Ketogenic Diet

Hi all, so basically I am an active 32 year old male, I do weight training and enjoy 'gains' as much as the next guy. I've noticed in the last year though that my abs are slowly starting to disappear as my body fat is getting harder to keep low. I'm assuming for my age this is a pretty natural deterioration of my metabolism etc.

3 weeks ago i decided to give the ketogenic diet a go. What can I say...the results are fantastic. I'd say within a week I was over any sugar cravings, headaches and other side effects touted all over the internet, and my and were already looking the best they had looked in years! On top of that, my dandruff and dry itchy skin, that I have battled with since about the age of 12, has completely gone, i am sleeping SO much better now, my energy levels are pretty good, my joints feel good, my appetite has diminished to the point where I have to set reminders on my fitness pal app to remember to eat, and I hardly ever fart and my bowel movement is excellent. Basically in short, I never want to go back to eating carbs.

However, I do want to keep gaining more and more mass and muscle. Without substantial carbs I appreciate this is very difficult, so in short, how do I increase my carb intake to the point where I am clearly going to lose being in ketosis, but yet still feel like this? Is there a minimum amount of carbs I need to help build muscle optimally but yet not going over that minimum will still help me feel great, or is low carb not enough and I actually have to be in ketosis to feel as good as I'm feeling now?

From what I understand, protein builds muscle.

But you cannot build muscle (easily) if you're experiencing a caloric deficit.

I would increase your protein intake along with your total calories and see how that helps.

The keto diet is likely to send you to an early grave. Read "The Starch Solution" by Dr. John McDougall.

Short answer: You can't.

Ketogenic diets are great for (temporary) cutting diets as maintaining fat and protein levels is essential for preserving lean mass (muscle) while losing fat.

However, if you're actively trying to build muscle, as a male, you're ideally looking at a 4:1 carb to protein ratio, and you should be consuming your lean body mass (pounds) in protein (grams). Meaning if you've got 125 pounds of lean body mass, you should be eating 500g of carbs a day. Carbs are extremely important in building lean mass.

One thing you can try is intermittent fasting, which can give you the benefit of a ketosis during your fasting window while affording you the energy to gain a little bit of muscle during your eating period. It will be slower than if you simply adopted an all-day consumption plan, but that's probably the closest you'll get to a ketogenic diet while building muscle.

Carbs get a bad rap. You absolutely need them for weight lifting and you will feel the difference if you don't ingest them. Maybe add them slowly until you find a good balance.

Although, some metabolisms do very well on ketogenic diets. I can't drop an ounce on that type of diet and I feel like sh*t. But my mom and godmother lost a lot of weight on it. But they are/were Greek and I (adopted) am not. Plus my godmother was diabetic. My boyfriend did pretty well on it, too. But he's also got eastern blood.

props to you. I did that diet for 2 weeks and literally doubled my mileage on the trails then I got lazy and wanted ice cream... from the book I read ... it said a max of 50. maybe invest in some ketone strips and see how many carbs you can intake to remain in ketosis? I should get back on it honestly. fastest performance increase of my life.

I'm like you, MizzNatalie. I responded very well to keto type eating. I still implement a lot of it. It keeps blood sugar low and prevents insulin and glucose spikes. I believe that simple carbs/sugars are really not good for you.

Keto is great for fat loss, as for building muscle it's much harder. Insulin has got to get into the game somehow in order to build muscle; and that's where carbs come into play. That's why there's cyclical keto diets and targeted keto diets. Look into those if you want to maintain the low carb lifestyle.

good! I really gotta get back on it!

I'm 240 pounds and have about 12% body fat. I keto about two weeks at a time and then have a carb day. I'm probably lucky to hit 300 grams of carbs on those reload days. On keto days, I usually take in 50 grams of carbs or less. I have been doing this for two years now and rarely deviate although I will have a piece of birthday cake or something carby that my SO makes (she is an awesome cook). Even if I come out of ketosis, it's easy for me to get back in. I feel much better on a keto diet. I am about ten pounds heavier than two years ago and my body fat percentage is slightly better.

I was pretty happy at 230 and about 17% body fat. I started keto to drop body fat and did that and also gained about 5 pounds each of the two years that I have ketoed. I changed little in my lifting.

My experience is that you can gain muscle mass and drop body fat with keto. I always approached changes in diet and exercise by giving something a month or two before either continuing or changing things up.

If I were you, I would keep track of your measurements, lifting results, etc. I would do intermittent keto with maybe re-carb day every week or two and after a month or so, see if you are progressing how you want and adjust accordingly or change nothing.

It's easy to get caught up in trying to build mass optimally but you can only learn what works for YOU through experimenting and experience.

Best of luck, you sound like you are on the right track.

don't have any muscle-building advice to add, just wondering whether you've ever suspected candidiasis.

scalp and skin problems plus flatulence might point to it. i know that's not what you're asking, i just noticed you are seeing an improvement in that regard with less carbs, and you sound excited so i'm guessing your energy levels are up too.

if you display multiple symptoms, maybe get a simple test done, just to be sure.