For elite athletes, the ketogenic diet presents a major trade-off. Proper nutrition is treated as important as workouts. Although carbohydrates have been the primary source of nutrition for athletes, the keto diet takes a different approach. It forces the body to burn fat.

Its impact has varied for different athletes. One one hand, it's better at boosting endurance and energy, and reducing inflammation. On the other hand, it struggles to provide explosive power and reach high-intensity goals, an area where carbohydrates shine.

Effects of the keto diet on pro athletes

The keto diet challenges the traditional 'carb is king' approach to nutrition and diet.

A study published in the journal Metabolism stated the benefits of the keto diet on various endurance athletes. When compared with athletes who were on a high-carbohydrate diet, keto athletes showed more fat consumption during a 100km bicycle test. And high critical power after 100km.

In contrast to this study, another one performed by Louise Burke showed increased fat consumption during exercise but decreased performance and high-intensity efforts during peak.

In the same study, it was revealed that after weeks of keto diet, even if a carbohydrate diet is restarted to increase glycogen intake as the competition approaches, it still hurts the performance, thus concluding that 5-6 days of a keto diet is enough to increase fat intake.

Similar results were observed in various other studies, including the one conducted by the National Library of Medicine. It revealed that fat-centric diets like the keto diet resulted in a reduction in glycogen stores by 50% and increased fatigue.

They hampered performance timing because they utilized oxygen more than other diets.

Thus keto diet is beneficial for moderate to low intensity sports as fat can easily be the source of energy, but not for high-intensity activities that need a carbohydrate-rich diet for peak performance.

Have you tried the keto diet? Let us know in the comments how it helped you.

For more tips and tricks, follow Bodybuilding bros.

Written by

Ruwa Javed

Edited by

Joyita Das