HorseMan7
10th percentile genuis
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Keto dieting in the health and fitness community is a trend that I want to see die. I'm making this post to help newbies who are being misled by keto-tards. I will share some evidence of a low / moderate fat diet being better and also my personal experience with different macros. Hopefully some of you can share your experiences as well.
Evidence of the superiority of higher carb diets
Carbohydrates are uniquely beneficial to recovery, muscle hypertrophy and performance. There is a reason that low fat / high carb diets are the standard for pro bodybuilders. Granted, if you are natty, you will destroy your hormones by going ultra-low fat. But beyond the fat you need for hormones, there is really no benefit to having more fat in your diet and carbs are superior.
How many pro athletes have you heard of doing keto? There are basically none. Carbs are king when it comes to sports performance. You probably know this already. Working out after a high carb meal just feels better than after a high fat meal.
I think looking at what works best for athletes in the real world is the best evidence for all of this. It is difficult to isolate one factor when doing a study. If you are studying one group on a specific diet and another group is on the same diet, but with carbohydrates added, now you are studying two conditions: amount of carbs and number of calories. Likewise, if you control for calories and change the amount of carbs, the other macros need to change in a specific way. You might get a different result with high carb / medium fat/ medium protein vs. high carb / low fat / high protein. This might partially explain why some studies show no difference between performance or body composition on high carb and high fat.
Sources
Effect of carbs on body composition:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Acute effects of carb feeding on workout performance
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
My personal experience with low fat dieting
I got into "keto" dieting and fasting for a period of about 8 months. I'm not sure if what I was doing was strictly "keto" since I was eating a decent amount of protein, probably 180g per day. But I was eating about 50g of carbs per day. I did not count calories, but my weight stayed the same after losing like 10lbs in the first couple of weeks. I assume that was mostly water and glycogen. My goal with this was just to lean out a bit as well as increase my mental focus and clarity. I probably had a bit of body dysmorphia about being too fat. In reality, I was never that fat to begin with. I am 6'3 and around 195-200 and decently muscled normally, if I'm not counting calories or being super strict with my diet.
During this time, my diet consisted of about 8-10 eggs per day, 1-2 lbs of ground beef and salads. I would also eat vegetables that were doused in tallow and baked. I was eating so much grease, I shudder to think about it now. It was really gross. Also, everything I ate was within a 6-hour window. So, I would basically have to stuff my face as fast as possible within that window. It was difficult to do but I also never really felt satisfied.
Honestly, my lifts improved quite a bit during this time. I had been lifting for less than 6 months at the start of this though, so I think this could be attributed to noob gains.
About 2 months into this, I started to also incorporate 48-hour fasts, once to twice a month. There was no noticeable benefit to this. The only thing that would happen is I would get a super anxious adrenaline feeling, I would stop sleeping and I would get extremely cold. I would just binge eat harder during my eating windows. My lifts also stopped progressing after this, despite my weight maintaining.
Eventually I gave up the low carb diet after my energy levels continued to get worse and I kept feeling like shit. I started eating carbs again. Most of the carbs I was eating were white sweet potatoes. Within about two months my weight went up to 220 lbs. This was the fattest I have ever been by far. I kept tracking my weight and eventually it went down without any conscious effort. I kept eating carbs and my weight dropped back down to the usual 195-200lbs. My theory is that I made myself insulin resistant and unable to handle carbs with the keto diet I was doing. Gradually, I regained the ability to handle carbs and now I can eat normally again.
Currently, I am eating roughly 80g fat, 500g carbs and 150g protein per day. I'm feeling really good and maintaining my weight. I think the keto dieting damaged my health. My previous symptoms are greatly reduced now, especially the coldness. I have way more energy and I'm able to exercise without extreme willpower to force myself.
Hopefully, this post will be helpful to someone who is getting into nutrition. Let me know if you guys have had similar experiences with low carb dieting.
Evidence of the superiority of higher carb diets
Carbohydrates are uniquely beneficial to recovery, muscle hypertrophy and performance. There is a reason that low fat / high carb diets are the standard for pro bodybuilders. Granted, if you are natty, you will destroy your hormones by going ultra-low fat. But beyond the fat you need for hormones, there is really no benefit to having more fat in your diet and carbs are superior.
How many pro athletes have you heard of doing keto? There are basically none. Carbs are king when it comes to sports performance. You probably know this already. Working out after a high carb meal just feels better than after a high fat meal.
I think looking at what works best for athletes in the real world is the best evidence for all of this. It is difficult to isolate one factor when doing a study. If you are studying one group on a specific diet and another group is on the same diet, but with carbohydrates added, now you are studying two conditions: amount of carbs and number of calories. Likewise, if you control for calories and change the amount of carbs, the other macros need to change in a specific way. You might get a different result with high carb / medium fat/ medium protein vs. high carb / low fat / high protein. This might partially explain why some studies show no difference between performance or body composition on high carb and high fat.
Sources
Effect of carbs on body composition:
The Effects of Carbohydrate Intake on Body Composition and Muscular Strength in Trained Men Undergoing a Progressive Resistance Training - PubMed
This study's purpose was to compare the effects of different carbohydrate (CHO) intakes on body composition and muscular strength following eight weeks of resistance training (RT) in pre-conditioned men. In addition, we explored the individual responses to different CHO intakes. Twenty-nine...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Acute effects of carb feeding on workout performance
The Ergogenic Effects of Acute Carbohydrate Feeding on Resistance Exercise Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis - PMC
Carbohydrate (CHO) ingestion has an ergogenic effect on endurance training performance. Less is known about the effect of acute CHO ingestion on resistance training (RT) performance and equivocal results are reported in the literature. The current ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
My personal experience with low fat dieting
I got into "keto" dieting and fasting for a period of about 8 months. I'm not sure if what I was doing was strictly "keto" since I was eating a decent amount of protein, probably 180g per day. But I was eating about 50g of carbs per day. I did not count calories, but my weight stayed the same after losing like 10lbs in the first couple of weeks. I assume that was mostly water and glycogen. My goal with this was just to lean out a bit as well as increase my mental focus and clarity. I probably had a bit of body dysmorphia about being too fat. In reality, I was never that fat to begin with. I am 6'3 and around 195-200 and decently muscled normally, if I'm not counting calories or being super strict with my diet.
During this time, my diet consisted of about 8-10 eggs per day, 1-2 lbs of ground beef and salads. I would also eat vegetables that were doused in tallow and baked. I was eating so much grease, I shudder to think about it now. It was really gross. Also, everything I ate was within a 6-hour window. So, I would basically have to stuff my face as fast as possible within that window. It was difficult to do but I also never really felt satisfied.
Honestly, my lifts improved quite a bit during this time. I had been lifting for less than 6 months at the start of this though, so I think this could be attributed to noob gains.
About 2 months into this, I started to also incorporate 48-hour fasts, once to twice a month. There was no noticeable benefit to this. The only thing that would happen is I would get a super anxious adrenaline feeling, I would stop sleeping and I would get extremely cold. I would just binge eat harder during my eating windows. My lifts also stopped progressing after this, despite my weight maintaining.
Eventually I gave up the low carb diet after my energy levels continued to get worse and I kept feeling like shit. I started eating carbs again. Most of the carbs I was eating were white sweet potatoes. Within about two months my weight went up to 220 lbs. This was the fattest I have ever been by far. I kept tracking my weight and eventually it went down without any conscious effort. I kept eating carbs and my weight dropped back down to the usual 195-200lbs. My theory is that I made myself insulin resistant and unable to handle carbs with the keto diet I was doing. Gradually, I regained the ability to handle carbs and now I can eat normally again.
Currently, I am eating roughly 80g fat, 500g carbs and 150g protein per day. I'm feeling really good and maintaining my weight. I think the keto dieting damaged my health. My previous symptoms are greatly reduced now, especially the coldness. I have way more energy and I'm able to exercise without extreme willpower to force myself.
Hopefully, this post will be helpful to someone who is getting into nutrition. Let me know if you guys have had similar experiences with low carb dieting.
