I agree with this.
Objectively, I know that ketosis is "healthier" in numerous aspects, I do feel better energy-wise, and it doesn't seem like cutting out carbs affects my lifting...but damn there's something about eating carbs that just feels right! On my weekly high-carb day, I had some doughnuts as my pre-workout...and my squats and deads felt amazing lol.
It's really hard to tell if the positive/negative effects of carbs are completely or at least partially psychological for each person. Regardless, as Rex and everyone else on this thread has agreed on, I guess ketogenic diets are always very individual-specific, and there is no one exact ratio of carbs/protein/fat that is ideal for everyone.
I'm starting to increase my protein intake a bit (and this doesn't seem to affect my ketosis), and I think now my strength levels feel a lot better.
I love ketogenic diets. from 2009-2012 I was powerlifting on a ketogenic diet.
The hardest thing was trying to gain weight. I was a 226-232 lb 220 weightclass powerlifter. Compare that to at RUM 7 when I was 226 competing against Dan who was 256. So i decided to gain weight, and doing so as a ketogenic dieter felt impossible.
I was able to maintain strength and the first two times I won Raw Unity Meet I was on a low carb ketogenic diet. Low carb Paloe in the broad sense.
Where I noticed a major difference from transitioning to a high carb diet was mainly these things:
1) On a high carb diet i was able to handle A LOT more volume in the gym and perform better in higher rep sets. On ketogenic, I kept most of my sets in the 1-3 rep ranges and didnt notice much of a problem. But in the higher reps, huge differnce, especially in the amount of sets I could do. Ie 1 downset of 8 vs 3-5 downsets if i wanted.
2) I was getting crazy pumps when training and able to put on size very quickly. It was as if my body was trying to be at least 240 and I had been holding it back.
3) I never felt flat again. On a ketogenic diet I would sometimes feel a slight pump while trianing and then an hour later I would feel 'flat'. When eating a lot of carbs intra and post workout, I always feel a little bit pumped once the pump has subsided. If that makes sense.
4) i cannot go have a day without eating being CARB ADAPTED. Ona ketogenic diet, I never got hangry, or felt I 'needed' to eat at certain times. Being Fat adapted, your body gets energy off of its fat stores.
All in all, I like ketogenic diets, and see a lot fo value in them, especially for health purposes such as reseting a lot of functions in the body such as insulin sensitivity, there are also a lot of positive correlations to fighting tumors and aging of the brain etc....
BUT, for human performance, and putting on a lot of size, although it can be done very successfully, I do not think it is optimal.
How do you expect to run with the wolves at night if you spend all day stuntin with the puppies?