How to Gain Muscle on Keto Diet: The Essential Guide

If you’ve decided to try out the keto diet, you probably hope to get some of the myriad health benefits it claims to make. The ketogenic diet is designed to put the body in a state of ketosis. When your body is in ketosis, it is burning fat as a fuel source instead of running on carbohydrates. The touted benefits of keto include weight loss, boost energy, and minimize blood sugar swings.

While several people use it to help manage their weight, some hope to gain muscle on keto. So, just in case you’re one of those people, we’re going to cover what precisely the keto diet is and how the keto diet and Personal Trainer San Diego can actually help you to gain muscle.

 

What is the keto diet?

The keto diet is a high–fat, low–carb diet that’s usually followed by increased protein intake.  

It was basically created to help reduce the frequency and severity of seizures for those who have epilepsy. More recently, it‘s been used as a viable weight–loss diet. The keto diet is focused on the goal of reaching ketosis and reducing insulin production. Ketosis is a state our bodies go into when we are, so carb depleted that our dietary fat or fat stores are utilized for energy.   The body breaks down fat to produce ketones which can enter the energy cycles to produce energy. It generally takes around 3–4 days of a deficient carb diet to reach ketosis.

 

Can you build muscle and lose fat on keto? While not directly related to muscle building per se, the keto diet and Personal Trainers San Diego may also help you get leaner and retain more muscle mass (especially in age-related loss of muscle mass or inactivity). This is due to the loss of carbohydrates, making it easier to maintain the calorie deficiency you need to lose body fat. Besides this, your protein intake will remain high, helping to maintain muscle mass.    

Notably, as you experience metabolic adaptation to a ketogenic diet, you may undergo decreased exercise performance. However, even this seems to even out over time, although individual response varies, and some people do better on a low carb diet, and some do better on a high carb diet. The muscle may also appear “flat” or “smaller” due to a reduction in glycogen and water, but the actual tangible muscle hasn’t changed.  

 

Foundations of Muscle Growth

There are basic, effective methods of building muscle, and those are still relevant to the keto diet. Stick to these foundations of strength-building while you’re eating.

1. Resistance Train—Hard

You can eat whatever you want, but if you’re not training hard at the Gym Near Me, you’re not going to gain any muscle. Weight training under the observation of a personal trainer will give you the most significant yield in muscle growth, and compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups (like squats, deadlifting, and pull-ups) will help you grow muscle faster.

 

To gain muscle, you must develop volume and include multiple set programs for the best results. However, just usually increasing workout intensity is crucial to gain muscle.

 

2. Time Your Protein (and Carb) Intake

Eat protein at every meal—don’t keep it all for dinner. This is because eating 100 grams of protein in one sitting will quickly decrease your ketone levels, throwing your state of ketosis out of whack. Consistency is key. As for your carbs, many experts suggest eating your entire day’s allotment right before your training session. However, check with a personal trainer near me if this is right for you: it depends on your goals with the diet.

 

3. Sleep

No sleep, no growth. Most of your recovery occurs when you’re dead to the world, and messing with your sleep schedule will mess with your gains. That’s because healing hormones, like testosterone, are released in your sleep, which helps to grow muscles. (Getting enough sleep is essential to your overall health, too—who couldn’t make an excuse to sleep in an extra 30 minutes?)