My experience with Ketogenic diets.

Over my many years of competing I have tried many different methods of diet and combinations of diet and cardio and diet with no cardio, I have tried ketogenic diets a couple of times when getting ready for contests and researched the methods.

What are Ketogenic Diets?

Ketogenic diets are characterised by;

- Ultra low carbohydrates approximately 10% to 15% of calories come from carbohydrates.

- High fat of approximately 55% to 60% of dietary calories.

- Moderate Protein of approximately 25% to 35% of dietary calories.

Note: this is by calories and not grams. The calories in each gram of fats is higher than proteins and carbohydrates.

The idea of ketogenic diets is to reduce carbohydrates to such an extent that insulin is lowered to the point that the body goes into a state of ketosis or produces ketone bodies for energy by the metabolism of fatty acids.

After a period of 2 to 3 days on such a diet your brain that usually doesn’t absorb ketone bodies now starts to become pervious to ketones. In other words starts to allow absorption of carbohydrates.

It is suggested that those on ketogenic diets follow a 5 and 2 ratio. This is 5 days of Ketogenic eating and then 2 days of high carbohydrate eating to recharge the metabolism. The ratios of carbohydrates are reversed for 2 days And the calories increased.

It is suggested that extended periods of ketosis can lead to down regulation of the thyroid gland and a decreased metabolic rate.

The elephant in the room with ketogenic diets is that you still need to be in calorie deficit in order to lose fat.

Energy Levels on Ketogenic Diets

From my own experience the first 1 to 2 days feels ok because you still have carbohydrates stored as glycogen in the liver and the muscles.

The next 1 to 2 days is spent suffering headaches as your body adapts to low carbohydrates and starts to adapt to ketosis.

On the final 2 days the headaches are gone as the body adapts to using ketone bodies. The energy levels are low but manageable. I would describe the feeling as feeling as if you don’t have enough energy to care about much.

I definitely found sleep quality terrible on ketogenic diets was poor. Especially with the headaches.

Training Days on Ketogenic Diets

In my experience, training on ketogenic diets varies from day 1 to day 5.

After a weekend of high carbohydrates you feel a little lethargic on Monday from having a lot of carbohydrates although the muscles pump up great during workouts.

On Tuesday you normally feel the most energetic. so this can be the best day for legs.

On Wednesday you feel a little lethargic and headachy as your body adapts to ketosis.

On Thursday and Friday you feel quite tired and you are looking forward to having some carbohydrates. most of your energy is gone by 30 to 45 minutes into the workout. The rest of the workout is now a mental battle.

If you do train on your high Carbohydrate days you will feel flat earlier in the week because you have not given your glycogen stores a chance to replenish. It will however be a great workout.

The use of caffeine was almost useless on day 3 to 5 as the adrenaline released with caffeine does not release stored glycogen as theoretically there is very little. In fact caffeine made me feel lightheaded especially when training.

Results

Many people have touted the benefits of ketogenic diets over the years but I never experienced the results that many have achieved.

I have used ketogenic diets on my clients with great affect. In my experience it depends on the ethnicity of the person and also the body type. I found the ketogenic diets worked better on endomorphs than mesomorphs and certainly didn’t work with ectomorphs.

I found that carbohydrates are the best macronutrients to change during a leaning cycle. I also found keeping fats moderate and protein moderate worked best. Then cycling carbohydrates depending on body type and metabolism.

Ketogenic Diets and Natural bodybuilders

The use of ketogenic diets for natural bodybuilders takes away the anabolic properties of insulin which can be muscle sparing.

The lowering of carbohydrates lowers thyroid secretion and results in a reduction of the metabolic rate and hence your ability to burn calories.

Moderate macronutrients including Carbohydrates can be more beneficial for natural bodybuilders.

Ketogenic diets and Obese people

The original ketogenic diets were created and used by Atkins and the initial reason was to reduce insulin secretion in people with insulin resistance. By reducing carbohydrates there was very little insulin secreted and the up and down sugar levels were avoided.

It also allowed obese people to still eat high fat meats that they enjoyed which helped adherence to a diet but also prevented the consumption of soft drinks and high carbohydrate foods.

The results were apparently quite good with obese people losing weight and fat. But like many diets that are Different to the proposed 5 food groups or healthy eating diets by governmental organisations there was opposition.

Would I use Ketogenic diets?

In extremely obese people I have used adaptions of ketogenic diets with good results. As the clients have lost weight I have slowly added carbohydrates back into their diets.

It is actually difficult to follow ketogenic diets because most fast food contains, bread, potato, rice, soft drinks. To eat out and have high fat and moderate protein means skipping many of the normal fast food places and do careful searches through restaurant menus.

It is easier to follow low calorie diets with moderate macronutrients than low carbohydrates

If you have any questions regarding ketogenic diets please feel free to Ask in the comments.

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