A recent review study published in Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care analyzed research on ketogenic diets, low-carb diets, weight loss, insulin regulation, muscle formation, endurance exercise, and more. It’s a comprehensive summary of what we know about the intersection of low-carb diets and muscle gains.
The review suggests that limiting carbs can increase protein oxidation, thereby limiting the availability of essential amino acids—which are necessary to stimulate optimal muscle protein synthesis and promote recovery.
Authors note that keeping up with a low-carb diet (eating fewer than 130 grams of carbs or less than 26% of total calories from carbs per day) for 8 to 12 weeks can further limit essential processes that impact the growth of muscle cells—specifically in the case of anaerobic exercises like weightlifting.
In other words, severe carb restriction can be detrimental for those regularly performing high-intensity exercise—especially when continued beyond a week or two.
This being said, following a ketogenic diet can be incredibly beneficial for some folks. Research shows that this low-carb eating pattern can help reduce seizure frequency in people with epilepsy and improve key markers of metabolic health when followed for six to 12 months. So there’s certainly a case for going keto under some circumstances; it’s just not a one-size-fits-all solution (like any eating plan, really).
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