What science says about ketogenic diets and why they may not help you much "dry".
There are many different eating patterns, most of which have beautiful names, such as South Coast Diet, Weight Guard Diet, Atkins Diet, HCG Diet, Volumetric Diet, paleo diet, IIFYM (literally "If This Fits Your Macro "-" if it fits your KBJU "), reverse carbohydrate reversal (carbohydrate reversal), ketogenic diet, which will be discussed today.
One of the most widely used diets is ketogenic. Although many people use it to burn fat, this diet is surrounded by a lot of misinformation.
Perhaps the most misunderstood ketogenic aspect is how it affects your athletic performance and your ability to gain muscle mass and increase strength.
Ketogenic diet - from the word "ketosis"
Ketosis is a metabolic condition that occurs when the amount of carbohydrates in your food is so low that the body only needs to use fatty acids and ketone body metabolism for energy. It all seems easy, but let's understand this process to understand why our body is suffering from ketosis.
Our bodies need enough energy in the form of ATP to function.
ATP is the universal source of energy for all biochemical processes in living systems.
A person needs an average of 1. 800 calories a day (you can calculate your personal rate on a fitness calculator) to produce enough ATP and stay viable. At the same time, the midbrain needs about 400 kcal a day and uses almost only glucose as energy. This means that a personneeds to take 100 g of glucose a day just to maintain normal brain function.
What does ketosis have to do with it? With a ketogenic diet, we remove almost all of the carbohydrates from our food, which means we lack our brain from glucose. But we need our brains to work somehow. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can contribute a small amount to our brain to keep functioning. Our liver can store an average of 100-120 grams of glucose. With a lack of carbohydrates that are critical for the brain to function, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. However, in the end, liver glucose reserves cannot be replenished quickly, and carbohydrates are not only needed by the brain, which is why we have problems.
Our muscles are also a huge repository of glucose - it contains 400-500 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen storage.
However, glycogen stores are not designed primarily to feed the brain. Unfortunately, our muscles are unable to break down glycogen and put it into the bloodstream to eventually feed our brain, due to a lack of enzymes in the muscle that break down glycogen (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase).
In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver begins to produce ketone bodies that 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 molecule in your body is converted to acetyl-CoA, which then combines with oxaloacetate to initiate the Krebs cycle.
During ketosis, our liver uses a lot of fat as energy until the excess acetyl-CoA begins to produce ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetic acid and acetone).
Gradually,with a normal lack of carbohydrates, the body reaches a state until this process begins to occur continuously and the body's level of ketones in the blood increases significantly, 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 carb diets use fats and carbohydrates for our daily energy needs. Our bodies do not store ketone bodies in the blood and our tissues do not use ketones for energy.
With a ketogenic diet, our body reaches a level where ketone bodies are produced in large quantities and used as fuel. During diet-induced ketosis, beta-hydroxibutirate levels can be between 0, 5 and 3, 0 mM / L.
Low carb diets restrict the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (usually just under 100 grams per day), but beta-hydroxibutyrate levels do not reach 0. 5 and 3. 0 mM / L.
How to eat on a ketogenic diet
As we have discussed above, ketogenic diets should be high in fat and low in carbohydrates.
On a traditional and strict ketogenic diet, 70-75% of daily calories should come from fat and only 5% from carbohydrates. The amount of carbohydrates you can eat while living in ketosis varies from person to person, but typically you can consume up to 12% of your calories from carbohydrates and stay in ketosis.
Protein intake is also very important. A large number of trainees have realized that they must consume large amounts of protein, perhaps this is one of the unsuccessful ketogenic diet factors.
As we have discussed before, the proteinwhen consumed in high doses can be broken down into glucose (during gluconeogenesis) and thus you can not enter ketosis.Basically, if you consume more than 1. 8 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, then this amount will be enough to get out of ketosis.
Ideally, to increase ketogenic status and maintain lean muscle mass, your diet must be about 75% fat, 5% carbohydrates, and 20% protein.
Phase "Adaptation" to the ketogenic diet
If you read the ketosis literature, you will see a general trend. There is the most special phase of "adjustment" in which people experience blurred thoughts, drowning and loss of energy. Basically, people feel very bad in the first week of a ketogenic diet. This may be due to the lack of essential enzymes in our body, which are needed to oxidize certain elements effectively.
To survive, our bodies try to make cables to use other sources of energy and learn to rely only on body fat and ketones. Usually, after 4-6 weeks of adjusting to a ketogenic diet, all these symptoms disappear.
Athletic Ketosis and Performance: Overview of Scientific Research
Let's look at some studies that might be able to answer this question.
Study # 1The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women, aged 24-60) who underwent a self-prescribed ketogenic diet for an average of about 38days. Subjects performed moderate to intensive exercises, their blood volume, body composition and maximum oxygen consumption were measured.
The authors of the study themselves concluded: "Radical carbohydrate reduction does not affect statistical running performance, seen when subjects begin fatigue and maximum oxygen consumption level, but body mass composition improves, participants lose 3. 4 kg of fat and gain 1. 3kg of lean muscle mass. "
Thus, study participants lost weight, but did not show significant athletic performance changes. Also, subjects reduced 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 cross-sectional + ketogenic-style diet for 4 weeks and performed stationary cycling exercises of various intensities.
Ketogenic diets also have 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 increased significantly on ketogenic diets. Increased maximum oxygen consumption can be explained by weight loss. However,maximum workload and workload at anaerobic threshold are lower after ketogenic diet.
This means that the ketogenic dietresults in weight loss, but also a significant decrease in explosive strength and the ability to train at high intensity. Do you want to be stronger and train harder? So do not think that ketogenic diets are a good choice for this.
Study # 3The third study examined how a 30-day ketogenic diet (4. 5% calories from carbohydrates) affects performance in the following exercises: hanging legs up, push upsfloor, parallel push-up bar, pull-up, jumping squat, and 30-second jump. Scientists also measured the body composition of the participants.
Here is the conclusion:
- A ketogenic diet results in "spontaneous calorie intake" compared to a normal diet.
- There was no decrease in performance with tested ketogenic diet exercises, however no performance improvement was found.
Like other studies, there were significant differences in weight composition after a ketogenic diet: participants were able to lose weight. However, it should be noted that the participants selected for this study were already quite "dry" (about 7% body fat).
It is also important to mention that there are no tests that see the glycolysis process as a source of energy, but more tests that test explosive strength, phosphagen systems, and muscle fatigue tests.
Study # 4In this study, 5 experienced cyclists performed maximum oxygen consumption tests and timeout tests (TEE) before and after the ketogenic diet for 4 weeks.
Since this is a fairly long study, I just want to focus on the performance and levels of muscle glycogen. The TEE test showed significant differences between participants. One subject increased the TEE score by 84 minutes in 4 weeks, the second showed an increase of 30 minutes, while two subjects decreased by 50 minutes, and one subject remained unchanged:
Regarding muscle glycogen storage, muscle biopsies show thatglycogen storage after a ketogenic diet is almost half its normal value. This statement is enough to emphasize that high performance can be said goodbye.
Results of ketogenic diet research
Let's look at the similarities of these 4 studies:
Improved body composition.Every study produces a qualitative improvement in body composition. However, it is a controversial fact that this is a miraculous effect of a ketogenic diet, rather than a spontaneous calorie restriction. Because if you do research on the type of diet and body composition, then a diet that limits calories will increase body composition.
In the third study, subjects used an average of 10, 000 kcal less in 30 days (minus 333 kcal per day! ) than the normal diet, and of course they lost weight.
The possibility of a ketogenic diet still provides additional benefits in terms of changes in body composition, but research has not shown this.
It should also be noted that there is no literature supporting the idea that a ketogenic diet can help build muscle. It just helps to lose weight.
- Decreased performance at high intensity loads. The first two studies showed a decrease in the subject's ability to exercise at high intensity. This may be due to two reasons: first, intramuscular glycogen depletion and second, decreased hepatic glycogen storage during high-intensity training.
- Reduction of intramuscular glycogen stores. Decreased athletic performance during high-intensity training is a sign of decreased intramuscular glycogen levels, studies show. It can also have a negative impact on athlete recovery and muscle ability to grow.
Mistakes of People Who Make Ketogenic Diets
While there are no obvious benefits from conventional calorie restriction, a ketogenic diet can be a good weight loss tool. If you want to lose weight (maybe even through muscle mass), then maybe you should give it a try. Now let’s look at the mistakes that are often made by people on a ketogenic diet so you don’t make it.
Lack of adequate adjustment phase
Switching to a ketogenic diet can be very difficult for some people. Often, people stop dieting during the adjustment phase without completing it. The adaptation phase can last for several weeks, during which weakness is felt, consciousness becomes blurred, but after 2-3 weeks the energy level returns to normal.
If you want to try a ketogenic diet, then take a lot of time to adjust.
Eat too much protein
As we all know, too much protein can prevent ketosis. People often replace low carb with high protein on ketogenic diets - this is a mistake.
Using a ketogenic diet at high intensity activities
For high-intensity anaerobic training, our body relies primarily on blood glucose storage, liver and muscle glycogen, and gluconeogenesis.
Because ketogenic diets reduce muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to train with high loads.
Try a carbohydrate replacement diet instead of a ketogenic diet if you want to train at a high intensity.
Ketogenic diets prevent muscle growth
A ketogenic diet can help you lose weight, but not gain muscle mass.
CDs will prevent you from training at high intensity and gain lean muscle mass, so if this is the goal you are achieving in your workout, then it is better to give up the idea to train CDs.
Consuming proteins and carbohydrates together produces a greater anabolic effect than taking these nutrients alone. On a ketogenic diet, you reduce carbohydrates. Because you need carbohydrates and protein for optimal muscle growth, you lose one or both of these key nutrients.
The bottom line: Ketogenic diets are not optimal or effective for building muscle mass and improving sports performance. However, they can reduce your weight - just like other calorie restriction below your personal daily value.