What science says about ketogenic diets, and probably why they don't help you "dry out" much.
There are many different eating rules, many of which even have nice names like Southern Beach Diet, Weight Loss Diet, Atkins Diet, HCG Diet, Volume Diet. , paleo diet, IIFYM (literally "Suitable for your macros" - "If it fits your KBJU"), reverse carbohydrate loading (hydrocarbon reloading), ketogenic diet to be discussed today.
One of the most commonly used diets is ketogenic. Although many people use it to burn fat, this diet is surrounded by a lot of misinformation.
Perhaps the most obscure aspect of a ketogenic diet is how it affects your ability to gain athletic performance and 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 diet is so low that the body needs to use the metabolism of fatty acids and ketone bodies 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.
An average person needs 1, 800 calories a day to produce and survive enough ATP (you can calculate your individual level on a fitness calculator). At the same time, the average brain requires about 400 kcal per day and uses almost exclusively glucose as energy. This means that a persononly needs to consume 100 g of glucose per day to maintain normal brain function.
What does this have to do with ketosis? With a ketogenic diet, we eliminate almost all carbohydrates from our diet, which means that our brain is deprived of glucose. But we need our brains to work in a way. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can donate small amounts to our brain to keep working. Our liver can store an average of 100-120 grams of glucose. With a critical carbohydrate deficiency for the brain to function, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. But as a result, the liver's glucose reserves cannot be restored quickly, and carbohydrates are not only needed by the brain, so we have problems.
Our muscles are also a huge storehouse of glucose - they contain 400-500 grams of glucose in the form of glycogen stores.
However, glycogen stores are not primarily designed to nourish the brain. Unfortunately, due to a deficiency in an enzyme that breaks down glycogen (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) in our muscles, our muscles are finally unable to break down glycogen to feed our brains and put it into the bloodstream.
In the absence of carbohydrates, the liver begins to produce ketone bodies through the bloodstream to our brains 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 combines with oxaloacetate to begin the Krebs cycle.
During ketosis, our liver uses so much fat that it already begins to produce acetyl-CoA ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetic acid and acetone).
Graduallywith a regular carbohydrate deficiency, the body reaches a point where this process begins to occur constantly and the level of ketone bodies in the blood increases significantly, and then we can officially say that we are 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 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 the point where large amounts of ketone bodies are produced and used as fuel. Beta-hydroxybutyrate levels can range from 0. 5 to 3. 0 mM / L during ketosis from such a diet. You can even get blood ketone test strips and give your own size.
A low-carbohydrate diet limits the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (usually less than 100 grams per day), but beta-hydroxybutyrate levels do 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 fat and only 5% from carbohydrates. The amount of carbohydrates you can consume while in ketosis varies from person to person, but you can generally stay in ketosis by consuming up to 12% of your carbohydrate calories.
Protein intake is also very important. Most athletes said they need to consume large amounts of protein per head, perhaps one of the factors in a failed ketogenic diet.
As we discussed earlier,protein can break down into glucose when consumed in high doses (during gluconeogenesis) and therefore cannot 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 rid of ketosis.
Ideally, your diet should contain about 75% fat, 5% carbohydrates and 20% protein to improve ketogenic status and maintain lean muscle mass."Adaptation" stage in ketogenic diet
If you read the Ketosis literature, you will see a general tendency. People have the most different stage of "adaptation" when they encounter a cloudy mind, feel sluggish and lose their energy. In general, people feel very bad in the first weeks of a ketogenic diet. This is probably due to the lack of essential enzymes in our body to effectively oxidize certain elements.
In order to survive, our body tries to re-wire to use other energy sources and learns to rely only on fat and ketone bodies. Generally, all these symptoms disappear after 4-6 weeks of adaptation to a ketogenic diet.
Ketosis and Athletic Performance: A Review of Scientific Research
Let's look at a few things that can answer this question.
Case # 1The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women between the ages of 24 and 60) on a ketogenic diet for an average of 38 days. . Subjects underwent moderate to intense exercise, and blood count, body composition, and maximum oxygen consumption were measured.
The authors of the study conclude: “Radical carbohydrate reduction did not statistically affect run performance in terms of when workers began to get tired and maximum oxygen consumption, but body mass improved, participants lost 3. 4 kg of fat. and gained 1, 3 kg of lean muscle mass. "
Thus, the study participants lost weight, but did not show a significant change in athletic performance. In addition, the subjects reduced the body's ability to recover.
Case # 2Another study involved 8 men in their 30s with at least 5 years of education. The subjects sat on a 4-week mixed + ketogenic cross diet and did extended stationary bike exercises of varying intensity.
Ketogenic diet, as in the first study, had a positive effect on body composition.
Interestingly, maximal oxygen consumption at anaerobic levels and relative values of oxygen consumption were significantly increased in the ketogenic diet. The increase in maximum oxygen consumption can be explained by a decrease in body weight. However,maximum workload and anaerobic workload were lower after ketogenic diet.
This means thatketogenic diet resulted in weight loss, as well as a significant reduction in explosive power and the ability to train at high intensity. Want to be stronger and train more? Then don't think that a ketogenic diet is a good choice for this.
Work # 3A third study looked at how a 30-day ketogenic diet (4, 5% of carbohydrates) affected performance in the following exercises: leg lift, push-ups, parallel bar push-ups, pull-ups, out-jumps and 30-second jumps. The scientists also measured the body composition of the participants.
Results:
- The ketogenic diet resulted in a "spontaneous reduction in calorie intake" compared to the normal diet.
- No performance loss was found with ketogenic diet exercise, but no performance improvement was found.
As with other studies, there was a significant difference in body weight after the ketogenic diet: participants were able to lose weight. However, we must not forget that the participants selected for this study are already "dry" (about 7% of body fat).
It is important to note that none of these tests looked at the glycolysis process as a source of energy, but rather tested explosive power, the phosphagen system, and muscle fatigue tests.
Training # 4In this study, 5 experienced cyclists performed a maximum oxygen consumption test and a depletion time (TEE) test before and after a 4-week ketogenic diet.
Since this work is long enough, I want to focus only on the performance aspect and muscle glycogen levels. The TEE test showed a large difference between the participants. One subject improved their TEE scores by 84 minutes in 4 weeks, the other showed a 30-minute increase, two subjects decreased by a total of 50 minutes, and one subject remained unchanged:
As for muscle glycogen stores, a muscle biopsy showed that after a ketogenic diet,glycogen stores were almost half the normal values . This fact is enough to confirm that you can already say goodbye to high performance.
Results of research on ketogenic diets
Let's look at the commonalities of these 4 studies:
Improved body composition.Each study resulted in a qualitative improvement in body composition. However, it is an indisputable fact that this is not a spontaneous calorie restriction, but a miraculous effect of a ketogenic diet. Because if you do any research on any diet and body composition, any calorie-restricting diet improves body structure.
In the third study, subjects consumed an average of 10, 000 kcal (minus 333 kcal per day! ) for 30 days less than a normal diet and, of course, lost weight.
It is likely that a ketogenic diet can provide additional benefits in terms of changes in body composition, but studies have not yet shown this.
It should be noted that there is no literature that supports the idea that a ketogenic diet can help build muscle. It only helps to lose weight.
- Deteriorating performance at high intensity loads. The first two studies showed a decrease in the ability of subjects to exercise at high intensity. This is possible for two reasons: first, a decrease in intramuscular glycogen, and second, a decrease in liver glycogen stores during high-intensity exercise.
- Decrease in intramuscular glycogen stores. Studies show that a decrease in athletic performance during high-intensity exercise is a sign of a decrease in intramuscular glycogen levels. It can also negatively affect the recovery of athletes and their ability to grow muscles.
Human Mistakes in Ketogenic Diets
While there is no clear benefit from regular calorie restriction, ketogenic diets can be a good weight loss tool. If you want to lose weight (maybe because of muscle mass), maybe you should try. Now let's look at the mistakes that people on a ketogenic diet often make so you don't make them.
Lack of adequate adaptation phase
Switching to a ketogenic diet can be very difficult for some people. Often, people go through an adaptation phase without completing their diet. The adaptation phase can last several weeks, during which time there is a feeling of weakness, nausea, but after 2-3 weeks the energy level returns to normal.
If you want to try a ketogenic diet, take the time to adapt.
Eating too much protein
As we learned earlier, large amounts of protein can prevent ketosis. People often substitute low carbohydrates with high protein in a ketogenic diet - this is a mistake.
Using a high-intensity ketogenic diet
In high-intensity anaerobic exercise, our body relies primarily on blood glucose stores, liver and muscle glycogen, and gluconeogenesis.
Because ketogenic diets reduce muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to train with high loads.
If you want to train at a high intensity, follow a carbohydrate alternative diet instead of a ketogenic diet.
Ketogenic diets prevent muscle growth
Ketogenic diets can help you lose weight, but you will not gain muscle mass.
CDs will prevent you from training at high intensity and gaining lean muscle mass, so if these are your training goals, it is better to give up the idea of using a CD.
Consuming both protein and carbohydrates together is more anabolic than consuming these foods alone. You reduce carbohydrates in a ketogenic diet. And because you need both carbohydrates and protein for optimal muscle growth, you lose one or both of these essential nutrients.
Conclusion: Ketogenic diets are neither optimal nor effective in building muscle and improving athletic performance. However, they can help you lose weight - just like any other calorie restriction below your personal daily value.