High Fat Diets Like The Ketogenic Approach May Be Worse For Muscle Growth

I'll be brief because I know you're busy - but science suggests a ketogenic diet may not be the best for muscle growth.

First of all for those who don't know, a ketogenic diet involves a high fat, low carb and adequate protein approach to eating. 

I've spoken before about how some ketogenic diet studies suggesting more muscle growth are generally just because of the carb up subjects get at the end - but this data I'm about to present is a little more unflattering for the eating approach.

Research into 7 young healthy male volunteers led to the authors discovering that an "anabolic resistance" in the form of muscle signalling and protein synthsis was evident after a lipid infusion, whereby a "complete supression of muscle 4E-BP1 phosphorylation" was observed (1).

Effectively, the fat infusion meant the ideal anabolic environment wasn't created - 4E-BP1 is a "downstream component" of a key muscle growth pathway called mTOR (2).

Futhermore, other researchers weigh in the findings that a high fat diet does decrease protein synthesis, and may lead to a decrease in muscle mass and the response to growth stimuli, whilst interfering with the key muscle building pathway I mentioned above (3).

Let's bring in these authors:

"High-fat diets are known to decrease muscle protein synthesis, the adaptation to overload, and insulin sensitivity. We show that a high-fat diet activates the unfolded protein response.These findings suggest that components of the ER stress pathway might contribute to a decrease in muscle mass and the response to growth stimuli. Palmitic acid, like other well-known ER stress inducers, triggered the unfolded protein response and also led to a decrease in protein synthesis and the activity of mTORC1."

In other research, a diet high in saturated fat saw the decrease in muscle PGC-1alpha expression (a gene in your muscle activated by exercise) by 43% after a week, which then presisted for more than 11 weeks (4).

Now this was a rat study, granted, but it still warrants further investigation, particularly given the alarming data into human beings I presented above! 

And in terms of fat loss, the link in paragraph two also highlights why there's no fat loss advantage with the ketogenic diet.

This data also lends support to the idea that just "eating whatever whenever" without tracking intake whilst trying to grow muscle may not be ideal. For example, all the copious amounts of fat consumed on a "dirty bulk" may just hinder optimal muscle gains.

Currently, there's no solid data that suggests a ketogenic diet is superior to a standard diet approach containing a balance between protein fat and carbohydates, for muscle growth and fat loss.

Some subjects swear they experience superior satiety on a ketogenic diet, and prefer it for that reason. So even if it IS mental, and you prefer that approach, then that's fine, stick to it! 

But if you have a choice, don't jump on this diet thinking it may bring superior muscle growth and fat loss results to an otherwise "normal" balance of protein fat and carbs.

But the end choice is ultimately yours, and one you must be able to stick to and feel the best on, whilst obtaining the best results!

"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!" 

Let me tailor YOUR perfect diet plan!

References

(1) Stephens FB et al. Lipid-induced insulin resistance is associated with an impaired skeletal muscle protein synthetic response to amino acid ingestion in healthy young men. Diabetes. 2015 May;64(5):1615-20. doi: 10.2337/db14-0961. Epub 2014 Dec 18.