Ketogenic or keto diets, which have been increasingly popular over the years, are known to help lose weight in double-quick time. Many also turn to these very low-carb and high-fat diets to enhance their performance.
In addition to helping lose weight easily, keto diets are also linked to various health benefits. However, many argue that it is nearly impossible to build muscles while on a keto diet since you limit carbohydrates, which promote insulin release that helps create conditions that drive muscle growth.
Yet, you may wonder whether it’s true that low-carb diets hinder muscle growth. To help you know how keto diets benefit you in terms of weight loss and muscle gain, let’s walk you through this cheat sheet.
A ketogenic diet is known to be moderate in protein, high in fat, and low in carbs. The goal of a keto diet is for you to gain more calories from protein and fat and less from carbohydrate sources, hence cutting back your carb intake.
As carbs are reduced and fat level is raised, the body enters a metabolic state known as ketosis. Here, the body starts turning fats into ketones or molecules that supply energy for the brain.
Once your body has become accustomed to a ketogenic lifestyle, your body and brain learn to be efficient in burning fat and ketones for fuel instead of carbs.
The common types of a keto diet include classic keto, which requires a 4:1 ratio of fats to carbs or proteins; modified keto, which is less restrictive; medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which allows higher protein and carb intake; modified Atkins, which means limiting carbs in modified Atkins; and intermittent fasting.
Keto diets offer you many benefits for shedding pounds and gaining muscles. To know more, let’s read on!
Let’s admit it, hunger is the worst side effect of dieting. Therefore, many give up on dieting along the way. However, keto diets are a good option as they help you achieve weight loss in many ways, including boosting metabolism and reducing appetite.
Keto diets usually have food types that fill a person’s stomach up easily, suppressing hunger-stimulating hormones. Likewise, low-carb eating automatically reduces appetite, keeping your weight in check and even reduced.
While results don’t happen overnight, generally, people who follow a caloric deficit of around 500 calories daily may see noticeable weight loss after around 10 to 21 days.
Note that not all fat in your body is the same. There’s a type of fat—visceral fat—that lodges around your organs. Oftentimes, excess visceral fat is associated with insulin resistance and inflammation, thus promoting metabolic dysfunction.
With low-carb diets, this harmful abdominal fat is reduced, allowing you to keep your body and organs healthy while keeping your stomach and belly in shape.
The brain is a person’s powerhouse. It’s what keeps people functioning and performing well. Several studies show that ketones generated during the keto diet cycle give neuroprotective benefits. This implies that they can protect and fortify a person’s brain and nerve cells. With this, a keto diet may even help a person prevent or manage health conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
When you’re on a very low-carb diet, ketones can fuel up to 75 percent of your brain. Other studies suggest that a keto diet prompts an upregulation of mitochondrial genes while encouraging the growth of mitochondrial mass. Such enhance brain cells’ capacity. And with better brain function, your body gets to also power up during a workout or during your attempts to lose weight.
If you want to increase your ketones, consider taking Keto supplements.
When you take healthy food and healthful fats while on a keto diet, you help improve your heart health through cholesterol reduction. A 2017 review once showed that people experienced a significant cholesterol level, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglyceride drop. They also experienced an increase in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or good cholesterol.
With the keto diet, you help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and other heart complications. You also ensure better heart health, allowing you to lose weight without worrying about compromising your most important organs’ health.
Building muscle mass while on a keto diet may be a huge challenge. But it’s not impossible, especially with the best normal strength-building practices.
Muscles typically require a high-carb diet to grow, so it’s crucial to increase your food intake and work out regularly to build more muscles on keto. If you start to train hard with consistency, you can gain muscles over time. Consider weight training as it allows for improved muscle growth. You can also explore compound exercises such as squats and pull-ups that engage many muscle groups. Of course, don’t forget to allot time for muscle fatigue recovery.
Try to also jumpstart your morning with natural supplements like Keto Kick-Start to have the energy that’ll power you through your workout day.
Consider building healthy habits to get you fit and healthy. A keto diet is one good way to lose weight in a shorter period. Likewise, it may be as effective as high-carb diets for building muscle. What’s even better is it can also help you naturally have a reduced appetite, which can boost your weight loss, and maintain a healthier brain and body.
Since it may take several months on a ketogenic diet for your body to adapt, be patient also with the process. Opt for eating plans or approaches that work best for your body—the ones that keep it nurtured. Should you need guidance, consider consulting a registered dietitian.
Consider Supplements such as Ketao
At Ketao our goal is to make low carb and keto living as effective and effortless as possible. Providing you with the information and products, that may assist you in optimizing your energy levels throughout the day.
The name Ketao is a combination of Ke and Tao. Ke standing for “energy”, and Tao standing for “the way” or “the path”.
We are committed to only using the highest quality, effective ingredients in our products, and never use any artificial sweeteners, flavours or colours.
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