preview

Ketogenic Diet Research Paper

Decent Essays
Open Document

The ketogenic diet has been trending among scientists and athletes as a method of improving physical performance and decreasing body weight. A ketogenic diet consists of high fat (>60% of energy) and low carbohydrate (<10% of energy) diet with adequate protein. This diet can induce a metabolic condition called “ketosis,” which increases levels of circulating blood ketone bodies (1). Many competitive athletes in endurance sports maintain a ketogenic diet with the concept that a low carbohydrate-high fat diet will increase the rate of free fatty acid metabolism during exercise, while preserving muscle glycogen stores for later use during the most demanding part of the exercise. One key difference between fat and glycogen metabolism is that more ATP can be generated rapidly from carbohydrate than fat oxidation. Glycogen breakdown yields 1.0-2.0 mol ATP/min while free fatty acid oxidation yields only 0.40 mol ATP/min. Several studies …show more content…

(2017), 42 untrained subjects of varying age, BMI, and sex maintained a ketogenic diet without caloric restrictions for 6-weeks. Although results showed a significant weight loss and no impact on muscle mass among subjects, this diet had a slight negative impact on physical performance including endurance capacity, maximum work load, and faster exhaustion. Researchers measured endurance using VO2peak and found a significant decrease in VO2peak by 2.4%. Subjects’ maximum work load decreased significantly by 4.1% and more subjects reported perceived exhaustion. One explanation for the increased reports of exhaustion may be due to decreased glycogen stores in muscles from low carbohydrate intake, which also leads to less fluid retention explaining the weight loss. To compensate, the body enhances capacity for fat oxidation and spares muscle glycogen. Bertz et al. (2017) concluded that ketogenic diet would not impair daily activities or aerobic training, but may present issues for elite endurance athletes

Get Access