Keto Diet Performance Impact

I recently ended the Keto Diet and I have been going over some different sources of data trying to pull together some results.

Unfortunately I don’t have a huge set of data to pull from but I think what I do have is better than just straight anecdote.

One of my worries about the Keto diet was what impact it might have on my workout routine. After reading various articles about the diet and using straight intuition it seemed like the lack of carbohydrates could adversely effect my ability to get a good workout in.

I will say that my normal workout routine certainly felt harder, but that is certainly a subjective measurement.

I ended up doing the same fairly strenuous climb both when I was on the Keto diet and just after I had broken the diet. I felt a lot better just after the diet but I wanted to see if I could dig up any objective measures. I record nearly all of my rides with Strava and I was able to find the before and after so let’s take a look at each.

I cut out the same segment from both rides.

The first, from August 25th was about 2 weeks into the diet.

The second, from September 22nd was 2 days after I had broken the diet.

August 25th – On Keto

September 22nd – Post Keto

A 3 minute difference!

What’s kind of interesting is that my time on August 25th (on Keto) was right in the same ballpark as my other efforts.

So, I don’t know if the conclusion is that the Keto diet was psychologically more painful and I just happened to crush it on the 22nd or if I just improved my riding fitness and the Keto diet was holding me back on the 25th.