Straight into keto heaven

[rhysox]

in theory if you take in even more fat and go over your calorific requirements, the extra ketones produced by your body will just be excreted, showing a lot of ketones in your urine, but incidentally you shouldn't burn any body fat, but at the same time, won't put any on. you may however create some lean muscle tissue as experienced by many on a 'keto bulk'. 2400-2600 is around maintenance anyway i guess?

[cyanize]

I'm experimenting rhys, and this can be useful info for all of us. At least I'll see the keto stix turn pink for once And I'm counting on some lean gains ...even if it's like 100g of muscle. hehe

enjoy the carb up

[cyanize]

Day 10
energy Intake: http://fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJourn...?Owner=cyanize


(net carbs are 13g)


Energy expenditure
Cardio: 50 mins ~ 300kCal


Balance: ~1450kCal

Pics coming tomorrow.

[cyanize]

Day 11
energy Intake: http://fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJourn...?Owner=cyanize


(net carbs are 12g)


Energy expenditure
Cardio: 1:05 ~ 400kCal


Balance: ~1450kCal

progress:

Looking good, but the more fat I lose, the more I want to bulk to gain some lean mass. I'm really in dire need of more muscle mass. Maybe I'll switch over to the maintenance/re-comp protocol (it might take longer, but at least I'll be able to gain some mass while losing fat). I'm ordering a new tub of PW/green mag and maybe reduction too.

Weight is down to: 165lbs

stay tuned for further development and strategy changes

Goals & achievements, so far:
started out with 209lbs in January 2008 (bf% was around 29-30%)
to date: 165lbs and around 16-17%bf

In the past two weeks I started keto, and also started re-thinking my priorities. As you can see there's not too much muscle on my frame, so a bulk is definitely incoming. My primary goal is to drop to 9%bf by September 30th (10 weeks from now), I should be around 153-154lbs then. Afterward I'm going to take a week or two time-out from the gym, to let my body rest before I start a heavy duty clean bulking session with hypertrophy specific routines. At first I was worried that I'm wasting my "newbie" period for cutting, but I don't mind if it takes longer afterward. At least it keeps me busy with good eating habits and gives me something to do that I enjoy.

I wanted to do some "tweaking" with nutrition, but decided against it for now, as I like to be as consistent as possible. I'm going to continue with keto until I reach my goal. My first carb-up is targeted for the 2nd of August (family celebration) and probably won't be as clean as I'd like it to be, but I'm fine with that and I'll be back on track right after it.

My future goals revolve around gaining as much lean mass as possible in 6-8 months following the end of my cut phase in September. I think I will need to up calories substantially to make any kind of noticeable gains (thinking about 2500kCal min., even more on workout days) . I'm going to reduce cardio to 3-4 days a week on off-days. And I might finally be able to continually increase my lifts with the added energy, without gaining too much of that fat back.

On a side note, I was quite lazy with keeping a workout log, this is changing as of next week, so I can track progress (as I tend to "forget"). I still haven't reached my maximums on keto, as I was afraid of another injury so I'm only making small increases (5lbs) between workouts. I want to reach the 5 rep maximums in the next 4-6 weeks for every exercise, and stay at that weight for the remainder of the cut phase. This way my body will be prepped and ready for packing on muscle as soon as I start feeding it properly. (I'll have the creatine/EAA's ready).

thanks for reading

[cyanize]

energy Intake: fitday


(net carbs are 26g)

As you can see I incorporated a maintenance calorie day into the diet (around 2400-2500) to give the body some more stimulus. (this will vary according to carb-up frequency later on, or will be removed)

Energy expenditure

Cardio: AM: 40mins. ~ 250kCal
PM: 15mins. ~ 100kCal
Weights: PM 45mins ~ 350kCal

Balance: ~1800kCal

[cyanize]

As promised I'm going to include my workout routine too.

Whooooooa...eating 2600kCal is definitely a whole new experience in the gym. I packed 2 tbsp. of peanut butter and a square of 85% chocolate around and hour before workout. Suffice to say it was a record breaking day.
I'm still not at my maximums so these are only motivational boosters, nothing else.

Squats..2 warm up sets, 2 x 7 x 88lbs (intended 10 reps) new PR
Deadlifts..2 warm up sets, 2 x 8 x 143lbs (intended 10 reps) new PR
Chins...wooohoo managed to do 3 (last week 0),
Wide-grip lateral pull down...2 x 10 x 77lbs (gonna increase next time)
Barbell curls 1 x 5 x 77lbs (new PR), 1 x 10 x 66lbs
Bench Press..2 warm up sets, 2 x 6 x 77lbs (new PR)
Overhead Press..1 warm up set, 2 x 5 x 50lbs (new PR)
Triceps extensions..1 x 15 x 22lbs
Bench dips..1 x 12 x BW
Machine crunches..2 x 12 x 88lbs
Back Barbell shrugs..2 x 15 x 66lbs (should have used more weight)
Barbell Wrist curls..2 x 15 x 44lbs

Overall workout intensity was awesome, had great energy, but overshot the 47 minute mark by 15 minutes and had o ditch the 10 minute incline cardio.
As you can see by the weights, I have some serious reserves with some lifts, that I want to normalize within the "cutting" phase so I can start of with my maximums for the "bulking" phase.

I'm going to include my favorite pendaly rows into the routine, or alternate between deadlift and pendaly rows. (later on some pullovers, hyperextensions and dips, hammer curls and DB flyes).

My shoulders, pecs and arms need some serious work, but I'm not gonna sacrifice form for new PR's.

I had a great day today, and tomorrow will be "normal" again with 1hour of PM biking.

[cyanize]

energy Intake: fitday


(net carbs are 8g)

A slightly lower calorie day to make up for yesterday and spur additional fat loss.(around 1700kCal)

Energy expenditure
Cardio: PM: 1hr. ~ 450kCal

Balance: ~1250kCal

[rhysox]

how did you feel on the extra calorie day and what did you do? i.e. did you just eat more of the same foods to bump the calories up or did you eat more meals etc??

what about the ketostix??

[cyanize]

Just modded the link so you can see what I ate. Damn short linking on the
boards. I ate pretty much the same (added oils). Just added some natty PB and 1 square of 85% chocolate pre-wo. As I wrote, energy in the gym was incredible, I could keep the intensity from exercise to exercise and was drenched in sweat all the time. (was quite unusual, compared to my regular workouts...but could've been the increased weights too...as I'm still working on reaching those maxes)

Overall it was great.

Ketostix, gave me the medium reading, so quite strong compared to what I normally get (trace/negative).

[cyanize]

I'm just experiencing a bad case of "want to eat a load of food" syndrome.

I guess the carb alarm is on...but I don't give a damn, I'm gonna pull through until 2nd of August....damn fat must buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurn.

It's so difficult to create 5 meals out of 1600-1700 calories...damn

[cyanize]

energy Intake: fitday


(net carbs are 23g)

Increasing calories today, as I want some additional energy in the gym

Energy expenditure
Weights: PM: 50mins. ~ 300kCal
Cardio: PM: 50mins. ~ 450kCal

Balance: ~1300kCal

I want to continually increase those weights to reach maximums in a few weeks time. I'm also considering doing cardio only on off-days now, and going to the gym for it (hate the weather dependency for biking). It'll cost me a bit more, but at least I can count on doing my session each time.
Plus the incline brisk walk is fine with my knee.

I really need my own place (sucks that I'm trapped here for another year) to reap all the benefits of bodybuilding.

[cyanize]

well...****, our roof in the apartment started leaking after heavy rains in the past few days. So workout was canceled, and I'm lucky that I'm able to use my laptop on my neighbors wifi. We managed to save most of the furniture...sofa is soaking wet though (the piece was damn expensive and comfy as hell).

I'll just used this opportunity and scheduled my first carb-up after 14 days, made a quick plan and I had nearly all of the stuff at home, except the fruit.

I'm tired as hell right now, so workout will be tomorrow evening. I burned enough calories for the day. Had some fruit (just enough fructose to re-fill liver glycogen) and munched on some natty PB.

gn8

[cyanize]

What in gods name is this? I lost nearly two pounds between yesterday and today...Seems like a bunch of fat tissue too. That happened with like 90g worth of fructose yesterday evening after saving our apartment.
I'm continuing the carb up today until 6PM and go tot he gym after that and spend some quality workout time + cardio.

energy Intake

net carbs 330g

Energy expenditure
Weights: PM: 55mins. ~ 350kCal
Cardio: PM: 55mins. ~ 450kCal

Balance: ~2130kCal

[rhysox]

fructose will only fill up your liver anyway, and probably won't do TOO much to ketosis, so you're probably still losing. are you having a proper carb-up today? if so what are you shooting for? how many grams etc

[cyanize]

Yep, proper carb-up. Keeping it clean mostly, except the hazelnut spread I used in the oats this morning and two big yogurt cans. (I just love that stuff...has a fair amount of fat though). It's a bit more fat then I intended, but still under the advised 1g/1kg of lbm. I used cheese sauce for the pasta (could've used some tomato sauce...but hey, there's a next time). As for carbs ....net is around 340g, overall caloric intake...just shy of 3000kCal. This sound about right to me, although the ratios could've been a bit better (I'll stick more to carbs next time).

Rhys, tomorrow I'll eat fat/prot only, and I'm generally upping caloric intake, as I'm pretty sure my body is scratching the surface of "starvation" mode after 7 months of cutting. I'll rather add 15 minutes to cardio or a variable 3/4 day split, than decrease caloric intake (I could see the effect yesterday/today). I just don't run well under 2k. I'm sort of inclined to do the re-comp type of keto with a bit more aggressive ratios: 1.5gF/1gP/0.2gC translating to 210g/140g/28g (1890/640/112..or 72%/24%/4%) and roughly 2650kCal. This would probably stabilize my metabolism and I could employ a variation of a zig-zag diet for keto. (always worked for me)

Thinking about either doing a 3/1 cycle or 3/3 (meaning 3 days on 1800-1900 and 1 on 2600, or 3/3). I just haven't figured out how to incorporate the carb-up here. I'll probably attach it to the end of 3/1 cycle meaning I'd have it every 8 days. This would definitely leave my body guessing a lot as the days would be different every time.

I'm also planning to play around with nutrient timing to further optimize the whole diet-workout synergy and have it ready for next week. Gonna do a writeup this weekend, maybe you'll find something of interest.

[cyanize]

Just got back from workout.
I really enjoyed the incline walking ~ 500kCal.
As far as energy goes, I might not be a "carbs" person as compared to the 2.4k keto day, energy was def. lower today. I managed to finish all my sets but carbs are only good for explosive workouts and not really my routine. Strength was dropping with each rep. With keto I had a more stable flow of energy throughout all reps, even if rep number was lower.

Details:
Squats..2 warm up sets, 2 x 10x 88lbs
Deadlifts..2 warm up sets, 2 x 7 x 143lbs (intended 10 reps)
Chins...same as usual 3-4
Wide-grip lateral pull down...2 x 10 x 77lbs
Barbell curls 1 x 5 x 77lbs, 1 x 5 x 72lbs
Bench Press..2 warm up sets, 2 x 10 x 77lbs
Overhead Press..1 warm up set, 2 x 10 x 44lbs
Triceps extensions..1 x 15 x 22lbs
Bench dips..1 x 12 x BW
Machine crunches..2 x 15 x 99lbs
Dumbbell shrugs..2 x 15 x 32lbs (2*)
Barbell Wrist curls..2 x 10 x 44lbs
Dumbbell Flyes...1 x 15 x 18lbs

I'll re-consider carb-up frequency over the weekend and implement the changes I was thinking about. gn8

[cyanize]

energy Intake

net carbs 11g

Energy expenditure
Cardio: PM:60mins. ~ 350kCal

Balance: ~1500kCal

For some reason I feel like I'm in ketosis already. I'll try the stick this evening, because I still have some left.

[cyanize]

energy Intake

net carbs 23g

Energy expenditure
Weights: PM: 55mins ~ 350kCal
Cardio: PM: 40 mins ~ 400kCal

Balance: ~1300kCal

I had to ditch cardio yesterday, cause we were moving back some stuff into our apartment. It's pretty much dry now and the roof is fixed, so I hope this won't repeat itself.

[Da_MiLkY_bar_Kid]

lookin great bro lookin great


just wonderin, i'm in ur same boat, the more i cut, the more i wanna bulk, but i've made a promise that i wont stop till i get single digits

if ur THAt concerned, why not try a keto bulk?

peace

[cyanize]

I've been considering it. Just read through UD2, which surprisingly came close to the system I wanted to implement before I decided to use keto (out of convenience).

I already know I'll be pretty skinny when I'm at 154 lbs (@141lbm, 9%bf), so I'll have to gain at least 10-15lbs of muscle to look "athletic". I've considered a keto bulk for re-comp (since I'm in it for the long run) but I also want to see some "visible" gains in a certain period. I think this will boost me (mentally) to work out even harder. And as much as I hate carbs, the fact that they bind water just makes those muscles look bigger/fuller and is more motivating. (especially if you're loading creatine).

So I'm not set right now, maybe I'll do some kind of a hybrid diet like UD2 with advanced nutrition timing/cycling principles after I'm down to 9%.

[Da_MiLkY_bar_Kid]

I've been considering it. Just read through UD2, which surprisingly came close to the system I wanted to implement before I decided to use keto (out of convenience).

I already know I'll be pretty skinny when I'm at 154 lbs (@141lbm, 9%bf), so I'll have to gain at least 10-15lbs of muscle to look "athletic". I've considered a keto bulk for re-comp (since I'm in it for the long run) but I also want to see some "visible" gains in a certain period. I think this will boost me (mentally) to work out even harder. And as much as I hate carbs, the fact that they bind water just makes those muscles look bigger/fuller and is more motivating. (especially if you're loading creatine).

So I'm not set right now, maybe I'll do some kind of a hybrid diet like UD2 with advanced nutrition timing/cycling principles after I'm down to 9%.

hmmm fair enough fair enough


well once i hit single digits ima try keto bulk...dont kno wtf it is at the moment n how to do it but

from what i've read it's fairly good..


neway good luck bruhz

[cyanize]

Keto bulk is simple...

Just increase caloric intake, keep the ratios (65/30/5) or use a bit more aggressive ones (73/22/5), and that's your bulk right there. (plus you can do really hefty carb-ups during bulk..over 1000g carbs)

The only "problem" you can experience is that mass gains are generally slower (but depends on bodytype). Especially if you're an endo on the fat-keeping end of the spectrum. But you can experience a slight re-comp effect further losing fat while gaining muscle. If you're lucky you'll put on between 0.5-1lbs of muscle each month and no fat.

good luck

[cyanize]

Workout was def. better than on cabrs.

Squats..2 warm up sets, 2 x 10 x 94lbs new PR
Pendaly rows..2 warm up sets, 2 x 7 x 66lbs (intended 10 reps)
Chins...wooohoo managed to do 3 (somehow these are still difficult)
Narrow-grip lateral pull down...2 x 10 x 88lbs new PR
Seated row..1 x 8 x 88lbs
Barbell curls 1 x 5 x 77lbs
Dumbbell Curls 1 x 10 x 22lbs
Bench Press..2 warm up sets, 2 x 7 x 82.5lbs (new PR)
Dumbbell Flyes..1 x 15 x 22lbs
Overhead Press..1 warm up set, 2 x 5 x 50lbs
Triceps extensions..2 x 15 x 22lbs
Crunches..2 x 12 x BW
Back Barbell shrugs..2 x 15 x 88lbs (new PR)


Pics incoming tomorrow morning....but my scale is borked, so no weight.

[cyanize]

energy Intake
I'm eating around maintenance today.


net carbs 31g

Energy expenditure
Cardio: PM: 90 mins ~ 600kCal

Balance: ~2000 kCal

Here's a new pic....I do feel bloated a bit, change is not dramatic, but I like what I see in the mirror.



Not to brag or anything, but my PB cups are freaking delicious:

[rhysox]

jiri- you're definitely losing weight and you're looking better and better every day. so well done to you! i'd say your body fat is approx 14%, would you agree? so you're definitely leaner than most!

what's your recipe for your PB cups? they look pretty dark! but equally delicious!

how come you ate so much peanut butter in your macros? was that from the PB cups? lots of net carbs there! but you'll probably be ok, and even if that does kick you out, it won't exactly take long for you to get back in!

you're doing great man, keep it up and you'll look fantastic! best of luck- will be watching as always

[HighRevinSi]

Lookin' leaner bro! Progress has been nice and steady thus far; keep up the good work. I want to see the quads and abs split!

[cyanize]

Thanks guys,

I'm gonna go through with this as planned...9%bf sept. 31st.


Yeah I overdid it a bit with carbs today, but meh. Still only like 31g net.
I just held the damn PB jar and before I noticed, I had downed 5 tbsp. of that damn delicacy. The PB cups just added to it. But I compensated with a 1.5hr outdoor bike session, as weather was great. Plus I'm throwing in a 1400kCal day tomorrow. Should take care of anything I might have gained.


I used your recipe for the PB cups but modified it slightly.

100g 82% butter
100g 100% Peanut butter
10g 33% cream
20g 99% chocolate
artificial sweetener (just enough so it creates this bittersweet taste)

+ 1 almond in each cup for visual pleasure.

rich cocoa and peanut aftertaste, with just about enough sweetness.

Keto rocks.


EDIT: I did a lot of thinking about how to enhance the CKD to further optimize fat loss. I came up with 2 alternatives...one being quite complicated and requires a lot of modifications and micromanagement, and the other one is just simply incorporating the zig-zag method into the CKD cycle. More to follow as I'm still working on the splits.

[cyanize]

Basic adjustment

This is based on the principle of LBM loss prevention while running a "deficit" diet.

Say my maintenance is 2500kCal/day. But as I've been cutting for a while, this has dropped to 2300kCal/day.

So to further drop body fat we use the basic CKD principles but create a more advanced cycle so we can enhance fat loss, while preserving as much LBM as possible.

max fat loss cycle
(this can lead to some LBM loss, but shouldn't be too much)
carb-up frequency can be every 7-12 days (try to have a carb-up on a weightlifting day)

my example:
day 1,2,3 .... 500kCal deficit = 1800kCal/day
day 4 ....maintenance (or slight excess 10-20%) = 2300 - 2800kCal
day 5,6,7 .... 500kCal deficit = 1800kCal/day
day 8.....carb-up....at least 25-50% excess = 2900 - 3500kCal
repeat

max LBM preservation cycle
(this should preserve most if not all of the LBM, and even show some net gains over a long enough period)

my example:
day 1,2,3 .....maintenance calories = 2300kCal/day
day 4,5,6 .....500kCal deficit = 1800kCal/day
day 7...carb-up....at 15-30% excess = 2650 - 3000kCal
day 8 ... 1000kCal deficit = 1300kCal/day
repeat

So there's two cycles...I'll go with the more aggressive one after my carb-up next saturday.


EDIT: I upped my fish oil intake to 6 caps/day, and I couldn't believe the difference it makes with my joints. I can do extended periods of cardio now.

[cyanize]

energy Intake: fitday


(net carbs are 12g)

This is hardcore dieting mo/tue/we, I'm starting off my 3/1 cycle, and later on I'll switch to 3/3 (bit more muscle sparring). (I'll re-up calories the following week, as this is way too low for me, just wanted to see what it does)

Getting a blood panel tomorrow, so fasting until lunch.

Energy expenditure
Cardio: PM: 30mins. ~ 300kCal
Weights: PM 50mins ~ 350kCal

Balance: ~800kCal

[rhysox]

haha those calories challenge mine!