Ketogenic diet for rock climbers – pros and cons – review

Quick Summary

A ketogenic diet may help some climbers control appetite and lose body fat, but weight loss does not automatically improve climbing performance. Because hard climbing relies heavily on carbohydrate-supported energy production, very low carbohydrate intake may compromise repeated high-intensity efforts, training quality, and recovery. Its usefulness ultimately depends on the climber’s goals, response, and ability to maintain adequate energy and protein intake.

Key points

Ketogenic diets severely restrict carbohydrates and rely primarily on fat and ketones for energy
Initial weight loss includes water loss as glycogen stores are depleted
The diet may reduce appetite and support fat loss, but it offers no guaranteed climbing-performance advantage
Lower carbohydrate availability may impair power, repeated hard efforts, and high-volume training
Maintaining muscle requires adequate protein, total energy, and progressive strength training
Adaptation can temporarily cause fatigue, reduced training quality, and digestive or electrolyte issues
Climbers considering keto should test it cautiously, monitor performance and recovery, and prioritize long-term dietary sustainability

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Ketogenic diet for rock climbers - Introduction

Climbing is a sport where the strength-to-weight and power-to-weight ratios are critical for success. Therefore, climbers understandably strive to minimize their weight while maintaining lean muscle mass, high performance, and overall well-being. Doctors initially used the ketogenic diet (KD) in the 1920s for treating epilepsy. However, recently it has been gaining a lot of attention in sports for its efficacy in controlling weight. It has also been reported to increase energy levels and recovery rates. Nonetheless, of late, it has been mainly studied from the weight/fat loss angle and its impact on glucose and fat metabolism. Still, as far as the effect on sports performance is concerned, the ketogenic diet is yet to be thoroughly analyzed ¹.

My first encounter with the ketogenic diet

I first heard about the keto diet in the climbing training context when I listened to the TrainingBeta podcast interview with Neil Gresham in 2016 ². Neil claimed that the ketogenic diet did wonders for him in terms of his climbing improvement. Among the many benefits Neil mentioned:

feeling stronger, lighter, and more energized
eating healthier stuff – his palate was rewired toward vegetables
no sugar cravings
improved recovery rate – eating less pro-inflammatory foods, including gluten
lost 15 lbs of weight in a month without ever feeling hungry or low on energy
feeling mentally sharper and better mood

He said that after changing his way of eating, he’d improved from struggling on 8a+ routes to sending 8c within a year. If that doesn’t spark your interest, I don’t know what does! That all sounded too good to be true, but I immediately felt I needed to give it a try!

No single thing has ever made such a big difference in my climbing as this diet.

Neil Gresham

The matter was more complex, though. After doing a little more research into the topic, I realized that the evidence was conflicting and that many sources, including Neely Quinn, the podcast’s author, reported experiencing several adverse effects ³. The more I explored the topic, the more I learned how vital for hard climbing carbs were ⁴⁵. But I could also find encouraging voices from keto diet enthusiasts, such as Dave Macleod himself ⁶. I needed to get to the bottom of this, so over three years, I ran a series of experiments where I compared my climbing test results on keto and mixed diets and documented the results to get my perspective.

Full article continues below

Continue reading for the complete evidence-based review of ketogenic diets for climbers, including their effects on weight loss, strength, endurance, recovery, and climbing performance.

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Full article includes

What is the ketogenic diet?Keto diet and weight lossKeto diet vs. typical "crash" dietsKeto diet and muscle massKeto diet and strengthKeto diet and muscle enduranceKeto diet - things to consider before you try it

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4 thoughts on “Ketogenic diet for rock climbers – pros and cons – review”

Peter
December 4, 2024 at 1:11 pm

“Diets” are too much about religion, everybody will find advantages from his regligion, and keto may have worked for some… but in general a keto diet has some dramatic drawbacks for climbing. First is that glycogen levels in muscles are quite lower, muscle oclusion happens quite earlier. Still if any diet (LCD, LFD or any combination) provocates a 5kg weight loss then probably a benefit is there. For sure keto is harmful for most of climbers, still there are many individual genetic factors and contexts so there may be exceptions.

Reply
1. Jędrzej
  December 4, 2024 at 2:20 pm
  
  Thank you for that comment! Yes, I completely agree; a strict keto diet will have a severe negative impact on performance, particularly on endurance. However, there might be very special cases when it’s helpful. Many people claim that they follow a keto diet, but in fact, they’re following a low-carb diet – this could be misleading and lead to varying outcomes.
  
  Reply
Ryan T
July 7, 2023 at 5:10 pm

Thank you for posting such great information!

Reply
1. Jędrzej
  July 8, 2023 at 2:29 pm
  
  Thank you! I appreciate it! 🙂
  
  Reply