Expert Tips On How to Build Muscles On Keto Diet

There is a lot of misinformation revolving around the ketogenic diet. Many people do not know how to get into ketosis. People also claim that you need to eat a lot of carbs to gain muscles and that the keto diet affects performance.

With all this misinformation about the diet, one might get discouraged easily and think that you cannot get the health benefits of keto without having to lose muscle mass. However, if you understand well what your body needs and the food to take to replace the limited crabs it is possible to get the health benefits of the diet. Below are expert tips to help you gain muscles on a ketogenic diet.

7 Tips for Gaining Muscles On Keto Diet

Have Patience

You need to be extra patience when getting into the keto diet. During the first weeks of the keto diet, your body will go through several metabolic changes to become keto-adapted. During this time, you will experience symptoms like a decrease in motivation, performance, and strength. 

These symptoms are temporary, and they should go away after 1- 2 weeks. Also, you may end up losing some water weight due to the restriction of carbs in your diet. As time goes by you will know how to get into ketosis, and your body will become used to being in ketosis.

Strength Train Regularly

The best way of gaining muscles while on keto is by strength training. When you strength train and follow the keto diet, you will be able to retain your lean muscle mass. Also, this type of training can prevent you from adding weight even when eating a lot of food. The kind and amount of strength training you do will entirely depend on your goals.

However, the recommended amount of training one should do is 2-3 sessions of resistant training every week. You can also add some aerobic training in your sessions. Some of the exercises which you should be performing include lunges, bench presses, leg abductions, and weighted squats.

Eat Enough Protein

If you want to add muscles eating proteins is the most critical thing that you can do for your body. Eating enough protein will also prevent muscle loss if you are suffering from caloric deficiency. Protein is vital in the keto diet because it gives the body glucose through gluconeogenesis. If you want to maintain or gain muscles in a keto diet, you should eat 2g of protein per kilogram.

Eat Enough Calories

When it comes to gaining muscles when on the keto diet, eating enough calories is essential. Your body requires calories to make new tissues. When you do not eat enough calories, you will underperform and experience fatigue most of the times. 

If gaining muscles is your primary objective, then you should make sure that you consume calories which is above the average maintenance level. Consume about 20-50 more calories than you would need to maintain your current weight. You can get these extra calories from protein foods and keto fats such as olive oil, coconut oil, butter, ghee, eggs, and fatty fish.

Use Supplements

One thing that you can do to avoid being fatigued and not recovering from the exercises is by the use of supplements. You can use supplements such as electrolytes or exogenous ketones. Exogenous ketones are supplements which come from outside the body. 

They imitate the ketones which are produced by your body when you have adapted to the keto diet. Some of the benefits you get from ketone supplements include controlled hunger and cravings, weight loss, supplying the brain with energy, boost your performance and recovering quickly from the exercises.

Taking Care of Your Hormones

Hormones like insulin, cortisol, testosterone, and human growth hormone play a significant part in the regulation of fat and muscle mass. For example, the human growth hormone stimulates cell production, growth and cell regeneration making it an essential hormone to increase for bodybuilders. 

One reason why the keto is ideal for bodybuilders is that it increases the human growth hormone levels because of how it imitates fasting due to the limitation of carbs. However, many bodybuilders claim that it is necessary to eat carbohydrates because they stimulate the insulin hormone which helps in building muscle.

It is true that carbs stimulate the insulin hormone, but when we dig deeper into biochemistry, it is not necessary for one to take carbs to gain muscles. The best way in which you can guarantee that your hormones function well is by having a sleeping pattern, meditation and workout schedule. 

By knowing the time, you are supposed to sleep, meditate and workout your body and mind will be tuned and ready for the time when you will be conducting all these activities.

Drink Plenty of Water

Drinking water will not help you to gain muscles directly, but it will help you in your bodybuilding success especially if you are using the keto diet. If you lose 2.5% of the water of your body weight, your physical performance will be affected, and if you lose 2.8% water of your body weight, your brain function will be affected too. 

You can easily lose water from your body within the first week of the ketogenic diet if you do not know how to get into ketosis. The water is lost due to the carb restriction in your body. If you are not careful of the amount of water you drink during this time, it will be easy for you to get the keto flu. 

To avoid getting the keto flu make sure that you drink at least 2.7 litres of water every day if you are a woman and if you are a man you should take 3.7 litres of water every day. You should also hydrate extra for the amount of water you will lose during the carb restriction and workouts.

Conclusion

Many people do not know how to get into ketosis. Being in ketosis is not as hard as people think. All you need to do is to limit your carb intake, eat enough proteins and eat healthy fats. The above tips will significantly help you in gaining muscles if you are already in ketosis. If your body is not yet fat adapted give it time to get used to the new diet.