Ok. Here’s the deal. The point of keto is not so much that you lose weight, but that you gain metabolic health, which often includes shedding excess stored fat. The real goal of this way of eating is to become fat-adapted by keeping your insulin level low enough to allow your cells to switch over to burning fat instead of glucose. Carbohydrates raise your insulin dramatically, but fats hardly do at all, so fat is your go-to for giving your body enough calories. If you are still trying to bulk, eat more protein than the recommendation, which is 0.8-1.0 g of protein daily per kilo of lean mass. But giving your body enough calories is key, and the way to do that is to eat fat to satiety.
Now, during the changeover, your metabolism is going to go haywire, but once your muscles learn to eat fatty acids and ketone bodies instead of glucose, they will be much happier, and so will you. But it takes quite a few weeks in some cases, so don’t give up too soon. Eventually you will find yourself lifting weights that you never thought you could. But—keto is best for endurance events, not so great for explosive power. A 100-mile iron man endurance run? No sweat, no need for gels. A 100-yard dash? That’s a different kettle of fish.
Whatever your goals, get into full ketosis and full fat-adaptation first, then figure out how to tweak it. Keep your electrolytes up, especially the salt (the kidneys excrete sodium much more freely when you’re not eating carboyhydrate)—low electrolytes can contribut to that lack of energy. And apparently so can too much protein, go figure! Also, for now avoid BCAA’s because they interfere with metabolic health if you’re not trying to bulk up. So you should probably not try to exercise very much just yet, until you are fat-adapted. Once that happens, you should see some really good results. There are a lot of powerlifters on these forums, so search for topics that they might be posting in, and you’ll probably read lots of good tips.
