Fitness Expert Proves You Can Gain Muscle on Ketogenic Diet – Ajit Patel WeMet
Fitness expert Mike Roussell,
PhD, recalls, ‘The other day, I was on a phone call with a good friend and
fellow strength coach, Joe Dowdell, CSCS, of Peak Performance in New York City.
I told him my current deadlift personal record stood at a respectable 420
pounds but that I aspired to pull a 500. He told me it was “doable.” Great.
Then I threw him a curveball worthy of Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw. I
wanted to add 80 pounds to my deadlift … while following a ketogenic diet. Joe
let out a big sigh. Staying on a ketogenic
diet means eating so few carbohydrates that when your glycogen stores
empty, your body cashes-in on a process called “ketosis” for energy. The carbohydrate
threshold to stay in ketosis will vary by individual, but the guideline for
most folks is fewer than 50 grams of carbs.’ But how can you eat so few carbs
and still build your muscle wellness?
‘I was dead-set on eating fewer than 20 grams of
carbohydrates per day,’ Roussell details. ‘How low is that? One medium banana
would place you over your daily limit! Wait, don’t carbs stimulate muscle
growth? How could this work in the long term? More important, can I add 80
pounds to my deadlift without eating much carbs?
These questions and more piqued the scientist in me. So I set out to find the
answers not only by poring over the scientific literature but through
real-world application on the gym floor as well.’ The question is, then, did he
do it?
‘Carbohydrates create
anabolism largely by setting off a cascade of hormone-driven events,’ Roussell
explains. Chief among these events is secretion of a hormone called insulin
from the pancreas. Many people realise that insulin regulates blood glucose
levels, but insulin is not a one-trick pony. It is so multifunctional that many
experts believe it to be absolutely integral to muscle synthesis—among other
things. For example, one of insulin’s many roles is driving amino acid uptake;
in other words, it gets amino acids out of your bloodstream and into your
muscles. Thus, carbohydrates and the ensuing insulin response obviously have a
great deal to do with muscle growth.’
Roussell comments, ‘It’s clear that carbohydrates
are anabolic. It’s time to circle back to my original deadlift conquest. Was
building strength and muscle possible while on a ketogenic diet? Dowdell’s sigh
notwithstanding, I found that the answer is an emphatic yes! Don’t get me
wrong, being ketogenic
while training hard was no cakewalk. In three and a half months, I packed 80
pounds into my deadlift and pulled a new PR of 500 pounds on my first attempt.
It turns out that while carbohydrates are anabolic,
I am still able to achieve an anabolic feat in the nearly complete absence of
carbohydrates. The human body is an amazing machine, possessing the ability to
make intelligent adaptations to a variety of situations.’
So how did Roussell’s body adapt? ‘In a chronically
low-carb
environment, the body doesn’t follow the normal biochemical rules because it
has to change,’ Roussell notes. ‘It becomes much more efficient with muscle
glycogen, it up-regulates gene expression of certain enzymatic machinery needed
for maximum performance, and it adapts as needed to excel in the presence of
far fewer carbohydrates
and much less insulin. Quite simply, my adventure in carbohydrate-less
anabolism was to prove that you can perform at a high level on minimal
carbohydrate—at least in the short term. Carbohydrates are not required to flip
the protein synthesis switch, but perhaps there are other ways to make the
overall anabolic process more efficient and effective. Does that mean everyone
should adopt a ketogenic
diet? I don’t think it is for everyone (and perhaps not for the long-term),
but it’s still interesting to see what your body can achieve through thick and
thin.’
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