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Question is as posted. Years ago messing around with a very high protein/low carb/low cal (PSMF) diet I would get woozy after workouts and squirt about a tablespoon of honey in my mouth post-workout to "clear my head". This did not affect my ketosis, but argueably a small tablespoon of sugar over the course of a day where meals are protein powders and chicken/tuna wouldn't really be enough to kick a person out of ketosis.

However, I would like to have some understanding to see if an individual, properly fat-acclaimated (as I am, I get tons of energy eating fats currently) and in ketosis, would have any problems downing some sweet potatoes post-workout.

I know currently if I have a "meat and potato" meal, my next day tends to result in a carb flu, but I've yet to experiment post workout.

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3 Answers

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Tough to answer since ketosis has different definitions according to different people. I would say in the final analysis that doing a 200-300 grams of carb-refeed PWO will NOT:

  • cause you to stop burning fat for fuel the rest of the time
  • give you any carbflu afterwards

On the contrary I think you will feel wonderful after a big whack of carbs PWO. I know I always do. I am generally LC to VLC on nonlifting days and then PWO (and nowadays even PreWO) i am getting something like 300-400 grams of starchy carbs from sweet potatoes and squashes and even white rice.

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Are you guys talking about 300-400 grams of the carby food itself, or 300-400g of carbs from out of the food? If the latter, how many grams or how many (medium size) sweet potatoes would it take to get 300-400 g of carbs? I'm still not sure if I'm eating enough or too much starchy carbs PWO. – JoeBranca at paleoplusone.com Apr 28 2011 at 18:02
You can use Fitday or some other free site for that. However, I myself meant 300-400 grams of CARBOHYDRATE itself, not the food. If you're going to measure food, WEIGH it! Cups, etc have no use. 1 ounce sweet potato has 5.9 g carbohydrate according to fitday. – ben61820 Apr 29 2011 at 13:46
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Cyclical Ketogenic Diets(CKD) along the lines of what Lyle McDonald gets behind relies on being in ketosis with targeted carb reloads at targeted times once or twice a week, usually post workout. He's written extensively about it at www.bodyrecomposition.com

I've recently have started the leangains fasting approach where I go VLC the majority of the time and do moderate carb refeeds PWO on two of my workout days(100-200g starchy carbs) and then go all out with a massive PWO refeed on the third workout day(300g). ON all other days I am at 50g or less a day and slightly underfed. Seems to be working well as far as a mechanism for dropping fat rapidly.

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Actually the PSMF I was following was McDonald's RFL, except I was also drinking MPI shakes (unflavored) for convienence. Back then I would re-feed the day before my biggest training day (start eating carbs on friday and stop after my postworkout meal saturday) Problem with this approach? Sunday I would had carb flu, diarrhea, etc... What I still need to know is, will a 50-75gm carb spike postworkout (1/2 a sweet or white potato) totally wreck my ketosis otherwise? – Joshua Apr 28 2011 at 14:20
Joshua, the truthful answer is i don't know. My humble advice is for you to start doing potato or sweet potato pwo and see how that makes you feel. i say pwo because your muscles will be ready to receive any influx of glucose into the body. yesterday, i had a lifting session and afterwards i ate 3 potatoes with a lb of beef. This morning i'm back VLC and feel awesome. – luckybastard♦ Apr 28 2011 at 14:33
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 Along these lines, I found some (oh, the horrors!) packaged instant mashed potatoes with a single ingredient: potatoes. From Whole Foods. I do my workouts later at night and can't be bothered to plan ahead to have potatoes ready for me - boiling some water in a kettle and measuring out some milk, butter, and potato flakes was nice & easy. – Casey Apr 28 2011 at 15:39
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 rediscovering the awesomeness of white potatoes after denying myself for years has been a revelation. long live the russet!!! – luckybastard♦ Apr 28 2011 at 15:45
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I agree that Lyle McDonald has the best information on this. Besides the CKD, also see the TKD -- Targeted Ketogenic Diet. In this protocol you take pure glucose before a workout. By the time you are finished, you will likely be back in ketosis. That's what happened to me when I did it.

You can test it with Ketostix if you want to be sure. In fact, you can play around with all sorts of variations, and find out how long it takes to get back in ketosis.

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