Research
Hormonal
Ketogenic diets are effective for fat mass reduction but are less effective than carbohydrate-rich diets for muscle mass gain, potentially due to reduced testosterone and IGF-1 levels.
If your main goal is to build muscle, avoid ketogenic diets as they may hinder growth. If your goal is fat loss, keto works, but monitor your strength training performance.
ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
In the context of hypertrophy and muscle mass gain, KD has limitations, making it less advantageous during muscle-building phases... Bodybuilders following KD have been observed to experience a decrease in testosterone and IGF-1 levels... it is less effective than carbohydrate-rich diets when the goal is to increase muscle mass.
Why this rating
Based on specific studies on bodybuilders and trained men.
Source
A Review of Strategies for Achieving Simultaneous Muscle Mass Gain, Maintenance, or Minimal Loss During Fat Reduction: Insights from the Last 5 Years
Volha Babrova et al. · Journal of Education Health and Sport · 2025
DOI 10.12775/jehs.2025.79.59391
narrative_reviewCited 2×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Resistance training combined with high protein intake (1.6-2.0 g/kg/day) preserves or increases muscle mass during caloric restriction, whereas high protein intake alone is insufficient without resistance training.Good
- Combining High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with Resistance Training (RT) increases lean muscle mass and reduces visceral fat more effectively than Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training (MICT) alone in postmenopausal women.Moderate
Related findings · Hormonal
- Initial treatment for type 2 diabetes should be a combination of metformin and either an SGLT-2 inhibitor or a GLP-1 receptor agonist to achieve cardiorenal protection, rather than monotherapy or older agents like sulfonylureas.Strong
- For patients with specific monogenic obesity syndromes (leptin deficiency, POMC/PCSK1/LEPR mutations), targeted pharmacotherapy (recombinant leptin or setmelanotide) is highly effective and should be prioritized, unlike in polygenic obesity.Strong
- Continued weekly administration of 2.4 mg subcutaneous semaglutide prevents weight regain and promotes further weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity, whereas switching to placebo results in significant weight regain.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →