Carbs & Muscle Growth

Carbs & Muscle Growth
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Low-carb diets have increased in popularity over the past few years. We now know low-carb diets are similarly effective as high-carb diets for fat loss when calories and protein are matched [1]. But what about muscle growth? Multiple recent studies investigating ketogenic diets while lifting weights found that keto diets are less effective for gaining muscle than high-carb diets [2, 3]. The studies were performed on relatively lean athletes.
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These findings may have to do with the fact that high-carb diets involve greater insulin stimulation, which plays a role in muscle growth [4]. But what also plays a role is that it’s just harder to consume enough calories for optimal muscle gain on a keto diet. The participants in the mentioned studies (references 2 & 3) ended up consuming fewer calories when they followed a keto diet, likely because keto has mild appetite-suppressing effects [5].
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Considering this and the fact that carbohydrates help fuel resistance training performance [6], a low-carb diet is probably not optimal for maximizing muscle growth. For a general carbohydrate guideline, check the last slide of this post.
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With that said, there’s nothing wrong with experimenting with a low-carb diet if you haven’t yet. But I suggest you do this while trying to lose fat. The appetite-suppressing effects of a low-carb diet may help with creating a calorie deficit.