Zak's Keto Log

[zgn7003]

Hey all, I have been a long time browser of these threads but this is my first post. Finally got motivated enough to get back into shape and gave up smoking about six months ago and still going strong in that aspect, so now I feel that I am ready to really ramp things up a bit in my journey. A little background on me: I started lifting in high school with my varsity hockey program and that continued through my high school career and the two years in which I played junior hockey for a local organization. My height is approximatly 5' 10" and with all the cardio and lifting and help of our teams trainer I was able to peak out at about 205lbs and ~10%bf. Unfortunately, I severely herniated two discs in my lower back trying to be a badass and use my back to force one more rep on my deadlift, which put me out of the gym 4 years ago and which I have been using as an excuse to get lazy and fat since then. My current stats are 188lb and as far as bf% I would guess between 15-20%. Started following Dave Palumbo's diet last Wednesday, not exactly sure on my starting weight as didn't even want to get on the scale that day but my best guess from doctor visits was that I was hovering around the 191-192 range. I have done two cardio/lifting sessions so far (last Wednesday and this Monday) but I feel like I am doing something wrong. I know that it is stated to do LISS for at least 20minutes on the original thread, with optimum heart rate of 125bpm. I have no idea what my heart rate has been and will be checking it manually my timing my pulse during to ensure I get into and stay in the right range. The first session, I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes and was not out of breath at any point during the run, and then did some simple dumbell lifts for chest, shoulders, and arms because thats what I have available to me at home (flat dumbell press, incline, military, skull crushers, and then a super-set of bicep curls at the end going to failure with progressively lower weights with no rest). The second session I felt so great that I ended up doing 6 miles in 60 minutes, and once again did not feel out of breath ever, followed by the same set of lifts. I have been reading others logs on LISS and most say they do 3-4 mph at an incline, which makes me think that my heart rate must be getting way too high with the pace that I am keeping. I want to make sure I get the most out of this program with the ultimate goal being getting down to approximately 170-175 before doing a bulk so that I don't end up a complete fat mess when I do. Here is the current diet that I am following which is the recommended for 200lb male:

Food Schedule:
8:00AM Meal #1: 6 hard boiled eggs, 1 cup egg beaters (equivalent to 4 egg whites)
10:30AM Meal #2: 50g Whey (Isopure), 1 scoop Scivation Xtend
1:00PM Meal #3: 8oz chicken breast, 1/2 cup roasted almonds
4:00PM Meal #4: 50g Whey (Isopure), I scoop Scivation Xtend

Lifting/Cardio

8:00PM Meal #5 8oz steak, 2 cups spring mix, 1 tblspn Newman's Own Olive Oil and Vinegar Dressing
10:30PM Meal #6 48g Whey (2 scoops ON Gold Standard Casein), 1 tblspn Peter Pan Crunchy PB

Supplement Schedule:
- Isopure Whey (Orange Pineapple Banana) (morning/afternoon)
- Scivation Xtend (Watermelon Madness) (morning/afternoon)
- ON Gold Standard Casein (Chocolate Supreme) (evening)
- AnimalPak Multivitamin (morning)
- ON ZMA (2 pills in the morning)
- ON Fish Oil (1 pill in the morning)

I set up an account on fitday to get an idea of my maintenance calories and macros, I have attached the results because I don't know how to directly insert them. For those who can't/don't feel like opening them, my maintenance calories were given as 3026 by their calculation, this diet gives me 2825 calories and my macros came out to be 56/40/5, which is close but not quite the 60/35/5 recommended. I did some research on livestrong and used their formula to calculate how many calories I would be burning at 125bpm and found that values ranged from 325-650 depending on if I go for 30 minutes or an hour. I do, however, have a couple questions if anyone would be kind enough to offer some insight I would greatly appreciate it :

1) As far as cardio, do you think I am running too fast (will check bpm during tonight's session and post)?
2) What is the recommended maximum caloric defecit while following this diet for someone of my particular stats? I have searched and couldn't find anything concrete. If I can figure out how to get to 125bpm and do that 45 minutes/day the formula from livestrong says I will burn 488 calories, which would put me at a 689 calorie/day defecit.
3) Do my protein shakes look okay? I know Dave recommends adding 1 tbspn of PB to all the why shakes, but I can't stand the thought of putting that in my Pineapple Orange Banana and Scivation Watermelon shake, would it be okay to put EVOO instead or am I okay without? If I should, how much and would it screw up my macros too much? My last shake is ON Gold Standard Casein in chocolate supreme which has 3g serving so 6g since I use 2 scoops. I pair that with the PB that I have which has 6g carbs (2g fiber), which seems like a lot of carbs at once. Is this okay? Once I run out of Isopure I plan on using ON Gold Standard Whey in its place which will also be 3g/serving for a total of 6g carbs before even adding any PB. I feel like these shakes are all out of whack and REALLY REALLY would like some guidance on this if nothing else!!
4) Are there any other changes you would make to my diet? More/less of anything? How about the supps I am taking? Do they look okay or would you recommend something different? I am thinking about getting a Fiber supplement as recommended by DP. The program is designed for a 200lb male but I couldn't find a specialized one for a 185lb male so I am assuming there are a few things I should change. My macros are close to the recommended, but do you think they are close enough?

I know this post was long, but it is the beginning of my log and I wanted to get everything out there up front. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this, and I really do appreciate any insight you may be able to give me. There was a time when I felt like I knew a thing or two about lifting and nutrition but those days are in the past and especially with this Keto stuff I feel like a total noob so thank you for bearing with me. I will update with pictures regularly, and plan to take one after my session tonight to get a bodyspace profile picture at the very least. Thanks again!

[zgn7003]

Workout session went well today. Found the sweet spot for me to get 120bpm was max incline at 4mph, did 60 minutes and felt great. Followed by some simple dumbbell sets just to start acclimating my muscles to working out again so that when it does come time to hit the gym I am not waking up so sore that I cannot function and want to quit. Changes I will be implementing after research will be waking up and doing the LISS in the morning and taking the fish oil 3x/day instead of just once. Also I will be weighing myself in the morning fasted for consistency. Any input on my shakes/diet/supps/macros is still greatly appreciated!!

EDIT: Upon further reading, it seems that I may be intaking wayy to much protein on this diet, which is said by some to inhibit fat loss due to it being converted to glucose and kicking me out of keto. I am 188 and following dave's guidelines I am ending up wtih my macros being 65%Protein/31% Fat/4% Carbs which is close to what I am shooting for, however this is putting me at 351g Protein/79.1g Fat/22g Carbs. This is like 1.85g Protien per pound, which is way over the recommended 1g/pound. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

[zgn7003]

Update: Busy weekend. Friday morning weight before LISS was down to 184.6! I know most of that is water weight but still quite happy with the results. After reading up more on the DP diet I think I will be going off of that and switching to a CKD diet to better suit my goals trying to eat around 500 less than my BMR of 2300, so 1800 cals/day at 60F/35P/5C. Had two family parties friday and saturday and did my best to keep the carbs low as I didn't want to do my first carb up yet after only one week, hopefully I didn't do too much damage. Will be weighing in again tomorrow morning before doing LISS and update with new meal plan.

[zgn7003]

Doing my best to keep up with this log even though no one has given any input yet, I figure maybe if I show that I am seriously dedicated to this then maybe someone will feel compelled to give me some advice. Have been feeling really tired all week from this diet, considering starting an EC stack to help motivate me. Have been staying up on the running, 4 mi/hr for 60 mins every day keeps my heart rate around 125-135, and once I get the motivation to get on the treadmill I feel great. Lifting M/W/F doing upper body exercises because my knees have been giving me problems, so I am staying away from the lower body stuff for the time being. I have limited resources in my basement, and no squat rack or spotter so I do all my chest stuff with dumbbells for safety's sake. Routine looks like this:

Flat Bench Press: 50lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets
Incline Dumbbell Press: 40lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets
Flat Dumbbell Flys: 30lbs @ 12 reps x 4 (been getting more like 12 12 10 8)
French Press (skullcrushers): Don't know how much the curl bar I have weighs, but there is 46lbs of weight on it @ 12 reps x 4 sets
Bent Row: 115lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets (slightly "cheating" to get the last reps in using a bit of momentum, but making sure not to hurt myself by overdoing it)
Dumbbell Curl Superset: Taking each to failure in rapid succession with zero rest (50lbs - 40 lbs - 30lbs - 20lbs) x 1 set

Thinking of adding some more stuff in there, ordered a pull up bar that friction mounts in the doorway so that I can add some pull-ups and maybe mount it lower and use it as a dip station because I don't have a decline bench (that is safe anyhow, I tried rigging mine and nearly blew out a rotator cuff lol). Any advice on lower-chest exercises that one can do without a decline bench or spotter, what I have available is an olympic bar and some plates, and the dumbbells I already listed, and a normal bench that inclines but doesn't decline, along with the pull up bar i just mentioned. Have been having a tough time getting through all the lifts right after I do the hour of cardio, but I tried some jack3d for the first time today and it REALLY helped. Looking forward to Friday so I can use it again!! All workouts are followed by 2 scoops of ON Gold Standard Whey, 48g Protein, 6g Carbs, which isn't an issue as I'm usually staying right at my macros (now 60F-35P-5C) according to fitday. Really liking getting back into this whole working out thing and appreciate any support or input one may give me. Will post pictures once I start getting some feedback and gather the courage to do so lol.

[zgn7003]

Been staying with the program. Had a really good workout yesterday and added some shoulder presses 30lbs @ 12 reps x 4 sets to my routine. Was sweating like crazy, not sure if it's just from the jack3d or if I was just pushing myself harder than normal. Started the workout at 184.6, after running I was 183.4, and after lifting I was 181.2. Crazy amounts of water weight lost, but I felt absolutely amazing. Took my normal whey after the workout, ate dinner (fatty hamburger/onions/green peppers). I started taking creatine a couple days ago as well, first dose @5gs (1tblspn) at night with lots of water and xtend. Yesterday upped to 2 servings of creatine (10gs or 2tblspn) and 1 serving of xtend just to keep me from getting sore primarily. I don't know how I really feel about the whole creatine loading process, they say to take it 4x a day at first and then back off. My plan for now is to work my way up to that taking 3 servings today and 4 tomorrow before backing off to maintenance levels (can't recall exactly how many grams would be best, any input? If not I will just go off whats on the label).

Bottom line: Woke up and did the normal weigh in and I'm at 182.0!! Life is good. Down 10-11lbs from when I started around three weeks ago hoping to keep up the progress!

[zgn7003]

UPDATE: Been a couple weeks, really busy with work and getting things set up for my next co-op starting here in a couple weeks. Been staying with my program doing 45-60 minutes of LISS at least 4x a week and trying to keep my cals and macros in order. Tracking everything on fitday and it seems to be going good. The lowest I got to was 180.5 before this last weekend. Progress was starting to really slow up so I did my first carb up since going over to CKD and when I weighed back in on monday I was at 184.5! Not good. All is well though, I know a lot of that was just from the carb up and I'm sure my weight will be back down when I decide to weigh myself again, thinking that will be tomorrow morning. Other note, I started an EC stack using the Kaizen stuff from fitshop and some prolab creatine 2 days ago. REALLY looking forward to seeing what this does for me, I already can say that the appetite supression is insane. My boss probably likes it because I have been running around getting stuff done at work being uber productive since I can't sit still. Following the dosage recommendations on hotnfit so I'm not even taking full dosage yet. Skipped days 1-3 because I have a really high caffeine tolerance drinking ludicrous amounts of espresso to get me through class and whatnot, so no bad side effects yet. Confidence level is also through the roof, been getting compliments people noticing the change in my physique. I feel like part of the reason my weight loss slowed up so much was that I am throwing on some LBM at the same time with the lifting (n00b gains) and might be doing more of a recomp than a straight cut. Will post some pictures post workout on Friday if I don't head up to my camp for the weekend right from work. Later bros.

[zgn7003]

Just finished doing cardio and was feeling/looking pretty lean in the mirror after so I decided to weigh myself (more for motivational purposes, I know some of it is water weight loss) but I was down to 179.7 from 184.5 on monday! So pumped, first time I have been under 180 in ages since I lost all my muscle after I got injured but before I put on the extra pounds. Hoping that it doesn't float too much more above 180 tomorrow morning, definitely skipping the carb up this weekend and going to let this EC do its thing.

[zgn7003]

Woke up this morning and weighed myself post-piss, down to 179.2 Only thing is I feel like absolute sh*t. I forgot to eat dinner last night after my PWO shake (damn EC), and think that might have had something to do with this. I can barely drag my ass to work, glands in my throat are killing me aside from my whole core being dusted from doing Ab Ripper X last night for the first time. Not good at all, hoping it doesn't have anything to do with the implementation of the EC stack in my supplement regime. I was only taking 16mg E/ 200mg in the morning, 16mg E/200mg C at lunch and 16mg E/ 100mg C PWO in the afternoon. Not too happy right now as I finally got into the 170's which has been my goal from the start and now this. Oh well, probably taking today off for some R&R and not taking any of my supps. Will check in later.

[zgn7003]

Update: Feeling MUCH better after taking last weekend off the supplements and getting some good R + R in. I did stay with the diet over the weekened, carb up wasn't necessary and I honestly wouldn't have had the appetite to do it regardless. Weighed in Monday morning at 182, I don't really know where the 3 pounds came from as I didn't eat anything to knock myself out of keto, but I did sit on my ass all weekend so maybe I was retaining more water than normal. Got back with the EC stack on Monday and back to the same routine as usual with LISS/lifting Monday follwed with LISS/Ab Ripper X yesterday. Woke up this morning at a new all time low of 176.8!! Feeling good, looking forward to tonights workout. I can really see my body transforming into what I want (for the time being until I start to bulk) and feel like I should be able to knock off another 5 pounds without slowing down. Abs are starting to come through and strength is better than ever. Hoping to have a pretty solid 6-pack after the next 5 pounds. I will post pics tonight and HOPEFULLY someone can give me a bf % estimate. I'm thinking I'm hovering around 12-13% now, so with 9% being the goal hopefully 6-7 pounds will get me there. Feel free to chime in, noone has responded or popped in for any support yet which is frustrating. Maybe the fact that I will post a picture will motivate someone to pop in for some support or something....

[zgn7003]

Okay so after struggling with my camera a managed to take 1 relaxed front photo and 1 slightly flexed front photo. Workout today was great at the beginning but I burned out hardcore at the end which kind of really sucked. Got through LISS barely as my knee has been acting up but sucked it up and did the hour anyway. Any chance someone can give me a bf estimate or point me in the direction of what views to allow more accurate judgement? Thanks!