Ketogains

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Hello! Can I ask if anyone here does Ketogains? High protein, moderate fats and low carb whilst lifting (which I love to do).
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  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    Very high protein, well above 200g a day, may inhibit ketosis somewhat, which could affect those who need high ketones for medical reasons. It won't stop ketosis entirely. And it will not generally prevent the benefits that a low carb diet could present to some people, such as improved health or appetite control.
    How are you deriving the 200g per day figure and would that apply to anyone not matter what their body weight or compostition? And you agree that high protein intake inhibits ketosis? Inhibits is probably a better description than "kicks you out of". So, I would concede that.
    I know gaining muscle is work, but low carb is sometimes better for people. Consider those with insulin resistance or CVD. It is not always just about the muscle, or how fast one can bulk for everyone. Only the OP can decide what suits them best.
    Again, "better" in what sense? The discussion is muscle building. Keto is demonstrably suboptimal. To bring in people that are IR or CVD is moving the goal posts. For those people, their priority is (or should be) managing their primary health condition and muscle gains are a secondary concern.

    So, for that group, I wouldn't call muscle building on keto "good". I would call it the only game they have and will likely not produce much. But no one, including the OP asked or stated anything about IR or CVD folks. That was you bringing your own agenda into the discussion.

    To recap, a question was asked regarding ketogains. It was stated that it is a good way to build muscle. It is not. It is suboptimal.


  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    100_PROOF_ wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    nvmomketo wrote: »
    mmapags wrote: »
    The question isn't whether you can gain muscle, btw all muscle is lean, or not. The question is whether keto is a good way to do that. The answer is that it's not. You don't need carbs to gain muscle but they help as they spare protein from gluconeogenesis and allow the body to use it for muscle building.

    Additionally, if you are ingesting enough protein for muscle growth it will kick you into gluconeogeneis and that will likely kick you out of ketosis. Keto is just sub optimal. If it worked well, people in athletics and body building would be doing and they're not.

    That's arguable. It is not widely accepted that gluconeogenesis is protein driven but rather driven by glucose needs (brain, RBCs, etc) which tends to drop the longer one follows a ketogenic diet. Glucose can also be derived from the glycerol backbone of fatty acids. Plus ketosis tends to be leucine sparing too.... I really hope this is researched more in the near future. <fingers crossed>

    Anyways, very high protein diets may slightly lower your level of ketosis, but it generally is not a problem unless you are on a ketogenic diet for medical reasons (like epilepsy or dementia). Supplementing with MCT oil or exogenous ketones would ameliorate that.

    I just think that the fact that a full-time ketogenic diet is not the most optimal way to eat while gaining muscle (CKD or TKD may be better), does not mean that is not not a "good" way to eat while gaining muscle. Simply because it is not "the best" does not mean it is poor. JMO

    ETA there are a few following ketogains in the keto and Low Carber Daily MFP groups. And in ketogains. ;)

    Gaining muscle is hard and slow under optimal conditions. What would be "good" about doing it in a suboptimal (read harder and slower) way?
    And what peer reviewed studies do you have that support your contention of gluconeogenesis, eg, creating glucose from protein to meet the body's needs, would not interfere with ketosis? And why wouldn't glucose being derived from glycerol in fatty acids, if done in enough volume, also interfere with ketosis. These look like some questionable assertions.

    I can't think of one reason why someone would decide to do it the suboptimal route unless they had I.R.
    Sans any medical condition,I just don't see why someone would decide to take the keto route unless they where already indoctrinated into the whole keto is life mindset and believed it was some superior way of eating. For those people who treat it like it's a way of life, they'll recommend keto for everything and anything and imo should be ignored. I once saw a guy try to say that calories don't matter on keto, that it cures a host of ailments and all these other unsubstantiated claims.
    Being keto doesn't negate science. It's not a magical solution to health, weight control and overall well-being even though some believe otherwise ( Sans medical condition). The same rules still apply regardless that people don't want to admit it.
    Why take the harder route if you don't have to?

    You'll get no argument from me on anything you've said above!
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
    edited February 2018
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    mmapags wrote: »
    100_PROOF_ wrote: »

    I can't think of one reason why someone would decide to do it the suboptimal route unless they had I.R.
    Sans any medical condition,I just don't see why someone would decide to take the keto route unless they where already indoctrinated into the whole keto is life mindset and believed it was some superior way of eating. For those people who treat it like it's a way of life, they'll recommend keto for everything and anything and imo should be ignored. I once saw a guy try to say that calories don't matter on keto, that it cures a host of ailments and all these other unsubstantiated claims.
    Being keto doesn't negate science. It's not a magical solution to health, weight control and overall well-being even though some believe otherwise ( Sans medical condition). The same rules still apply regardless that people don't want to admit it.
    Why take the harder route if you don't have to?

    Keto has its science, it just depends on whether or not you're interested in looking into it. I and many others who treat it as a way of life don't go around dictating it as the one and only way for someone to resolve their nutritional / medical problems. Everybody has a diet that has worked for them, and some want to help others. The problem is nutrition conforms to the individual's body; humans have too much physiological and physical variance for there to be one diet that is supreme. What may work for one half of the population, may not work for the other for a wide variety of reasons - physical activity being one, which is actually the topic of this thread.

    In terms of gaining muscle, I've found better results when taking BCAAs and having my workouts consist of short reps with heavy weights. Check out this video about key nutrients in building muscle:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_VFWscxj34

    Dr. Eric Berg is very Keto friendly so you might find some other cool tips on his youtube channel:

    https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123/videos



    Studies and a scholarly article showing that BCAA supplementation does nothing.

    1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27175106
    2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22451437
    3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20110810
    4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15930475
    5) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25429252/
    6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26388782/
    7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28444456
    8) http://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/5/2/36

    And one more to add: https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0184-9

    But I guess if one buys into a sub-optimal diet for muscle gain (keto), it's not a stretch to buy into sub-optimal/ineffective supplement (BCAA) as well.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »

    And one more to add: https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12970-017-0184-9

    But I guess if one buys into a sub-optimal diet for muscle gain (keto), it's not a stretch to buy into sub-optimal/ineffective supplementation as well.

    A flaw I see in your study is that sample size is too small to generalize an entire population:

    Louard et al. [13] used the forearm balance method to quantify the response to the intravenous infusion of a mixture of BCAAs for 3 h in 10 post-absorptive subjects.

    Similar results were obtained by the same investigators when they extended the infusion of BCAA to 16 h in 8 normal volunteers and determined if chronic elevation of BCAAs stimulated muscle protein synthesis [14].

    The key word in that study is BCAAs ALONE. It concludes that taking BCAAs alone has no contribution, but it does support that BCAAs actually enhances anabolism if there is protein involved in the meal. As quoted directly from your study:

    BCAAs may enhance the anabolic effect of a protein meal. For example, the addition of 5 g of BCAAs to a beverage containing 6.25 g whey protein increased muscle protein synthesis to a level comparable to that induced by 25 g of whey protein [23].



    You do understand that when you take in protein, you take in BCAAs, right? That they're part of the composition of whole protein?
  • TyTravis007
    TyTravis007 Posts: 77 Member
    edited February 2018
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    AnvilHead wrote: »

    You do understand that when you take in protein, you take in BCAAs, right? That they're part of the composition of whole protein?

    Correct. The study is regarding the use of BCAA supplements, not protein intake in general. My point is it mainly regards taking the supplement alone (which shows that there wasn't a benefit), versus taking it with a protein meal (by which there was a benefit).
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    Also, cherry-picking from studies is a very misleading tactic. Let's examine the text immediately following the part you referred to above:
    This result suggests that one or more of the BCAAs might be rate limiting for the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis by whey protein, or that the extra BCAAs induced a greater potential for an anabolic response of muscle to whey protein by activating the initiation factors. In either case, the response of BCAAs in conjunction with intact protein is a different issue that the effect of BCAAs alone, since the intact protein provides all of the EAAs necessary to produce an intact protein.
  • AnvilHead
    AnvilHead Posts: 18,344 Member
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    And the study's conclusion:
    Conclusion

    A physiologically-significant increase in the rate of muscle protein synthesis requires adequate availability of all amino acid precursors. The source of EAAs for muscle protein synthesis in the post-absorptive state is the free intracellular pool. Intracellular free EAAs that are available for incorporation into protein are derived from muscle protein breakdown. Under normal conditions about 70% of EAAs released by muscle protein breakdown are reincorporated into muscle protein. The efficiency of reincorporation of EAAs from protein breakdown back into muscle protein can only be increased to a limited extent. For this fundamental reason, a dietary supplement of BCAAs alone cannot support an increased rate of muscle protein synthesis. The availability of the other EAAs will rapidly become rate limiting for accelerated protein synthesis. Consistent with this perspective, the few studies in human subjects have reported decreases, rather than increases, in muscle protein synthesis after intake of BCAAs. We conclude that dietary BCAA supplements alone do not promote muscle anabolism.