Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!

[reazsal]

I'm little confused about eating on training days... I was reading this thread...

So someone said that on training days fats shouldn't be eaten 3 hours before and 3 hours after workout, so basically all protein. Is that so?

And is it okay to eat 50 g banana before, and 50 g after workout?

I would like to know this as well. On training days, I usually consume about 50g of protein within two hours of my post workout. I'm sure it kicks me out of ketosis, so I was thinking about cutting back on protein after workouts.

[Beldots]

Firstly thank you @blindfaith for posting such an extensive report of the Ketogenic diet! written very well.

I am a 'newbie' wannabe competitor in women's divisions and have recently found myself an old-school method coach (who still competes herself at 45 - what a beast) and she's put me initially on a high protein/mod carbs/low fat diet - around 140g/100g/40g.
Initially I lost fat (1.1cm collaboratively over an 8-site skin folds test in about 5 days) then she upp'd my carbs to 120g a day and I'm sure I've just about put it all back on.. which got me to researching this Ketosis style of dieting.
To clarify; on the diet recommended by my coach I was eating every ~2hrs, as follows;
Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs + tbspn p/butter
(TRAINING)
Lunch: 100g chicken breast, 150g brown rice, 1cup green veg
Snack: Protein shake + 1 piece fruit
Snack: 35g almonds
Dinner: 150g steak of some sort, 1cup veg
Before Bed: 180g high protein No Fat yoghurt, 1cup blueberries

I'm a 22yr old female, 164cm tall, 60kg, around 23% bf (estimates off 8 site skin fold measurement). I train 6 times a week, all heavy weight lifting, alternating exercises 3 times-ish a week with some variation.

I am thinking of switching to a Ketogenic diet (or at least bringing the idea up to my coach) because although it's strict, that's one area I've never had a problem with - sticking to diets.

I have a few questions that I couldn't find the answer to (after much procrastinating study forum searching...zzzz);
1) Do you need to eat at regular intervals on this diet?
2) Do you predominantly have your fattiest meals in the morning?
3) What method do I use to estimate how many kj/cal I need to be eating daily/how much of what foods etc? (currently on around 600kj a day on the aforementioned diet)

Thank you all in advance for taking the time :-)

[rudimarx]

Hi, I am looking into keto diet and according to the articles to lose wait and keep your muscles you do the Sunday to Friday and load carbs over Friday and Saturday. This is all good but I meed to eat 640g of protien and 200g fat and low carb
All keto apps tel me to much protien ? Is this healthy.
640g is a lot of protein, what do I eat ?
Thanks

[Mrpb]

Hi, I am looking into keto diet and according to the articles to lose wait and keep your muscles you do the Sunday to Friday and load carbs over Friday and Saturday. This is all good but I meed to eat 640g of protien and 200g fat and low carb
All keto apps tel me to much protien ? Is this healthy.
640g is a lot of protein, what do I eat ?
Thanks

During keto about 1 gram protein per lb of pound of lean body mass is recommended.

High carb days will disrupt ketosis and aren't recommended for keto.

[Dailydriven09]

Hi, I am looking into keto diet and according to the articles to lose wait and keep your muscles you do the Sunday to Friday and load carbs over Friday and Saturday. This is all good but I meed to eat 640g of protien and 200g fat and low carb
All keto apps tel me to much protien ? Is this healthy.
640g is a lot of protein, what do I eat ?
Thanks

You don't need 640g/protein, you need 640calories from protein, 1g protein equals roughly 4calories.
High fat, moderate protein, still 1g/lb of bodyweight, and under 30grams of carbs daily except on your friday-saturday refeed

[SteelNeverLies]

I'm only confused about friday where you said now at night is when the carb loading phase begins. I have no problem with energy and have survived grueling workouts all week with little to no carbs. How do I split up the calories macro wise when it comes to fats and getting started on the carb loading phase?

[Dailydriven09]

I'm only confused about friday where you said now at night is when the carb loading phase begins. I have no problem with energy and have survived grueling workouts all week with little to no carbs. How do I split up the calories macro wise when it comes to fats and getting started on the carb loading phase?

Well, since your fats were higher to compensate for the lack of carbs, reduce the fats back down and slowly introduce carbs back in. I usually start with 30-50g a day, then up it to 75-100 and see what happens. I personally don't put a lot of weight back on, but some people are different

[ExcellX]

just take ala how you would normally take it.....i take it with my meals

Would a stimulant such as ******** effect Ketosis? I'm assuming no but I feel like asking. I'd imagine it only helps follow the strictness of this diet.

[alegra85]

[QUOTE=Blindfaith;349000]The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet: True Fat Loss

In recent media, low carbohydrate diets have been THE fad for almost everybody in America wanting to lose weight. From your secretaries, elementary school teachers, and desk clerks, to bodybuilders, models, actresses, and athletes.

However, there is a huge difference between those who follow an Atkins plan and those who follow a cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD). Atkins is a low carb plan for those who are quite sedentary, walk maybe 3 times a week at the most, and just follow normal everyday activities. So forget Atkins here. The CKD is for those who’s main concern is true fat loss and muscle preservation—muscle for sports and high intensity activities.

My opinion for those who practice Atkins is that while they do lose fat, there is much water loss and most importantly muscle loss. Something we athletes do not want. A CKD is a true fat loss diet that works undeniably, if followed properly and strictly. Yes, low carb diets can be hell at first, but after two to three weeks, there have been anecdotal reports from many dieters that the cravings for carbohydrates decrease. This route to fat burning is unlike any traditional diet all the low-fat diet authors and FDA people have been advocating in history.

I got turned onto this diet a few years back when I got tired of cutting fat and still not being able to lose those last percentage points of bodyfat without losing hard earned muscle. I would start a low-fat diet, and be a either a social misfit (not going out with my friends to party or not going out to eat). Or in the worse case, feel so deprived of delicious junk foods I missed and bail out on the diet all together. One advantage to this diet is that there is no true restrictions on food. One may eat anything labeled a "food"! Well, almost. I’ll explain later.

How the diet works.

The science behind the CKD is simple. Carbohydrates in the diet cause an insulin (a "storage" hormone) output in the pancreas. It is used to store glycogen, amino acids into muscles, while causing excess calories to be stored as fat. So common sense asks me, "How can one try to break down fat, when your body is in a storage-type mode?" Difficult to do, indeed. That is why it makes perfect sense for step one to be cutting carbs.

The next thing that happens in your body is the rise in catecholamines (a "fat mobilizing" hormone), cortisol (a "breakdown" hormone), and growth hormone. Now your body realizes there’s no more carbs to burn for energy, so it must find another energy source: fat.

This usually happens during a metabolic condition called "ketosis." This is when your liver is out of glycogen and starts to produce ketones (by-products of fatty acids). You can check your status of whether or not you are in ketosis with urinalysis strips you can pick up at any local drug store called "Ketostix." Just urinate and see if it turns color. If so, you have ketones in the urine.

When the body is fed fat and protein, it will use dietary fat along with bodyfat for energy with protein going towards repair.

As a side note, there is another reason why this diet makes the most sense to use while keeping muscle. When one follows a high carbohydrate, low-fat, reduced-calorie diet, there’s a point when some bodyfat is burned, but when the body is still in a carbohydrate burning metabolism while trying to lose "weight," it will strip down precious body protein to convert to glucose for energy.

On the other hand, during fat metabolism, protein cannot be converted into free-fatty acids for energy. Although there is no scientific research done on this, there have been reports from followers that there truly is a "protein-sparing" effect. It makes sense doesn’t it? Where else would the body look for fat energy when all dietary fat is burned? Bodyfat.

Diet Requirements Mon. to Fri.

The phrase "working smarter, not harder" applies here more than any diet one has tried. One must fully understand what they must do in order to optimize their goal. To set a CKD up, one cannot just expect to cut all carbs in the diet, train hard, and lose fat! Although some have come up with variations to this plan, the one stated in this article, I have found, has worked for myself (it got me to 6% BF), and other clients I’ve trained to the leanest, hardest they’ve ever been.

First, to set up the diet, write down your lean mass weight. Not your total weight, dough boy. If you weigh 200, but have 20% bodyfat, your lean mass weight would be around 160 pounds. Multiply this by one, getting your grams of protein requirements for a day. Make sure you eat at least one gram of protein/pound of lean mass! This is important in recovery from workouts and enough nitrogen retention to keep muscle. Next, multiply by four, to get your protein calories. Here, it is 640.

The rest of your caloric requirements for the day should be fat. Here is the catch: you must eat fat to burn fat. There’s no way around it. There are many advantages to dietary fat on this diet: Feeling of fullness since fat digestion is slow (less hunger), tastes great, and lowers blood glucose levels (lowering insulin and allow all the fat burning hormones to do their job).

So how much fat? I always recommend starting out with a 500 calorie deficit from your maintenance calories. If you don’t know, it is usually 15 times body weight (full body weight here) depending on an individuals metabolic rate. So here, the example would need 3000 calories a day to maintain weight, and 2500 calories to begin fat loss.

2500 minus 640 (protein calories) is 1860 which works out to be around 206 fat grams a day. Now as you go deeper into the diet, and find the need to restrict calories more, you must cut fat calories, not protein.

The Weekend Carb Load

Since muscle glycogen is the main source of energy for anaerobic exercise such as weight training, we cannot simply deplete all stores while working out and not fill them back up. If that does happen, be rest-assured that the body WILL use protein for fuel then. But this won’t happen on the CKD.

Your one and a half days of "freedom" allow you to do two things: First, reward your carb cravings from the previous days, allowing you to enjoy pleasures like pizza, pasta, breads, etc. Second, eating these things are physiologically rewarding as insulin levels run high, storing amino acids and carbs, as glycogen, into the depleted muscle allowing you to be able to workout again the following week.

Your "carb-up" should begin Friday night and last until around midnight Saturday. Now the next important issue to address is how many carbs. Some lucky individuals find that they eat whatever they want for the 24-30 hour time interval and receive perfect glycogen compensation, while others rely on a better statistical number.

What has been recommended by other authors of the CKD is 10-12 grams of carbs per kilogram of lean mass. Again, time to do math. Our example had 160 pounds of lean mass, so divide that by the conversion factor of 2.2, and we get roughly 73 kg.

100 Grams of easily digested liquid carbs along with around half as many grams of carbs in protein (here 50) as a whey shake or something of that nature should be taken right after the last workout (which I will address in the workout section of the article) when insulin sensitivity will be at its greatest.

A few hours later this individual will start to spread the remaining 630 grams of carbs, along with the important number of 160 grams of protein (remember, keep this constant) during the remainder of the compensation period.

So what about dietary fat? I know you’re reminding yourself, "Didn’t this guy mention pizza?" Yes, I did. And here’s why. During the first 24-30 hours of carbing up, the body will use all dietary carbohydrates to refill glycogen, protein for rebuilding, and get this: fat for energy. Still?

Just like the previous five and a half days. Makes sense. When all the carbohydrates are being used for more important functions (muscle), what else is there to be used? However, you can’t just eat all the fat you want. Keep grams of fat intake below your body weight in kilograms. Again, here our example will keep is fat below 73 during the carb-fest.

By anecdotal reports, this should keep fat regain minimal to nil. Keeping fat intake extremely low has even caused some extra fat burning during the carb up!

As stated before, some dietary fat should be eaten to slow digestion and keep sugar levels stable. Whether it be saturated, unsaturated, or essential fats, is the dieter’s decision. All have nine calories per gram. (Note: there is a claim that essential fatty acids such as flax seed oil increase insulin sensitivity within the muscle cells, in turn, increasing glycogen intake.)

In Case You Missed It

So here’s how it breaks down during the week: Sunday through Friday afternoon , you will follow the low carb diet outlined above. Eat fat and protein all day everyday except on workout days because after workouts, you will need to consume strictly just protein—no fat or carbs.

Some have found to enjoy a protein shake afterwards because they are easily digested. Do whatever works for you. But fat is not logical since you want the protein to fuel the healing process as quickly as possible and fat will only slow it down.

Friday afternoon, around two hours before your last workout of the week, eat two to three pieces of fruit. This will get your body/liver ready to start the carb loading and give you some energy for that final, dreadful workout (trust me, during the first few weeks, you will not want to do that final workout, but you must). Then from Friday night until Saturday at midnight or until bed, eat those carbs![/QUO
This is very informative article and I ma glad I found it. Thank you for taking the time to share this with all readers. I do have a few questions, since I would like to make sure that I get this right!
First,
When calculating your macros,and calories does this include exercising and working out? For example I am 122 multiply by 15 is 1830 -500 deficit is 1330 cal a day, but I work out 6 days a week, doing weights, cardio and HIIT and really don't see myself surveying with 1330 calories a day especially when they come from fat. So I need to know do I need to increase calories if I work out and how much?
Second,
Is The protein shake after work out all the time including carb up days?
Third,
I feel good without doing carb up days, so Do i need to do it?and if I don't do it will I loose muscle ?
I would really appreciate if somebody gives me some light. Thank you

[KetoCarol]

Thanks for this detailed guide, bookmarked!