WHAT IS A KETOGENIC DIET

What science says about ketogenic diets and why it probably won't help you much to "dry out".

There are many different diets, many of which even have nice names, such as the South Beach Diet, Diet Watchers, Atkins, HCG, Volumetric Diet, Paleo Diet, IIFYM (literally “If it fitsyour macros ”-“ if it fits into your CBJU ”), the reverse load of carbohydrates (carbohydrate recovery), the ketogenic diet, which we will discuss 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 the ketogenic diet is how it affects athletic performance 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 has to use the energy of fatty acids and the metabolism of ketone bodies. Everything seems simple, but we 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 source of energy 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 produce enough ATP and stay sustainable. 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 ingest 100 g of glucose per day just to maintain normal brain function.

What has this got to do with ketosis? A ketogenic diet removes almost all carbohydrates from the diet, which means we deprive the brain of glucose. But we need a brain to work somehow. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can donate a small amount to our brain to keep it working. Our liver can store an average of 100-120 grams of glucose. With a critical lack of carbohydrates for the brain to function, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. In the end, however, the glucose reserves in the liver 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 supply of glucose - they contain 400-500 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen stores.

However, glycogen stores are not primarily designed to feed the brain. Unfortunately, our muscles cannot break down glycogen and put it in the bloodstream to eventually feed our brain, due to a lack of an enzyme in the muscle that breaks down glycogen (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase).

In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver begins to produce ketone bodies that are transported through the bloodstream to our brain and other tissues that do not use fat for energy.

Let's move on to the biochemistry of these processes. When you “burn fat, ” the fatty acid molecules in your body are converted to acetyl-CoA, which in turn combines with oxaloacetate to start 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 lack of carbohydrates, the body reaches such a state that this process begins to happen constantly and the level of ketone bodies in the blood rises markedly, then we can say that we are officially in a state of ketosis.

What is a ketogenic diet and how does it differ from a low-carb diet

Low carb diets and ketogenic diets are not the same thing.

A low-carb diet uses fats and carbohydrates for our daily energy needs. Our body does not store ketone bodies in the blood, and our tissues do not use ketones for energy.

With a ketogenic diet, our body comes to the point where ketone bodies are produced in large quantities and used as fuel. During such diet-induced ketosis, beta-hydroxybutyrate levels can be between 0, 5 and 3, 0 mM / L. You can even buy blood test strips and measure them yourself.

A low-carbohydrate diet limits the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (often just under 100 grams per day), but the level of beta-hydroxybutyrate does not reach 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.

In traditional and strict ketogenic diets, 70-75% of daily calories should come from fats and only 5% from carbohydrates. The amount of carbohydrates you can ingest during your stay in ketosis varies from person to person, but you can usually ingest up to 12% of calories from carbohydrates and stay in ketosis.

Protein intake is also very important. Most exercisers have thought that they need to ingest large amounts of protein, perhaps this is one of the factors of a failed ketogenic diet.

As we discussed earlier, the proteinwhen consumed in large doses can be broken down into glucose (during gluconeogenesis) and so you will not be able to enter ketosis.Basically, if you ingest more than 1. 8 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, then that amount will be enough to get out of ketosis.

Ideally, to improve your ketogenic status and maintain lean muscle mass, your diet should contain approximately 75% fat, 5% carbohydrates, and 20% protein.

Phase of "adaptation" on a ketogenic diet

If you read the ketosis literature, you will see one general trend. There is the most peculiar phase of “adaptation” in which people experience a blurred mind, feel sluggish and lose energy. Basically, people feel really bad in the first weeks of a ketogenic diet. This is probably due to the lack of essential enzymes in our body, which are needed to effectively oxidize certain elements.

In order to survive, our body tries to redirect itself to use other energy resources and learns to rely only on fatty and ketone bodies. Usually, after 4-6 weeks of adaptation to a ketogenic diet, all these symptoms disappear.

Ketosis and Athletic Performance: A Review of Scientific Research

Let’s take a look at a few studies that can answer this question.

Study # 1

The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women aged 24 to 60 years) who were on average on a self-prescribed ketogenic diet38 days. Subjects performed medium to intense training, their blood count, body composition and maximum oxygen consumption were measured.

The authors of the study conclude: "Radical reduction of carbohydrates did not statistically significantly affect running performance, judging by the time when subjects began to get tired and the level of maximum oxygen consumption, but body composition improved, participants lost 3. 4 kgfat gained 1, 3 kg of lean muscle mass. "

Thus, study participants lost weight but did not show noticeable changes in athletic performance. Also, the subjects reduced the body's ability to recover.

Study no. 2

The second study involved 8 men aged about 30 years with at least 5 years of training experience. Subjects sat on a 4-week mixed and ketogenic diet and did extended training in a stationary bike of varying intensities.

The ketogenic diet also had a positive effect on body composition, as in the first study.

Interestingly, the relative values ​​of maximal oxygen consumption and oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold increased significantly on the ketogenic diet. The increase in maximum oxygen consumption can be explained by a decrease in body weight. However, themaximum load and the load at the anaerobic threshold were lower after the ketogenic diet.

This means that theketogenic diet has resulted in weight loss, but also a significant reduction in explosive power and the ability to train with high intensity. Do you want to be stronger and train harder? Then don't assume that a ketogenic diet is a good choice for this.

Study # 3

A third study examined how a 30-day ketogenic diet (4. 5% of calories from carbohydrates) affects performance in the following exercises: hanging legs, floor push-ups, parallel bar push-ups, push-ups, squat jumping and 30-second jumps. The scientists also measured the body composition of the participants.

Here are the conclusions:

1. The ketogenic diet caused a “spontaneous reduction in calorie intake” compared to a normal diet.
2. No performance loss was tested with the ketogenic diet tested, however, no performance improvement was found.

As in other studies, there was a noticeable difference in body weight composition after the ketogenic diet: participants were able to lose pounds. 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 viewed the glycolysis process as an energy source, but rather multiple tests that tested explosive power, the phosphagen system, and muscle fatigue tests.

Study # 4

In 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 this is a fairly lengthy study, I want to focus only on performance and muscle glycogen levels. The TEE test showed a huge difference between the participants. One respondent improved TEE scores by 84 minutes in 4 weeks, another showed an increase of 30 minutes, while two respondents dropped by 50 minutes and one remained unchanged:

Regarding muscle glycogen stores, muscle biopsies showed thatglycogen stores after a ketogenic diet were almost half of their normal values ​​. This fact is already enough to claim that high performance can be forgiven.

Results of a ketogenic diet study

Let's see what these 4 studies have in common:

• Improved body composition.Each study resulted in a qualitative improvement in body composition. However, it is controversial that this is a miraculous effect of a ketogenic diet, not a spontaneous calorie restriction. Because if you do any research on any diet and body composition, any calorie-restricting diet will improve body composition.

  In the third study, subjects consumed an average of 10, 000 kcal less (minus 333 kcal per day! ) in 30 days than on a regular diet and of course lost weight.

  It is likely that a ketogenic diet may still offer additional benefits in terms of body composition changes, but research has yet to show this.

  It should also be said that there is no literature that supports the idea that a ketogenic diet can help build muscle. It only helps with weight loss.

• Deteriorated performance in high-intensity training. The first two studies showed a decline in respondents' ability to exercise with high intensity. This is possible for two reasons: first, a decrease in intramuscular glycogen and second, a decrease in glycogen stores in the liver during high-intensity training.
• Decreased intramuscular glycogen stores. Decreased sports performance during high-intensity training is a sign of decreased levels of intramuscular glycogen, studies have shown. It can also negatively affect the recovery of athletes who exercise and the ability of muscles to grow in size.

Mistakes people make on ketogenic diets

While there is no clear benefit from a conventional calorie restriction, a ketogenic diet can be a good weight loss tool. If you want to lose weight (maybe with muscle mass), then maybe you should give it a try. Let’s now look at the mistakes that people on a ketogenic diet often make to not make them.

1. Lack of proper adaptation phase

   Switching to a ketogenic diet can be very difficult for some people. Very often people leave the diet during the adaptation phase without completing it. The adaptation phase can last for several weeks, during which you feel weak, consciousness is blurred, but after 2-3 weeks the energy level returns to normal.

   If you want to try a ketogenic diet, leave enough time to adjust.

2. Eating too much protein

   As we have already learned, too much protein can prevent ketosis. People on a ketogenic diet often replace low carbs with high proteins - that’s a mistake.

3. Using a ketogenic diet in high-intensity exercise

   For high-intensity anaerobic exercise, our body relies primarily on blood glucose stores, liver and muscle glycogen, and gluconeogenesis.

   Because a ketogenic diet lowers muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to train with heavy loads.

   Try a carb-modified diet instead of a ketogenic diet if you want to train at a high intensity.

4. Ketogenic diets prevent muscle growth

   Ketogenic diets can help you lose weight, but not gain muscle mass.

   The

   CD will prevent you from training with great intensity and gaining lean muscle mass, so if these are the goals you follow in your workout, then it is better to give up the idea of ​​exercising the CD.

Consuming protein and carbohydrates together produces a greater anabolic effect than consuming these nutrients alone. On a ketogenic diet, you reduce carbohydrates. And because you need both carbohydrates and proteins for optimal muscle growth, you’re missing one or both of these key nutrients.

Conclusion: Ketogenic diets are neither optimal nor effective for building muscle and improving athletic performance. However, they can help you lose weight - just like any other calorie restriction below your personal daily value.