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09/03/09
Ketogenic dieting is all the rage these days. Nutritional gurus like Dave Palumbo have helped a slew of athletes overcome years of mediocrity and come in to steal some top-level shows sporting completely ripped and very large physiques. Guys that looked average for ten years suddenly look huge and diced – all because they switched to the use of high protein, very low-carbohydrate dieting. It’s not a new concept, but it’s one that has taken on a lot of fans in recent years. Let’s examine the advantages of Ketogenic dieting.
The first advantage, and perhaps the most obvious, is that you will get ripped – and quickly! Ketogenic dieting will help you drop 5 pounds of water and fat for the first two weeks, and you’ll see veins you never knew you had. Another advantage of Ketogenic dieting is that you don’t feel the mood swings experienced with traditional dieting. After those initial few days of irritability and sluggishness, your body begins feeding off ketones for energy, so you return to near your previous lifting ability. While you’re dieting using the Keto method, don’t let it get you down when your muscles lose a great deal of hardness and fullness. This is very much normal.
Bodybuilders using artificial testosterone will see an immediate increase in hardness, all over their body. They will recover faster, which can be an issue when using fewer carbs. Also, thanks to increase red blood cell count from the AS use, they will have increased protein uptake. In other words, they will get more from the food they eat. This leads to a situation where the increased number of protein grams will actually become very usable, instead of being flushed out in your urine as is the case with standard diets. It is recommended you not go too heavy with the doses, as your immune system may be somewhat compromised as your body adapts to the lower carbohydrate presence.
If you are a natural bodybuilder, Ketogenic dieting is still going to help you get in your leanest condition yet. But there will be a cost – and that cost will be in the form of muscle. You’re going to burn a great deal of muscle without carbohydrates. Be prepared for this condition. Much of it will return when you ‘fill out’, but some will not. Ketogenic diet is risky for the natural bodybuilder.
The bottom line is that any sort of diet (calorie reduction schedule) is going to result in a loss of fat. No diet works for everyone, and nobody is immune to success from any diet. Sure, athletes who use anabolic steroids will have key advantages in retaining muscle when they use a Ketogenic diet, but that doesn’t mean naturals won’t find success as well. Train hard, get your sleep, and stick to any plan, and you will see the body fat drop away. There will be differences if you choose not to use anabolic steroids, and you won’t attain the same level of conditioning without shedding more muscle, but that choice is yours.
