Building muscle on a super low carb diet is definitely possible, there is no doubt about it. But it won’t be easy. The keto diet has a wide range of associations these days—fat loss, muscle build, mental clarity, health and biohacking.
Bodybuilders have been following ketogenic diets as part of show prep for decades, for instance. If you're looking to build muscle while being on a keto diet, you'll need to be very careful and intentional with every choice you make: what you eat, how much of it, and even when you eat it.
We know that getting adequate protein is crucial when it comes to building and maintain muscle mass. But as many lifters have discovered the hard way, that it doesn't mean that eating more protein will automatically lead to more muscle growth.
Eating wildly excessive amounts of protein can actually kick you out of ketosis. This is why the ketogenic diet is usually considered to be a "moderate" protein diet, not a high-protein diet. An effective ketogenic diet should include 15-20 percent of total calories from protein.
Here are three ways to make sure that you're getting the most out of every gram in your diet while following the ketogenic diet.
1: Focus On High-Quality Proteins
A high-quality protein source is one that contains all nine essential amino acids and is specifically rich in the key muscle-building amino acid leucine. Lower-quality proteins, like grains and legumes, aren't usually on the menu for the ketogenic diet anyway.
Solid choices include eggs (both yolk and white), whole-fat milk, Greek yogurt, cheese, chicken, lamb, fish, etc.
One can also add a protein supplement to their diet to receive the optimal level of nutrition.
As much as possible, get your protein from these sources, and you'll give your body more of the amino acids it needs to preserve and add lean muscle mass.
2: Nail Your Protein Timing
In order to receive maximal benefit from the protein you consume, you should eat a specific amount of high-quality protein—enough to reach what is known as the "leucine threshold every few hours. And doing so consistently throughout will yield some fantastic muscle growth results, assuming you're also in an overall calorie surplus and training hard rigorously. You should not skip your protein shakes after workout and before sleeping. MyProtein is amongst the leading health nutrition brands in the world providing high-quality supplements to all fitness enthusiast. Impact whey protein is a convenient high-quality protein that helps grow and maintain important muscle from MyProtein India.
Keep it simple: Focus on eating 5-6 meals per day, each with a fairly consistent amount of protein, so that you can reach the protein threshold of 25-35 grams at each meal.
3: Stay In A Calorie Surplus
Most people embark on a ketogenic journey to lose body fat. But if your body composition goal is to build muscle, a calorie deficit will not help you accomplish it. No matter what type of diet you follow, one thing that is always true is that your muscles need calories to grow!
While you're doing keto, do your best to at least eat a maintenance number of calories. But if you're looking to grow, definitely count calories to the best of your ability to make sure you're in a surplus.
