Ketogenic Muscle Building
Do you feel incredibly sleepy and lethargic whenever you eat carbohydrate rich foods? Yes, then this Ketogenic Bodybuilding Diet will be ideal for you. You may be among the individuals out there who simply don’t tolerate carbohydrates in their diet. To help you achieve you goals you would have to follow a lower carb diet plan, which would help you feel better. The drawback? It can be harder to build muscle mass while using a very low carbohydrate diet because of the fact you aren’t providing your body with the fuel energy it needs to perform each and every muscular contraction. Well, I am going to show you exactly how to overcome this with this ketogenic Bodybuilding diet plan. You will however need to make some adjustments. this targeted ketogenic diet plan tends to work very well for those who are intolerant to carbs but do want to sustain intense workouts and build lean muscle. You’ll eat a very low carbohydrate diet all throughout the week and then right before and after the workout program, carbohydrates will be added which will help to fuel the body and resaturate muscle glycogen stores. The end result? You build muscle and feel great as you do. Let’s show you how to set up a targeted ketogenic diet so that you can start supporting your intense gym training with proper nutrition. Continue reading >>
Build Muscle Without Myth: 3 Body Building Beliefs To Avoid
Believe me, after spending many years heavy in the fitness industry, I’ve witnessed more fad fitness trends come and go than I’d like to admit. I’ve also watched many once revered fitness beliefs get debunked and shredded into myth. Sure, it might take time for a fad fitness trend to get busted - but, thanks to science, the truth is eventually revealed. But, interestingly, the individuals most reluctant to letting go of muscle building and fitness myths are often times personal trainers and exercise instructors, hung-up on the false beliefs and mental dependence to routine. And, some how, even after many years of scientific “debunking,” many fitness myths have managed to float around gyms and health clubs - myths that hold you back when it comes to building muscle. So, in this episode, I’m going to unlock the top three muscle-building myths that you should avoid. Myth 1: Heavy weights are required to build bulk It’s certainly true, lifting heavy things will add bulk to your body. But, there are more ways to build muscle. Ann excellent alternative to strictly relying on heavy weights is simply using light weights (or body weight) and increasing your reps. For example, one study compared the effect of high reps and low reps on muscle growth, comparing sets performed with 80 percent to complete muscle failure with sets performed to 30 percent to complete muscle failure. It turns out that load isn’t the big gun, but simply whether or not a muscle is actually worked to failure and or fatigue, and in this study, high reps and light weights stimulated just as much muscle growth as low reps and heavy weights. So yes, this means you can, for example, build chest muscles by skipping three sets of eight reps on a bench press, and instead doing a few sets of high-re Continue reading >>
I Like To Lift. Is The Keto Diet A Good Idea For Me?
The keto diet sounds stellar in theory: By optimizing your diet you can reprogram your body so its metabolism burns primarily fat—known as ketosis—rather than sugar. Even better: The keto diet maximizes fat and protein, and includes as little sugar as possible. But there's one catch: You have to all but banish carbs—we're talking less than 5% of your daily calorie intake—to get your body's fat-burning furnace firing at full capacity. The bigger problem: Whittling down carbs and sugars takes a gargantuan amount of self-control. And to be honest? In the transition period, you're gonna feel like crap. "Carbohydrates provide 90% of the brain's fuel," says Jim White, R.D., a certified exercise physiologist and owner of Jim White Fitness and Nutrition Studios in Virginia Beach. And if you're lifting a ton, the keto diet can backfire. You want to get great workouts in to see results, but most guys start dragging when they drop their carb intake that low. Your workouts can drop in intensity and efficacy, and your willpower often drops as well. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done Yet, ardent keto diet supporters argue once you get "over the hump" you'll feel, look, and perform better. To help you de Continue reading >>
The Keto Diet With A Twist For Muscle Growth
The Ketogenic Diet is a fast-growing trend – but it’s not something new. And while the trend is popular with health nerds and weight loss advocates, most don’t even know what ‘ketogenic’ means, and simply go for ketogenic products with ketones in them that’ll help put them in ketosis faster. The original Keto Diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet primarily used as a therapeutic treatment in pediatric epilepsy. It is focused on burning fat rather than carbohydrates, as carbohydrates found in food are regularly transformed into glucose – which is essential to fueling brain-functionality. But since this is a low carb diet, fat is converted into fatty acids and ketone bodies. These ketone bodies reach the brain and replace glucose in fueling the brain. A high level of ketone bodies in the blood is what puts your body in the state known as ‘ketosis’. An even earlier account of the Keto Diet mentions it being used for fasting. And that’s exactly the reason why it is popular today among people who try to lose weight or want to do a detox. With this concept in mind, let’s see how the keto diet is used for bodybuilding. So, if the carbohydrates are restricted enough that your body is forced to switch your metabolism and get used to burning fat and not carbs – you enter ketosis. But why should you go for it? Give up sugar – which is no different from a drug by how the cravings and sugar withdrawal manifest. Fat for energy instead of carbs – you know what this means? You won’t need a ‘cut diet’ because you’re going to be constantly shredding and reduce body fat. Switch your body’s craving to a healthier choice. Now let’s take a look at how you should properly go into ketosis without self-sabotaging: PATIENCE & COMMITMEN Continue reading >>
Building Muscle On Keto: Can You Build Muscle On A Ketogenic Diet?
He wasn’t overweight, but wanted to lose some fat and gain some muscle while he was at it. And, after reading a bunch of articles, he was convinced that a ketogenic diet was the best way to go about it. Google around for information on ketogenic diets and muscle growth, and you’ll come across the many great and wonderful things that happen when you cut carbs from your diet. Fat will be lost. Muscle will be gained. You’ll recover more quickly, feel less sore, and get stronger faster. Critics of the diet say the exact opposite. Ketogenic diets limit your ability to train hard. Trying to build muscle without carbs is like Batman patrolling the streets of Gotham without his utility belt. There’s absolutely no way, they say, to add muscle while you’re in ketosis. As it turns out, both sides can bring data to the table to support their point of view. SIDE NOTE: If you want a basic overview of the ketogenic diet, as well as more information about the pros and cons, Jeff Cavaliere explains more in the video below. The Ketogenic Diet and Muscle Growth Fans of keto dieting point to research showing that low levels of muscle glycogen don’t have an adverse effect on your performance in the gym [1]. That lifting weights with low levels of muscle glycogen doesn’t impair the anabolic response to resistance exercise [2]. And that the consumption of carbohydrate has no effect on muscle protein synthesis above and beyond the consumption of protein alone [3]. On the other hand, keto critics claim that low carb diets limit your ability to train hard [4]. That lifting weights with low levels of muscle glycogen dampens the post-training anabolic response [5, 6]. And that carbs are anti-catabolic, playing a key role in preventing the breakdown of muscle tissue [7]. Who’s right Continue reading >>
Can You Build Muscle On A Low Carbohydrate Diet?
Meet my brother Zach Greenfield. He’s been following my Superhuman Food Pyramid for the past 6 months. For anyone who doubts that you can build muscle on a low carbohydrate diet because you don’t have enough “fuel”, my brother is living proof that you can. And no, it doesn’t require shoving a bunch of acidic, ammonia-producing proteins down the hatch. Instead, all you need is a high fat intake (and nothing over 0.7 grams per pound of protein). In a moment, I’m going to show you some more pictures of Zach, and give you a sample daily diet of what he’s been eating. But first, I want to give you a few additional resources, since I haven’t been shy lately about the fact that I also eat a low carbohydrate diet, as do many of the clients I advise and athletes I coach. For example, a few weeks ago, I released the podcast: Is It Possible To Be Extremely Active and Eat A Low Carbohydrate Diet? I’ve also written the book Low Carbohydrate Diet For Triathletes, and produced these articles about how to avoid typical recommended carbohydrates dosages and instead eat a higher fat diet: -Should You Eat Carbohydrates Before Exercise? –How I Ate A High Fat Diet, Pooped 8 Pounds, And Then Won A Sprint Triathlon. –The Hidden Dangers Of A Low Carbohydrate Diet –10 Ways To Do A Low Carbohydrate Diet The Right Way Want more proof that you can build muscle on a low carbohydrate diet? Here’s a few more pictures of my brother: Eliminate fatigue and unlock the secrets of low-carb success. Find out how in The Low Carb Athlete - 100% Free. Sign up now for instant access to the book! Here’s a sample daily meal plan (Zach is 6’5″, about 230 lbs): Breakfast: 4 eggs cooked in coconut oil with side of spinach and a piece of fruit Snack: Half a can of full fat coconut milk Continue reading >>
- The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus
- The interpretation and effect of a low-carbohydrate diet in the management of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
- Pre-diabetes goes into remission on higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet (Zone diet balance)
Mythbusting: Training On A Keto Diet
There’s a number of myths, misconceptions, and misinformation floating around that are confusing a lot of people about the ketogenic diet. They’re teaching that when you’re training, whether for strength or for endurance, that carbohydrates are necessary in order to get the best results. This is not true, and I’ll tell you why. You Need Carbs To Build Muscle People that tell you this don’t understand how muscle building really works – it’s entirely possible to be gaining muscle mass while on keto. In a simple way, the 3 easy steps to build muscle are: Eating enough protein – For mass building between 1.0 – 1.2g / pound of LEAN body mass. Eating a calorie surplus – You can’t build muscle without eating more calories than you need, and these come from fats in a ketogenic diet. Training correctly – You need to promote hypertrophy in your muscles. Are carbs good for building muscle? Of course they are – they promote insulin release and help restore glycogen in the muscles. With carbs you gain mass quicker, but that’s because you’re also gaining fat. What exactly is glycogen? It’s a molecule that our bodies use as energy. What exactly does glycogen do? Wikipedia explains it nicely: In humans, glycogen is made and stored primarily in the cells of the liver and the muscles, and functions as the secondary long-term energy storage (with the primary energy stores being fats held in adipose tissue). Muscle cell glycogen appears to function as an immediate reserve source of available glucose for muscle cells. Other cells that contain small amounts use it locally as well. As you can see, glycogen is being used as a secondary source of energy, where fats are being used over it. Once your body has become adapted to using fats (you’re in ketosis), then Continue reading >>
Take Your Training To The Next Level With Ketosis
One of the most popular critiques of a ketogenic diet – a diet that’s high in fat and low in carbs – is that it isn’t good for athletes. The argument is usually that you need carbs to produce glycogen, a stored form of sugar that fuels your muscles. As a result, most doctors and trainers suggest high-carb diets for athletes. If you’ve been working out while eating Bulletproof, Paleo, keto, or any other variation on a high-fat, low-carb diet, here’s some good news: brand new research shows that you not only don’t need carbs for athletic performance, you can actually gain an advantage if you cut them out. Let’s talk about how ketosis can kick your athletic performance into a higher gear. Why you don’t need carbs to train hard A groundbreaking new study out of UConn found that low-carb endurance athletes perform just as well as high-carb endurance athletes, if not better. The results challenge nearly 50 years of research saying the opposite. Until now, most studies have concluded that you top out at around 10% of energy recruited from fat [1] and for the rest you rely mostly on glycogen, a form of sugar stored in your muscles and liver. That’s the main reason high-carb diets have been the standard for athletes for so many years. With a low-carb diet, your glycogen stores empty quickly, you run out of fuel, and you start breaking down your muscles for energy. Right? Well, maybe not. If you teach your body to prefer fat for fuel you can work out intensely without any problems, according to this new study. The paper’s authors measured the performance of ultra-endurance runners who regularly run upwards of 100 miles. Here’s how they set it up: Half of the participants ate low-carb (<20% of calories from carbs) for 6 months The other half ate high-carb ( Continue reading >>
Macro Calculator
Body Composition Set your current weight, in pounds or kilograms, and your bodyfat percentage. (How to visually estimate bodyfat %) Activity Level (not counting exercise): Set your usual activity level. This does not include additional exercise like gym, running, etc. If not known, choose Sedentary. Choose "Custom" to set your TDEE manually. Multipliers for activities are taken from Chapter 8 of "Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism, 5th Edition" Daily Calories Set your goal to get your recommended calorie intake. If you used the Exercise Info section above, then you can compare calories for those days that you exercise and those that you don't. It is not recommended to go over 25% deficit for fat loss or over 15% surplus for muscle gain. Daily Exercise Info If needed, set your exercise information for those days that you will be exercising. (Click here for Kcal / min calculations). This will allow you to compare calorie limits on those days that you exercise against those that you don't. Activity Minutes Kcal burned / min Total Kcal burned Weights Cardio Other Daily Macros Adjust your protein ratio: To maintain muscle, leave protein ratio between 0.69 to 0.8. It is not recommended to drop below 0.69 or muscle loss may occur. To gain muscle, the protein ratio should be between 0.8 to 1.2. There is normally no advantage to consuming more than 0.82g/lb (1.8g/kg) of protein per day to preserve or build muscle once you're past the novice level as a natural trainee. Source. Adjust the carbs and fat grams to reach daily calorie goals. If doing a Standard Ketogenic Diet, carbs should be set lower than 30g: It is suggested you count carbs as TOTAL for all foods, except for green veggies and avocado, on those count as NET. Protein Ratio Macronutrients Macro Grams Kcal per gra Continue reading >>
Diet 911: Ketosis For Dummies
Dear M&F, I’m trying to see my six-pack. I’m following a ketogenic diet, but my weight loss seems to have slowed down. Can you help me speed things up? —Wayne F., KS Ketogenic diets (around 50 grams of carbs per day) are extremely effective for getting lean because you reset the body’s enzymatic machinery to use fat as its primary fuel source in the absence of carbs. I see three problems with your diet that are certainly causing your fat-loss plateau—too much protein, not enough good fat, and residual carbohydrates. Play Video Play Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Remaining Time -0:00 This is a modal window. Foreground --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Opaque Background --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window --- White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan --- Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Default Monospace Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Sans-Serif Casual Script Small Caps Defaults Done To break your plateau, pump up the fat in your diet to about 50% of your total daily calories and reduce the protein to 30%–40%. The rest of your calories will come from vegetables. Traditionally, bodybuilders opt to get their protein from tuna and lean meats such as chicken breast. However, on a diet like this, you should switch to darker meats and oily fish. Eating salmon, chicken thighs, lamb, and lean beef allows you to get your protein and fat in one source. The last issue is your consumption of “residual” carbohydrates—the carbs you’re not even aware you’re eating, like those in nuts and meal-replacement shakes. It’s OK t Continue reading >>
Does The Ketogenic Diet Work For Strength Training?
If you haven’t seen it thrown around Reddit, you might have heard it ballyhooed by a gym bro: ketosis just works, bro! You get to eat all the bacon and cream you can stomach, shred fat, maintain muscle, and still dominate your sport. The very, very high-fat ketogenic diet is one of the hottest trends in nutrition, but while there are some success stories in endurance athletes, there’s very little evidence in strength sports. It may be delicious, but is it a smart pick for your next meet? What Are We Talking About, Exactly? Your body kicks into ketosis when carbohydrate intake is so low that the body doesn’t want to use it as a fuel source. Typically, that happens when fat makes up 60 to 70 percent of overall calories, protein 20 to 30 percent, and carbs are under 50 grams per day. It usually takes less than a day for your body to start producing ketones for fuel — a sure sign is when when your breath starts to smell of acetone, a ketosis by-product. (Incidentally, it kind of stinks. Like a mixture of fruit and nail polish remover, in which acetone is a key ingredient.) “If you look at one of the main fuels the body can burn, carbohydrates and fat are the main two, and a layer down are the sort of ‘subfuels,’ lactate and ketones,” says Dr. Mike T. Nelson, CSCS, an adjunct professor at the Carrick Institute whose PhD focused on metabolic flexibility. “Historically, ketones have not shown up in the body in enough quantities for the body to use unless you’re in starvation,” he explains. “But you can get there via what’s called a ketogenic diet. When you do that, your body will start producing ketones, which can then be used for fuel. Then you’re in a state of ketosis.” Though first suggested as a therapeutic tool by the Mayo Clinic in the 1920s Continue reading >>
How To Exercise On A Keto Diet
Following several requests from my readers, I will be sharing my thoughts on exercise and nutrition that is specific to those of who stay physically active and follow a keto diet. In this post, I'll try to cover the basic facts and myths about training on a ketogenic diet. This post will not cover details of exercise nutrition (e.g. whether to eat carbs before or after exercise which is not as straightforward as you may think), essential supplements, specific types of training or my personal exercise routine. These topics are covered in this post: Keto Diet Nutrition & Exercise: Carbs - and many more will follow in my future posts. So let's start with some basics of training on a keto diet. The "Exercise More and Eat Less" Dogma When you ask people what is the purpose of exercise, the most common answers are: to lose weight (body fat) to get fit and stay healthy to look and feel good to build muscles and strength When your goal is fat loss, the most common mistake is to go on a calorie restricted diet and add more exercise, usually prolonged cardio, in an effort to lose weight. When this approach fails, most people simply decrease their calorie intake and take on even more exercise. By doing so, most become physically and mentally exhausted with no real weight loss. The more they stick to this approach, the more like they will overexercise and/ or overeat, putting an increasing amount of stress on their body. The side effects of that are accelerating the ageing process of their cells and increasing the level of chronic inflammation. This approach is simply not sustainable and can harm your body. Years before I started following a low-carb approach, I used to spend hours exercising every week. In fact, I used to go to gym almost every day for an hour or more, usually doi Continue reading >>
Can You Build Muscle On A Ketogenic Diet
Few topics in bodybuilding seem as divisive as the keto diet. Some love being in ketosis and believe ketones to be a superior fuel source to glucose while others claim that following a keto diet is unnecessarily restrictive and even dangerous. The truth is that the ketogenic diet is perfectly safe for almost everyone and even has therapeutic uses. It is very effective at treating epilepsy after medicine has failed and has been shown to help mitigate the symptoms of dementia caused by alzheimer’s disease. There is even evidence that when combined with a relatively high caloric restriction, a ketogenic diet can shrink tumors and may possibly kill off cancer cells. But what about ketosis for the average healthy individual? Is the ketogenic diet appropriate for a bodybuilding lifestyle, in particular for gaining muscle? First lets delve into what ketosis really means and the variations of the ketogenic diet. Take a peek at the ketogenic food period. Ketosis is the process your body goes through when glycogen stores are depleted and you are not consuming carbohydrates to replenish them. Typically, after a few days of being in this glycogen-depleted state your body will get the picture that no more glucose is coming so it better find a new fuel source. This is when the liver begins to produce ketone bodies from fatty acids which will enter the bloodstream and be used much the same way glucose would be. Once carbohydrates are reintroduced into the diet and glucose enters the bloodstream the body will stop producing ketones and resort to using the glucose for energy once again. There are a few different approaches to take when it comes to ketogenic diets. Standard Ketogenic Diet SKD is the traditional low-carb ketogenic diet. You consume high amounts of fats, moderate amounts Continue reading >>
- How to Build Muscle with Diabetes?
- The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus
- A cure for diabetes: Crash diet can REVERSE Type 2 in three months... and Isobel and Tony are living proof that you CAN stop the killer disease
Ketogenic Muscle Building
For years, I was told, and I believed that it was impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. The reason for this thinking was a belief in the incorrect calorie hypothesis. If the calorie hypothesis was true, the only way to gain muscle would be to have a calorie surplus, and the only way to lose fat would be to have a calorie deficit. Since math is…math, then it is a logical impossibility to be in a state of both surplus and deficit at the same time. But since the underlying paradigm is incorrect (we don’t lose fat by restricting calories), it is very possible to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. All it takes is a little bit of discipline, some heavy stuff, and a pig-headed devotion to the ketogenic lifestyle. The only way that we put on muscle is to increase the stress on our muscles to the point where they must grow in order to accommodate the stress. Excess calories don’t do that. Lifting very heavy things does that. When you stress your muscles, you break them, and the body builds them back up bigger, so that they can handle the stress. It is important, however, to have enough dietary protein to heal the injured muscle cells. So if you are attempting to gain muscle, you will need to check your protein levels to make sure you getting enough to build the muscle. At the same time, while building muscle, if you are eating correctly (high fat and very low carbs), you will burn through your body fat. But you’ll also recover quicker, feel less sore, and increase strength faster. So what should you do to build muscle? Well, the answer to that question has filled shelves and shelves of books. But I’ll simplify it. Heavy, compound movements. That simply means using the heaviest weights you can move, and using movements that stress large areas Continue reading >>
How To Gain Weight On Low Carb Or Keto
Do you want to gain weight? Given how most nutrition articles focus on fat loss, maybe you feel in a minority there. The usual advice for weight gain is to eat a higher amount of carbohydrates to “bulk up” and adopt an exercise program. Unfortunately it often results in mainly gaining fat mass, and is not necessarily healthy. This page will examine how to gain weight the healthy way, while staying on a low-carb diet, and has the following subsections: Low-carb for weight gain? While most people see a low-carb diet as a weight-loss diet, this is not necessarily true. Low carb tends to lead to weight loss for people with excess weight, due to increased satiety and fat burning. However, low-carb foods are very nutrient dense, and can assist lean weight gain in people who are underweight. Eating low carb, and eating when hungry, can be considered a weight-normalizing diet (or lifestyle). 1. Why do people want to gain weight? It’s true that most people today are looking to lose weight, but some also want to gain weight. While the majority just want to add a few extra pounds to a skinny frame, others wish to build muscle and increase in size. So, what are the reasons people want to gain weight? That depends on the goal, but here are several: Gain more strength Sporting objectives For better metabolic health (muscles burn more fat) Combat aging (muscle-density loss is a natural side effect) Improve self-confidence To possibly improve overall health (in those who are too skinny) All of these are understandable aims where weight gain could possibly benefit someone’s life. Problems caused by pressure to gain weight Unfortunately, this desire for weight gain often causes problems. This is especially the case in young men, with more than 8.5% of people extremely concerned a Continue reading >>
