If you want to get fit and healthy, you have to make sure that you eat healthy foods and engage in strenuous physical exercises. A combination that we will discuss today is based on the keto diet and CrossFit. Both these strategies help lose a significant amount of body weight and improve overall health by lowering the risk of certain chronic health conditions, such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease.
That being said, combining the keto diet and CrossFit is not without challenges. For instance, both these strategies demand high-level commitment. You may even wonder if sticking to this hard option is fruitful in the first place.
In this article, we will first describe some pros and cons of simultaneously deploying the keto diet and CrossFit. Then, we will discuss how to get started with this fitness regimen.
What is a Keto Diet?
A ketogenic diet, or simply the keto diet, is a nutritional plan centered on supplying high amounts of healthy fats, a medium amount of protein, and fewer carbs to the body every day, as explained here.
People on a keto diet are generally recommended to maintain their daily food intake consisting of:
- 70% healthy fats
- 20-25% protein
- Less than 10% carbohydrates
The less-dense carbs they eat usually come from food sources like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, kale, and asparagus.
The sole purpose of following this tough diet plan is to induce ketosis, a body state during which weight loss becomes more effortless.
What is Ketosis?
Ketosis achieved through nutrition is a body state characterized by glucose depletion. [1]
According to research, an average person has 100-400 grams of glucose stored in their muscles at any given time. This glucose gets used up during strenuous body movements, but it gets replenished with carb intake.
Now, ketosis happens after you deprive your body of carbs for a long time. The keto diet is one of the deliberated measures to lower the carbs level in the body. When the carbs levels are down, your brain signals the liver to produce ketones. These ketones enable your body to use fat as a source of energy instead of carbs and glucose. This explains why so many people manage to get rid of extra pounds with the help of the keto diet.
Generally, you will need to maintain 20-50 grams of daily carb intake if you want to start ketosis in your body. Eating more carbs will prevent ketosis from starting.
Moreover, it may take 3-10 days to induce ketosis. A home ketone monitor may help you check if your body has entered ketosis. Some signs that suggest the initiation of ketosis include:
- Reduced hunger
- A significant boost in energy
- Sweet or metallic-smelling breath
Now, let’s discuss how you can combine the keto diet with CrossFit.
Ketogenic Diet and CrossFit
Do you want to lose a lot of weight? Consider running the keto diet and CrossFit routine simultaneously. You will undoubtedly notice a significant difference in your body weight.
CrossFit is a high-intensity training program that accelerates your metabolism incredibly. It gets the maximum ability to reduce body weight when combined with a tough diet routine like keto.
That being said, this combination may not work well for all individuals. Here is a brief overview of the pros and cons of simultaneously sticking to keto and CrossFit.
Pros
- Your weight loss will acquire pace.
- You will have reduced hunger and an overall well-regulated appetite.
- You won’t need to count your calories.
- You will have improved sensitivity to insulin.
- This combination is a fulfilling solution for individuals who want to inject some more vigor into their weight loss and fitness journey.
Cons
- With a low level of carbohydrates, your body will get fatigued.
- You will notice a sharp decline in overall body strength, especially during the start.
- There won’t be too many food options available.
- You may have to sacrifice your lifestyle: takeaways and eating outside.
- Meal planning may become an intense procedure.
Planning Meals with the Keto Diet
Fortunately, there are some effective ways to plan your keto meals if you want to engage in a CrossFit exercise program. The primary purpose of developing a meal plan is to ensure you do not run short on essential nutrients. Remember, you will still need a good supply of minerals, vitamins, and proteins to support your daily workout.
Having that said, a significant drawback of going with the keto diet is cost. Since you will need only high-quality nutrients, the cost of each meal may go as high as $15. However, you can plan and prepare your keto meals at home. Be sure to check the list of foods you can eat.
Macros for the Keto Diet
Another way to make the keto-CrossFit combination work for you is to count macronutrients. This strategy aims to count calories and macros to ensure that you get significant energy support for your workouts.
Since a keto diet plan involves eating healthy fats and proteins, you won’t be able to overeat. In fact, you may end up under-eating in some cases.
Can you Exercise While Being on the Keto Diet?
You can perform your workouts with keto, but you may have to reduce the workout intensity when your body adapts to ketosis. Some side effects of switching to the keto diet include:
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Dehydration
- Headache
- Occasional diarrhea
These symptoms, when occurring as side effects of the keto diet, are usually referred to as keto flu symptoms. The best way to prevent these symptoms from becoming too overwhelming is to increase your water intake.
There are mainly two approaches to planning your keto diet when you have to be on a CrossFit fitness regimen:
Cyclical Keto Diet and CrossFit
If your body weight is under control, and you want to focus more on your health, you can go with a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD). This diet plan typically involves athletes following keto diet protocols for three days a week followed by one day of break. On this day, they eat a little more carbohydrates than usual to catch up with their energy requirements. This technique is more suitable for endurance athletes.
Targeted Ketogenic Diet and CrossFit
A Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD) also helps athletes who focus on improving their workout performance. With this diet plan, a user must get no more than 50grams of carbs throughout the day to achieve targeted results. This diet plan primarily benefits heavy strength training.
Wrapping Up
Combining keto and CrossFit is an explosive method to achieve your weight loss goals while building lean muscles. But undoubtedly, this combination doesn’t make up an easy fitness regimen. Hence, it is OK if you decide not to go ahead with this program.
However, if your goal is to lose weight with diet and workout, there is probably no better method than combining CrossFit and keto. Also, you can choose between the Cyclic Ketogenic Diet and Targeted Ketogenic Diet to achieve specific fitness objectives.
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