover Faster. They record the muscle soreness of their players every day, and since 2014, they have had less and less time of soreness, which means that the body recovers faster and faster after exercise. This is mainly because a low-carb diet will greatly reduce the inflammatory index and the body recovers faster.

This team’s low-carb diet study can prove to us that after going low-carb, athletic performance does not decrease, but may instead increase, with fewer injuries and faster muscle recovery.

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