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Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking


Postby AdamR » Wed May 18, 2022 12:44 pm

I've tried a Keto / low carb - high fat diet before with good success but I wasn't doing much exercise at the time

I'm going to try this again to shift some excess weight but i'm also spending 6-8 hrs a day, 2-3 times a week walking hills this time.

Before trying keto I'd just have a couple of cheese & ham rolls & maybe a flapjack or haribo. However, on keto I can't live off just pepperami, cheese & smoked sausage when i'm walking, as tasty as those are. (I don't like jerky or biltong).

Does anyone else follow this diet & do lots of walking? What do you eat?
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby jupe1407 » Wed May 18, 2022 2:02 pm

Each to their own but I wouldn't fancy trying a challenging walk on any sort of sustained reduction on food intake. Basically on a day when I'm walking, I'll maybe take an extra wrap or protein snack or two.

On wider note, I've tried various diets previously with mixed success. Instead of trying 8 weeks plans and all that sort of baws, I instead modified what i was eating regularly to still be tasty and filling but have a slightly higher protein/lower carb content. Basically on a normal day i'll consume between 1800-2000kcals, on a big walk I'll eat an extra 500 or so.

TBH If you're planning on doing that much walking on a regular basis and eat even relatively healthily, the weight will fall off.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby simon-b » Wed May 18, 2022 2:36 pm

Hi Adam.
I've never tried anything like keto or paleo myself, and like Jupe says, generally keep the weight off through activity. But I have suffered gastrointestinal issues, which caused me to research nutrition more, and both keto and paleo ideas do look interesting. If you Google them, you will find sports keto and sports paleo diets. These are generally described as being better for endurance than explosive activities, so possibly worth considering for hill walks. But probably a good idea to take along some high carb emergency back up as well, just in case of accident or misadventure, especially where there could be a hypothermia risk.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby jmarkb » Wed May 18, 2022 3:05 pm

simon-b wrote:But probably a good idea to take along some high carb emergency back up as well, just in case of accident or misadventure, especially where there could be a hypothermia risk.


I think that is sound advice. I was once on a walking holiday where there was someone with not much body fat and on a paleo diet who became hypothermic very quickly in what were not at all extreme conditions (around freezing, bit of wet snow falling, moderate breeze).
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby AdamR » Wed May 18, 2022 3:25 pm

jupe1407 wrote:Each to their own but I wouldn't fancy trying a challenging walk on any sort of sustained reduction on food intake. Basically on a day when I'm walking, I'll maybe take an extra wrap or protein snack or two.

On wider note, I've tried various diets previously with mixed success. Instead of trying 8 weeks plans and all that sort of baws, I instead modified what i was eating regularly to still be tasty and filling but have a slightly higher protein/lower carb content. Basically on a normal day i'll consume between 1800-2000kcals, on a big walk I'll eat an extra 500 or so.

TBH If you're planning on doing that much walking on a regular basis and eat even relatively healthily, the weight will fall off.

Thanks for the reply

I'm not too concerned about the calorie intake its more the variety of food i'm looking into. I dropped 15kg following keto over a 4 month period a few years ago but had severe gout as a result of all the purines in the food i was eating.

In the years since I've put more than the 15kgs back on mainly due to my sedentary work & love of beer. My walking at the weekends offsets the exercise i don't do during the week & also stops me drinking :D
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby jupe1407 » Wed May 18, 2022 4:13 pm

AdamR wrote:My walking at the weekends offsets the exercise i don't do during the week & also stops me drinking :D


Excellent strategy. One hillwalk with a brutal hangover was enough to put me off it for years :lol:

I found making 2-3 moderate changes I could sustain to my every day eating habits were enough to effect significant change. I never had the willpower to stick to a diet as such :lol:
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby AyrshireAlps » Wed May 18, 2022 5:21 pm

That 'diet' sounds awful.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby AdamR » Wed May 18, 2022 5:57 pm

AyrshireAlps wrote:That 'diet' sounds awful.


It's surprisingly easy to do, cooking 3 fresh meals a day including loads of veg. Options for 'packed lunches' in the hills are limited though.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby WeeHills » Thu May 19, 2022 7:44 am

What about eggs, fish, nuts? For day trips could you not take a tub of tuna/salmon/egg salad and nuts for snacks?
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby NickyRannoch » Thu May 19, 2022 12:06 pm

I also did Keto and developed gout. I think its fine for a crash diet but no way to live. The reason I hillwalk is to allow myself pizza, chips and beer.

Im now about two stone lighter than i was 2 years ago and iswear by chia seeds - in smoothies, on porridge, on banana and toast, even in cakes.

However, onto hillwalking. I'm maybe unusual but I can't bear the thought of a "meal" on the hills and the idea of a hunk of useless carbs like bread and pasta lying like a boulder in my stomach. They take huge amounts of energy to digest, energy you won't see the benefit of for hours, energy competing with your thighs and lungs as you plod along.

The things you say you cant live off on the hills are exactly what i live off. Nuts, fruit, pepperami, cheese, tangfastic and flapjacks taken little and often with copius amounts of water. This has sustained me on 12 hour walks perfectly well and I'm 19 stone with a kebab addiction.

The idea of having some emergency dense quick release carbs is a very good one though.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby AyrshireAlps » Thu May 19, 2022 12:53 pm

It's surprisingly easy to do, cooking 3 fresh meals a day including loads of veg. Options for 'packed lunches' in the hills are limited though.


I never said it looked hard, I said it looked awful, carbs are not the evil enemy some people think they are.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby Sethy2010 » Sat May 21, 2022 9:11 pm

This is interesting and something I've been trying for a while now. Last year I got myself into a ketogenic state and did a 4 day trek in The Alps. I found that my energy levels were very stable and I didn't feel the need to stop and eat really. It's not easy to find food for hiking that doesn't contain a very high carb content so I get by with cheeses and nuts etc. That said, I hardly eat on day walks. I think taking loads of food on walks is more psychological really.

In terms of other keto food, there is a company in Neath that sells keto stuff. I'm going to order some 'keto bricks' and see whether they're any good...
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby TheRealLurlock » Sun May 22, 2022 7:56 am

Sethy2010 wrote:I think taking loads of food on walks is more psychological really.

This is a strange and potentially dangerous notion. Can you survive a multi-day walk with very little food? Probably, provided nothing else goes badly wrong. Is it wise to begin such a walk without a carrying a calorie surplus with you for each day? No, it isn't. If you are badly injured in a remote place or are benighted by bad weather, you would be better off relying on food rather than adrenaline to get yourself out of the situation. Physical weakness brought on by insufficient food might make the difference between getting injured or not in the first place. And if you're going out in the cold, do you think it's sensible not to carry more hot meals than you think you'll need?

I don't know what a multi-day walk in ketosis is like because I have never tried a ketogenic diet. But let's not pretend that it isn't a highly unusual situation and that you can draw any conclusions from it which apply to the ordinary hillwalker.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby Sethy2010 » Sun May 22, 2022 10:50 am

Hi TheRealLurlock.

Many thanks for your thoughts. To clarify: I wouldn't go on a multi day hike with no food. Simply less food and things that are not carb based e.g. cheeses and nuts etc. I personally (although each to their own) found my energy levels were much more stable.

In terms of day walks, of course I take food with me. It would be foolish not to. However, I find based upon my personal experience that I pretty much never eat what I carry. That is all. I keep an emergency supply of course.

Each to their own. Take what you wish with you and in what quantity be it fat, carbs or other. This is my personal choice and experience. Have a read about ketosis and I'll happily pick this up with you if you like.

All the best.
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Re: Keto / low carb - high fat diet & walking

Postby malrc » Mon May 23, 2022 10:59 am

Absolutely no reason why a keto diet can't be followed whilst hiking, multi-day or otherwise, as long as you are already reasonably well adapted for fat burning. Many elite ultrarunners follow low carb diets without apparent performance penalties
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