The bodybuilding community has been able to say one thing, for sure, for many years: Ketogenic diets do work and produce some spectacular results. We’ve been able to say this for years and years–ever since the days of Joe Gold, Bill Pearl and others drank cream by the pint, along with tuna from a can, to get ripped–because the competitor’s physique cannot tell a lie.
But while bodybuilders aren’t anti-carb like many who understand ketogenic diets only in the sense that carbs = bad foods and fats = good foods that deliver them from obesity, or at least that they don’t mix well within an isolated day, it is becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way it’s implemented for aesthetic purposes in our sport. Hopefully, after a few years of experience with ketogenic diets, the general public will begin to understand how to make it work as a mainstay in their lives. We think it’s probably one of the most pivotal, meaningful and important discoveries of 20th century nutrition.
Net Carbs
A certain amount of how these ketogenic diets can be utilized as a means for actual ongoing maintenance, has been introduced to the public, but only in a rudimentary manner that supports a general disinterest in hardcore discipline and actual lofty physique goals. Enter ‘net carbs’. That’s something that bodybuilders just don’t think about. Sure, it’s important to understand how the body actually reads carbohydrates and which ones count and which ones don’t, but mostly, these Spartan goal-driven folks could sit down to a meal of plain tuna and steamed broccoli, every 2 hours, day in and day out, and rarely complain. That’s because food is a means to an end, not the end itself or a reason for living. It’s all about input, output, and causing the body to act in a way that you want it to, when you want it to.
Net carbs are a way for the general public to include some carbs in their diets, depending upon their maintenance tolerance, and feel like a normal person. What counts as a net carb is anything that is sugar or starch in a particular food. What doesn’t count is sugar alcohol and fiber. One is naturally occurring and one is not. These engineered foods are enabling the general public to maintain their 20-30 pound weight loss, while feeling like real human beings.
How Bodybuilders Have Used Ketogenic Diets
Early pioneers of bodybuilding knew that fat and protein definitely did mix and used it to their advantage during the beach blanket bingo hey-day of bodybuilding. Arnold was a part of that, and then ushered in a new era where carbohydrates were king of the jungle gym and were seen as more important to a bodybuilder’s ultimate growth–along with protein–than fat ever could be. Neither were wrong, exactly, but carbs were always a point of trickiness in terms of depletion and loading and many more mistakes were made as a result of manipulating carbohydrates than fats. Still, we saw incredible conditioning in both eras.
When diets like Dr. Barry Sears’ glycemic based ‘Enter The Zone’ became popular in 1995, and Atkins revamped his earlier book into a combinative ketogenic diet called ‘Atkins New Diet Revolution’, ketogenic diets made a comeback and resurgence onto the scene, and bodybuilders slowly began adopting the theory once again. But this time, it was more livable and adapted to the needs of an aesthetic athlete who wanted to drop just fat, not muscle, and take it to the nth degree! It was no longer the old 4:1 ratio of 1930′s ketogenic diets–where 80% of calories came from fats and 20% from proteins. It was more like a balance of 2:3 (40% fat and 60% protein).
But in this day and age, ketogenic diets are much better understood and are used much more correctly than in the days of meat and lettuce and cream. Ketogenic diets can be implemented in a healthy manner, provided the person understands what it’s all about, what the various forms accomplish, and how to use ketogenic diets to best serve dietary and physique goals.
But while bodybuilders aren’t anti-carb like many who understand ketogenic diets only in the sense that carbs = bad foods and fats = good foods that deliver them from obesity, or at least that they don’t mix well within an isolated day, it is becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way it’s implemented for aesthetic purposes in our sport. Hopefully, after a few years of experience with ketogenic diets, the general public will begin to understand how to make it work as a mainstay in their lives. We think it’s probably one of the most pivotal, meaningful and important discoveries of 20th century nutrition.
Net Carbs
A certain amount of how these ketogenic diets can be utilized as a means for actual ongoing maintenance, has been introduced to the public, but only in a rudimentary manner that supports a general disinterest in hardcore discipline and actual lofty physique goals. Enter ‘net carbs’. That’s something that bodybuilders just don’t think about. Sure, it’s important to understand how the body actually reads carbohydrates and which ones count and which ones don’t, but mostly, these Spartan goal-driven folks could sit down to a meal of plain tuna and steamed broccoli, every 2 hours, day in and day out, and rarely complain. That’s because food is a means to an end, not the end itself or a reason for living. It’s all about input, output, and causing the body to act in a way that you want it to, when you want it to.
Net carbs are a way for the general public to include some carbs in their diets, depending upon their maintenance tolerance, and feel like a normal person. What counts as a net carb is anything that is sugar or starch in a particular food. What doesn’t count is sugar alcohol and fiber. One is naturally occurring and one is not. These engineered foods are enabling the general public to maintain their 20-30 pound weight loss, while feeling like real human beings.
How Bodybuilders Have Used Ketogenic Diets
Early pioneers of bodybuilding knew that fat and protein definitely did mix and used it to their advantage during the beach blanket bingo hey-day of bodybuilding. Arnold was a part of that, and then ushered in a new era where carbohydrates were king of the jungle gym and were seen as more important to a bodybuilder’s ultimate growth–along with protein–than fat ever could be. Neither were wrong, exactly, but carbs were always a point of trickiness in terms of depletion and loading and many more mistakes were made as a result of manipulating carbohydrates than fats. Still, we saw incredible conditioning in both eras.
When diets like Dr. Barry Sears’ glycemic based ‘Enter The Zone’ became popular in 1995, and Atkins revamped his earlier book into a combinative ketogenic diet called ‘Atkins New Diet Revolution’, ketogenic diets made a comeback and resurgence onto the scene, and bodybuilders slowly began adopting the theory once again. But this time, it was more livable and adapted to the needs of an aesthetic athlete who wanted to drop just fat, not muscle, and take it to the nth degree! It was no longer the old 4:1 ratio of 1930′s ketogenic diets–where 80% of calories came from fats and 20% from proteins. It was more like a balance of 2:3 (40% fat and 60% protein).
But in this day and age, ketogenic diets are much better understood and are used much more correctly than in the days of meat and lettuce and cream. Ketogenic diets can be implemented in a healthy manner, provided the person understands what it’s all about, what the various forms accomplish, and how to use ketogenic diets to best serve dietary and physique goals.