Ketosis and Bulking

What do you guys think of a TKD or CKD for putting on muscle? Seems to be effective at keeping off/burning fat while gaining muscle and it's a pretty damn fun diet.

Yes, if everybody cycled their carb intake the world would be a better place.

Have you ever tried it for mass instead of fat loss, Chalky?

I have never in my life focused strictly on fat loss.  But I began cycling my carbs a year or so ago and made the same gains with very minimal to no fat gain.  IMO everybody should do it, it is proven to work. 

I usually have 3 medium carb days, 2 low carb days, one zero carb day and one refeed (high-carb) day.  The refeed is my dead lift day, the 3 medium carb days are my other lifting days (Press, bench, squat).  2 low carbs and zero carbs are off days and my refeed follows the zero carb day to reap more benefits from my enhanced metabolism that the refeed brought about. 

I was thinking of either that (I cycled once with great results) or just traditional less than 30g carbs per day and then Friday evening until Saturday midnight carb up with no fat and tons of protein.

I am getting off of setting PRs each week, texas method/westside mix whatever you want to call it, it has finally taken its toll on my CNS. My training partner is getting weaker now too, so I know it has destroyed him.

What are your weight to body fat stats anyhow?

I weigh 210 and am somewhere around 12-13% bf

Jane

I'm drunk right now but I will do my best to help you.  Yes, you can get bigger but not exactly as much as you might think.  You just don't have the hormones to get "big."  I'm sure you already know that though.  Gender aside, you should still cycle your carbs in the same way that a guy would.  You don't NEED carbs all the time.  They are mostly an energy source and should only be supplied when you need them...AKA lifting days.  If your benching day takes the most out of you then you should consume more carbs bracketing your workout on your bench day (before and after).  The days you don't lift don't require as much energy from a nutritional standpoint and therefore you don't need as many carbs.  I'll try to go more in depth in the morning but I can barely se the screen right now!

Do you think lifting 5 days a week with a session of low intensity steady state would deplete glycogen well enough for the carb up?

Glycogen is refueled very soon after consuming carbs.  It isn't something that just drains continually throughout the week, that would result in constant fatigue (Unless of course you aren't consuming carbs). 

If you are just keeping carbs low throughout the week days then your glycogen levels will be somewhat lower and your body will have to find other means to supply energy (fats, aminos, proteins and muscle as a last resort).  You want to keep at a low intensity to ensure that you are using more fatty acids as fuel as opposed to higher intensity which uses mostly carbs. 

Also, the carb up's main purpose is not to refuel your glycogen (even though it does do that).  You want it to give yourself a metabolism spike that will hopefully stay elevated for the next couple low carb days (These are the days where your body will make the most progress in the fat burning department...Spiked metabolism + Low glycogen levels). 

I still would not want to do a 5 day straight low carb because that will just drain you mentally and phsyically depending on how low you go.  Especially if you are doing any type of strength training (not sure if you are or not), you NEED more carbs on your workout days for the energy alone. 

If your sole goal is fat loss and you are not worried about making muscular gains or even experiencing some losses, then you should be fine with low intensity throughout the week.  I'd consume some bcaa's before and after any cardio I do.

Sorry if I'm explaining stuff you already know I'm just making sure you understand what it is all about.

Excellent job on the info Chalky.

ACE-CPT, NASM-CPT, AFPA-Nutrition Consultant 

Yeah, I got all that. I am just saying that once in ketosis, the body isn't supposedly fatigued and workouts aren't impossibly hard, but Friday should be the workout you push ridiculously hard to the point your body uses everything it has and then super compensate by eating 1000-2000g of carbs in 30 hours.

This is how people do it to cut and sometimes actually gain muscle, but I am a bit skeptical.

I guess that is the keto method, I duno if I really want to go into keto, the bad breath, horrible piss, etc.

Right, my only reasoning against it is the fatigue you will have due to the lack of carbs, but that will most likely go away once you build up enough ketones.  The thing is, the ketones don't develop immediately so in the mean time your body will be using proteins from your muscles to help supply energy.  Fatique is going to be a given at first and I'm sure some muscle loss as well.  A CKD just seems more sensible to me then putting your body in full on ketosis.

Lol, I get what you mean. I think you meant typical carb cycling seems like a better idea than cyclic ketogenic dieting. Still drinking? Kidding.

With regards to you though, I will stick with carb cycling and stay away from ketosis because it seems smarter and hopefully cardio will keep off the fat.

Perrynaytor


Lol, I get what you mean. I think you meant typical carb cycling seems like a better idea than cyclic ketogenic dieting. Still drinking? Kidding.

With regards to you though, I will stick with carb cycling and stay away from ketosis because it seems smarter and hopefully cardio will keep off the fat.

A CKD is typical carb cycling.  I think you are making the right decision though.  If you really are concerned with fat loss then you might try out the TKD for a bit but I wouldn't do a standard KD


And I'm taking tonight off, spent too much money last night lol