What science says about ketogenic diets and why they probably won't help you dry out much.
There are many different eating habits, many of which even have beautiful names like the South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers Diet, Atkins Diet, HCG Diet, Volumetric Diet, Paleo Diet, IIFYM (literally “Ifit suits your macros ”-“ if it suits your KBJU ”), the reverse carbohydrate load (carbohydrate transshipment), the ketogenic diet that will be discussed today.
One of the most commonly used diets is ketogenic. Despite the fact that many people use it to burn fat, this diet is surrounded by a lot of misinformation.
Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of a ketogenic diet is how it affects athletic activity and your ability to gain muscle and increase strength.
Ketogenic diet - from the word "ketosis"
Ketosis is a metabolic condition that occurs when the amount of carbohydrates in your diet is so low that the body simply needs to use fatty acids and ketone metabolism for energy. Everything seems simple, but let’s understand this process to understand why our body goes into a state of ketosis.
Our bodies need enough energy in the form of ATP to function.
ATP is a universal energy source for all biochemical processes in living systems.
A person needs an average of 1800 kcal per day (you can calculate a personal norm in a fitness calculator) to get enough ATP and stay viable. At the same time, the middle brain needs about 400 kcal per day and consumes almost only glucose for energy. This means that a personneeds to consume 100 g of glucose a day just to maintain normal brain function.
What does this have to do with ketosis? By following a ketogenic diet, we remove almost all carbohydrates from our diet, which means we take glucose out of the brain. But we really need our brains to function somehow. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can donate small amounts of it to our brains to function. Our liver can store an average of 100 to 120 grams of glucose. In critical carbohydrate deficiencies in brain activity, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. But in the end, liver glucose stores can’t replenish quickly, and it’s not just the brain that needs carbs, which is why we have problems.
Our muscles also have a huge supply of glucose - 400-500 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen.
However, glycogen stores are not primarily used to feed the brain. Unfortunately, due to a lack of an enzyme in the muscle that breaks down glycogen (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase), our muscles cannot break down glycogen and get into the bloodstream to eventually nourish our brain.
In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver begins to produce ketone bodies, which enter our brain and other tissues through the blood that do not use fat for energy.
Let's take a quick look at the biochemistry of these processes. When you "burn fat", the fatty acid molecules in your body are converted to acetyl-CoA, which in turn binds to oxaloacetate and starts the Krebs cycle.
During ketosis, our liver consumes as much fat as energy that excess acetyl-CoA begins to produce ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetic acid, and acetone).
Gradually, with a regular carbohydrate deficiency,the body reaches a state where this process begins to take place continuously and the amount of ketone bodies in the blood increases noticeably, then we can say that we are officially in a state of ketosis.
What is a ketogenic diet and how is it different from a "low carb" diet
A low carb diet and a ketogenic diet are not the same thing.
In a low-carb diet, fats and carbohydrates are used to meet daily energy needs. Our body does not keep ketones in the blood, and the tissues do not use ketones to get energy.
By following a ketogenic diet, our body reaches a point where ketone bodies are produced in large quantities and used as fuel. During ketosis caused by such a diet, the amount of beta-hydroxybutyrate can be between 0, 5 and 3. 0 mM / L. You can even buy blood ketone test strips and measure your own.
A low-carbohydrate diet limits the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (often just under 100 grams per day), but beta-hydroxybutyrate levels are below 0, 5, and 3. 0 mM / L.
How to eat on a ketogenic diet
As discussed above, a ketogenic diet should be high in fat and low in carbohydrates.
Following traditional and strict ketogenic diets, 70-75% of your daily calories should come from fat and only 5% from carbohydrates. The amount of carbohydrates you can consume with ketosis varies from person to person, but you can usually consume up to 12% of the calories from carbohydrates and stay in ketosis.
It is also very important to eat protein. Many athletes have come to mind that they have to consume a lot of protein, perhaps this is one of the factors behind unsuccessful ketogenic diets.
As discussed earlier,proteins taken at high doses can be broken down into glucose (during gluconeogenesis), so you will not be able to get into ketosis.Basically, if you consume more than 1. 8 grams of protein per kg of body weight, this amount will be enough to get rid of ketosis.
Ideally, to improve ketogenic status and maintain lean muscle mass, the diet should contain approximately 75% fat, 5% carbohydrates, and 20% protein.
Ketogenic diet "adaptation" phase
If you read the literature on ketosis, you will see one general trend. There is the most pronounced stage of "adaptation", when people experience a cloudy state of mind, feel sluggish and lose energy. Basically, people feel very bad in the first weeks of a ketogenic diet. This is probably due to the fact that our body lacks the necessary enzymes needed to effectively oxidize certain elements.
In order to survive, our body tries to switch to other energy sources and learn to rely only on fats and ketones. Usually after 4-6 weeks of adaptation to a ketogenic diet, all these symptoms disappear.
Ketosis and Sport: A Review of Research
Let’s look at a few studies that may answer this question.
Study 1The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women, aged 24 to 60 years) who had been on a self-sufficient ketogenic diet for 38 days. Subjects underwent moderate to intense training, and measured their blood volume, body composition, and maximal oxygen intake.
The authors of the study themselves conclude: “The radical decrease in carbohydrates did not have a statistically significant effect on running performance in terms of time to exercise and maximal oxygen consumption, but body weight improved, participants lost 3. 4 kg of fat and gained 1, 3 kg of lean muscle mass'.
Thus, study participants lost weight but did not notice any noticeable changes in athletic performance. In addition, subjects reduced the body’s chances of recovery.
Study 2Another study involved 8 men of approximately 30 years of age with at least 5 years of training experience. Subjects followed a 4-week mixed + ketogenic cross-style diet and performed extended stationary cycling workouts of varying intensity.
Ketogenic diet also had a positive effect on body weight compositionas in the first study.
Interestingly, the relative values of peak oxygen consumption and oxygen consumption at the anaerobic limit increased significantly with a ketogenic diet. The largest increase in oxygen consumption can be explained by a decrease in body weight. However, after the ketogenic diet,peak workload and anaerobic workload were lower.
This means that theketogenic diet has resulted in weight loss, but also a significant reduction in explosive power and the ability to train at high intensity. Do you want to be stronger and harder to train? Then don’t think that a ketogenic diet is a good choice.
Study 3The third study looked at how a 30-day ketogenic diet (4. 5% of carbohydrate calories) affects the results of the following exercises: suspended leg raises, push-ups onfloor, parallel bar push-ups, retracts, jumping from a squat and a 30-second jump. The researchers also measured the body composition of the participants.
Here are the conclusions:
- A ketogenic diet "automatically reduces calorie intake" compared to a regular diet.
- Examination of ketogenic diet exercises has not shown performance, but no improvement in performance has been identified.
As in other studies, there was a difference in body weight after a ketogenic diet: participants were able to lose weight. However, it should be borne in mind that the participants selected for this study were already quite "dry" (about 7% body fat).
It is also important to mention that none of these tests looked at the glycolysis process as an energy source, they were more tests that tested explosive strength, the phosphagenic system, and muscle fatigue tests.
Study 4In this study, 5 experienced cyclists performed a maximal oxygen consumption test and a time to exhaustion test (TEE) before and after a 4-week ketogenic diet.
Because this study is quite lengthy, I want to focus only on the performance aspect and muscle glycogen levels. The TEE test showed a huge difference between the participants. One subject improved TEE scores by 84 minutes over 4 weeks, the second increased by 30 minutes, and two subjects decreased by a total of 50 minutes, and one subject remained unchanged:
In terms of muscle glycogen stores, a muscle biopsy showed that glycogen stores were almost half of normal values after a ketogenic diet. This fact is enough to say that high productivity can be said goodbye.
Ketogenic diet research results
Let's look at what the 4 studies have in common:
Improved body composition.Each study helped to improve the quality of body composition. However, it is a contradictory fact that this is the miraculous effect of a ketogenic diet, not a spontaneous calorie restriction. Because if you do any diet and body composition research, any diet that restricts calories will improve your body composition.
In the third study, subjects consumed an average of 10, 000 kcal less (minus 333 kcal per day! ) in 30 days than they did on a regular diet, and of course they lost weight.
It is likely that a ketogenic diet can still provide additional benefits based on changes in body composition, but studies have not yet shown this.
It should also be said that there is no literature to support the idea that a ketogenic diet can help build muscle. It only helps to lose weight.
- Decreased performance during intense workouts. The first two studies showed a decrease in the subjects' ability to exercise very intensely. This is possible for two reasons: first, a decrease in intramuscular glycogen and second, a decrease in liver glycogen stores during high-intensity training.
- Decreased intramuscular glycogen stores. Studies have shown that a reduction in sports activity during high-intensity training reduces the amount of glycogen in the muscles. It can also negatively affect the recovery of athletes and the ability of muscles to grow.
Errors related to ketogenic diets
While there are no clear benefits compared to conventional calorie restrictions, ketogenic diets can be a good weight loss tool. If you want to lose weight (maybe also because of muscle mass), you might want to give it a try. Now let’s look at the mistakes that people on a ketogenic diet often make so you don’t make them.
Lack of proper adaptation phase
Switching to a ketogenic diet can be very difficult for some people. Very often people throw a diet in the adaptation stage before it is completed. The adjustment phase can last for several weeks, during which you feel weak, your consciousness is darkened, but after 2-3 weeks your energy levels return to normal.
If you want to try a ketogenic diet, take a lot of time to adapt.
Eating too much protein
As we have learned, too much protein can prevent ketosis. In a ketogenic diet, people often replace low carbohydrates with high protein content - this is a mistake.
High Ketogen Diet Use
For high-intensity anaerobic exercise, our body relies primarily on blood glucose, liver and muscle glycogen, and gluconeogenesis.
Because ketogenic diets reduce muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to train at high loads.
Try a carbohydrate replacement diet instead of a ketogenic diet if you want to train very intensely.
Ketogenic diets protect against muscle growth
Ketogenic diets can help you lose weight but not increase muscle mass.
A CD will not allow you to train very intensely and gain lean muscle mass, so if these are the goals you are aiming for when training, then it is better to give up the idea of practicing a CD.
Concomitant use of proteins and carbohydrates has a greater anabolic effect than the use of these nutrients alone. Following a ketogenic diet reduces the amount of carbohydrates. Because you need both carbohydrates and protein for optimal muscle growth, you lack one or both of these essential nutrients.
Conclusion: Ketogenic diets are neither optimal nor effective for building muscle and improving sports performance. However, they can help you lose weight - just like any other calorie restriction below your personal daily value.