extreme interest, both good and bad, in the ketogenic diet. Contrary to the semi-starvation and
very low calorie ketogenic diets which had come before it, Dr. Atkins suggested a diet limited only
in carbohydrates but with unlimited protein and fat. He promoted it as a lifetime diet which
would provide weight loss quickly, easily and without hunger, all while allowing dieters to eat as
much as they liked of protein and fat. He offered just enough research to make a convincing
argument, but much of the research he cited suffered from methodological flaws.
For a variety of reasons, most likely related to the unsupported (and unsupportable)
claims Atkins made, his diet was openly criticized by the American Medical Association and the
ketogenic diet fell back into obscurity (17). Additionally, several deaths occurring in dieters
following “The Last Chance Diet” - a 300 calorie-per-day liquid protein diet, which bears a
superficial resemblance to the PSMF - caused more outcry against ketogenic diets.
From that time, the ketogenic diet (known by this time as the Atkins diet) all but
disappeared from the mainstream of American dieting consciousness as a high carbohydrate,
lowfat diet became the norm for health, exercise performance and fat loss.
Recently there has been a resurgence in low carbohydrate diets including “Dr. Atkins New
Diet Revolution” (18) and “Protein Power” by the Eades (19) but these diets are aimed primarily
at the typical American dieter, not athletes.
Ketogenic diets and bodybuilders/athletes
Low carbohydrate diets were used quite often in the early years of bodybuilding (the fish
and water diet). As with general fat loss, the use of low carbohydrate, ketogenic diets by athletes
fell into disfavor as the emphasis shifted to carbohydrate based diets.
As ketogenic diets have reentered the diet arena in the 1990’s, modified ketogenic diets
have been introduced for athletes, primarily bodybuilders. These include so-called cyclical
ketogenic diets (CKD’s) such as “The Anabolic Diet” (20) and “Bodyopus” (21).
During the 1980’s, Michael Zumpano and Daniel Duchaine introduced two of the earliest
CKD’s: ‘The Rebound Diet’ for muscle gain, and then a modified version called ‘The Ultimate Diet’
for fat loss. Neither gained much acceptance in the bodybuilding subculture. This was most
likely due to difficulty in implementing the diets and the fact that a diet high in fat went against
everything nutritionists advocated.
In the early 1990’s, Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, a renowned expert on drug use in sports,
introduced “The Anabolic Diet” (AD). This diet alternated periods of 5-6 days of low carbohydrate,
moderate protein, moderate/high fat eating with periods of 1-2 days of unlimited carbohydrate
consumption (20). The major premise of the Anabolic Diet was that the lowcarb week would
cause a ‘metabolic shift’ to occur, forcing the body to use fat for fuel. The high carb consumption
on the weekends would refill muscle carbohydrate stores and cause growth. The carb-loading
phase was necessary as ketogenic diets can not sustain high intensity exercise such as weight
training.
DiPasquale argued that his diet was both anti-catabolic (preventing muscle breakdown) as
well as overtly anabolic (muscle building). His book suffered from a lack of appropriate
references (using animal studies when human studies were available) and drawing incorrect