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There’s a bunch of old myths out there that have been born out of misinformation or ignorance that seems to be holding people back from experience the Keto diet. They trumpet the wonders of carbohydrates and that they are required for all physical training. This is simply not the case and I’ll break down these myths for you so you’ll see for yourself how the Keto diet actually works.
You Can’t Build Muscles Without Carbs
9 times out of 10, you’re going to hear this come from someone who doesn’t have any prior education in physiology or how muscles really work. It is absolutely possible to gain muscle mass on a Keto diet. The important things to remember are that your muscles need 2 things: protein and calories by eating real food. You don’t need carbs for calories, you get that from fats just as easily.
Keto Diet Will Hinder My Performance
The next thing that those who don’t under muscle growth will tell you is that the Keto diet will decrease your performance as an athlete. False. Your body is smart enough to switch energy sources from carbs to fats and not suffer any negative effects. It is easy to forget the body’s ability to adapt to changes in the environment, that’s how we’ve survived as a species, in multiple different climates and the diets that come with them. When you switch to a Keto diet, the body will need a little time to adjust to using fats as a main energy source, but once it does, there is no study that has proven any disadvantage to using fat over carbs.
High fat diet means more heart attacks
The reason that people’s arteries get clogged and they have heart attacks is not simply due to eating fat, it’s because they have a higher caloric intake than what is being spent. They are eating both carbs AND fat, that fat is readily stored in the body and where does it go? Everywhere you don’t want it to be, suffocating your heart, among other organs. When you are on a ketogenic diet, the body is in ketosis, using that fat you ingest, as well as any stored body fat you may have started with. That’s why it’s such an effect weight loss diet. Fat is fuel, not a negative byproduct like you’re taught.
Reducing carbs is bad for your kidneys’ health
This is assumed to be true because those with kidney disease are supposed to limit their protein intake, but that doesn’t relate to the Keto diet as it doesn’t mean that it’s high in protein. There is a balance of protein and fat, just as normal diets balance protein and carbs. An increase in protein is up to the person on the diet, but that is not the standard formula. Protein is not substituting for carbohydrates, fat does that.