Impact of Ketogenic Diet on Body Composition during Resistance Training among Untrained Individuals

Resistance training (RT) has been established as the most efficient approach for lean body mass maintenance required for preserving a sufficiently high metabolism during weight loss.

This study aimed to evaluate the impacts of the ketogenic diet (KD) and regular diet (RE) in combination with 8-week resistance exercise (RT), on body weight, body fat mass (BFM), and lean body mass (LBM) of untrained individuals.

Twenty untrained participants were randomly assigned to the RE+RT and KD+RT as control and experimental groups, respectively. Sixty to ninety minutes of diversified resistance exercise were performed by both groups, three sessions weekly, and diet was self-administered with a recommended daily energy and protein intakes. Body composition was measured using a Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer. One-way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to analyze the data.

The results showed a greater post-intervention adjusted mean for body weight and LBM in the normal dietary group in comparison with the experimental group. After controlling for baseline measurements, there was a statistically significant difference in body weight (p < .0005) and BFM (p =.001) between groups.

Resistance training along with a ketogenic diet may decrease BFM without notable changes in LBM, whilst RT on a normal diet might increase LBM without remarkably influencing BFM.