Muscle Building And Keto: Here’s How You Can Do It!

Often, it is believed that building muscle on a low-carb diet can be challenging. This is because low-carb diets restrict

insulin

release, which prevents the uptake of nutrients in your body. Without sufficient protein absorption, you may not build muscles.

So today, let’s bust some Keto myths and answer your question, “Can you gain muscle on Keto?”

What is the Keto Diet?

The

Keto Diet

is a low-carb, high-fat diet with numerous

health benefits

such as weight loss, blood sugar control and more! It typically involves restricting your

carb intake

to fewer than 50 grams per day while increasing your fat and protein intake.

Consuming fewer carbs helps your body get into Ketosis, where your body burns fat for fuel! Various pieces of research state that following a Keto Diet can help you lose weight and curb your appetite.

Can you build muscle on Keto?

While it is possible to gain muscles on the Keto Diet, various studies suggest it can be slightly challenging due to the lack of carb intake.

A
study
conducted among 25 college men compared the effect of a regular Western Diet and the Keto Diet on muscle building. The results showed that both diets worked just as well.

Other

studies

state that while the Keto Diet helps prevent muscle loss on weight loss, it may make gaining muscle harder.

All in all, it is possible to gain muscle on the Keto Diet with a few easy tricks!

How to build muscle on Keto?

Set calorie goals

Everyone requires different

calorie goals

based on their weight, height, lifestyle, etc. Muscle building generally requires you to consume more calories than what you burn.

Step 1 is to determine your

maintenance calories.

This is the number of calories you must consume to remain the same weight. You can find out this value by using calorie-tracking apps.

Next, in order to build muscles, you must consume 15% more calories than your maintenance calories. Make sure to limit your weight gain to 0.25-0.5% body weight per week. Going overboard may cause fat accumulation!

Protein up!

Proteins

are the building blocks for muscle growth. Consuming 1.6-2.0 grams of protein per kg of body weight is ideal for muscle building. Of course, following a Keto Diet may present some restrictions to this amount.

Consuming too much protein on Keto may push your body into

gluconeogenesis.

In such a condition, excess amino acids in your body will be converted to sugars and kick you out of Ketosis.

While this is true for people who follow a sedentary lifestyle, people who participate in

High-Intensity Workouts

can use the excess sugar to fuel their exercise. Excess sugars will be stored in your muscles as glycogen and will improve your workout performance.

Count Your Carbs

The general rule of thumb for a successful Keto Diet is to consume fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day. On the other hand, muscle-building diets require more carb intake to help fuel your workouts.

Timing your carb intake before your workout can help you achieve the best of both worlds! This technique is called the

Target Keto Diet.

The rule is to save your carb intake for your workout to improve performance while keeping you in Ketosis!

The bottom line

Gaining muscles on Keto can be challenging, but with the right diet and tricks, you can easily achieve your goals. Be mindful of your carb and protein intake every day. Excess of either can kick you out of Ketosis. Alternatively, you can look into following a

High Protein Keto Diet.

This diet is developed specifically for those trying to lose weight and gain muscles.

Of course, no one glove fits all. So do your research and find the best diet for you!

References:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/building-muscle-on-keto#other-factors

https://www.strengthlog.com/build-muscle-on-keto/

https://www.menshealth.com/health/a25924744/keto-diet-carbs-muscle-exercise/