Keto diet boosts performance

By Robert Silverman, DC, DACBN, DCBCN, MS, CCN, CNS, CSCS, CIISN, CKTP, CES, HKC, FAKTR

The ketogenic diet has proven effective in weight management, but studies also demonstrate a variety of health benefits in addition to weight loss. For competitive athletes especially, the keto diet can help increase energy levels and improve brain function, enhancing performance both on and off the playing field.

While dietary needs vary across gender, sport, and individual athlete, the keto diet has real advantages for performance athletes.

When athletes burn ketones instead of glucose, they experience increased cognitive and physical performance. The brain operates better on ketones versus glucose from sugar or carbs, leading to heightened levels of concentration and longer periods of focus.

Physically, keto-adaptation, the body’s transition to burning fat instead of glucose for energy, improves aerobic and anaerobic exercise capacity in athletes. The keto diet minimizes the breakdown of lean muscle tissue and increases the body’s ability to maintain lean body mass while burning fat, which is beneficial for performance athletes’ body composition.

Additionally, ketones feed the mitochondria better, thus leading to quicker recovery times.

The greatest physical outcomes of keto-adaptation for athletes are improved endurance, fat mobilization, and oxidation during exercise. Performance athletes, like ultra-runners and soccer players, will experience increased endurance during the course of their competition or match.

On the keto diet, the body taps into slow-burning fat storage, which prevents athletes from “hitting the wall.” This is especially beneficial to those athletes who can’t easily digest foods while exercising, such as a tennis player between sets.

During keto-adaptation, liver and muscle glycogen deposits are maintained, attenuating the glycogen depletion observed in athletes consuming high-carbohydrate diets.

With the absence of glucose to burn, athletes won’t experience the peaks and valleys of varying blood sugar levels.

The keto diet is suitable to adapt during the off-season, too. Athletes looking to improve their ratio of fat to muscle, especially those who are required to meet certain weight goals for their sport, benefit from an off-season keto diet.

The keto diet benefits athletes’ off-season training as well. Exercising while glycogen stores are low is a training technique popular for improving mitochondria function and a key strategy athletes can utilize if they’re looking to improve endurance.

The keto diet has also been proven to help athletes maintain their health while they’re taking some much needed rest.

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