New to Keto? - Look Here First *Frequently Asked Questions*

[bukwild]

Thanks!

[mpawlicki]

Hello,

I've been reading up a lot on paleo diets and eventually arrived here reading about the keto diets. In fact I started my SKD 2 days ago. I have a question and I hope I haven't missed the answer somewhere already...

I lift heavy, 4-5 times a week, and on 6th day I do cardio/abs, and I rest on the 7th day. I wonder how does one choose between TKD and CKD?
It seems to me most people here want to do carb-ups, but for me it seems that taking 25 gr of dextrose post workout with a protein shake (TKD) is just easier and quicker than the whole depletion workout and carb up period.

Are there any benefits of one over the other?

[lefteris7]

If I'm doing TKD, how often should I refeed?

[LeDelirant]

Hello guys,I have a question.Is there a problem if I only do 5-6 HIIT session/week,while stay in ketosis?I mean,no weight workouts?I think in this way I'll lose more muscle mass..

[Zuper]

Hello guys,I have a question.Is there a problem if I only do 5-6 HIIT session/week,while stay in ketosis?I mean,no weight workouts?I think in this way I'll lose more muscle mass..

Can I ask why you don't do any weights? If it is for maximum fat loss, I'd say lift something I'm a smallish girl and I lift and seeing much better results overall than cardio only

[andymant]

Good advise

[LeDelirant]

Can I ask why you don't do any weights? If it is for maximum fat loss, I'd say lift something I'm a smallish girl and I lift and seeing much better results overall than cardio only

Thanks for your advice,I was just wondering.I don't have enough money right now to go to the gym.I hope I'll be able next week.

[Zuper]

Thanks for your advice,I was just wondering.I don't have enough money right now to go to the gym.I hope I'll be able next week.

Ahhhh - gotcha... when I first moved here (middle east), I didn't like any of the gyms and so did alot of bodyweight workouts... jump squats, "box" jumps on anything that was high enough , pushups, burpees, pull ups, sprints, and the like. I tried out running too... but oh man I don't like running I got some workouts from crossfit sites whenever I ran out of ideas - just searched around for things I could do without a gym. Hope that helped.

Oh, and skipping I still skip (double unders) in the gym.

[heather1y2]

I am wanting to try out this keto for health reasons as well as to lose body fat. Question is, I have been eating below maintenance and somehow gaining weight. Am I doing something wrong? I am 5'4" and roughly 140lbs female. I do have a fair amount of muscle on my frame. I am a former figure competitor and used to really go to extremes to hit the stage. I roughly think my macros need to be at 1539 calories. 135 protein, 98 fat and 30 carbs.

[blujein]

Hi everyone! I first heart about Keto earlier today and was immediately intrigued by the almost entirely positive responses by those who are using it to better themselves.

Here's my situation: I'm a 26 year old guy, I'm 184cm (6 foot), and I weight 90kg. For the last 215 days I have been using MyFitnessPal to count calories (with a daily limit of 1280). When I first started I weighed 100.7kg and at my lowest reached 85kg. I have struggled to maintain consistency and control over the last month and have gained five kilos and felt awful in the process.

Keto looks like it might be something that can work for me, but honestly, I'm finding everything I'm reading to be pretty confusing. I have a very minimal understanding of carbs, fats, fiber, protein, and pretty much everything else it seems I need to know about to make this work. Despite everything I've found and read I still don't entirely know the entire basics of a Keto diet, so I'm hoping someone here can spare a few minutes to give me a very basic understanding and to set me on my way.

I'd very much like to be part of a good community to help motivate me along (and it seems such a community exists here), and I'm looking forward to finding out more about what's involved!

[Zuper]

I am wanting to try out this keto for health reasons as well as to lose body fat. Question is, I have been eating below maintenance and somehow gaining weight. Am I doing something wrong? I am 5'4" and roughly 140lbs female. I do have a fair amount of muscle on my frame. I am a former figure competitor and used to really go to extremes to hit the stage. I roughly think my macros need to be at 1539 calories. 135 protein, 98 fat and 30 carbs.

Protein to high girlie... try 0.8 - 1 g / lb... then get the rest from fats. That's what I was advised to do and works for me.

Curious - what did you do as "Extremes" to get into figure competitive shape?

[Zuper]

Hi everyone! I first heart about Keto earlier today and was immediately intrigued by the almost entirely positive responses by those who are using it to better themselves.

Here's my situation: I'm a 26 year old guy, I'm 184cm (6 foot), and I weight 90kg. For the last 215 days I have been using MyFitnessPal to count calories (with a daily limit of 1280). When I first started I weighed 100.7kg and at my lowest reached 85kg. I have struggled to maintain consistency and control over the last month and have gained five kilos and felt awful in the process.

Keto looks like it might be something that can work for me, but honestly, I'm finding everything I'm reading to be pretty confusing. I have a very minimal understanding of carbs, fats, fiber, protein, and pretty much everything else it seems I need to know about to make this work. Despite everything I've found and read I still don't entirely know the entire basics of a Keto diet, so I'm hoping someone here can spare a few minutes to give me a very basic understanding and to set me on my way.

I'd very much like to be part of a good community to help motivate me along (and it seems such a community exists here), and I'm looking forward to finding out more about what's involved!

Welcome buddy.

Your calories are too low.

Check out a keto-calc to see what your caloric intake is for maintenance etc.

[heather1y2]

Protein to high girlie... try 0.8 - 1 g / lb... then get the rest from fats. That's what I was advised to do and works for me.

Curious - what did you do as "Extremes" to get into figure competitive shape?

Extremes were 1000 or less calories, mainly protein, very little carbs ( oats in morning only) and little fat. Tons of cardio on top of that. Got down to about 115 lbs. lots of cardio on top of that. Basically competing with the wrong prep gave me a horrible complex and now no matter what, I feel fat. Prep the right way everyone! Get a good coach.

[heather1y2]

Protein to high girlie... try 0.8 - 1 g / lb... then get the rest from fats. That's what I was advised to do and works for me.

Curious - what did you do as "Extremes" to get into figure competitive shape?

Oh and it's 1g of protein per pound of BW or lbm?

[artbum]

ok, I've done enough calculations to make my head spin like the chick from the Exorcist complete with ample cursing. So many conflicting numbers as far as maintenance calories goes. 13 calories is maintenance, right?

My problem is mainly that the "65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs = keto" rule doesn't match the 1g PRO per pound rule. I think it has something to do with lean weight vs total weight.

When calculating maintenance calories, we should use total weight right? How about 1g protein per pound- is this total weight or lean mass?

[4hour]

ok, I've done enough calculations to make my head spin like the chick from the Exorcist complete with ample cursing. So many conflicting numbers as far as maintenance calories goes. 13 calories is maintenance, right?

My problem is mainly that the "65% fat, 30% protein, 5% carbs = keto" rule doesn't match the 1g PRO per pound rule. I think it has something to do with lean weight vs total weight.

When calculating maintenance calories, we should use total weight right? How about 1g protein per pound- is this total weight or lean mass?

Could you share your calculations? I'm interested.

[Trackg1rl25]

So I'm starting Keto to cut post holiday weight and to drop good amount of bodyfat. I just need some help getting started because I like to be prepared going into a diet. I'm aiming for a 12-16 week cut with Keto. I'm 5'11, around 165-175, and last time I checked I was 21% bodyfat. Goal is to be around 15% and to gain some muscle. I've always been pretty muscular because I've lifted since 8th grade and had a track scholarship in college. But haven't been on my nutrition until last yr.

For my last cut my macros were
180P/140C/68F

So for Keto could I do:
180P/150F/20-50C????

Last question is if I'm doing a cut cycle, how often do I need to carb up? I am very carb sensitive so I feel like that a carb up every week will be counter productive for me. What do you guys suggest?

Since I like to pre plan, my workouts are 5 days a week. Heavy lifting and 20 mins of cardio 3x week.
Chest n back Monday
Legs and calves Tuesday
Arms and shoulders Wednesday
Glutes and leg touch up Thursday
Upper body touch up Friday
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[artbum]

Could you share your calculations? I'm interested.

3050 calories/day. this is 500 calories above maintenance.

TOTALS:
Using the "1g protein per pound of lean muscle" method:
Fat Calories: 2426 or 270g
Protein Calories: 544 or 136g
Carb Calories: next to 80 or ≤20g

Using the percentages method:
3050 x 65% = 1982.5 fat calories or 220.27g
3050 x 30% = 915 protein calories or 228.75g
3050 x 5% = 152.5 carb calories or 38g

Which one should I go with or what did I do wrong?

[Ozeren44]

I started Keto about 2 weeks ago due to the many benefits I have read about here on the forums and reddit. Little background on myself:

I was very athletic in my youth as a gymnast for 4 years before a back injury caused me to stop all together. After I turned 20, i just did desk jobs for the next 14 years. This cause my body to gain fat as I was not doing anything at my job or at home. Now I want to get it back and be more athletic. I am not looking to have a giant chest or anything close to that. What I want is the ability to be agile like I use to be but my current goal is to drop from 203 lbs to 175-180 lbs and a body fat of 23% to 10% - 12%.

I currently do not have any back problems as that was worked out a long time ago, so my choice of exercises are still open wide. That is not why I am posting here though. The main reason for this post is to make sure I am good on my Keto diet. There have been several different ratios thrown around and I was a little confused. I believe that I currently have the correct macros but i noticed that I was getting a little hungry later in the day just before dinner.

I exercise currently on the Shortcut to Shreds plan so my exercises are fairly intense and they are 6 days out of the week. With this in mind, I know I need a carbup somewhere probably Friday or right after Saturday workout. It will only be a small one (24 hours). Now on to the calulations that I wanted to be sure on:

203 lbs with 23% Body Fat

Calorie Maintenance = 2639 for desk job status or 13 cal per lb of body mass

I am currently doing a deficit for 500 cal for weight loss combined with my exercise should not be a problem.

I tried to do the 65/30/5 ratio of fats/proteins/carbs but it seems that I do not need that much protein some have said. I will post what those figures look like below:

Fat: 152
Protein: 157g
Carb: 26g

After seeing that there is a trend saying that protein was too high I changed my protein intake to 0.8 per LBM which is 124g. Here is the following intakes I have been using for about 1 1/2 weeks now:

Fat: 168g
Protein: 122g
Carb: 25g

This fits out well in my food list. Is this ok or am I shorting my protein intake too much and will not see muscle growth while trying to cleave the fat?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[chrisg1610]

So I am back on a CKD diet but I was wondering the following:

I am in ketosis and the fat is tearing off me which is great, thing is, this time I want to keep on with muscle gains while I am on the eating plan. Surely I should be eating more protein to achieve this? If I am eating more than 1g per lean mass then that would be going towards building muscle wouldn't it? Or would my body end up burning any excess protein before using my fat stores?

Blindfaith recommends "Make sure you eat at least one gram of protein/pound of lean mass!" in the article called "Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!" here on bodybuilding.com, the first one I read on CKD.

[andymant]

You need to be in a calorie surplus to build muscle Chris. Sounds like you want to do a recomp. Cycle calories to 2-300 above maintenance on weight days and 2-300 below on rest days.

So I am back on a CKD diet but I was wondering the following:

I am in ketosis and the fat is tearing off me which is great, thing is, this time I want to keep on with muscle gains while I am on the eating plan. Surely I should be eating more protein to achieve this? If I am eating more than 1g per lean mass then that would be going towards building muscle wouldn't it? Or would my body end up burning any excess protein before using my fat stores?

Blindfaith recommends "Make sure you eat at least one gram of protein/pound of lean mass!" in the article called "Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!" here on bodybuilding.com, the first one I read on CKD.

[riceeeeeeeeee]

Is it ok to take yohimbine hcl while doing keto?

[Tamarisky]

Seems this thread is more active than the one I posted in but I'll just quote it here and see what people think, any advice is appreciated!

60% of your calories should come from fats.

35% of your calories should come from proteins.

5% of your calories should come from fibrous carbohydrates.


So I'm on CKD Keto at 1600-1800 Kcal, at 1800 tops following that guideline of 60/35/5 that would mean I'm consuming 158 P / 23 C / 120 F? I don't know if I messed up the calculations but doesn't the fats seem a little low compared to protein? Since I'm only 5'7 I think there needs to be some sort of adjustment..any suggestions?

[chrisg1610]

Seems this thread is more active than the one I posted in but I'll just quote it here and see what people think, any advice is appreciated!

Have you tried reading "Step By Step Keto Diet Plan!" by Blindfaith here on bodybuilding.com, he breaks the macro calculations down quite nicely. Good luck!

[andymant]

Seems this thread is more active than the one I posted in but I'll just quote it here and see what people think, any advice is appreciated!

Wrong ^

0.6-1g protein per lb of LBM
<30g carbs
Rest of calories from fat

Please do not use ratios

[GuntherT]

Hello everyone, I've decided to start keto diet after a little bit of reading I have set up the following diet plan

25 Male
216 lbs
6 ft 0 in

Target calories 2063 with 149g fat 145 protein 35g carbs

I plan on working out tomorrow with some cardio, then perform some moderate cardio on thursday and workout again on Friday hoping it will put me in keto

Here is my diet and would love some critique

[Vivvid]

Hello everyone, I've decided to start keto diet after a little bit of reading I have set up the following diet plan

25 Male
216 lbs
6 ft 0 in

Target calories 2063 with 149g fat 145 protein 35g carbs

I plan on working out tomorrow with some cardio, then perform some moderate cardio on thursday and workout again on Friday hoping it will put me in keto

Here is my diet and would love some critique

Looks pretty decent! You might wanna add some more veggies and idk about your supps but always take a multi and omega oils.
You have simulair stats i had last year before my 1st cut and i can tell you can bump it to 2100 cals no problem.(add the veggies)
Why add more cals? You'll eventually will have to cut on cals, and it was my newbie mistake to start to low so i ended up on very low cals.
Personally i would only do the cardio for getting into keto, not as basic routine in my workout. Because you will drop weight FAST even without cardio
and its nice to always have some tools left for when your weight loss decreases, and yes it will at some point.

[GuntherT]

Looks pretty decent! You might wanna add some more veggies and idk about your supps but always take a multi and omega oils.
You have simulair stats i had last year before my 1st cut and i can tell you can bump it to 2100 cals no problem.(add the veggies)
Why add more cals? You'll eventually will have to cut on cals, and it was my newbie mistake to start to low so i ended up on very low cals.
Personally i would only do the cardio for getting into keto, not as basic routine in my workout. Because you will drop weight FAST even without cardio
and its nice to always have some tools left for when your weight loss decreases, and yes it will at some point.

Thank you, Yea I am gonna add more veggies to it

I just had the breakfast... and I feel like im gonna have a heart attack lol
I worked out empty stomach and right now following my diet ( I have been under eating so I will be eating more now!!) my next workout is on friday but i might go cardio tomorrow. Will that be enough for going into ketosis?
Should I be draining fat from Medium ground beef? How bad is trans fat on the diet? Should I be picking food with less trans fat?
Finally, Do I need to carb up at all throughout the entire process for weight loss

[spiechulesko]

Hello everyone,
I’ve been on keto for 3 weeks, when I started my weight 83kg waist 96cm -+25%bf
After a week on 2000cal (5% carbs 65% fat 30% protein) 80kg, 91 cm
After second week 2000cal 80kg, 92cm (+1cm from a week before)
After third week 1900cal 80kg 92cm NO CHANGES

Do I have too many calories? I have a desk job with 3 workouts during the week,

Please help me, I’ve checked many calories calculators and each of them give me different answers between 1700-2000cal

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[vlad11]

Hello everyone,
I’ve been on keto for 3 weeks, when I started my weight 83kg waist 96cm -+25%bf
After a week on 2000cal (5% carbs 65% fat 30% protein) 80kg, 91 cm
After second week 2000cal 80kg, 92cm (+1cm from a week before)
After third week 1900cal 80kg 92cm NO CHANGES

Do I have too many calories? I have a desk job with 3 workouts during the week,

Please help me, I’ve checked many calories calculators and each of them give me different answers between 1700-2000cal

Attachment 6698071

Whats your height and age?