Yes still here of course! Always haha
First of all you I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ll be very blunt (sooo unlike me hahahaha)…no matter how you turn it and I don’t care what trendy or fancy name you give it, any kind of keto or low carb diet will ALWAYS be inferior to a high carb/medium-high protein/low fat diet when it comes to performance. Even more than that - even when it comes to physique, getting a hard, dense, full look (not just shredded), keto will fall short no matter how much manipulation you do in peak week. You already mentioned the glycogen reasoning, but even more than that, carbs are a superior energy source for both your muscular system and your brain…from an absorption (faster and more efficient than ketones), recovery, and strength point of view. Show me one high level (I mean actual high level) performance athlete or body builder that successfully uses a keto diet…we aren’t just talking about studies showing carbs work better for performance, I’m talking about real life athletes and everyone i have ever heard about trying keto eventually comes back to high carb/low fat. I tried it myself 2 or 3 times as a body builder and all I got was a soft (shredded but soft) look…and when carbs were reintroduced, metabolism was hell and I had terrible water rebounds with a huge adjustment period. At best keto can be a short term solution to lose weight and get leaner, but it is definitely not sustainable for a healthy balanced diet (as is the case for any diet that cuts out an entire food source) and is not for performance.