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Big muscle strength increase (surprise), fourth month on low carb keto diet, 6 years post Lyme

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Posted 10/10/2023 6:53 PM (GMT 0)
Keto is just one of the several health trials that i've experimented after Lyme. (There is no diet forum here on healing well.) I'm not as carb strict as I should be, so Im just barely into ketosis, and some days prob close but not. This still contributes to body changes.

I tried this for immune and body chemistry reasons like blood sugar. My two hour after meal glucose spike is usually only 110-120 now, the highest its recently been is was 130 last month once.. I dont take any diabetes prescriptions at all. Ive never been overweight, but I still lost 10-12 lbs depending on when I start doing the math. My body fat percent went from my average of 14-17% to 11-12% in two months. (Decades ago, I was 6-10% in my prime mid 20's years).

Ive had digestive change complications with this Keto diet as Ive posted before. Enzymatic supplements makes a keto (high fat) specific enzyme mix that works better than the others I've tried.

Certainly did not expect my muscle strength to increase. My upper body strength apparently has. I dont look much different, but way stronger. I'm not a big "body builder" or anything, just fitness minded and active my whole life, lyme made this a struggle at times.

**I doubled my pull-ups from 14 max on a really good and unusual day..... to 20 (!) last night. Never did that before. Seemed like the impossible just happened : ) ** This is strange...but in a good way.

Recently I read that keto can increase mitochondria function. Maybe this is why, hmm...

Wonder how/what my recovery time will be like? Its always longer time and more sore for me vs other people.

I also had a long pull-up-max break for about three weeks, so I was shoulder sore-free and very limber. This is really surprisingly odd. It was weird, I was like "why/how am I still going?".I will be 60 in a few years.


My left knee is on a long ACL recovery plan, so I cant max strength lest my lower body, prob not for a long time. : (

Did Accupunture for the first time this spring, which did release existing body tension from my lyme days of the past. I dont know if this helped upper body strength at all (maybe?), but I had a spine twist for decades, so maybe its straighter with more even left to right strength now.
Posted 10/10/2023 10:00 PM (GMT 0)
i have had some pretty surprising gains in strength and output in my workouts while on Keto and especially considering i am still ill

i haven't done any max strength 1 rep tests for a good while - as i know my body is still much more susceptible to injury than it used to be before lyme etc so it doesn't seem like a good idea for me just now - but for instance i have been able to gain strength in terms of number of reps i could do of various exercises - like squats or push ups or dumbell curls

for a good while there i was stepping up the number of reps almost every single workout
this something that hasn't happened fro me since my mid 20's - so pretty surprising
the workouts are lighter - but i still took it as a good sign

i think the typically - but higher protein intake on keto probably helps

there is a precedent though
just before Joe Wieder became the dominant trainer in Mr Olympia bodybuilding circles - and the high carb approach became the standard in body building and sports nutrition in general - there was another guy who trained his body builders on a ketogenic diet approach. They looked somehow leaner - less balloon like muscles - but very impressive - but it fell out of favour as mainly the athletes themselves found it harder to stick to.
but these were very strong guys - and there is still a keto bodybuilding movement today - so it shows you can definably build strength on Keto

the main benefit in lyme and co is that ketones produce less free radicals when burned for energy - and less free radicals means less oxidative stress - and less oxidative stress mean less tissue damage and inflammation - which is good as that's all ramped up with lyme and co - and anything you can do to bring it down helps overall symptoms - be it aches and pains - or energy levels

there is also some research that Keto diets also cause self reactive t cells to be recycled - similar to fasting - and replaced with naïve ones - so it could be that it reduces auto-immunity
Posted 10/11/2023 5:30 AM (GMT 0)
20 pull-ups are great for a young healthy man, doing it at your age and with your health background is amazing 😊 I can also do a lot of pull-ups but I'm mostly doing weighted pull-ups or lat pull-downs now.
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