So I've finally gotten myself to start the Couch to 5K program. I'm quite proud of myself, actually, and thanks to some really good advice from a doctor, I can even do the jogging with minimal shortness of breath. My blood sugars are stable after--no major spikes, no major drops. (We'll see what happens tomorrow, when I do it before noon, which I've yet to try.)
I don't do extreme low carb, but I aim for about 60g per day. I usually hit about 80g, but for me it seems to be more about portions than about the actual number--as long as I don't eat more than 25g in a sitting, I don't spike too badly.
However, I've found myself snacking a LOT lately, on random foods---whatever is carby and close to hand. It seems that though I don't feel terribly hungry, my brain wants food, anyway. I always know when I'm stress eating and that doesn't seem to be the case here. Like stress eating, though, it feels like I don't have much control over it. I'm almost sure it's related to the running, because when I went up to the next week yesterday, it got much worse.
I'm finding it nearly impossible to maintain my low carb diet now. I haven't had any major spikes from eating this way yet, but I'm sure I will, and soon. Has anyone else who runs found this to be true? What have you done to deal with it?
I don't have any answers but will be interested to see what you learn here. When I went low carb (50-70 grams/day) a year ago, my exercise was and still is, 40-60 minutes walking. I've read in more than one source that exercising has one known effect: it will make you hungry. My lower intensity walking didn't produce the appetite surge that you're dealing with now.
It's great that you've started a new push to exercise. Congrats to that. It has so many good benefits, it's well worth the food struggle to persevere. Maybe a longer ramp up to the longer distances will give your food management ideas time to gel. Best of luck to you!
When I was low carbing but not yet ketogenic I was in the same situation.
I'm not an expert on this nor a doctor but I would say it's better to aim for < 50 grams of carbs a day. This way you are sure to be in ketosis and your body will stop relying on carbs as its primal source of energy ang get stable on fat.
In my opinion when you are really low carbing but not ketogenic you leave your body in a middle ground in which can't really function well.
That's my 2 cents, I'm sure someone more informed than me is going to answer your question better!
I've never thought that it's bad to eat to fuel runs. I seem to "need" about 8-12G, or a glass of skim milk, to go 3 miles. If everything else is "neutral", I can finish with that really close to where I started BG wise. I take extra stuff with me and all that but I hardly ever touch it.
I'm just getting back into swimming, which I took about a six month break from, and I don't know if carbs has anything to do with it, but I'm always starving after I swim. I eat around 100g of carbs most days, some days significantly less and some significantly more.
I do find that regular intense exercise has a VERY positive impact on my blood sugar. I can get away with eating stuff when I'm swimming regularly (like a piece of cake) that I can't get away with when I'm not exercising.
It's funny you mention that--last summer I was walking an hour and 40 minutes in the morning. It felt great, it gave me tons of energy, and I was decidedly NOT hungry. Almost ever. I didn't snack, I wasn't even particularly interested in lunch, and I was working as an assistant in a very, very large outdoor camp. I think I drank more than I ate. I was expecting something similar this time, even though I knew exercise is supposed to make you hungry.
The nice thing about not having reactive hypoglycemia anymore is that I don't have to treat lows every time I exercise. As long as I ate within a reasonable amount of time (2-3 hours or so), I don't drop too much. Of course, I do miss all those juice boxes and cups of orange juice...
