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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 1:53 PM (GMT -5)
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 5:00 PM (GMT -5)
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 12:30 AM (GMT -5)
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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