What the science says about ketogenic diets and why they probably won't help you "dry out" much.
There are many different eating patterns, many even with fancy names, such as the South Beach Diet, Weight Watcher, Atkins Diet, HCG Diet, Volumetric Diet, paleo diet, IIFYM (literally “IfFits Your Macro ”-“ if it fits your KBJU ”), reverse carb loading (carb loading), the ketogenic diet, which will be discussed today.
One of the most widely 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 the ketogenic diet is how it affects athletic performance and your ability to build 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 only needs to use fatty acids and the body's metabolism of ketones for energy. It seems that everything is simple, but let's understand this process to understand why our bodies go into ketosis.
Our bodies need sufficient energy in the form of ATP to function.
ATP is the universal energy source for all biochemical processes in living systems.
A person needs an average of 1800 kcal per day (you can calculate your personal rate on a fitness calculator) to generate sufficient and sustainable ATP. At the same time, the midbrain requires about 400 kcal per day and uses almost only glucose as energy. That is, a personneeds to consume 100 g of glucose per day just to maintain normal brain function.
What does this have to do with ketosis? With a ketogenic diet, we eliminate nearly all carbohydrates from our diet, which means we reduce glucose from our brains. But we do need our brains to work. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can donate a small amount of glucose to our brains to keep it functioning. Our liver can store an average of 100-120 grams of glucose. With a lack of carbohydrates critical for the brain's functioning, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. After all, in the end, the liver's glucose reserves cannot be replenished quickly, and carbohydrates are not only needed by the brain, so we have problems.
Our muscles are also very large stores of glucose - they contain 400-500 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen stores.
However, glycogen stores are not fundamentally designed to nourish the brain. Unfortunately, our muscles are unable to break down glycogen and get it into the bloodstream to feed our brains, due to a lack of an enzyme in the muscles that breaks down glycogen (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase).
In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver begins to produce ketone bodies which are carried through the bloodstream to our brain and other tissues that do not use fat for energy.
Let's take a quick look at the biochemistry of this process. When you "burn fat, " the fatty acid molecules in your body are converted to acetyl-CoA, which then combines with oxaloacetate to start the Krebs cycle.
During ketosis, our liver uses so much fat for energy that excess acetyl-CoA starts producing ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetic acid, and acetone).
Gradually,with a regular deficit of carbohydrates, the body reaches such a state that this process begins to occur continuously and the level of ketone bodies in the blood increases markedly, 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
Low-carb diets and ketogenic diets are not the same thing.
Low carbohydrate diets use fat and carbohydrates for our daily energy needs. Our bodies don't store ketone bodies in our blood and our tissues don't use ketones for energy.
With a ketogenic diet, our bodies reach the point where ketone bodies are produced in large quantities and used as fuel. During diet-induced ketosis, beta-hydroxybutyrate levels can be between 0. 5 and 3. 0 mM / L. You can even buy blood ketone test strips and measure them yourself.
Low-carb diets limit the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (often just under 100 grams per day), but beta-hydroxybutyrate levels do not reach 0. 5 and 3. 0 mM / L.
How to eat on the ketogenic diet
As we discussed above, the ketogenic diet should be high in fat and low in carbohydrates.
On a traditional, strict ketogenic diet, 70-75% of daily calories should come from fat and only 5% from carbohydrates. The amount of carbohydrates you can consume while in ketosis varies from person to person, but you can usually consume up to 12% of your calories from carbs and stay in ketosis.
Protein intake is also very important. Most of the sportsmen already think that they should consume large amounts of protein, maybe this is one of the factors that the ketogenic diet doesn't work on.
As we discussed earlier,protein when consumed in high doses can be broken down into glucose (during gluconeogenesis) and thus you cannot enter ketosis.Basically, if you consume more than 1. 8 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, that is enough to get out of ketosis.
Ideally, to improve ketogenic status and maintain lean muscle mass, your diet should be around 75% fat, 5% carbohydrates, and 20% protein.
"Adaptation" phase to the ketogenic diet
If you read the ketosis literature, you'll see one common trend. There is a "adaptation" phase most characteristic of people experiencing hazy thoughts, feeling sluggish, and losing energy. Basically, people feel really bad in the first weeks of the ketogenic diet. This may be due to a lack of essential enzymes in our body, which are needed to oxidize certain elements efficiently.
In order to survive, our body tries to change itself to use another energy source and learns to rely solely on fat and ketone bodies. Usually, after 4-6 weeks of adapting to a ketogenic diet, all these symptoms disappear.
Ketosis and Athletic Performance: An Overview of Scientific Research
Let's have a look at some studies that might answer this question.
Study # 1The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women, aged 24-60) who were on a self-prescribed ketogenic diet for an average of 38 days. The subjects did moderate to intense exercise, their blood count, body composition and maximum oxygen consumption were measured.
The authors of the study themselves concluded: “The reduction in radical carbohydrates did not significantly affect running performance, judging by the time the subject started to fatigue and the level of maximum oxygen consumption, but body mass composition improved, participants lost 3. 4 kg of fat and gained 1. 3 kg of mass. muscle. "
Thus, study participants experienced weight loss, but did not show a marked change in athletic performance. In addition, the subject decreases the body's ability to recover.
Study # 2Another study involved 8 men aged around 30 years with at least 5 years of training experience. Subjects underwent a mixed + ketogenic diet for 4 weeks and performed extended stationary bicycle exercises at various intensities.
The ketogenic diet also has a positive effect on body mass composition, as in the first study.
Interestingly, the relative values of maximum oxygen consumption and oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold were significantly increased on the ketogenic diet. The increase in maximal oxygen consumption can be explained by weight loss. However,maximum workload and workload at the anaerobic threshold were lower after the ketogenic diet.
This means that theketogenic diet results in weight loss, but also a significant reduction in burst strength and high intensity training ability. Do you want to get stronger and train harder? Then don't think the ketogenic diet is a good choice for this.
Study # 3The third study examined how the 30-day ketogenic diet (4. 5% of calories from carbohydrates) affected performance in the following exercises: hanging leg lift, push-upsfloor, parallel push-up bar, pull-up, squat jumping, and 30-second jump. The scientists also measured the participants' body composition.
Here's the conclusion:
- The ketogenic diet led to a "spontaneous reduction in calorie intake" compared to the regular diet.
- No decrease in performance was found with the ketogenic diet exercises tested, but no performance improvement was found.
As with other studies, there was a marked difference in body weight composition after the ketogenic diet: participants were able to lose weight. Keep in mind, however, that the participants selected for this study were fairly dry (about 7% body fat).
It is also important to mention that none of these tests look at the glycolysis process as an energy source, it is more of a test that tests the burst strength, the phosphagenic system, and the muscle fatigue test.
Study # 4In this study, 5 experienced cyclists performed a maximum oxygen consumption test and a time to exhaustion (TEE) test before and after a 4 week ketogenic diet.
Since the research is quite lengthy, I wanted to focus solely on muscle glycogen performance and levels. The TEE test showed very large differences between participants. One subject increased their TEE score by 84 minutes in 4 weeks, the second showed an increase of 30 minutes, while two subjects had an increase in their score by 50 minutes, and one subject remained unchanged:
Regarding muscle glycogen stores, muscle biopsy shows thatglycogen stores after a ketogenic diet are almost half of normal. This fact is enough to affirm that high performance can be said goodbye.
Results of research on the ketogenic diet
Let's see what these 4 studies have in common:
Enhanced body composition.Each study resulted in a qualitative increase in body composition. However, it is a controversial fact that this is the miraculous effect of the ketogenic diet, not the spontaneous calorie restriction. Because if you do research on any diet and body composition, any diet that restricts calories will improve body composition.
In the third study, subjects consumed an average of 10, 000 kcal less in 30 days (minus 333 kcal per day! ) compared to the regular diet, and naturally they lost weight.
A ketogenic diet may still offer additional benefits when it comes to body composition changes, but research has yet to show 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 you lose weight.
- Degrades high intensity performance. The first two studies showed a decrease in the subject's ability to exercise at high intensity. This may be for two reasons: first, a decrease in intramuscular glycogen, and second, a decrease in hepatic glycogen stores during high-intensity exercise.
- Reduction of intramuscular glycogen storage. Decreased athletic performance during high-intensity exercise is a sign of decreased intramuscular glycogen levels, research has shown. It can also negatively impact the recovery of the exercising athlete and the muscle's ability to grow in size.
Mistakes people make on the ketogenic diet
While there are no clear benefits over conventional calorie restriction, a ketogenic diet can be a great weight loss tool. If you want to lose weight (perhaps through muscle mass too), you probably should give it a try. Now let's take a look at the mistakes people on the ketogenic diet often make that you don't.
Lack of an adequate adaptation phase
Switching to a ketogenic diet can be very difficult for some people. Very often, people stop diets during the adaptation phase without completing it. The adaptation phase can last for several weeks, during which weakness is felt, consciousness is obscured, but after 2-3 weeks the energy level returns to normal.
If you want to try the ketogenic diet, give yourself plenty of time to adapt.
Eating too much protein
As we have learned, too much protein can prevent ketosis. People often replace low carbohydrates with high protein on ketogenic diets - this is a mistake.
Using the ketogenic diet at high intensity activities
For high-intensity anaerobic exercise, our bodies rely primarily on stores of blood glucose, muscle and liver glycogen, and gluconeogenesis.
Because the ketogenic diet reduces muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to train with high weights.
Try a carbohydrate replacement diet instead of a ketogenic diet if you want to train at a high intensity.
The ketogenic diet prevents muscle gain
A ketogenic diet can help you lose weight, but not gain muscle mass.
CD will prevent you from training at high intensity and gaining lean muscle mass, so if this is a goal you are pursuing in your workout then it's better to give up the idea of training CDs.
Consuming protein and carbohydrates together produces a greater anabolic effect than consuming these nutrients alone. On a ketogenic diet, you cut back on carbs. And because you need carbohydrates and protein for optimal muscle growth, you are missing out on one or both of these key nutrients.
Conclusion: the ketogenic diet is suboptimal and ineffective for building muscle and enhancing athletic performance. However, they can help you lose weight - just like any other calorie restriction under your personal daily value.