Keto for bodybuilding and muscle growth

Learn about keto and muscle growth.

You can grow muscle on a ketogenic diet

Introduction: Old-school bodybuilding culture versus modern concepts

When I first started getting into the health and fitness industry, my goal was to try and self-heal an injury. I spent my days swimming and doing water aerobics in an effort to strengthen the muscles around my injured back. Learn more about my struggle with my back injury and how I overcame it.

Slowly over time as my body got stronger and the injury started getting better, I had to begin evolving my training routine. I went from swimming and water aerobics to working out in the gym with my friends. The more I worked out, the more I started looking up to the “really big” guys in the gym. It became my mission. Thus… my passion for bodybuilding was born.

It always amazed me how much control these men and women had over their bodies. I immersed myself in traditional bodybuilding culture. Classic bodybuilding culture tells us that in order to gain huge amounts of lean muscle; you have to eat huge amounts of healthy carbs and protein.

Years later when I discovered the keto diet, naturally I began wondering what this diet could mean for modern bodybuilding culture. There are a ton of myths going around about keto-bodybuilding, so to address it once and for all I took a look into the keto diet and the effects of bodybuilding. 

Growing muscle is tough

The outdated logic behind muscle growth is misguiding.

No matter how you slice it, building muscle is just tough. You need a certain level of knowledge and a ton of discipline to see results.

Traditionally, we have been taught that we need carbohydrates to build muscle. If this is true, how can you possibly build muscle and live a keto lifestyle? Well… perhaps I am the first to tell you that the old-school way of thinking is wrong!

We are taught that carbs are essential for muscle growth because insulin promotes muscle hypertrophy and improves stamina. If you begin to look at the facts, however, the opposite is true.

Insulin promotes fatty-acid synthesis - which promotes weight gain. Therefore many bodybuilders pack on the body fat as well as lean muscle during their 'bulking cycle'. They then cut the carbs WAY down during their 'cutting cycle' to drop their body fat percentage.

What if there was a better way?

What really intrigues me about keto and bodybuilding is that you turn your body into a fat burning machine.

Even better, the research shows that ketones deliver more energy than glucose. They also metabolize at a slower pace. Once you are fat adapted, this gives you higher energy levels and increased stamina.

But what about building muscle?

Research has shown that the keto diet not only preserves lean muscle mass, but also has been shown to increase levels of testosterone and human growth hormone (HGH). 

Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is one of 3 ketone bodies produced in ketosis. BHB has been shown to be anti-catabolic - meaning it prevents the process of muscle breakdown.

Elevated testosterone and HGH levels, as well as the effects of BHB, create a perfect environment for you to pack on lean muscle mass and keep it on in the long term. 

Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD) for bodybuilders

TKD or the “Targeted Ketogenic Diet” is a great option for athletes like bodybuilders who want to live a low carbohydrate life. TKD is a spin-off of the traditional keto diet.

The key difference is that on a traditional keto diet, you keep your daily intake of carbs below 20g, whereas when you are practicing TKD you time your daily carbs intake for right before or right after your intense workout.

This allows you to take advantage of the fast energy effect the carbs give you to fuel your workout, without dropping your body out of ketosis.

It is important to note, however, that you cannot eat more carbohydrates than you will burn during your workout. The idea is to burn all those carbs off immediately, thus not allowing them to interfere with your body’s production of ketones.

Keto adaption and bodybuilding

What about a loss of strength from keto flu?

As I mentioned before, the whole idea behind the keto diet is to get your body to run on fat rather than carbs.

Because you’re asking your body to do something that it has never done before, there is a period that your body will go through called the 'Keto-Adaptation Period' or becoming 'Fat Adapted'.

If you’ve ever looked into the keto diet before, you have undoubtedly heard of the keto flu. This is the first stage of your body’s adaptation period. You will begin to feel unusually tired and lethargic. You may develop a headache and even constipation.

This is a sign that your body has used up its stores of glucose and that it is beginning to run out of fuel to burn for energy. These symptoms typically last between 24 and 48 hours. Afterwards, your body will begin to produce ketones and start learning how to use them.

This is not the end of your body’s adaptation period, however. Becoming fully fat adapted typically takes between 3-4 weeks and in that time you may notice a decrease in strength and stamina.

It is important to remember that this is completely normal. You are asking your body to stop doing something it has done its entire life and start doing something totally new. It is important to be patient with your body and know that it is only a temporary loss in strength.

As soon as you become fully adapted you will not only see your strength return but experience significant increases in both strength and energy. 

5 tips for building muscle on keto 

Packing on muscle in keto is not only possible, but better. Here are 5 tips that I’ve found to really help maximize muscle gain and help you to get the most out of your effort:

1. Eat a snack before or after your workout

Whether you are practicing the TKD approach and pre-loading carbs or sticking to a traditional keto diet, it is important to eat a small snack within 30 minutes before or after your workout. This will give your body the extra nutrients that it needs to perform at its best. It will allow you to really push yourself in the gym.

2. Regular strength training

It is essential to engage in intense physical activity to create new muscle.

Put yourself in a consistent strength training routine. It is important to keep a good variety of exercises in your training split as well. Use free weights as well as resistance bands and machines.

Doing so will help ensure that your body does not get too used to your workout and fall into a plateau.

3. Replenish electrolytes

It is exceedingly important that you replenish your electrolytes on a regular basis when doing the keto diet. In one of my previous articles, Top 5 Biggest Keto Fails, I talk about the importance of electrolytes in a ketogenic diet.

While on keto, your kidneys are not collecting as much sodium. This in turn makes it very easy for you to become very low in electrolytes - especially during and after intense workouts. 

4. Maintain a moderate level of protein intake

Protein creates muscle, so obviously as bodybuilders we will be worried about protein consumption.

The keto diet is no different. It is important that you are getting the appropriate amount of dietary protein every day.

Generally you are looking for about 0.25 grams - 0.3 grams of protein per pound of body weight (depending on age, weight and activity level).

If you’re still not sure about what your intake should be, check out one of the many macro calculators online like this Protein Calculator.

5. Get good quality sleep

Getting quality sleep at night cannot be too overstated. This is where all your recovery and growth happens.

You break down your muscle fibers and create micro tears when you work out. This tearing is what promotes new muscle growth.

Without proper sleep you will lose out on good, healthy muscle recovery. Poor sleep quality has actually been shown to cause your body to hold onto body fat and increase your blood sugar levels.

Conclusion

Contrary to what you might have heard from the old school muscle crowd in the gym, you can definitely build muscle without sugar and carbohydrates.

The keto diet can be a real good dietary option for your bodybuilding routine. What's more, it can dramatically improve your overall physique when done right. After all, when it comes to bodybuilding, physique is everything.

Following a keto diet gives you the option of living year-round with an impressive body fat percentage rather than swinging between a high fat bulking cycles and a super restrictive cutting cycle.

It allows you to look your best all the time - and that’s the whole point, isn’t it?

Keto can dramatically improve your entire physique.

If you enjoyed this article, please leave me a comment below and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you and connecting with you. You guys are the reason why I’m here.

High performance keto

If you’re interested in learning more about keto as an athlete, pick up my brand new book Keto Strong – A Beginners Guide to High Performance Keto and let me help you get a jump start on your keto journey!

J.P. Wells

J.P. Wells spent the last 13 years of his life learning about, and pursuing, a healthy and active lifestyle. After sustaining a life-changing injury during his time serving in the United States Military, he dedicated his time to learning and researching ways to heal and re-build his body to get back to the active lifestyle he grew up loving.

Meet the author.

On his blog J.P. Wells Fitness, J.P. Wells shares the knowledge and passions that he has come to learn from in the fitness industry and fitness culture. He understands that health and fitness is not just a one-time choice, but a lifestyle. Success in your goals is not made up of large single decisions, but rather a series of small choices that are made well throughout every day.

Check him out on Facebook and Twitter.

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.

J.P. Wells Author Profile

We're excited to introduce you to our newest contributing author, J.P. Wells. You'll be reading a lot of fresh content from him in the future. In the meantime, here's what you need to know about our newest addition to the team:

Connect with J.P. Wells

I hope you all enjoy hearing from me as much as I like sharing this part of myself with you.

Connect with me directly on my website J.P. Wells Fitness. I post awesome new content all the time.

If you enjoy keto and want to learn some cool tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way - or want to stay up to date with my book releases and even get some cool freebies - subscribe to my mailing list.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

My New Book: Keto Strong

If you are new to keto or just want to learn more about it, check out my brand new book “Keto Strong – A Beginners Guide to High Performance Keto”. 

You’ll find everything you need to get yourself going on the keto diet including:

• A 30-day meal plan for your athletic goals
• Potential benefits of the keto diet for athletes
• How to combine Intermittent Fasting and Keto
• Foods to eat and avoid on the Keto Diet
• Downsides of Keto for athletes and ways to overcome them
• Ketogenic diet advice for complete beginners
• Keto Cookbook- over 60 delicious recipes to keep you motivated and enjoy the process
• So much more… 

If you want to get a jump start on your keto journey, pick up your copy now!

Introduction to J.P. Wells: My story

I always find it awkward figuring out how to introduce myself to a new audience. I’ve been introduced a couple times as a “Keto Expert” in various places I’ve written for - which always makes me feel a little weird because I don’t think of myself as being an “expert”.

A student of fitness and nutrition

If I were to put it into words, I would say I look at myself as forever a student of fitness and nutrition. I’ve just been in class longer than some and want to help my fellow students 'cheat off my test', if you will 😉.

Seeing as I am writing to a completely new set of readers, I suppose I should give you guys a little back story on me and why you guys should even care what I have to say.

A Little Preface

My name is J.P. Wells. I am a published bestselling author and blogger. I’ve been invited to write as a guest blogger for a number of fitness sites, as well as operating my own Fitness and Nutrition website J.P. Wells Fitness.

My focus on fitness as it relates to the ketogenic diet

I tend to focus on the topic of fitness as it relates to the ketogenic diet. After sustaining a life changing injury while serving in the United States Army, I’ve spent my time learning and researching ways to fix my body and get back into the active lifestyle that I grew up loving.

It is my goal to share my story and the knowledge that I’ve gained from years of learning through trial and error. With any luck, I can help pull people through a few personal sticky spots along the road to achieving their personal fitness goals.

I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan with my beautiful wife and two sons. I was never easy on my body while growing up. Being from a place we spend eight out of twelve months with snow on the ground, I naturally gravitated to winter activities.

I began snowboarding around sixth grade. I decided to teach myself because I was smarter and tougher than everyone else, and didn’t need help from no one. I had that “young and bulletproof” syndrome… bad… and it would only get worse as time went on.

I went to that hill day after day, and every day I came home bruised, broken, and sore. Eventually I became a really good snowboarder - and it is in fact a sport I enjoy to this day. I was even able to share it with my oldest son. However, he took a much smarter path and just let me teach him how.

Let's fast forward to my junior year of high school. I was your typical teenager. I hated my parents, school was completely useless, and all I wanted to do was get out of my small-town hell.

I held a deep interest in the military from the time I got my first G.I. Joe. The thought of jumping out of airplanes, shooting machine guns and blowing stuff up like Rambo excited me! I knew that I didn’t want to wear a suit and tie to work every day like my dad, so I decided I was going to join the military. This is where my fitness story really starts to begin.

Where my fitness journey really began

I had never really been interested in fitness, exercise or dieting. I didn’t really care about my health. I was young and at that point I knew I would just live forever. At 17 years old I joined the United States Army and left home for the first time in my life. I spent my summer vacation getting a master’s degree in “embracing the suck”.

I came back for my senior year of high school even more hardheaded and cockier - if that was even possible.

Things were going well for a while. I liked the Army. The structure suited me. I thought I had found my purpose in life. Everything was great... till Christmas-eve four years into my enlistment.

I was in a bad car accident with a city snowplow. That morning changed the trajectory of my life forever.

I woke up in my car facing the wrong direction, sitting in a bush. It took me a minute to realize what had happened or even which way was up. I looked around mentally grasping at cohesion but was truly just grasping at straws.

I was vaguely aware of the plow truck, now in front of me, also pulled over, and the driver jumping out and yelling to me to see if I was okay.

I looked over to the passenger seat and noticed a large chunk of the engine bay was now where the dash and passengers foot space used to be. My illusions of being an invincible super soldier had officially taken their first hit.

Some dark times

The doctors told me that I injured the discs in the lumbar region of my spine. I had gone through pain medication, muscle relaxers, steroid injections and all sorts of different therapies to try and reduce the pain to a more manageable level.

The Army stuck with me for some time, but after a while of me not being able to perform my duties I was given a choice: Gut it out or be honorably discharged.

I was in too much pain to even stand up straight; much less be a soldier so I chose the latter. That was it… My lifelong dream career ended in 4 and a half short years.

I’d say for about two years or so I was a walking pity party. I was the poster child of inaction. I got really depressed and felt like I had zero direction or drive.

I continued to eat like I did when I was in the Army which was pretty much the “see food diet”. I saw food I liked… I ate it.

The problem was that I was no longer running around burning thousands of calories a day to counteract that sort of diet. I could hardly get off the couch and shuffle around. My metabolism slowed due to inactivity and I gained a ton of weight.

This is turn just made the pain worse which made me feel more depressed and helpless - which of course led to more eating.

I just had enough

The doctors began talking to me about the possibility of surgery if my condition did not begin to improve. I was twenty-one years old, sitting in a pain specialist's office and he was telling me it was beginning to look like my only option was to fuse those discs.

I would lose mobility in that part of my back. I would never be able to live the active lifestyle I grew up loving. Like a switch in my head the soldier inside me woke back up.

Right then and there I drew a line in the sand and said no more. I told the doctor I refuse the surgery and if I had to, I’d live in pain till I just couldn’t take it anymore.

The turnaround

I began researching different back exercises for the elderly. I was looking for simple stretches I could do at home. I even started learning about water aerobics.

I learned about anything I could think of to strengthen the muscles around my spine to help support the damaged discs - as well as things that would allow me to begin losing weight.

At my heaviest I was up to around two hundred and seventy pounds from my Army weight of around one hundred and eighty pounds. I was carrying around an extra ninety pounds that my body was not used to.

I began comparing it to all the gear we used to carry around in the military. I was living my everyday life as if I was carrying every piece of battle gear the Army ever gave me. I remembered what it was like to carry that weight on long distances of ten or twenty kilometer marches. I remember that feeling of dropping that gear off your back all at once when we got to our destination.

That pressure release all at once almost felt like weightlessness - and I was just walking around with it.

Blood, Sweat and Tears

I learned as much as I could and I began slowly working the process. My plan was to strengthen the muscles around my injured spine. I began with just simple stretches that the physical therapist gave me.

After a while of that, I added in some water aerobic exercises designed to strengthen those muscles without putting stress on the joints. Swimming became my best friend for a while. It was the best activity I could find that exercised my body without putting undue stress on my back.

As time went on, I could feel my back slowly strengthening. My pain levels seemed to be going down and I found myself needing less and less pain medication throughout the day.

Eventually I began doing deadlifts with almost no weight at first. I started out using two and a half pound dumbbells at home. As I got stronger, I began going to the gym with some friends.

They were all really into bodybuilding and kept talking about guys like Kai Greene and Jay Cutler. I had never heard of these guys. When I thought of bodybuilding only one name came to mind… Arnold.

I kept hanging around these guys and kept hearing about these almost god like monsters of men who seemingly could control their physiques at will. I was undeniably amazed. I wanted the control over myself that they had.

I could barely stand up straight. Now I was doing squats and dead-lifts!

My next chapter

I knew nothing about bodybuilding science or nutrition science but I began to emulate the guys my friends in the gym were talking about. I began watching endless YouTube videos of their workouts, different diet plans and supplement reviews.

I started to figure out the absolute basics. If you wanted to get big you had to eat big. So that’s what I did. I began eating six or seven meals a day. I also began spending four or five hours in the gym lifting weights.

The lifestyle consumed me. I would wake up at four in the morning while everyone else was asleep and begin making my breakfast and packing my meals for the day. I began carrying mountains of Tupperware around with me filled with food measured out to the gram. The back seat of my truck was evolving into a gym locker room filled with dirty gym clothes and empty Tupperware. I loved it!!! For the first time since leaving the Army I felt challenged.

I began seeing real results. I started to become stronger than I had ever been. My dead-lift had gone from lifting two and a half pound dumbbells in my living room to lifting five hundred pounds with no back pain!

My bench press went from twenty-pound dumbbells when I first started going to the gym to sets of ten at three hundred and fifteen pounds. I felt like an immovable force of nature again.

The only problem I found with bodybuilding was that at some point you have to switch from your “bulking routine”, where you eat dirty and lift heavy, to your “cutting routine”, where you use all the added muscle mass you gained to burn the fat off.

I got comfortable in my bulking diet and did not want to restrict myself the way I should for my cutting diet. I started procrastinating and pushing it off.

I adopted the mindset that:
“I feel great just as I am. Why should I change?"
"I don’t plan on doing any shows. I just do this for me.”

So I just kept lifting heavier and eating to continue building strength. My body took on the look of a power lifter. I was extremely thick and solid, but I carried all my excess fat on my stomach.

Turns out I’m not superman

I was rather happy with how things were going. My ego was building about as fast as my muscles. I was among the strongest guys at the gym that I went to and I garnered the respect that came along with that.

People started coming up to me and asking me for advice - or to show them how to do a certain lift. I LOVED helping people. It wasn't to show off or feel superior. It was because I truly enjoyed helping them.

It felt good about being recognized for all the hard work that went into those results. My big gym friends and I would constantly compete on lifts to push our progress.

Eventually my ego would get the better of me and I would sustain my second somewhat life altering injury.

I was never real disciplined at warming myself up or doing stretches. You would think that with my past injury, I would have learned.

I ended up injuring both of my rotator cuffs. My bench press dropped from a routine three hundred and fifteen pounds to a painful one hundred and thirty-five pounds over night. I was pissed!!!

A woman who I was best friends with at the time told me in a not so roundabout way that I was getting fat - and that I needed to do something about it.

She was especially athletic at the time and was running and/or mountain biking every day. I HATED RUNNING WITH THE FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS!!! I began jogging with her every chance I got. I didn’t hurt matters that she was completely gorgeous and I was totally into her, so I just used the jogging as an excuse to hang out with her more.

She would embarrassingly outrun me every time and would never slow her pace or sacrifice her workout to stay paced with me - but she was always waiting for me at the end, cheering me on. I always admired that. If I wanted to hang with her, I needed to learn to keep up.

Eventually, I did learn to keep up. In fact, I kept up so well that we began dating and eventually got married. Her nutritional background was wildly different than mine. She was big into fasting and portion control.

She told me about this diet that she used to do. It is called the “Ketogenic Diet”. The more I learned about it the more I liked it. I’ve never been good at super restrictive diets.

I truly enjoy food so I had to find a diet that worked well with me. Both of us had struggled with dropping weight past a certain point, simply because of our body types.

We began doing keto together. The benefits I’ve gained from keto are simply amazing. In three weeks of doing a very strict keto friendly diet with smart portion control and consistent exercise in the mornings, I was able to drop thirty pounds. This became the closest I had come yet to my Army weight.

My health philosophy

My personal philosophy probably differs WILDLY from most in the fitness industry - especially in the Keto world. I believe heavily in the IIFYM style of dieting. If you are unfamiliar with that term, IIFYM stands for “If it fits your macros”.

Many people in the Keto industry or online will probably slap the “Dirty Keto” label on my approach. I think that that’s completely okay.

I believe that if it works, helps you to stick to your diet and achieve your goals, then the rest doesn’t actually matter.

Most people who fail to meet their fitness goals have a habit of over complicating the process. They overwhelm themselves by focusing on the goal rather than the journey. I forget who said it, but I heard a quote once that has stuck with me for years. “Success is merely a series of small decisions made well” – unknown.

The key to achieving any and all of your goals in life is to simply narrow your focus and make the small choices that you know are right.

Keto changed my life

Keto has truly changed my life. The purpose of my writings, as well as my books, is to share all of the life changing things that I’ve learned. I continue to work on my weight and my fitness - as we all do.

Fitness is a constant battle. No one will ever truly “make it” in the sense that it is never over. Life has curves and changes that force us to adapt or die. I think most people eventually do adapt - however not always immediately.

Change and adaptation is only ever in your own time, but when you finally do come to that place of change within yourself, you begin to see all the potential that you have locked up inside yourself.

Connect with me

Connect with me directly on my website J.P. Wells Fitness. I post awesome new content all the time.

If you enjoy keto and want to learn some cool tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way - or want to stay up to date with my book releases and even get some cool freebies - subscribe to my mailing list.

You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.

The Top 5 Biggest Keto Mistakes

Avoid these mistakes if you want success on a ketogenic diet.

So by now I’m sure that we’ve all heard of the keto diet. Maybe you have even thought about giving the ketogenic diet a try. On the surface it seems like a simple idea. Don't eat carbs or sugar. Eat more meat and cheese. To be completely honest if this was your opinion you would not technically be wrong - more like incomplete.

While yes, you do in fact cut your carbs to around 20g or less per day. You will probably be eating significantly more meats and cheeses than you have previously been used too. A lot more actually goes into the keto diet than just that.

The fact is that most beginners, as well as the general public, view the diet as “the meat, cheese, and egg” diet. This makes it easy for people to make a lot of mistakes in the beginning - many of which I have personally made along the way.

I’ve put together a list of the five biggest mistakes that people make when starting out in keto.

The top 5 biggest keto mistakes

1. Not getting enough electrolytes
2. Eating hidden carbs
3. Not eating enough fat
4. Giving up too early on adaptation 
5. Eating too much in general

1. Not getting enough electrolytes

A lack of electrolytes can lead to failure on the keto diet.

It is obviously true of any diet you’re on that you need to drink plenty of water. However, it goes beyond that with keto. Because you are cutting out carbs and sugar from your diet, you are essentially suppressing your insulin levels.

Insulin is the hormone in your body that is responsible for telling your kidneys to collect sodium. So when you begin to enter a state of ketosis, your insulin levels will be at an all-time low and your kidneys will essentially be flushing the sodium out of your body.

This is especially true when you exercise or go through a strenuous activity. When your body does not have enough sodium, potassium, and magnesium, you will begin to feel symptoms of the “keto flu” such as fatigue, headache, constipation, muscle cramping, and lethargy.

Important electrolytes during keto

• Sodium 
• Potassium
• Magnesium

Keto flu symptoms from low electrolytes

1. Fatigue
2. Headaches
3. Constipation
4. Muscle cramps
5. Lethargy

Without proper supplementation and the addition of some salty snacks here and there, you will likely give up after so long dealing with the “keto flu”.

2. Eating hidden carbs

Don't let hidden carbs throw you out of ketosis.

When I first started out, I had no idea how many foods that I ate regularly were actually packed with carbohydrates. Obviously, things like breads and pastas were out, but carrots? Until you begin looking at each individual food under that keto lens, it is relatively easy to miss some of the hidden carbs. A few that initially slipped under my radar included the following:

Hidden carbohydrates that you don't realize during keto

1. Apples
2. Grapes
3. Carrots
4. Cashews

When you first start out on your keto journey, it is important you get comfortable with reading the packaging labels in the grocery store.  You will find that processed food companies like to sneak sugar in where you least expect it.

They want you to be addicted to carbs so you will buy more of their products. Do not be fooled by flashy marketing. Always read the nutritional facts labels so you know exactly what you are getting in for! A good idea is to check out blogs and forums online for great tips and recipe tricks to help make staying carbohydrate free a little easier.

3. Not eating enough fat

Fats are essential to a good keto diet.

This is a huge roadblock for a lot of people. When you remove carbs from your diet, your body burns through its saved glucose stores. Once all the glucose is burned off, your body begins to panic and tells your liver to begin producing ketones.

These ketones replace the glucose in your bloodstream and they begin being used as your body's primary fuel source. In order to produce ketones, your body needs fats to convert.

As a society we are trained to think fat is the devil, but not on keto. You may have thought that you were giving yourself an extra edge by sticking to “fat-free” labels, but you are actually shooting yourself in the foot.

Eating fat rich foods like Salmon and Avocado are essential to finding serious success on your keto journey.

4. Giving up too early on adaptation 

Stick it out and reap the rewards!

The thing to remember in the beginning is that getting into ketosis is a process. Be patient with your body. When you first start out, your body is switching from relying on carbohydrates for energy to a completely new energy source.

This is a big change, and it just takes time. You will begin to feel the effects of keto flu. There are things you can do to minimize this, but you cannot eliminate it completely. Just keep going.

If you stick with it, you will wake up one morning and feel great. Just like that, you are in ketosis. However, it is also important to note that even after keto flu is done, it can still take 3-4 weeks to fully adapt to peak fat burning efficiency.

5. Eating too much in general

You still need to be responsible.

Just like not eating enough fats can kill your progress, eating too much can take you completely off the rails. Many people start out with the mindset that they don’t have to think about portion control if they are on keto. The fact of the matter is that your mindset is completely wrong if you think like that.

Eating too much or too little is easily enough to completely stop you from seeing any positive results. The fact is that you cannot have the caloric intake of a professional bodybuilder if you do not live an active enough lifestyle that warrants many calories every day.

You want to use one of the many calorie calculators out there and figure your average caloric needs - and stay within a range of that.

Conclusion

The ketogenic diet has probably been one of the most influential diet trends in our generation. It has spun off several different versions and created an entire industry.

The reason why it has seen all of this success is simple… it works. With a little research going in, just about anyone can see huge health and physical benefits from the keto lifestyle.

J.P. Wells

J.P. Wells has spent the last 13 years of his life learning about, and pursuing, a healthy and active lifestyle. After sustaining a life-changing injury during his time serving in the United States Military, he dedicated his time to learning and researching ways to heal and re-build his body to get back to the active lifestyle he grew up loving.

Keto expert J.P. Wells from jpwellsfitness.com

On his blog J.P. Wells Fitness, J.P. Wells shares the knowledge and the passions that he has come to learn from the fitness industry and fitness culture. He understands that health and fitness is not just a one-time choice, but a lifestyle. Success in your goals is not made up of large single decisions, but rather a series of small choices that are made well throughout every day.

Check him out on Facebook or Twitter.

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.

What is health culture?

Health culture is one of today's biggest online trends.

What is health culture?

Health culture refers to the trends that encourage people to live a healthy lifestyle. The health culture of today has grown exponentially because of social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and the like. Health culture is basically a collection of current health trends.

What is the difference between health culture and a culture of health?

Health culture refers to the current health trends of the day. A culture of health is any one of many cultures (generational, geographic, national, ethnically or demographic) that encourage a healthy lifestyle.

A culture of health

Certain groups of people are healthier than others. A culture of health is a group of people that follow a healthy lifestyle. The chad culture, for example, is a culture of health because the majority of their food is fresh without preservatives, additives, saturated fats and added salt.

Most sports groups have a strong culture of health. The culture of health in bodybuilding, for example, is one of the reasons why bodybuilding can increase mental performance. Greece and Japan are countries with a strong culture of health.

Health culture

Health culture, on the other hand, looks at the trends that cross cultural or demographic borders. Health culture used to dictate that fat-free food is healthier, for example. Currently, health culture says that a sugar free diet is the healthiest.

Health culture changes as new research, ideas and theologies take center stage.

Key differences between a culture of health and health culture

1. 'A culture of health' refers to any culture that is healthy. A 'health culture' is the ever-growing meditation movement.
2. It is similar to the difference between a media outlet and the media. Many individual parts of one form the other. A culture of health would be the singular (what one group of people are doing), where a health culture would be the plural (what most people are doing).
3. A culture of health is a culture that is healthy. A health culture is a health trend.

Social media is powerful.

The history of health culture - How did health culture come get so big?

Universities, professionals and large companies shaped health culture before the internet

Before the explosion of the internet, people got health advice from doctors, dietitians and other qualified professionals on a face-to-face basis. Professionals learned their information from school, which was closely aligned to a singular, uniform idea of about health.

Large companies were able to influence health culture through advertising. They could pay universities large amounts of money to study and confirm the health benefits of their products. Advertising was people's secondary (and primary exposure in many cases) exposure to the idea of what a healthy lifestyle looks like.

As an example, adverts promoted low-fat products. This led people to believe that low fat was what we should aim for. Another great example of this is the fact that the line 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' was created in the nineteenth century by James Jackson and John Kellogg (used to promote their breakfast cereal). This single line is still a very big trend in today's health culture.

Do research to determine what is true.

The internet allows anybody to influence health culture

The internet gave anybody the opportunity to reach a seemingly unlimited number of people. This was especially true in the earlier days when everybody was just starting out and there were no large influences in the market yet.

Anybody could give health advice and their online following seemed to determine whether their advice was worth listening to. Online health and fitness became (and still is) a very profitable business - if you can get enough attention. This led more and more people to vouch for the position of 'health influencer'.

An ever-increasing number of people could now determine what was deemed healthy - regardless of whether the claims were true or not. Many people trust what they read online over and above what they hear from their doctors.

Don't be misled.

The split within health culture

The massive growth of health influences who gave health advice independently (not needing to concur with one another before information is released) led to differences of opinion. Studies are now more easily accessible and almost anybody could quote them in a way that supported their argument.

People are always looking for new ways to solve old problems. New ideas rose to popularity as older methods declined in favor. Any new ideas that gained a large following found more writers who wanted to become an expert on the subject to carve out their own following.

This is what created the large variety of health concepts that dominate our screens on social media today. Any trend that has a large enough following has become what is now called 'health culture'.

Share this image on social media.

So who is right?

Which of these influences are right? What trends are actually good for you?

The best thing to do is to read the studies from reputable universities yourself. You can use the results of those studies to determine whether the health claim holds any truth.

Most people quote studies that prove their point (or at least they should) throughout their content. Very few people click through to the studies to see whether the results support the writer's claims.

If you want to know whether somebody's online health advice is backed by science, read the studies they quote and determine whether the results are the same as reported.

Do your own research!

The role of health culture

If you've read this far, you might be thinking that health culture has done more damage than good. I'd argue that the opposite is true. 

While opposing opinions might confuse many people, the online debate is quite similar to what happens in University lecture halls and science labs. The biggest difference (besides the fact that there are now thousands of people in the debate) is that all of this back-and-forth is made public for all to see.

Is a plant-based or meat-based diet the healthiest option? Science will take years before we have a solid answer. Thanks to health culture, we have thousands of people who are already trying out these trends and giving us constant feedback about what works for them and what doesn't.

Health culture is a good thing.

A massive growth in anecdotal evidence

Anecdotal evidence is evidence to support a claim based on personal experience.

Anecdotal evidence almost always precedes scientific evidence. What does that mean? It simply means that the majority of research tests are done to confirm what many people already believe through experience. The cure to cancer might be sitting in your kitchen. We'll never know until someone picks it up and gives it a go.

The online community has helped the science community just as much as the other way around. Anecdotal evidence, testimonials and trends give scientists a pretty good idea of what could work and what wouldn't. They can now spend more time testing theories instead of having to come up with theories of their own.

In fact, there are currently more things that need to be researched than what we the capacity to research.

Have you ever wondered why almost every study says 'more research is needed' at the end of their test results? That's because much more research is needed - there just isn't enough resources to study everything at once.

Both forms of evidence are important.

Why does science take so long to give us solid answers?

We've discussed the fact that there is so much more research that needs to be done. An 'I tried it for 30 days' testimonial on YouTube seems to be more conclusive than a study that took years to complete. Why does clinical research take so long?

There are too many variables that need to be accounted for. 

Let's use a study about sleep deprivation, for example. Someone might film themselves going without sleep for 24 hours to document the results. This gives us anecdotal evidence. Clinical studies need more information to come to conclusive results.

From a clinical point of view, small things like caffeine intake need to be taken into consideration. If you give the person more caffeine than what they'd have in a typical day, additional caffeine can skew the results. On the other hand, spending time awake without normal caffeine intake might produce symptoms that are mistakenly documented as sleep deprivation.

Other factors include lighting (because light effects how sleepy we feel) and whether a physically or mentally draining task was done.

If a symptom is observed, we need to be sure that it is a symptom and not the result of something else.

Consider all factors.

It takes a lifetime to determine long-term results

One of the other factors that prolong the process of research is the fact that good research takes a long time to be conclusive.

Did the test subject really showcase symptoms of mania after going without sleep, or did they just have a bad day? What were the effects for the following week after sleep deprivation?

To get all of the information that we need about how a certain health trend affects somebody's health, we would need to study their eating plans and its effects on their health for an entire lifetime.

The long period of time between birth and death can prolong a study by many, many years. This is one of the reasons why vaping studies have taken so long to be released. It will take many years before we can finally understand the long-term effects.

A health influencer, on the other hand, can release anecdotal evidence about how they felt after switching to vaping within 30 days.

Other factors that prolong clinical research

1. Red tape, paperwork and funding are other factors that stagger research productivity. Human rights issues and health regulations interfere with a lot of scientific research (Marijuana research has been severely impacted by health regulations). Compulsory safety regulations can also prevent necessary or accurate research from taking place.
2. Studies need to be confirmed by other studies. One study might prove a significant breakthrough, but this might not prove anything if the results can't be replicated by other studies.

These are some of the ways that other health influences have been able to provide information about health before they can be proved or disproved by actual research.

It is costly and time consuming.

The benefits of health culture

Besides being able to provide health information at a much faster rate to a larger group of people, current health culture plays a few other important roles.

1. Motivate people to improve their health

Health culture plays a big role in motivating people to live a healthier lifestyle. Information about exercise, weight loss and nutrition is now available to anybody with an internet connection. 

People are more likely to learn about the benefits of exercise on their social feeds on a daily basis. This is much more frequent than the advice that they would hear from their doctor. 

Before and after pictures, big promises and results testimonials inspire people to change. Of the people we surveyed, 4 out of 100 people started their health and fitness journey because of what they saw online.

2. Health culture helps many people

A large amount of people have found practical ways to deal with existing issues through today's health culture. It is now easier than ever to find what has worked for others and find the best health strategy for yourself.

3. Access to forums, reviews, question-and-answer sites, blogs and testimonials

What works and what does not work? You can find what other people have tried and see the results in an almost endless supply of anecdotal evidence. If you still haven't found a suitable answer, you can ask people for your very own, personalized answer on forums and group chats.

4. Actual research is usually just a few extra clicks away

Reputable health writers will provide scientific evidence to any health claims that they make. It is the responsibility of the reader to click though to those research papers and come to their own conclusions.

Research papers are often hard to read or understand for most people. Researches usually write for other researchers. Writers have the important job of breaking the results and information down into an easily-readable format that everybody can understand.

Health culture helps many people.

Conclusion

Health culture will continue to grow and transform as it sweeps across the general public. Everybody should check the facts provided by health writers by reading the scientific sources that they quote. There is more than enough anecdotal evidence. We just need more time for clinical research to catch up.

Check your facts by doing more research before following a current health trend. Some of them can mislead you, while others can change your life for the better. Stay Strong!

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.

What is a social health issue?

We need to stand together for better health.

Health is more than an individual's responsibility. We need to stand together and work as a community to tackle the health issues that affect our communities. I hope that this article encourages you to find a social health issue that you are passionate about. Can you decide to make a difference for generations to come?

What is a social health issue?

A social health issue is a problem or challenge related to health that affects a large group of people within a geographic area. Social health issues are classified as local (within a community like water supply and pollution), national (issues that affect the health of a country like health policies such as health insurance) or international and global (health issues that affect the world like unhealthy eating, stress and sleep quality).

List of social health issues

1. World hunger
2. Access to medical care
3. Pollution
4. Mental health and depression
5. Physical inactivity
6. Processed food
7. Vaccinations
8. Dietary guidelines
9. Drinking water
10. Agriculture

Take action!

Why is it important to care about social health issues?

If nobody (or only a few people) cares about health issues that affect a large group of people, meaningful changes that could help millions of people won't happen.

A good example is the hole in the ozone layer. It was a big issue years ago and everybody was concerned about the damage that we were causing to the ozone layer. Companies were put under pressure to create products that didn't damage the ozone layer and we were able to successfully reduce the damage. We still have a long way to go, but the hole was the smallest that it has ever been in 35 years last year.

Big changes happen when people stand together. We can still tackle other issues that plaque our health as a collective.

Stand together.

What is the difference between a social health issue and social health?

Social health refers to an individual's well-being in terms of their relationships and interaction with others. Social health issues are problems that affect the health of a large group of people.

Social health

You are socially healthy when you have a meaningful connection with your friends, family and colleagues. Socially healthy people find it easy to communicate with other people and strangers.

Social health issues

Social health issues relate to the health of a population's environment, the food they eat and the water they drink, their working conditions, access to medical care, health education and a population's health habits. If it affects a large portion of the people within a certain population, it is a social health issue.

Social health issues

Here are some examples are social health issues that we need to address.

1. World hunger

World hunger is the biggest social health challenge that we face today.

Shocking facts about world hunger

Here are some facts about world hunger as it currently stands:

1. Hunger is the world's biggest health problem
2. Someone dies of hunger every second.
3. One of every six people doesn't have enough food.
4. 36 Million People will die of hunger this year.
5. One of the major factors of growing world hunger is raising food prices.
6. Every 5 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies because of hunger or malnutrition.
7. Almost half of the world's produced food is lost or wasted.
8. Crop pests, ineffective harvesting, irrigation and trashed food are responsible for most of the world's food wastage.
9. 17% of perfectly good food is thrown away. This food is enough to eradicate world hunger.
10. Food production takes more water than anything else done by humans.

What can we, as individuals, do about it? How do we decrease the cost of food production and decrease food wastage? How do we encourage large businesses, government and world leaders to intervene? Does awareness help to solve the problem?

Too many people do nothing.

2. Access to medical care

More than half of the world's population does not have access to proper medical care, while 100 million people (100 000 000 people) are forced into extreme poverty because of medical bills.

This is one of the social health issues that break my heart. I am left wondering about the value of our medical breakthroughs when they don't reach the people who need it the most.

The four components of access to medical care

When we talk about access to medical care as a social health issue, we can break the issue down into 4 main elements.

The four components of access to medical care are:

1. Coverage: Uninsured people have extremely limited access to medical care and are more likely to have a bad health status because of it.
2. Services: Are screening and preventative measures made available to everybody?
3. Timeliness: Do people receive medical care as soon as they need it?
4. Workforce: Are there enough medical care providers in a community? Are they able to tend to health issues and provide the best treatment available?

How do we solve this issue? What can you do as an individual to raise awareness and solve the problem?

Raise awareness.

3. Pollution

Pollution is a health issue because it affects our health. 7 Million People die from air pollution every year. Pollution is a global social health issue.

The health effects of air pollution

1. Leads to fatigue
2. Causes headaches
3. Increases anxiety
4. Irritates the eyes, nose and throat
5. Hampers liver function
6. Places toxins in the blood
7. Damages reproductive organs
8. Harms the spleen
9. Hurts the central nervous system
10. Damages our cardiovascular system
11. Causes respiratory diseases

It's time to do things smarter.

4. Mental health and depression

Over 264 million individuals struggle with depression globally. Almost 800 000 people commit suicide every year.

What Causes depression?

According to WebMD, the causes of depression include:

1. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse
2. Some medications
3. Conflict
4. Death and loss
5. Big life changes
6. Social isolation
7. Other illnesses like diabetes
8. Substance abuse and addiction

If we look at these causes, we can see that many of the causes can be eliminated through collaboration as a community.

Do we, as a community, stand up to abuse and do we have enough resources readily available to people who need it? How can we improve the development of medicine so that it treats illness without negative side effects? 

How do we educate the community to help people who struggle to cope with loss? Do education systems and media outlets successfully educate the public about social inclusiveness? 

How can we promote a healthier lifestyle to individuals? What is the best way for law enforcement to reduce the availability of substances? Mental health is everyone's responsibility.

Mental health is in everybody's hands.

5. Physical inactivity

Physical inactivity is a lack of exercise that leads to a variety of health problems. It is another important social health issue and it affects almost every part of the global population. Lack of exercise is an individual issue as well as a social health issue because it affects so many people. 

The health effects of physical inactivity include:

1. Slow metabolism and lack of energy
2. Decreased blood flow
3. Declining mental and emotional health
4. Fat gain and muscle loss
5. Toxin buildup
6. Decreased immunity
7. Cardiovascular disease

Do we do enough to create a culture where it is considered normal to exercise every day? Should companies make their offices more exercise friendly? How do we promote a healthier lifestyle as a community?

Encourage people to exercise more.

6. Processed food

Processed food is profitable, easy to produce, cheap, lasts longer on the shelves, tastes good and is easily accessible to almost everybody in the developed world. Lots of important nutrients are lost during the manufacturing process of these kinds of food. Chemicals such as preservatives, artificial flavors and colors, sweeteners and sugars are added to them.

For those reasons, the first step to a healthy diet is to eliminate all processed food.

The negative health effects of eating processed food:

See the above link for more information about how processed food damages your body.

1. Lack of important nutrients
2. Over consumption of harmful chemicals
3. Slow metabolism
4. Sugar addiction
5. Weight gain
6. High cholesterol
7. Diabetes
8. Heart disease
9. Metabolic syndrome
10. Insulin resistance
11. Toxic buildup

Processed food

As a social health issue, how do we address the unhealthy nature of processed food? Do we ban harmful substances? Should we monitor the manufacturing process or enforce the inclusion of certain nutrients? How do we encourage the public to eat a healthier diet?

Other examples of social health issues

There are other examples of social health issues that need to be addressed. Here are a few of them:

1. Vaccinations

This is a trending social health issue at the moment. How dangerous are vaccinations? How do we make them safer?

2. Dietary guidelines

Many people believe that current dietary guidelines are out of date. How accurate are our current dietary guidelines? Are the same guidelines appropriate for everybody? How do we ensure that everybody meets their daily minimum requirements of important nutrients?

3. Drinking water

Safe drinking water is another social health issue that is of enormous importance. The number of communities that don't have access to clean drinking water is overwhelming. There aren't enough people who are committed to providing a solution to the problem and many people are dying because of it.

4. Agriculture

Pesticides, fertilizers, hormones and other chemicals are used in agriculture for the production of food. What health consequences does this have for the people in the immediate vicinity of these agricultural productions? How do these chemicals affect consumers at the end of the production line? Can we find solutions that are cheaper, more efficient and healthier to everybody involved?

Start by doing something small.

Get involved with a social health issue

The world wouldn't have any social health issues (or any social issues in general) if everybody stepped in to help. The people who are most able to help are generally too concerned with their own lives. Helping others is one of the most rewarding ways of finding happiness.

How can I help?

A lot of people don't get involved in a social health issue because they don't know where to begin or they don't know what they can do. Here's how you can make a difference:

1. Find a social health issue that you are passionate about.
2. Research groups of people who are involved in the issue.
3. Join their group or start your own.
4. Promote them on social media, raise awareness and get other people involved.
5. Dedicate a set amount of your time, every week, to improve the situation.
6. Raise funds and donate some of your own money to charities and organizations.
7. Cut out one negative habit and use that money to help someone in need.

Get up and do something.

What social health issues do you care about? What are you doing to make a positive difference? Let me know in the comments below. Stay Strong!

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.