Information provided in this presentation is intended for your general knowledge only and does not constitute medical advice. I am a medical physician at the Reno Orthopaedic Cinic and the owner and developer of Dr.
Ni’s OC2. OC2 is a combination of vitamin D3, calcium citrate, magnesium and creatine monohydrate for total frame support. There’s a lot of buzz about the ketogenic or keto diet. The keto diet is a diet that is very low in carbohydrate intake and high in fat and protein.
The idea is that on a ketogenic diet it’s easier to lose and maintain weight by using a fat source instead of a carbohydrate source for energy fueling your cells. But for athletes, sports medicine has traditionally favored carbohydrates.
We’ve recommended for years that you get in carbohydrates before, during, and after exercise or competition. This is because carbohydrates are a fuel that’s readily available to our muscles and allow them to contract.
So what happens when athletes change their fueling from carbohydrate or glucose-based, to fats or ketone based diets? Well it turns out that the research is showing that a keto diet may help you if you’re an endurance athlete but work against you if you do high-intensity or anaerobic sports.
In two recent studies athletes eating a high carbohydrate diet outperformed athletes eating a low carbohydrate diet when tested in activities requiring short bursts of energy. But interestingly, those same athletes taking in a high carbohydrate diet underperformed against athletes taking in a keto-like or low carbohydrate diet when tested in endurance activities.
Plus, athletes on a low carbohydrate diet also showed improved exercise training and lower body fat content. So it seems pretty clear that if you’re not an endurance athlete, eating a low carbohydrate diet may actually harm your athletic performance.
But if you are an endurance athlete does it make sense to switch to a keto diet to gain the benefits that we see in the research? I’d say the answer is “Not so fast.” For one thing there haven’t really been enough studies to draw those concrete conclusions.
The numbers of individuals studies have been low and there have been some alarming effects that have been seen in some of the research, including elevated LDL (cholesterol) levels and loss of lower extremity strength in studies that have gone on for longer than 12 weeks.
Plus it appears that muscles may not recover as well when fueled primarily by ketones. So the answer to the question “Will keto benefit me as an endurance athlete?” still remains unclear. I hope I’ve answered some of your questions about the current state of our knowledge about keto and athletes.
And if you’re interested in learning more about sports performance please check out my related topics on exercise, nutrition, creatine and other topics.
