The keto bodybuilding meal plan is an essential guide for bodybuilders who want to maximize their muscle gains while following a keto diet. This diet includes everything from high protein meals to keto products that can be found on grocery store shelves.
The keto diet’s idea is to maintain a low carb, high fat intake, which helps lifters achieve their goals. Whether working out with a gym buddy or getting tips from a family member, a Keto bodybuilding meal plan offers an effective option for everyone.
This plan is gaining popularity everywhere, making it a favorite among bodybuilding enthusiasts. Following a Keto bodybuilding meal plan ensures that you have the best option for your fitness goals. Remember, a well structured Keto bodybuilding meal plan can be your ultimate guide to success.
The Basics of Keto Bodybuilding
The Basics of Keto Bodybuilding involve understanding how to combine diets focused on ketosis to build muscle effectively. A keto diet requires a shift in mind and body to adapt to a low carb, high fat intake, which can lead to significant health benefits.
Adhering to the guidelines of a keto diet ensures that the change in dietary habits supports your bodybuilding goals. Dedication to the keto diet can result in noticeable weight loss while preserving lean muscle mass.
The Basics of Keto Bodybuilding emphasize the shift needed to achieve optimal results, making it essential to keep the purpose clear and the mind focused.
What Exactly Is The Ketogenic Diet?
The ketogenic diet is a diet where you eat only 20 to 50 grams of carbs per day. This makes your body use fat for energy instead of carbs. When you cut down on carbs, your liver produces ketone bodies for energy instead of glucose.
This diet helps athletes improve brain function and maintain muscles. It focuses on high fat, moderate protein, and very low carbs, changing how your body gets energy.
Many people find this diet helpful for energy, brain function, and overall body health. The number of people trying the ketogenic diet is growing, and it can be adjusted based on individual needs.
What Are Ketones?
Ketones are chemicals your body makes when it breaks down fats for energy. There are three main types of ketone bodies: AcAc (acetoacetate), Ace (acetone), and BHB (beta hydroxybutyric acid). BHB is the most common and the easiest to use for energy. Your liver makes these ketones when you follow a keto diet.
In the keto diet, there are two sources of ketones:
Exogenous Ketones: These come from supplements you can take.
Endogenous Ketones: These are naturally made by your body.
What Is Ketosis?
Ketosis is when your blood has ketone levels between 0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L. This happens when your body makes more ketone bodies because you eat low carb diets, fast, or change your eating habits. When your ketone levels are in this range, your body uses fat instead of glucose for energy. Ketosis helps your body rely on ketones for fuel.
Types Of Keto Diets
Even though we discuss the ketogenic diet as a single diet, there are five distinct types of it that you might adhere to.
· Restricted Ketogenic Diet
The Restricted Ketogenic Diet is primarily used in a medical setting and involves consuming only 12 grams of carbs daily. This very low carb diet is an option used for its potential results in treating conditions like cancer. The restricted diet shows promising uses in various medical applications.
· Targeted Ketogenic Diet
The Targeted Ketogenic Diet is designed for athletes and bodybuilders. It allows for a higher carb intake about 30 minutes before a workout. This diet provides enough carbs to give extra energy during the exercise, which can be quickly burned off. It helps maintain the benefits of ketosis while supporting high intensity physical activity.
· Standard Ketogenic Diet
The Standard Ketogenic Diet has a macro content of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrates. This diet focuses on high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrates.
The specific percentages of 75, 20, and 5 are designed to help the body enter and stay in ketosis, where fat is used as the primary energy source.
· High Protein Ketogenic Diet
The High Protein Ketogenic Diet has macros of 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs. This diet is beneficial for athletes and those with higher protein needs.
However, a warning: consuming too much protein can lead to gluconeogenesis, a process where protein is converted into glucose, potentially kicking you out of ketosis.
· Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet involves cycling in and out of ketosis. Typically, you follow the diet for five days, followed by two days of higher carbs. This diet can improve long term adherence rates by allowing breaks for higher quality carbs. The cycle helps maintain ketosis while giving the diet flexibility.
Pros of a Keto Diet for Bodybuilders
· Retain Muscle Mass
For bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts, maintaining muscle mass is very important, especially when eating less. The ketosis process helps a lot with this. It lets the body use fat for energy, so muscles don’t break down as much. This is a big benefit for individuals trying to stay strong while under stress from tough workouts.
· Informs Your Body to Make Ketones
The body can switch from using sugar to using ketones for energy. This happens when you take a ketone supplement or eat a lot of fats. When the body uses fat for energy, it doesn’t need carbs as much.
This change gives steady energy and helps avoid the energy ups and downs you get from carbs. This fact shows why ketosis is great for keeping your energy level stable.
· Effective For Treating Diabetes, Epilepsy, & Cancer
The keto diet is popular among bodybuilders and doctors because it helps with diabetes and epilepsy and might even slow down cancer. The diet changes how the body processes energy, which can help treat these diseases. It’s become a key diet for people dealing with these health issues.
Cons of A Keto Diet For Bodybuilders
· Metabolic Stress and Bulking
When bodybuilders try to gain muscle, they eat more and exercise a lot. This process is called bulking. But if they follow a ketogenic diet, which cuts down on carbs, it can cause some problems.
Although this diet helps control hunger, it sometimes provides enough carbs and calories for heavy workouts. These workouts are important because they help build new muscles. With enough carbs, it’s easier for bodybuilders to keep up with intense exercise routines.
· Reduced Power
Bodybuilders on a keto diet might initially lack strength or energy. This issue is known as “keto flu,” as the body adjusts to using ketones for energy instead of carbs. This change can make it tough for bodybuilders to perform their best, especially during workouts that require a lot of power quickly.
· Diminished Athletic Capacity
The body uses ketones instead of carbs for energy on a keto diet. This can be a problem for athletes because carbs are a quick energy source during intense activities. With carbs, the body may perform better, affecting how well athletes do in sports that need fast bursts of energy.
Fat Loss vs. Muscle Gain on the Keto Diet
Let’s explore the details of bodybuilding on the keto diet. We’ll learn how the diet builds muscle and loses weight.
How to Get Into Ketosis?
You can get into ketosis by depriving your body of carbs for a while. This can happen either by fasting (not eating) or following the ketogenic diet (eating less than 50g of carbs daily).
It usually takes 2 4 days to enter ketosis, but this can vary based on factors like your previous carb intake, age, and activity level.
Signs That You Are In Ketosis
The only sure way to know if you are in ketosis is by testing your ketone levels in your blood or urine. Using blood strips is the most accurate method because it measures the ketones in your blood, similar to how people with diabetes test their blood sugar. Ketosis is defined by blood ketone levels between 0.5 and 3 mM.
How Can A Keto Diet Help You Gain Muscle?
Researchers have found that bodybuilders can gain muscle on a Keto Diet if they manage it well. One key strategy is carb manipulation, where bodybuilders adjust their carb intake around workouts to fuel muscle growth while staying in ketosis.
Even though ketosis usually means low carbs, some bodybuilders use carb intake strategically to refill glycogen stores, which are important for muscle hypertrophy work. This approach helps lifters maintain strength and muscle building, making the keto diet useful for muscle growth.
How to Get Shredded With the Keto Diet?
Getting shredded on a Keto Diet involves carefully balancing carbs, fats, and protein. During the cutting phase, bodybuilders often enter a calorie deficit to lose body fat while trying to preserve muscle mass.
The keto diet turns the body into a fat burning machine by using fat stores for fuel instead of carbs. This shift helps reduce body fat without sacrificing muscle mass, which is essential for bodybuilders preparing for a competition. Bodybuilders can achieve a lean, defined physique by focusing on fat loss and muscle preservation.
Can Keto Help Lose Fat and Build Muscle?
Research suggests that the keto diet can be effective for body recomposition and fat loss while building muscle. This diet puts the body in a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for energy. Bodybuilders and athletes often focus on their protein intake to ensure they get enough to support muscle growth while losing fat.
When combined with the right training stimulus, the keto diet helps lower body fat percentages and increase muscle mass. This makes it a powerful way for athletes to improve their physique and strength simultaneously.
Best Foods for Keto Bodybuilding
If you’re on a keto diet and into bodybuilding, you’ll need a mix of the right foods to stay on track. Here’s a list of the best keto friendly foods for building muscle:
- Protein
- Grass Fed Beef
- Eggs
- Liver
- Wild Caught Salmon
- Sardines
- Keto Friendly Protein Powder
Fats
- Avocados
- Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
- MCT Oil
- Chia Seeds
- Flax Seeds
- Nut Butters
Snacks
- String Cheese
- Kale Chips
- Beef Jerky
- Dried Fish
- Pepperoni Slices
If you enjoy creamer in your coffee, check out our guide on whether half and half are keto friendly, along with some great keto alternatives.
Foods to Avoid on Keto for Bodybuilding
Avoid refined carbs like pasta, white bread, and cereals to keep your diet effective for muscle building on keto. Also, avoid syrups, juices, most fruits, and anything with added sugar.
Advice for Successful Keto Bodybuilding
Follow these seven tips for the best keto bodybuilding results.
1. Optimal Calorie Intake
For successful keto bodybuilding, managing your calorie intake is crucial. Whether you aim for weight loss or muscle gain, understanding the balance between calories consumed and expended is fundamental. On a ketogenic diet, maintaining a calorie deficit can lead to weight loss, while a calorie surplus is often necessary for muscle growth.
Research highlights that adjusting your calorie control based on your diet and muscle building goals can significantly affect your results. This is especially true for bodybuilders, where precise macro content and calorie intake directly influence muscle protein synthesis and overall muscle growth.
2. Adequate Protein Consumption
Protein is the cornerstone of muscle repair and growth, particularly on a keto diet where carbs are restricted. For bodybuilders, consuming enough protein, around 2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight, is essential for maintaining muscle mass while in ketosis.
This level of protein intake ensures that your body can continue to build muscle despite the lack of glucose from carbs. Keto diets often emphasize fat as a primary fuel source, but for bodybuilders, protein remains a critical nutrient to adjust based on training demands and bodybuilding goals.
3. Following Proper Macros
You usually eat 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs on a typical keto diet. However, as a bodybuilder, you’ll need more protein. So, you might adjust your diet to:
Fat: 60%
Protein: 35%
Carbs: 5%
You keep your carbs at 5% and balance the rest between fats and protein. Only make big changes at a time. Increase your protein gradually, by about 5% at a time, and monitor your blood levels to see how it’s going.
4. Focus On Strength Training
Strength training is vital for increasing muscle mass and strength, which are core bodybuilding goals. On a keto diet, adapting your workout to focus on the phosphagen system for short, intense bursts of energy can be beneficial.
This includes workouts within the hypertrophy range typically between 8 to 12 reps per set to maximize muscle protein synthesis pathways.
Tailoring your rep ranges and incorporating a powerlifting program can help optimize strength gains and muscle growth, ensuring that each training session effectively translates into muscle building results.
5. Recovery Importance
Recovery is as important as the workout itself in keto bodybuilding. Giving your muscles and joints ample time to recover after intense workouts ensures ongoing muscle growth and prevents injuries.
Adequate rest and proper recovery processes like nutrition and hydration support the body’s natural recovery mechanisms.
Successful bodybuilders know that with enough recovery, the stressors from training can lead to improved returns and hamper long term bodybuilding success. Therefore, integrating sufficient downtime and recovery strategies into your workout program is crucial for sustained progress.
6. Sodium Management
Maintaining adequate sodium intake is particularly important on a keto diet, where lower carb levels can naturally lead to decreased sodium levels in the body. Sodium is essential for proper body function, especially during the adaptation phase to a keto diet.
Symptoms like keto flu can often be mitigated by ensuring enough sodium from sources like Himalayan salt or sea salt is included in the diet.
This helps balance electrolytes and supports overall body function and performance during workouts. Adjusting sodium levels according to your body’s needs can significantly improve adaptations and comfort while adhering to a keto bodybuilding diet.
7. Take The Necessary Supplements
Every bodybuilder has essential supplements; you’ll need a few specific ones on a ketogenic diet. Here are the key supplements to consider while following your keto diet.
· MCT Oil
MCT Oil is a popular supplement among those on a keto diet due to its ability to provide quick energy and help maintain fat burning mode. MCT oil supplements convert into ketones more efficiently than other fats, providing an immediate fuel source for the body.
This makes MCT oil an excellent choice for boosting energy levels and supporting fat metabolism, essential aspects of the keto diet.
· Creatine
Creatine is a crucial supplement for anyone on a keto diet, especially for bodybuilders. It plays a key role in replenishing creatine stores in the muscle cells, essential for the phosphagen system. This system provides the quick bursts of energy needed during intense training sessions.
Adding creatine as a supplement ensures that someone following a keto diet can still effectively perform high intensity work. Creatine helps maintain adequate ATP levels, the cells’ primary energy currency.
· Vitamin C
Consuming lower quantities of fruit while following a keto diet is common, which can lead to concerns about adequate Vitamin C intake. Vitamin C supplements are, therefore, essential for keto followers, particularly in a keto bodybuilding diet.
Vitamin C is vital for overall health and maintaining a strong immune system. Supplementing with Vitamin C ensures the body receives enough of this critical nutrient, addressing a common problem and reason for nutritional gaps in the keto diet.
· Salt
The importance of salt in a ketogenic diet cannot be overstated, particularly for bodybuilders who may experience increased salt needs.
Salt supplements can be crucial as they help replenish sodium levels, which might drop when following a keto diet. The popularity of keto products on the market has made it easier to find suitable salt options that align with ketogenic guidelines.
When fully eliminating a macronutrient, you must take several more vitamins elsewhere. Potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, B vitamins, and magnesium are other common vitamins and minerals to consider.
Determining Your Ideal Calories & Macros
First, use a calculator to determine the calories you need based on your activity level. To build muscle, add 300 500 calories to your daily intake. To lose weight, subtract 300 500 calories.
Once you know your total calorie intake, break it into macros (fat, protein, and carbs). Here’s how to calculate the calories from each macro:
1 gram of fat = 9 calories
1 gram of protein = 4 calories
1 gram of carbs = 4 calories
For example, if your goal is to follow a diet with 65% fat, 30% protein, and 5% carbs on a 3000 calorie plan:
Fat: 65% of 3000 calories = 1,950 calories. Divide by nine calories per gram to get 216 grams of fat.
Protein: 30% of 3000 calories = 900 calories. Divide by four calories per gram to get 225 grams of protein.
Carbs: 5% of 3000 calories = 150 calories. Divide by four calories per gram to get 37.5 grams of carbs.
This breakdown helps you understand where your calories are coming from and ensures you meet your dietary goals.
7 Day Meal Plan for Keto Bodybuilding
Here is a 7 day meal plan for those who want to start their keto bodybuilding journey. You may adhere to this precisely, vary your meals daily, or use it as helpful suggestions and direction for a keto bodybuilding diet.
The shopping list above contains all the ingredients you need to complete this week’s meal plan.
Monday:
- Breakfast: Bulletproof Coffee
- Lunch: Chicken, Bacon, Ranch, & Cheese Keto Wraps
- Dinner: Crock Pot Sausage And Peppers
- Snack: Cucumber Roll ups With Cream Cheese & Smoked Salmon Pate
Tuesday:
- Breakfast: Keto Protein Shake
- Lunch: Slow Cooker Chicken with Mini Bell Peppers & Mushrooms
- Dinner: Roasted Chicken & Vegetables
- Snack: Keto Muffin
Wednesday:
- Breakfast: Bacon, Eggs, Cherry Tomatoes, & Avocado
- Lunch: Keto Bagel with Cream Cheese & Cucumber Slices
- Dinner: Ground Turkey Taco Seasoned Stuffed Peppers
- Snack: Keto Protein Shake
Thursday:
- Breakfast: Omelet with Bell Peppers & Chorizo
- Lunch: Chicken & Cauliflower Rice
- Dinner: Keto Meatballs (Storebought or Homemade) & Sauteed Spinach
- Snack: Beef Jerky & String Cheese
Friday:
- Breakfast: Eggs, Bacon, & Keto Bagel
- Lunch: Keto Meatballs & Roasted Peppers
- Dinner: Salmon, Cauliflower Rice, & Roasted Tomatoes
- Snack: Atkins Peanut Butter Fudge Crisp Bar
Saturday:
- Breakfast: Eggs, Avocado, & Bacon
- Lunch: Chicken, Cauliflower Rice, & Mushrooms
- Dinner: Homemade Keto Pizza (Keto Wrap, Tomato Sauce, Chorizo, Pepperoni, & Onion)
- Snack: Keto Bagel & Nut Butter Topped With Chia Seeds
Sunday:
- Breakfast: Eggs Scrambled with Sautéed Onions & Cheese
- Lunch: Keto Korean Beef Bowl (Beef, Cauliflower Rice, Garlic, Beef Broth, Sesame Oil, & Ground Ginger)
- Dinner: Chicken & Roasted Mushrooms & Onions
- Snack: Kale Chips
What Comes Next in This Meal Plan?
Trifecta Nutrition makes it easy to consider what comes next in this meal plan. Their meal plan is perfect for your diet needs, offering a delivery service that saves time on cooking. With many meal options, including the keto diet, there’s something for everyone.
If you’re a fan of keto, their dishes and fresh foods will keep you happy. Meal prep is easy, and you won’t need much shopping. Their recipes fit right into your meal plan and simplify everything. This idea of an easy, tasty diet makes it all worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I Do Intense Weightlifting While On Keto?
Heavy lifting and continuous aerobic activity at 50–70% of maximum heart rate are ideal for keto dieters due to the biochemistry underlying how your body fuels your muscles.
Can the Ketogenic Diet Help Us Gain Muscles?
Building muscle on a keto diet is undoubtedly possible but requires additional effort. It is possible if you focus on protein, calories, heavy lifting, and patience. Stick to your plan, and you’ll be on your way to a stronger, leaner physique.
What Is The Protein Content Of Keto?
Popular ketogenic publications recommend consuming 70–80% fat from total calories, 5–10% carbs, and 10–20% protein daily. This corresponds to roughly 165 grams of fat, 40 grams of carbohydrates, and 75 grams of protein for a diet of 2000 calories.