Katherine Ventura Advanced Human Nutrition

Journal Club #1 The Human Metabolic Response to Chronic Ketosis Without Caloric
Restriction: Preservation of Submaximal Exercise Capability with Reduced Carbohydrate
Oxidation

This study was done to examine the effects of chronic ketosis on endurance athletes. Many
scientists believe that when you restrict someones carbohydrate and protein intake, forcing them
into a state of ketosis, they will have an impaired ability and may not be able to perform equally.
A unique component of this study is that researchers paid close attention to the mineral levels of
the participants to ensure that these levels were healthy which had not been done in previous
studies. Lastly, the athletic abilities of each athlete were studied and taken into consideration
before they were chosen as participants. In other studies, this was not done which made it hard
to view the ketosis factor as the only variable of the experiment.
There was not really a hypothesis in this paper that I could find. By reading between the lines,
one could guess that the researchers in this study disagreed or werent pleased with previous
studies only because they pointed out so many differences between their study and others that
were supposed to ensure more accurate results. It is apparent they did their research before
beginning this study!
In the beginning, they discussed the difference between their study and previous ones as well as
their methods and materials. Five cyclists will be involved in this study. Right away, we can
identify this as a possible limitation no matter what the results say. Five people are not enough
to indicate one way or the other. These athletes were fed a eucaloric balanced diet for one week,
and then four weeks of a eucaloric ketogenic diet. They measured athletes time, maximal
oxygen uptake and respiratory quotient each week.
As mentioned above, a possible limitation to this study is that there were only five participants.
Another would be time; they were only on the ketogenic diet for four weeks. During that time,
one participant dropped out and was unable to continue. If they extended the study for a few
more weeks would another person drop out? Also, they were only on the eucaloric balanced diet
for one week prior to the ketogenic diet, is this enough or would it produce different results if the
athletes were on both diets an equal length of time?
The conclusions stated that endurance exercise performance is not comprised by four weeks of
ketosis. When you look at the results this study yielded, I can see where the researchers are
coming from in that there was no evidence of hypoglycemia and some of the athletes overall
time was better on the ketosis diet. However, it is crucial to remember this is only a study of five
people. One could even argue that an athlete who participates in a different sport may have a
completely different experience than these five did. The results are interesting, and coincide
with the belief that ketosis isnt as awful and some make it out to be; but Im not sure you can
make any straight, across the board statements from these results based upon the limitations of
this study.