How to build lean muscle mass

When people think of building muscle mass they immediately think of eating large meals, really often, high in carbohydrate, high in protein with a rigorous weight lifting regime. Athletes and bodybuilders alike have shared their diets for years. Michael Phelps famously shared his 12,000 calories a day diet. The common threads between these different diets are a high intake of carbohydrate and high amounts of protein.

Is high carb and high protein the best way to increase muscle mass?

Are carbs good for muscle building? Absolutely. They restore the glycogen reserves in your muscle which your body can use immediately when it needs instant power. This is sometimes critical when it comes to athlete performance. But for the everyday person like you and me, it’s not all that necessary. With carbs you gain mass quicker, however at the same time you are gaining fat.

Yes, sure, as you train in the gym you are burning the fat. For some people these sharp changes in body composition with the constant addition of fat means that longer term the additional fat tissue will be difficult to lose. In addition, breaking down fats needs insulin. Longer term this increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and other chronic conditions.

Let me explain how the body uses carbs.

How does the body use carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a group of foods that mainly contain glucose (a simple form a sugar). Pasta, bread, fruits, grains, root vegetables are sources of carbohydrate. When we eat these foods our digestive system breaks them down to their smallest molecule: glucose. Glucose is absorbed by our body in the small intestine and is transferred into our blood. The concentration of glucose in the blood is referred to as blood glucose. Let’s say we have eaten a banana. We now have plenty of glucose molecules in our blood. Some of these the body is using for our brain and for muscles to help us move. Whatever the body cannot use straight away the body is depositing for later, at some point as adipose tissue, or fat.

How does the body use protein

There is a similar process when it comes to eating protein. The smallest molecule for protein is called amino acids. Our body can produce some amino acids but there are 8 amino acids that the body needs to get from food. These are called essential amino acids. Eggs contain all 8 amino acids, hence they are very good to have in our diet if we can tolerate them (some people can have a sensitivity to egg white or even egg yolk).

The amino acids are then used by our body for different functions: muscle building, performing different tasks at cell level, make hormones, antibodies and transport cells.

For some people eating too much protein can have a glucogenic effect. What does this mean? It means that whatever amino acids are not needed, the body transforms them in glucose which then will be used as adipose tissue. So in very simplistic words protein can make you fat.

Objective: maximise muscle gain and minimise additional fat

In other words the ideal scenario is to add lean muscle mass.

How?

Research suggests that ketogenic diet has been successful at building lean muscle mass, especially when coupled with resistance training. So in simple terms a high fat, moderate (enough) protein diet coupled with resistance training will lead to muscle building.

A ketogenic diet is where 65-80% of calorie intake comes from fat, 20-30% from protein and only 10% or less from carbohydrate. Fat and protein is what keeps you satiated so you will not feel hungry. Activity level, body composition and desired health and performance outcomes will influence these percentages.

How can fat build lean muscle?

Our body can use fat (from food as well from our own adipose tissue) as energy. This is possible only when the level of glucose in the blood is low. This means that we should feed our body few carbohydrates. The liver will convert the smallest molecule of fat (fatty acid) in ketones, which the body can use as energy. Once the body adapts to a ketogenic diet (which can take at least 1 week), it switches from primarily using glucose (from carbohydrates) to ketones (from fat) as fuel.

You might say…but is fat not bad for me? Will it not lead to blocked arteries and increased cholesterol? Dietary fat, when consumed alone, isn’t the culprit for bad health. The pairing of high amounts of fat and carbohydrates in meals (for example fast food, cakes) is driving the issue. I will cover this in more in depth in another post.

So if carbohydrate and fat combination is not good for my health, how does a high fat look in practice? If you think you can have a big fry up and you are building lean muscle mass I would urge you to think again. Adding plenty olive oil to your veggies, including avocado to your meals, a knob of butter to your veggies or cooked meat, coconut oil in smoothies, nuts and seeds are good ways to ensure you get adequate amounts of fat in your diet.

If I am an endurance athlete can I still do ketogenic?

Usually the case with endurance athletes is that they will have a large plate of pasta the day before an event to make sure they build the reserves of energy. Research however suggest that once an individual is keto-adapted their performance was the same or better than the individuals consuming high levels of carbohydrate.

How do I know what percentage and ratio of carbs, protein and fat should I have?

As mentioned before the percentages really depend on different factors such as body composition, level of activity and your ultimate goals. Ketogenic.com have developed an algorithm and included it in a calculator to help you work out what are the different ratios as well as how many grams of each you should have in your diet.

Is ketogenic diet safe for everyone?

First of all, I am not a fan of diets in general. I am a true believer that there isn’t such a thing as a perfect diet. We are ultimately so individual and different to each other as fingerprints. We all have a different genetic make up, different microbiome (the genetic footprint of our bacteria), different ancestry and I truly believe the future in nutrition will be personalised nutrition. Therefore, some people that are able to digest well fats and tolerate higher amounts of fat will perform well. However, there will be people that are not able to do this well.

There are a couple of conditions for which ketogenic diet is not recommended.

Can my body go into ketoacidosis?

Ketoacidosis is a state of the body where there has a very high presence of ketones in your body which can lead to complications, even death. Ketoacidosis is mainly associated with Type 1 Diabetes due to insulin deficiency. In type 1 diabetes because glucose cannot enter cells which are insulin dependant, the body starts to produce ketones instead to start using as energy. Ketogenic diet instead induces nutritional ketosis and elevates ketones between 0.3-5mM. On the other hand, during type 1 diabetes ketones can be elevated at levels higher than 15mM.