What is a ketogenic diet

What does science say about ketogenic diets and why they are probably not helpful in "drying out".

There are many different diets, many of which even have pretty nice names, such as the South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers, Atkins Diet, HCG Diet, Volume Diet, Paleo Diet, IIFYMYour macros ”-“ if it fits your KBJU ”), carbohydrate reloading (carbohydrate reloading), ketogenic diet, which will 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.

The most misunderstood aspect of the ketogenic diet is how it affects athletic performance and the 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 diet is so low that the body simply has to use fatty acids and the ketone body metabolism to get energy. Everything seems simple, but let’s understand this process to understand why our body goes into a state of ketosis.

Our body needs 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 1, 800 kcal per day (you can calculate your personal rate on a fitness calculator) to produce enough ATP and stay viable. At the same time, the midbrain requires about 400 kcal per day and uses almost only glucose for energy. This means that a personneeds to consume 100 g of glucose per day, just to maintain normal brain function.

What has that got to do with ketosis? Through a ketogenic diet, we get almost all the carbohydrates from the diet, which means that our brains are depleted of glucose. But we need our brains to work somehow. Fortunately, the liver stores glucose in the form of glycogen and can donate a small portion of it to our brain to make it work. Our liver can store an average of 100-120 grams of glucose. With a critical lack of carbohydrates for brain function, the liver allows us to function normally throughout the day. After all, the liver glucose reserves can not be replenished quickly, carbohydrates are not only needed by the brain, which is why 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 intended to feed the brain. Unfortunately, our muscles cannot break down glycogen and insert it into the bloodstream to eventually feed our brain due to the 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 travel through the bloodstream to our brain and to other tissues 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 combines with oxaloacetate and begins the Krebs cycle.

During ketosis, our liver uses so much fat and energy to produce excess acetyl-CoA ketone bodies (beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetic acid, and acetone).

Gradually, with a regular shortage ofcarbohydrates, the body reaches a state where this process takes place constantly and the level of ketone bodies 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 does it differ from a "low carb" diet?

Low carb diet and ketogenic diet are not the same.

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 to get energy.

During a ketogenic diet, our body reaches the point where ketone bodies are produced in large quantities and used as fuel. In ketosis caused by such a diet, the level of beta-hydroxybutyrate can be from 0. 5 to 3. 0 mm / l. You can even buy blood ketone test strips and measure your own.

Low carbohydrate diet limits the amount of carbohydrates in the diet (often 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 low in fat and low in carbohydrates.

In a traditional and strict ketogenic diet, 70-75% of daily calories should be taken in fat and only 5% in 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 carbohydrates and stay in ketosis.

It is also very important to get protein. Most of the listeners thought that they had to consume large amounts of protein, perhaps this is one of the factors in the failure of ketogenic diets.

As we discussed earlier,protein in high doses can be broken down into glucose (during gluconeogenesis) and you will no longer be able to ketosis.Basically, if you consume more than 8 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight, then that amount will be enough to get rid of ketosis.

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

Phase of "adaptation" to the ketogenic diet

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

For our survival our body tries to use other sources of energy and learn to rely only on fat and ketone bodies. Usually, after 4-6 weeks of adapting to a ketogenic diet, all these symptoms disappear.

Ketosis and Athletic Action: A Review of Scientific Research

Let’s look at some of the studies that may answer this question.

Study # 1

The first study involved 12 people (7 men and 5 women aged 24-60 years) who were on an arbitrary ketogenic diet for an average of 38 days. Subjects conducted moderate and intense exercise, measured their blood counts, body composition, and maximum oxygen consumption.

The authors of the study themselves concluded: "Radical reduction of carbohydrates did not statistically affect the running work, judging by the time when the subjects began to fatigue and maximal oxygen consumption, but the body mass improved, participants lost 3, 4 kg of fat gained 3 kg of muscle. ”.

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

Study # 2

Another study involved about 8 men in their 30s who have at least 5 years of training experience. Subjects were on a 4-week mixed + ketogenic cross-diet and engaged in long-term exercise on a stationary bike with varying intensities.

The

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

Interestingly, the relative values ​​of maximal oxygen consumption and oxygen consumption at the anaerobic threshold increased significantly during the ketogenic diet. The increase in maximum oxygen consumption can be explained by a decrease in body weight. However,maximal workload and exercise were less than the anaerobic threshold after the ketogenic diet.

This means that theketogenic diet has led to weight loss, but also a significant reduction in explosive power and the ability to exercise at high intensity. Want to be stronger and train harder? Then do not think that a ketogenic diet is a good choice for you.

Study # 3

A third study looked at how a 30-day ketogenic diet (4, 5% of carbohydrate calories) works on the following exercises: Hanging Leg, Laying on the floor, Laying on the floorStretch, stretch, jump and 30-second jump. The scientists also assessed the body composition of the participants.

Here are the conclusions:

The

1. ketogenic diet resulted in a "spontaneous reduction in calorie intake" compared to the usual diet.
No loss was achieved during exercise on the ketogenic diet, although no improvement in performance was found.

After the ketogenic diet, a significant difference was observed in body composition: participants were able to lose weight. It should be noted that the participants selected for this study were already quite dry (about 7% of body fat).

It is also important to note that none of these tests looked at the glycolysis process as a source of energy;

Study # 4

In this study, 5 experienced cyclists performed the Maximum Oxygen Consumption and Exhaustion Time (TEE) test after and after a 4-week ketogenic diet.

Because this is a fairly long study, I want to focus only on performance and muscle glycogen levels. The TEE test showed a huge difference between the participants. One subject improved TEE scores by 84 minutes in 4 weeks, another showed a 30-minute increase, and two subjects dropped by a total of 50 minutes, and one subject remained unchanged:

Regarding muscle glycogen stores, muscle biopsy showed thatglycogen stores were almost half normal after a ketogenic diet. This fact is already enough to prove that you can say goodbye to high performance.

Results of the Ketogenic Diet Research

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 debatable that this is a miraculous effect of a ketogenic diet rather than a spontaneous restriction of calories. Because if you do research on any diet and body composition, any diet that limits calories will improve body composition.

  In the third study, subjects consumed an average of 10, 000 fewer calories (minus 333 calories per day! ) over 30 days than on a normal 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 not yet shown this.

  It should also be noted that there is no literature to support the idea that a ketogenic diet can help you build muscle. It only helps in weight loss.

• Deteriorating action with high intensity loads. The first two studies showed the subjects' ability to train with high intensity. This is possible for two reasons: first, a decrease in muscle glycogen and second, a decrease in liver glycogen stores during high-intensity exercise.
• Decreased muscle glycogen stores. Studies have shown that a decrease in athletic performance during high-intensity exercise is a sign of a decrease in muscle glycogen levels. It can also negatively affect the recovery of exercising athletes and increase muscle size.

Mistakes People Make in Ketogenic Diets

Although regular calorie restriction has no obvious benefits, ketogenic diets are a good way to lose weight. If you want to lose weight (maybe through muscle mass), maybe you should give it a try. Now let’s look at the mistakes that people with a ketogenic diet often make to avoid them.

1. Lack of adequate adaptation phase

   It may be very difficult for some people to switch to a ketogenic diet. Too often, people in the adaptation phase stop dieting without completing it. The adaptation phase can last for several weeks, during which time weakness is felt, consciousness is cloudy, but after 2-3 weeks the energy level normalizes.

   If you want to try a ketogenic diet, then devote a lot of time to adaptation.

2. eating too much protein

   As we have already learned, too many proteins can prevent ketosis. In a ketogenic diet, people often replace low carbohydrates with high proteins, this is a mistake.

3. Using a high-intensity ketogenic diet

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

   Because ketogenic diets reduce muscle glycogen levels, it is very difficult to exercise with a large load.

   Try a carbohydrate alternative diet instead of a ketogenic diet if you want high-intensity exercise.

4. Ketogenic diets prevent muscle growth

   Ketogenic diets can help you lose weight but gain muscle mass.

   CD will prevent you from exercising at high intensity and gaining lean muscle, so if you are aiming for these goals during training, then it is best to give up CD practice.

Taking both protein and carbohydrates together is more anabolic than consuming only these nutrients. Reduce carbohydrates during a ketogenic diet. Since you need carbohydrates and proteins for optimal muscle growth, you are lacking in these essential nutrients.

Conclusion: A ketogenic diet is 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.