Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!

[georgyano22]

but it is bad if i start my keto on sunday and mai workout on monday ??

on the first page ,blindfaith explain that friday and saturday do carb up and monday begin workout ....

[Eileen]

It's not bad in itself, it just means that you have to do a lot of work during the week to get everything done before you start the next carb-up.

[-E-]

Would this count as any good for the Keto diet, for a typical day (except the carb-up)

Meal 1: Weetabix and milk

Meal 2: 2 Apples

Meal 3: Chicken breast

Meal 4: Tuna sweetcorn and mayonnaise

Meal 5: Lean steak with vegetables (carrots, sweetcorn etc)

Now i know the apples are a crap idea as i know fructose is an innefficient sugar but i cant think of anything to take as a snack, by the way this is all worked around my school times.

[georgyano22]

u eat a lot of carbs....(apples ,milk..)

[Eileen]

No, that's not a keto diet, not even close.

Try eggs for breakfast. Eat nuts and cheese as snacks. Meals should be meat, fish or chicken with lots of green vegetables and extra fat added. Meat doesn't have to be lean. No apples, wheetabix, sweetcorn, milk or carrots.

[professional76]

What is the longest I can stay on the keto.When do I stop?thanks

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!

[Eileen]

What is the longest I can stay on the keto.When do I stop?thanks

You can stay on it forever if you want. There's no health reason you need to stop at all. In fact, your body will probably thank you if you never eat another Twinkie.

[Toronto_Rat]

You can stay on it forever if you want. There's no health reason you need to stop at all. In fact, your body will probably thank you if you never eat another Twinkie.

Eileen, I have a question for you, before that let me THANK YOU for your patience in replies and willingness to help others. I have read all 14 or so pages about this. I really appreciate your efforts and time.

Now my question. How do I calculate Calories when I cook or buy food?
Like for example I like to buy chicken,beef,lamb,fish in the groceries and when I cook.. how do I calculate how much chicken has how many calories and protein/fat etc...? is there a link or method I can calculate this?

I think I am ready to start this diet next week, except I am not sure how calculate the calories in protein/fat/carbs.

Agian thank you very much
RAT

[JeepMJ]

For finding caloric values, I use www.calorieking.com and www.fitday.com. Fitday allows you to log all your meals and works out the details for you. If you want to get accurate about actual calories you will need a gram scale; I don't bother.

[Toronto_Rat]

For finding caloric values, I use www.calorieking.com and www.fitday.com. Fitday allows you to log all your meals and works out the details for you. If you want to get accurate about actual calories you will need a gram scale; I don't bother.

Thanks Jeep and goodluck with your drinking

[Eileen]

You can use Fitday or Calorieking, or buy a calorie counter book, or get some sort of handheld food data bank. I've got a thing called Robi Nutrition Assistant, which is very handy.

But none of them work if you don't know how much you are eating. Even if you don't have a scales, you can work from the packet: a quarter kilo of steak is 250g of meat. When you buy anything, divide it up into whatever size portions you eat, and mark each one with its weight. Measure oil by the spoonful. You can just judge green veg by eye, but oils and meat need to be accurate.

You can buy a small diet scales for very little, and they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to keeping your diet honest.

[Toronto_Rat]

You can use Fitday or Calorieking, or buy a calorie counter book, or get some sort of handheld food data bank. I've got a thing called Robi Nutrition Assistant, which is very handy.

But none of them work if you don't know how much you are eating. Even if you don't have a scales, you can work from the packet: a quarter kilo of steak is 250g of meat. When you buy anything, divide it up into whatever size portions you eat, and mark each one with its weight. Measure oil by the spoonful. You can just judge green veg by eye, but oils and meat need to be accurate.

You can buy a small diet scales for very little, and they are worth their weight in gold when it comes to keeping your diet honest.

Thanks Eileen; I think I will buy a diet scale, and yes you are right about OIL and VEG. My main concern is about meat and poultry.
Say for example If I eat 100g of meat for each meal how do I know how much Protein/fat calories is in it?

I have been looking in calorieking site , which has some good info I think I will start my calculations there first. but if you can think of any other way please let me know Thanks again

[Eileen]

Spend half an hour in the meat and poultry section of a good supermarket. Food should all be labeled with nutritional information. Ideally, go for the amount per 100g, not per portion. Your portion size will not be the same as Joe Average. If you can, get out a notebook and take down the details of the stuff you eat yourself. All figures will be for raw meat, but I think this is more accurate than trying to guess cooked.

As a quick starter:
Salmon (100g) 215 cal, 20g pro, 15g fat.
Tuna 150 21 7
Lamb chop 290 21 23
Sirloin steak 200 22 13
Pork chop 225 20 16
Prawns 90 19 2
Streaky rasher 250 17 20

[karasu]

Yeesh. I didn't even last a whole day. I felt too weird.

[professional76]

Do you have to stay no carbs for two weeks or do five days and go right into your carb loading?Thanks

[Eileen]

If you have never done a keto diet before, then you should definitely do two straight weeks on 20g a day or less, before you think about carbing up.

If you are experienced at keto and lifting hard, you could shorten this a bit.

Don't forget that when you start, it will take you a few days to get properly into ketosis. If you carb-up too early, you'll get no benefit from the diet. When you've been doing it for a while, you can get back into ketosis in a day.

[tamubball]

ok ive been doing a CKD for about 5 months now and have gone from 292 lbs to 222 lbs...it worked great and couldnt have been better. my only question is how do i get off the diet without putting alot of extra weight back on, ive heard from just about every source that what i have lost will come back when i get off the ketogenic diet...any suggestions on how i should get off my diet to get back to eating normally again would be appreciated...thanks again

[Eileen]

Gradually replace some of your fats with clean, unprocessed carbs, while keeping your cals the same. Eventually you'll arrive at what feels like a "balanced", comfortable diet which suits you, though you'll probably find that you'll never eat as much carbs as you did before.

The big danger is that when people come off a keto diet, they keep eating the cream cheese, but start spreading it on bagels. THAT is when the weight goes straight back on.

Once you start eating carbs again, you will put on a few pounds of water weight, but it's just water, not fat.

[tamubball]

hey eileen, thanks for the response ill give it a try sometime soon...and would ok carbs be like a cup of oatmeal at breakfast with 6 egg whites, chicken sandwich with whole GRAIN bread and then a big salad with a lean source of beef for dinner??? plus my post workout shake...then also what could i snack on?? thanks for any help

[Eileen]

A useful read would probably be the original Atkins book. The classic way to do Atkins is two week induction (similar to our keto diet), followed by slowly and gradually introducing more carbs into the diet, until you reach the point where you stop losing weight, then back off slightly until you are losing slowly again. Once you are a couple of pound off your target weight, you eat a few more carbs so that you slow down even more. Once you reach your target weight, that's the diet you stick to from then on.

This sounds like an approach that would work for you. From memory, you start by introducing more veg, followed by berries, dairy, root veg, other fruits, and whole grains towards the end. Ideally, you never bring back the processed or sugary carbs.

You'll probably find that you never go back to a low fat diet (which always tend to be high carb), so you can keep the whole eggs, but could swop the double cream for milk. Oatmeal is good, most bread isn't.

[tamubball]

ok again, i have another question-

I have been on the keto diet now for quite some time but in the past week, even with strict as hell dieting i have yet to lose any weight. And i mean no fat or body weight whatsoever i have stayed at 222 for at least 7 days and i cant tell why im at a plateau. if you have any advice on how to break the plateau - it would be greatly appreciated

here is my diet
breakfast: 3-4 eggs, bacon or sausage, cheese
snack: 2 cheesesticks
lunch: 2 chicken breasts
Dinner: Big peice of any sort of meat, brocilli, and salad - both having no carb dressings

i work out everyday including cardio everyother day...please any advice?

[Eileen]

How many calories are you eating? How much protein, fat, carbs?

I get the impression you are doing Atkins rather than keto, and even with Atkins, there comes a point where you have to start counting your cals.

In any diet, weight loss does slow, but I don't think it even counts as a plateau until you've been three weeks at the same weight. Don't freak over one week.

[tamubball]

My total calories are around 1500 calories I would assume?
3 eggs = 270
3 peices of bacon = 200
Cheese= 70

2 cheesesticks = 140

2 chicken breasts= 400?

Salad and broccilli= 60
Dressing= 100
Meat= 300-500

I dont know the protein fat carbs or nething but i do know my carbs are below 10 grams and there is plently of both fat and protein between the cheese/dressing/bacon and eggs/chicken/meat at dinner

what makes me the most nervous is not the fact that i havent lost weight this week but what that means for the future- that the weight will SLOWLY come off and yet i still want to lose another 20 25 lbs and how long thatll take if it is at all possible because i dont know a better diet than this

[Eileen]

Stop guessing. Get a scales and start weighing your food, then go to www.fitday.com and work out exactly what you are eating.

Carbs count, but so do calories. You need to know how many you are eating. Too high and you won't lose weight, too low and you'll send your body into starvation mode.

However, I can tell you that you should be eating six meals a day, and a lot more vegetables.

[Toronto_Rat]

Spend half an hour in the meat and poultry section of a good supermarket. Food should all be labeled with nutritional information. Ideally, go for the amount per 100g, not per portion. Your portion size will not be the same as Joe Average. If you can, get out a notebook and take down the details of the stuff you eat yourself. All figures will be for raw meat, but I think this is more accurate than trying to guess cooked.

As a quick starter:
Salmon (100g) 215 cal, 20g pro, 15g fat.
Tuna 150 21 7
Lamb chop 290 21 23
Sirloin steak 200 22 13
Pork chop 225 20 16
Prawns 90 19 2
Streaky rasher 250 17 20

Hi Eileen and guys; just wanted to give you an update; I started this diet last Monday(March 27th); I was 169 lbs 5.6" tall...and when I checked yesterday (monday morning) I was 160 lbs.. WHOOOOHOOOOO;
Now I beleive this is mostly water and may be some fat I am loosing, but after 3 or 4 days I have no problem doing this diet for a long time

May typical meals are like this( I know it is not perfect.. but getting there)

Morning around 8:30 am two eggs and two strips of bacon;15ml flaxseed oil

around 12 noon Either chicken breast or beaf( around 150 grms), or pork chops with lot of green beans and broccili

around 3;30 pm well first week I did not eat much this meal just had some nuts or cheese sticks(2). but started to eat meal since this monday

around 7pm
peice of steak, or chicken or sausage (around 150 grams) with veggies

Around 9pm Fish fillet or steak ot 2 suasages or any meat with veggies

So, apart from this I take a multivitamin; didn;t do much of lifitng last week as I was feeling really tired and I was sick too

I am pleased with my progress as people at my office say I look like I lost weight and my face is small(less fat I guess) and I am looking good. Not perfect but getting there.

Now I have few questions/ concerns

Since I am eating lot of eggs/fat what about the cheolestrol? should I be concerned about it at all?

Since I started this diet I had dry cough which is not going away even after 10 days; I am smoker(I feel sorry), but that doesn;t mean I shouldn't cough for 10 days. does it have anything to do with diet?

I did not buy keto sticks to test myself as I am seeing good results, but do you think I should check to make sure? according to my girlfriend(jokingly) Pee always smell and My mouth stinck as I am smoker. so no way to know throught those signs .

what do you guys think of my diet? is it close enough? do I need to chaneg any thing? I am trying for 2000 cal a day

A BIG QUESTION: how do u add Fat to meals? I seem to ran out of ideas for this.

Any comments suggestions are welcome and much appreciated
A special THANKS to EILEEN to get me started on this

[Eileen]

You're welcome.

Adding fats is easy. Either cook with them (butter or coconut oil is particularly good, olive oil works as long as you don't let the temperature get too high) or add them to cooked food. The quick way is to pour olive or flaxseed oil over your cooked veg, or use it to make french dressing (2tbsp oil, 1tbsp vinegar, pinch mustard/salt/pepper). Or you can make a great blue cheese sauce by cooking your meat then taking it out of the pan and pouring in some cream. As soon as that is bubbling, add some blue cheese and stir till it's melted. Pour over your food.

Alternatively, eat nuts, olives, coconut meat.

The fats are not a problem. You actually need a certain amount of saturated fats for good health, and as long as they are clean and unprocessed, fat is not a health hazard, in fact, it will improve your overall health. Most BBers don't eat enough fat for optimal health.

You don't need ketostix as long as you are happy with your progress, and especially not if you are not lifting and carbing up. Even then, they are useful at the start of a ckd, when you are not sure about the keto bit. You soon learn from feel whether you are in ketosis or not. Definitely sounds like you are.

Don't know about the cough. That's not typical for keto. But I did just read about a piece of research on exercise-induced asthmatics who were given fish oil supplements. After three weeks, most of them had so little bronchial inflamation that they no longer counted as asthmatic and didn't need inhalers.

[Toronto_Rat]

You're welcome.

Adding fats is easy. Either cook with them (butter or coconut oil is particularly good, olive oil works as long as you don't let the temperature get too high) or add them to cooked food. The quick way is to pour olive or flaxseed oil over your cooked veg, or use it to make french dressing (2tbsp oil, 1tbsp vinegar, pinch mustard/salt/pepper). Or you can make a great blue cheese sauce by cooking your meat then taking it out of the pan and pouring in some cream. As soon as that is bubbling, add some blue cheese and stir till it's melted. Pour over your food.

Alternatively, eat nuts, olives, coconut meat.

The fats are not a problem. You actually need a certain amount of saturated fats for good health, and as long as they are clean and unprocessed, fat is not a health hazard, in fact, it will improve your overall health. Most BBers don't eat enough fat for optimal health.

You don't need ketostix as long as you are happy with your progress, and especially not if you are not lifting and carbing up. Even then, they are useful at the start of a ckd, when you are not sure about the keto bit. You soon learn from feel whether you are in ketosis or not. Definitely sounds like you are.

Don't know about the cough. That's not typical for keto. But I did just read about a piece of research on exercise-induced asthmatics who were given fish oil supplements. After three weeks, most of them had so little bronchial inflamation that they no longer counted as asthmatic and didn't need inhalers.

I am not sure even my doctor would expalined and addressed my questions like you did .... OK, Looks like I am in good state.. doesn;t have the weird feeling like the first few days;I am not missing carbs very much anymore.
I am seeing good results (Specially when your pants keep coming down and u need to pull it up He He He.....); I started weights last night just did very lightly, will do full fledge by end of this week.

I will keep you all posted.....
And trust me guys this is Waaaaaaaay easier than you think
Funny thing is I have Fat burning pills with ephedra ( not even using it yet).
Wondering if I add them I will be rock n rolling in shredding fat.

[Eileen]

Keep the ECA for when you've been doing it for a while and have hit a plateau. Let the diet do the work as much as possible.

[Grad_Student]

I just found out about this diet today and I am looking to start it this coming Monday. I have about 5 weeks to get ready for a cruise and I want to lose as much body fat as I can in those 5 weeks.

I have read the original post about the keto diet and it seems simple enough, however I am concerned that since the original diet was posted almost 4 years ago some things may have changed. I read that I should wait 2 weeks before carbing up. Is there any thing in additon to this that I should note before starting this diet.

I also tried to post this in the keto question thread however that thread is closed.

Thanks,

[Eileen]

The basics are still the same. Eat clean high fat, moderate protein, low carb during the week, then have a clean high carb, low fat carb-up day. Wait two weeks for your first carb-up unless you have a lot of previous experience of keto, or are lifting exceptionally hard.

In the gym, lift hard and heavy, then have a PWO shake with whey and dextrose (30g whey, 15g dextrose) is a good starting point. No fruit or fruit juice or milk of any sort. Your shake counts towards your daily calories, but the carbs in the dextrose doesn't count towards your daily 20g.

You don't count fibre in your carb allowance, so leafy green veg is definitely on the menu, most work out at 1-2g per portion. Eat lots. You can eat some nuts, particularly raw almonds, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, macadamia nuts, but weigh them carefully because they are high cal. Peanuts and peanut butter is an ok keto food, but not the best. Keep for emergencies.

Eat lots of whole eggs, oily fish and be prepared to pour olive or flax oil over your vegetables.

Lift hard in the gym, then get out. And yes, you have to do cardio, too.

Does that cover it?