Thinking of trying a Keto diet/carb cycling

adpowah

adpowah

Active Member
So I have been off of lifting for about 2 months in preparation for a 10k (which overall has been a fail, but that's another story). So far I have lost 10lbs and I am thinking of doing another 5-10lbs (maybe more if it keeps up this easy). Certainly some of it is muscle which makes me a little sad but I never had a lot of success dieting while lifting so I am going to try and ride this train until it gets tough. So at the end of the month my wife and I have the 10k and October 1st I am heading back to the gym.

I am going to just do my best to keep trimming up and get back to the gym. Now if that doesn't work and my diet doesn't remain successful once I start lifting I was considering trying out a ketosis/carb cycling type diet that some seem to have some success with. However...I am having trouble finding a good source information on how to do it. I am watching a whole mess of youtube videos looking for anyone that seems to not be a salesman. So point being I am not sold on it but I am looking for some information on it. If you have any good sources or suggestions I would love to hear them.

PS my dieting fails are my own fault, I do believe IIFYM works.
 
What Totez said.

The one anecdotal point I'll note is that low-carb diets are easier so long as you stick to low carbs. If you decide you can manage a pastry or brad or whatever one day when you shouldn't - you're going to hate yourself when you can't stop eating for the rest of the day.

I find them effective for me once I can slip into them. Those first 2-3 days are killer.

Also, your workouts will definitely take an adjustment. Reduce the per set volume (as well as overall), rest periods might need to go up etc.
 
I'm certainly not finished with reading Lyle's book but two things I came across that I found particularly important (probably no brainers for seasoned dieters); 1) You still need to be in a caloric deficit in a Keto diet for it to work (some find this easier since fat can provide a large level of satiety) 2) Ketosis is a catabolic state so not great for gaining muscle.
 
Yep. There is no magic diet that will let you lose weight while not eating a deficit and all diets are still going to require willpower.
 
I found the low carb route, from an eating perspective, pretty satisfying. Meat! BACON! Lol
And it works pretty well...
Any diet will require a deficit, no doubt...
But I found the low carb really had me feeling exhausted, weak and unfocused and unmotivated.
Carb backloading, however, my newest experiment, imo, rocks!
Lots of workout strength, not tired or lazy at all during the day, and brain function I find is much sharper (apparently the brain loves running on ketones). Dunno why it was the opposite for me on low carb....
And I'm officially, at my lowest BF% I've ever had! And I mean ever! And still slimming...
[emoji1]
 
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With carb backloading, you don't actually get far enough into ketosis for long enough that the brain is running on ketones exclusively. Because you are still taking in carbs. The brain won't switch over to ketones until you are carb depleted for a while. Which basically suggests that when you low carbed it, you probably weren't in ketosis long enough to clear up the brain fog. If you cut the carbs hard enough and do some carb depleting workouts, you'll be fine after a few days in. This is coming from someone who has experimented significantly with protein only diets. The first 2-3 days suck hard and it can take longer if you allow yourself to 'accidentally' ingest too many carbs. But when you are getting 10 grams or less a day only from whatever is incidental in your protein only meals, and you do a high rep/high volume workout on day 1 or 2, then usually by day 3 or 4, you are starting to feel energized again. At least as energized as you can get when you are on a deficit of a thousand calories or more.
 
You can shorten it by carb depleting yourself (including liver and muscle glycogen) but otherwise it does take a while. You'll know when you are in it because you won't feel as bad.
 
Basically just high rep fullbody glycogen depleting type workouts with 15 RM to 20 RM loads. If you've ever read Lyle's Ultimate Diet 2.0 book, he has a good example of depletion workouts. Cardio won't do it, it's gotta be weightlifting. Depletion workouts are unpleasant and sometimes involve vomiting but it does get you into ketosis faster. When doing UD2.0, for example, you can end up in ketosis within 3 days or so usually and that's while still consuming ~50 grams of carbs a day.
 
I've done carb cycling before, leangains style, which is also iifym, you should check it out if you haven't already. From information found on the leangains website I combined intermittent fasting with carb cycling and calorie cycling and iifym while doing hst (with cardio on the nonlifting days) and they worked so well together it was amazing, I had never had that kind of definition before, veins popping out in my shoulders and my abs, but I was also taking an ephedrine/caffeine stack at first and switched out the ephedrine for yohimbine once I got to lower bodyfat levels per lyles instructions in one of his books. Keep us posted on your results man!
 
Thanks torube. I had some good results on just using hunger management. I lost a total of 16lbs leading up to my 10k run and I have been eating pretty thoroughly for the last week+ while getting back to lifting and put on about a pound, but even that I am reigning in. I am just in a holding pattern for diet right now seeing how my strength returns on maintenance calories. If strength keeps coming back I will probably go back to bulking by late Nov and go for a 450+ deadlift. If strength slows down I will probably lose another 10lbs (I would be pretty trim at 175-180, I'd estimate 12-14%).
 
Without drugs, your strength potential is not going to be reached at anything much lower than 14-15%. Just be mindful of that.
 
I used to cut at 12% and bulk at 6% and never had any issues with my strength and size continuing to increase but I agree you don't want to do any powerlifting meets while shredded or you aren't gonna hit the numbers you should be.

This was a couple years ago, I haven't really lifted since then and I am trying to get back into it now. Another couple of resources I used for my diet were http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/ choosing 3grams per kg on the protein and when bulking choosing "lean massing" and when cutting choosing "standard recomp". And then I would use a cheap food scale I bought on amazon along with fatsecret.com to make sure everything I ate in the amounts I ate it added up to the correct numbers I got from the calculator.
 
@Jester yeah I totally agree. I am still trying to find my personal balance between strength and hypertrophy training.

@torube1138 That's awesome commitment. I'm not really ready to weigh my food and be that focused on my diet. Someday maybe but not right now.
 
It may seem that way if you have never done it but honestly you get used to it very quickly then its just normal and while you can get great results without it I feel like its the only way that you are going to get those exceptional results that almost nobody else has, I only quit because I started traveling all the time, but now that I'm settled down in one spot again I'm extremely happy to have my scale back!

As for the balance between strength and hypertrophy I am having that same problem myself and just posted a new thread called 2 year break, if you get time check it out I'd like to hear any and all ideas that I can get!
 
EC stack makes a world of difference for fat gain. Somewhat jealous that in Australia you can only ever get the 'C', it'd be a nice one to try.
 
We have Primatene tablets which are sold over the counter for asthma and that is what I always used to use, I'm surprised they don't have something like that for sale in Australia.
 
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