Should bodybuilders employ the Ketogenic, or Atkins diet? Is it useful for naturals as well as those using steroids? What about for the off-season? Can people really make gains in muscle in a carb-deprived state? Let’s tackle some of the more commonly discussed concepts regarding low-carbohydrate dieting for bodybuilders.

If you are a tad overweight, the low-carb diet can be very fun. Maybe you have experienced a bit of difficulty controlling the bulge. You deprive yourself of the greasy breakfasts that you love so much in order to keep your waistline tight. The moment you jump to a low-carbohydrate diet, you will immediately drop 5 to 7 pounds of water, and look leaner than you have in years! As a bodybuilder, this will be a very good, and very bad thing. That water you’ll be dropping will take a whole lot of your strength with it. You will suddenly lose muscle, even though you are leaner. Sure, you can eat all the fat and protein you want (we all love ham and eggs!) but over time, sugar and bread are going to become the mirages you see in the desert that is high-protein dining. You will crave them greatly. But you will be leaner as you crave them, which may make the journey a bit less difficult.

In the pre-contest, low-carbohydrate diets can be very useful. Some of the top bodybuilders in the professional ranks have switched to the low-carbohydrate diets for 12 to 16 weeks at a time, and come in sharper (and bigger!) than ever before. There is an argument brewing in bodybuilding circles as to whether or not natural bodybuilders benefit from the use of a low-carbohydrate diet. Of course the steroid-assisted guys are going to grow, prosper and flourish with limited carbohydrates. They have a little magical help which would probably allow them to grow on seaweed and driftwood! Natural bodybuilders have many more obstacles to growth. The jury is still out, but it’s generally accepted by most trainers that low-carbohydrate diets are only useful for the natural bodybuilder in the pre-contest dieting phase. It is extremely difficult for the natural bodybuilder to gain muscle without an abundance of carbohydrates.

Keeping your muscles full is the name of the game in bodybuilding. For beginner and amateur bodybuilders, you simply do not have the level of muscle mass needed – yet. Sure, men like Toney Freeman, at 6 foot 1, 305 pounds contest shape, can get away with using extremely low carbohydrate dieting and still make muscle gains. But he has been training for twenty years, and at the highest level for almost ten. Men like that have a level of muscle mass that you do not. If you lived on the keto diet (and possibly engaged in AAS usage) you would be a very, very hard and lean specimen. Unfortunately, you would only weigh 155 pounds while you did it. Remember that men like Freeman would likely be 340 pounds if they carried the softer look, loaded with water and at 10 percent body fat. Despite your best efforts, if you wish to gain and hold a high level of muscle mass, year-long low-carbohydrate dieting isn’t a good idea.

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