If you’re looking to cut bodyfat without cardio or muscle loss, your best option may be to follow a ketogenic diet, drastically reducing carb intake and increasing protein and dietary fat.

Author: Jeb Roberts, MA

Mention ketogenesis to most bodybuilders, and you’ll be met with either a blank stare or a rant about low-carb diets. Complaints range from complete lack of energy (After a week I couldn’t get my ass off the couch!) to total disregard for health (Isn’t that a high-fat diet? What about your heart?). But what you’ll rarely find amidst the warnings is a reliable definition of the diet and how it’s achieved. So why is this misunderstood method still kicking around after 90 years? Because despite the myths and misconceptions that surround it, it works — both reliably and quickly.

We’ve all heard the party line when it comes to fat loss: Keep caloric intake below caloric expenditure, kick fatty foods to the curb, and crush the cardio every day after work until you’ve seen every episode of Seinfeld at least twice from a treadmill. But what happens when you toe the line, put in the work and stop seeing results? Or, more accurately in most cases, what recourse do you have when the established fat-loss wisdom gets you only 90% of the way there? The answer, for bodybuilders or anyone who’s simply hell-bent on being beach ready, is to push fat loss into overdrive with a little help from the ketogenic diet.


What Is Ketosis?


While many might use the terms “ketogenic” and “low-carb” interchangeably, not all low-carb approaches are as extreme — or as effective — as the ketogenic diet. “Technically, a ketogenic diet refers to any diet that contains fewer than 100 grams of carbohydrate per day,” says Lyle McDonald, CSCS, who literally wrote the book on The Ketogenic Diet, and who’s spent years researching the ins and outs of ketogenesis for bodybuilders and other athletes. The ketogenic diet was first formalized in 1921 as a treatment for childhood epilepsy, and though numerous studies have proven its effectiveness for that purpose, researchers over the years have also noticed that the diet has a pronounced impact on fat loss. Whereas other so-called low-carb diets, like the Zone, call for macronutrient ratios of up to 40% carbohydrate, the ketogenic diet favors the extreme low-carb range, filling in the rest of a dieter’s calories with high protein and moderate fat. The goal of this approach, according to McDonald, is for the bodybuilder to derive energy by burning ketones in place of carbs.

“Ketosis occurs when the body starts producing ketones — a byproduct of fat metabolism in the liver — in a high-enough concentration that the ketones start being used for fuel instead of carbohydrate,” McDonald says. These ketone bodies can be thought of as nature’s back-up plan. In times of starvation — when a human consumes little or no carbohydrate for energy — the body turns to plan B and converts stored fat to ketones for energy purposes, which the body can burn in place of carbs. “Ketones are produced almost exclusively in the liver when fat oxidization, or burning, is ramped up to high levels due to low carbohydrate intake,” McDonald says. “These ketones then play a number of roles in the body. Perhaps the most important, in terms of dieting, is that they can replace glucose as a fuel in tissues such as skeletal muscle, liver, and to some degree, the brain.”

But while the evolutionary purpose of ketogenesis might be to keep you alive and functioning during times of starvation, the process has practical benefits for bodybuilders looking to cut fat in a world of excess. According to McDonald and other ketogenesis experts, the ketogenic diet burns fat more quickly and effectively than any other method for most people. Even better, studies have shown that the diet serves as a natural appetite suppressant, and while it won’t necessarily support muscle growth, it helps bodybuilders maintain maximum muscle during cutting phases. “As long as protein is sufficiently high and training is kept low-volume and heavy, muscle loss won’t occur in ketosis,” McDonald says. “There’s a rapid water and glycogen loss that occurs in ketosis, and it can make people feel flat and stringy — they think they’re losing muscle when they aren’t. But as soon as they replenish carbs, they’ll blow up.” Naturally, these benefits are available only to bodybuilders who master the ins and outs of this occasionally complex method, so you’ll need to pay close attention to your body’s signals as you carve a path to ketogenic fat loss.


Reaching Ketosis


While the rest of the world frets over dietary fat intake in a futile effort to shed pounds, bodybuilders have long known that managing carbs is the real key to getting cut. It therefore makes sense that many bodybuilders, whose goal is to showcase every shredded sinew, eventually gravitate to the lowest of low-carb approaches. Though there are varying degrees of ketosis, McDonald recommends that first-timers start by aiming for 100 grams of carbs a day and filling in the rest of their protein and dietary fat according to their needs. Like most other trainers, he suggests at least 1–1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass, though he concedes that protein can be a limiting factor in dieters who are trying to stay ketogenic. “Protein can impact the development of ketosis, since about half of dietary protein can be converted to glucose,” he says. “But even if it limits ketosis, it’s still more important to get adequate protein to avoid muscle loss.” With carbs severely restricted and with protein only somewhat limited to avoid interfering with ketosis, the rest of a dieter’s calories will need to come from fat, though McDonald cautions against relying too heavily on macronutrient ratios. “I don’t care about the percentages — they tend to be misleading,” he says. “But in general, a properly set-up ketogenic fat-loss diet usually ends up being about 40–45% of calories from protein, maybe 50% fat and the rest carbs.” While some might think 50% of calories from fat looks dangerously high, McDonald points out that as long as your total calories are in check, you won’t be at risk. “In a caloric deficit fat content doesn’t really matter,” he says. “Some early studies found that blood lipid levels were horrible on high-saturated-fat ketogenic diets, but only when the subjects weren’t losing weight. On a cutting diet, fat intake really won’t matter much.”

Like any training or dieting method, the ketogenic experience can be as complex as you want it to be, and variations of the diet have evolved to suit different goals. McDonald explains: “Because ketosis is defined as the presence of ketones in the blood above a certain concentration, there’s definitely a cutoff point. But it’s possible to get into deeper levels depending on the degree of carbohydrate restriction. A diet containing exactly 100 grams of carbohydrate will probably just skirt ketosis, but a diet with zero carbohydrates is more likely to cause a deeper degree of ketosis and a higher level of ketones in the bloodstream.”

In addition to varying degrees of ketogenesis depending on net carb intake, there are also ways of manipulating carb timing to serve specific goals, resulting in standard, cyclical and targeted diets. “A standard ketogenic diet,” according to McDonald, “is simply low carbohydrate all the time. It’s most appropriate for inactive or obese folks, or for folks who only do low-intensity training.” But for bodybuilders and other athletes who endure grueling training sessions, this extreme low-carb approach will eventually deplete all muscle glycogen, meaning performance will suffer. “These folks have to find some way to add carbohydrates to their diet while remaining ketogenic,” McDonald says. Hence the development of cyclical and targeted versions of the diet.

“Cyclical ketogenic diets include periods of high-carbohydrate intake that can last from 1–3 days,” McDonald explains. “Done right, this carb surge can cause an anabolic rebound and even muscle growth as the dieter comes out of the low-carbohydrate phase.” But periodic bursts of carb intake aren’t always the answer. “Not everyone responds well to big carb loads,” he says. “Either they feel terrible or they end up regaining some fat. Enter the targeted ketogenic diet, which simply places carbs around training only. So on heavy weight-training days, a bodybuilder might consume 25 grams of carbs with some whey protein 30 minutes before their workout and another 25–50 grams with protein afterword. The rest of the day and any off-days would be kept low-carbohydrate. This way you get the benefits of being in ketosis while still being able to train intensely.”

The bottom line is that if you train hard, you’ll need to find a way to occasionally refeed carbs that doesn’t take you out of the ketogenic fat-burning zone and doesn’t leave you feeling fatigued. As for the type of carbs you should choose, McDonald claims it’s not an issue. “When carbs are that restricted, the source isn’t relevant,” he says. “But most will find that focusing on vegetables with small amounts of fruits, which refill liver glycogen, will help keep them full. A small amount of starches and grains will be fine, but with carbs set at 100 grams a day there isn’t much room for them.”


To be continue...

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