TheDarkHalf
Well-known member
- Awards
- 1
I constantly see lots of posts regarding Keto dieting so i've taken it upon myself to write a keto dieting guide. I am by no means a master of keto but have keto dieted in the past....but there are some members on this board that are much more experienced with it than myself and I hope that they will hop on this and contribute to anything that I miss
So without further a due...
How to Structure Your Keto Diet
-This is a strictly a no carb diet. Zero means zero! The only acceptable sources of carbs in this diet come from veggies and nuts. Everything else is protein and fat.
-Your macro-nutrient ratio should be 1:1 calorie protein-to-fat ratio based off of your current weight. So lets say I am a 230lb individual. That would mean I would be eating 345g pro (1.5g x 230 x 4 = 1380cal ) and 154g fat (1380/9). I use 1.5g per lb during keto...i wouldn't do more than that but feel free to experiment to your liking.
-The first 14 days have to be super strict. No carbs. This will allow your body to transition over to ketosis. I won't lie...the first couple days will suck. After that it's pretty easy. If you're feeling tired at all....you can drink black coffee. No sugar or additives. You can add creamer if you’d like.
How to Structure Your Cheat Day:
-After the first 14 days you can now introduce a cheat day. This day is best set up for a weekend so you can simply concentrate on eating. Your objective on this day is to eat as many carbs as possible. That being said....you also want to eat as little protein and fat as possible. Just try to eat things that consist of carbs only. This day in itself can be tough just by the shear amount of carbs you can eat (I would often eat close to 1000g of carbs on this day). Just don't worry about pro and fat as it will add up.....but if you can try to keep your fat grams lower than 75g. And you are better off eating higher GI stuff first and transitioning to lower GI stuff later in the day. Eventually you'll get sick of eating fat free sugary $hit and the lower GI stuff will be a relief. I say to not focus as much on protein because we all know carbs are protein sparing.
-You may see a bit of a rebound/bloat after your first cheat day which is okay (i always rebound/bloat after a cheat day, you should, it's normal). Weigh yourself the morning of your cheat. Then weight yourself again the morning of your next cheat. You should be losing at a rate of .5-2lbs per week. However, during the first week you may drop 5-10 lbs from dropping water weight since you're no longer eating carbs. If you don't return to baseline by the time of your next cheat then you're cheating too much and need to turn things down. When your weight loss starts to stall....then that's when you'd also want to look at turning down the 1:1 pro/fat ratio.
How to Setup Your Keto Diet & Cheat Day via crazyfool405
If you aren’t a fan of what’s posted above, here’s another way to set up your keto diet. Crazyfool405 likes to set up his keto diets and cheats as follows...
- Keto requires less protein and more fat. When FIRST starting keto, use your body weight in protein, and remainder of calories in fat for the first three to five days (I usually do three days) and once that happens I feel it’s important to say you don’t really NEED more then 300g protein. Ketones preserve muscle tissue and thus amino acids.
I want to stop this here and tell you my personal body fat rules for cheat days.
Above 15% BF 300g carb meal moderate fat, moderate protein (can be seperated into 3 smaller carb meals if need be. 15-20% carbs pre training, 70% post training (using a weak body part as your training session on that day), then 10-15% post post workout. As soon as you get to 15% BF do 400g carbs using the guidelines above.
-15% BF and lower you add in .8g-1.1g carbs per KG in the form of a refeed ***try and adhere to .8g*** with a DEPLETION DAY. this you MUST split up carb intake.
-On this day I like to take in .8g-1.5g PRO per kg in the form of SHAKES ONLY (due to increased bioavialability and less filling
-Fat on refeed days should be MINIMUM, on just regular carb days from 15% BF and above lower your fat intake by 30g or so or just do not eat fat with that meal.
-I recommend getting under 15% before you do a refeed...anything above 15% should be a cheat meal or split up into smaller meals
-Formula to determine weight gain from a carb up:
Take the number of carbs you are planning to eat and multiply by 4 to get the calories of carbs. Divide that number by 16 then divide that number by 28. The final number approximates the number of pounds you should put on during carb up.
This can be beneficial to know how many carbs to eat if you can't get back to baseline minus 1-2lbs the next week.
Supplementation
-Again, we need to avoid unnecessary sugars. I typically stay away from PreWO products and PostWO drinks that contain carbs. Now some of you may say "Wait TDH, we burn off all that sugar during our lift/cardio session". You know that may be true, but I would rather avoid the possibility of being thrown out of ketosis all together.
-You can also add in coconut oil in beginning phases of keto due to short chain fats + exercise increasing ketone production
-Creatine Mono would be the only creatine I would use (I would take mono with every meal of the cheat day). I would absolutely make use of something like Recompadrol, Glycobol, Pslin, Anabolic Pump, etc on your cheat days. Test booster of your choice is possible as we all want to retain as much strength as possible while being in a caloric deficit (but it's def not necessary).
-Recompadrol has one UNIQUE ingredient that the others don’t contain, and that’s the Garcinia Cambogia 50% HCA, this is important because it INCREASES ketone production! Nutrient Repartitioners also add fuel to the fire in terms of UCP upregulation. This helps you drop more weight and block gluconeogenesis and decrease fat stores/ promote most weight is from fat store loss.
-And of course all your regulars like a multi, EFAs, Protein, multi, etc should be present regardless of whether you are bulking or cutting.
Training
-I can't tell you how to train, but don't expect your strength to be as high as when you are bulking (you're in a caloric deficit). I like to train hard with varying periods of heavy weight, volume, and supersets. I will say though when I am keto my bench press #'s go down...but my squat and deadlift always go up. Just train your @$$ off and do the amount of cardio you need to do and you will get the results you want.
-Cardio should start 3-5x a week at 20 minutes and every 10-14 days add 10 minutes to that time. Once you get to 40-60min of pwo cardio then you can add in morning cardio or another day or two of cardio.
What Do I Do When Weight Loss Stalls?
-As you continue to get leaner, you will need to increase the frequency of your cheats. So instead of doing a cheat day once a week you might have to move it to once every 5 or 6 days. This will have to be a trial and error period just simply because everyone is going to be different. Don't get discouraged! If you're not returning to base line just scale the size of your cheat day down and keep the frequency you desire
-Also, you'll need to re-evaluate your macros! Let’s use the example I used above with the 230lb individual. At the start of the diet we have our macros set up like this:
That would mean I would be eating 345g pro (1.5g x 230 x 4 = 1380cal ) and 154g fat (1380/9). I use 1.5g per lb during keto...I wouldn't do more than that but feel free to experiment to your liking.
-But now I’ve lost 15lbs! So we need to reevaluate... (1.5g Pro x 215 lbs = 322.5g PRO. If you multiply this number by 4 (number of cals in 1 gram of pro), you get 1290 cals from protein. Take 1290/9 (# of cals in 1 g of fat) and you get 143g Fat.
(1290 cal / 9 cal) = 143.3g Fat
-So after losing that 15lbs of weight we are now down to eating 322.5g of PRO and 143g of Fat. Bear in mind that changing your diet should be your last option. This is much different than crazyfool405’s method to keto dieting. If you are following his recommendations, then you do not want to follow what I listed above in this section. Experiment and Do which one that works best for you!
You can keep using either method until you're tired of keto dieting. I wouldn't keto diet for more than 12-16 weeks at a time. After that I'd take a 2-4 week break and then go back on if you aren't happy with where you are at. Some would argue that you can remain on keto forever, and I agree with that. Physiologically speaking your body can definitely handle it. Mentally though, I’m going to get tired of keto dieting and would like to take a break. Ultimately, it’s up to you!
Misc
-You may also want to look into buy keto strips; you can get them at CVS or Walgreens. You pee on them and then turn a shade of purple. Good way to know if you're in ketosis. Some ppl say these strips are bunk...but whatever. They worked for me. Some would argue that this is a bad choice because too much water and stimulants can drown out your reading and can alter the levels.
-Be sure to drink your body weight in water (ounces) and to keep your sodium levels high
-If you’re having problems with your bowel movements pick up some fiber one to add to your shakes/meals in order to keep things moving. You can find this at the grocery store or at CostCo/Sam’s Club as well.
And that's about it folks....suggestions are welcome and thanks for reading.
So without further a due...
How to Structure Your Keto Diet
-This is a strictly a no carb diet. Zero means zero! The only acceptable sources of carbs in this diet come from veggies and nuts. Everything else is protein and fat.
-Your macro-nutrient ratio should be 1:1 calorie protein-to-fat ratio based off of your current weight. So lets say I am a 230lb individual. That would mean I would be eating 345g pro (1.5g x 230 x 4 = 1380cal ) and 154g fat (1380/9). I use 1.5g per lb during keto...i wouldn't do more than that but feel free to experiment to your liking.
-The first 14 days have to be super strict. No carbs. This will allow your body to transition over to ketosis. I won't lie...the first couple days will suck. After that it's pretty easy. If you're feeling tired at all....you can drink black coffee. No sugar or additives. You can add creamer if you’d like.
How to Structure Your Cheat Day:
-After the first 14 days you can now introduce a cheat day. This day is best set up for a weekend so you can simply concentrate on eating. Your objective on this day is to eat as many carbs as possible. That being said....you also want to eat as little protein and fat as possible. Just try to eat things that consist of carbs only. This day in itself can be tough just by the shear amount of carbs you can eat (I would often eat close to 1000g of carbs on this day). Just don't worry about pro and fat as it will add up.....but if you can try to keep your fat grams lower than 75g. And you are better off eating higher GI stuff first and transitioning to lower GI stuff later in the day. Eventually you'll get sick of eating fat free sugary $hit and the lower GI stuff will be a relief. I say to not focus as much on protein because we all know carbs are protein sparing.
-You may see a bit of a rebound/bloat after your first cheat day which is okay (i always rebound/bloat after a cheat day, you should, it's normal). Weigh yourself the morning of your cheat. Then weight yourself again the morning of your next cheat. You should be losing at a rate of .5-2lbs per week. However, during the first week you may drop 5-10 lbs from dropping water weight since you're no longer eating carbs. If you don't return to baseline by the time of your next cheat then you're cheating too much and need to turn things down. When your weight loss starts to stall....then that's when you'd also want to look at turning down the 1:1 pro/fat ratio.
How to Setup Your Keto Diet & Cheat Day via crazyfool405
If you aren’t a fan of what’s posted above, here’s another way to set up your keto diet. Crazyfool405 likes to set up his keto diets and cheats as follows...
- Keto requires less protein and more fat. When FIRST starting keto, use your body weight in protein, and remainder of calories in fat for the first three to five days (I usually do three days) and once that happens I feel it’s important to say you don’t really NEED more then 300g protein. Ketones preserve muscle tissue and thus amino acids.
I want to stop this here and tell you my personal body fat rules for cheat days.
Above 15% BF 300g carb meal moderate fat, moderate protein (can be seperated into 3 smaller carb meals if need be. 15-20% carbs pre training, 70% post training (using a weak body part as your training session on that day), then 10-15% post post workout. As soon as you get to 15% BF do 400g carbs using the guidelines above.
-15% BF and lower you add in .8g-1.1g carbs per KG in the form of a refeed ***try and adhere to .8g*** with a DEPLETION DAY. this you MUST split up carb intake.
-On this day I like to take in .8g-1.5g PRO per kg in the form of SHAKES ONLY (due to increased bioavialability and less filling
-Fat on refeed days should be MINIMUM, on just regular carb days from 15% BF and above lower your fat intake by 30g or so or just do not eat fat with that meal.
-I recommend getting under 15% before you do a refeed...anything above 15% should be a cheat meal or split up into smaller meals
-Formula to determine weight gain from a carb up:
Take the number of carbs you are planning to eat and multiply by 4 to get the calories of carbs. Divide that number by 16 then divide that number by 28. The final number approximates the number of pounds you should put on during carb up.
This can be beneficial to know how many carbs to eat if you can't get back to baseline minus 1-2lbs the next week.
Supplementation
-Again, we need to avoid unnecessary sugars. I typically stay away from PreWO products and PostWO drinks that contain carbs. Now some of you may say "Wait TDH, we burn off all that sugar during our lift/cardio session". You know that may be true, but I would rather avoid the possibility of being thrown out of ketosis all together.
-You can also add in coconut oil in beginning phases of keto due to short chain fats + exercise increasing ketone production
-Creatine Mono would be the only creatine I would use (I would take mono with every meal of the cheat day). I would absolutely make use of something like Recompadrol, Glycobol, Pslin, Anabolic Pump, etc on your cheat days. Test booster of your choice is possible as we all want to retain as much strength as possible while being in a caloric deficit (but it's def not necessary).
-Recompadrol has one UNIQUE ingredient that the others don’t contain, and that’s the Garcinia Cambogia 50% HCA, this is important because it INCREASES ketone production! Nutrient Repartitioners also add fuel to the fire in terms of UCP upregulation. This helps you drop more weight and block gluconeogenesis and decrease fat stores/ promote most weight is from fat store loss.
-And of course all your regulars like a multi, EFAs, Protein, multi, etc should be present regardless of whether you are bulking or cutting.
Training
-I can't tell you how to train, but don't expect your strength to be as high as when you are bulking (you're in a caloric deficit). I like to train hard with varying periods of heavy weight, volume, and supersets. I will say though when I am keto my bench press #'s go down...but my squat and deadlift always go up. Just train your @$$ off and do the amount of cardio you need to do and you will get the results you want.
-Cardio should start 3-5x a week at 20 minutes and every 10-14 days add 10 minutes to that time. Once you get to 40-60min of pwo cardio then you can add in morning cardio or another day or two of cardio.
What Do I Do When Weight Loss Stalls?
-As you continue to get leaner, you will need to increase the frequency of your cheats. So instead of doing a cheat day once a week you might have to move it to once every 5 or 6 days. This will have to be a trial and error period just simply because everyone is going to be different. Don't get discouraged! If you're not returning to base line just scale the size of your cheat day down and keep the frequency you desire
-Also, you'll need to re-evaluate your macros! Let’s use the example I used above with the 230lb individual. At the start of the diet we have our macros set up like this:
That would mean I would be eating 345g pro (1.5g x 230 x 4 = 1380cal ) and 154g fat (1380/9). I use 1.5g per lb during keto...I wouldn't do more than that but feel free to experiment to your liking.
-But now I’ve lost 15lbs! So we need to reevaluate... (1.5g Pro x 215 lbs = 322.5g PRO. If you multiply this number by 4 (number of cals in 1 gram of pro), you get 1290 cals from protein. Take 1290/9 (# of cals in 1 g of fat) and you get 143g Fat.
(1290 cal / 9 cal) = 143.3g Fat
-So after losing that 15lbs of weight we are now down to eating 322.5g of PRO and 143g of Fat. Bear in mind that changing your diet should be your last option. This is much different than crazyfool405’s method to keto dieting. If you are following his recommendations, then you do not want to follow what I listed above in this section. Experiment and Do which one that works best for you!
You can keep using either method until you're tired of keto dieting. I wouldn't keto diet for more than 12-16 weeks at a time. After that I'd take a 2-4 week break and then go back on if you aren't happy with where you are at. Some would argue that you can remain on keto forever, and I agree with that. Physiologically speaking your body can definitely handle it. Mentally though, I’m going to get tired of keto dieting and would like to take a break. Ultimately, it’s up to you!
Misc
-You may also want to look into buy keto strips; you can get them at CVS or Walgreens. You pee on them and then turn a shade of purple. Good way to know if you're in ketosis. Some ppl say these strips are bunk...but whatever. They worked for me. Some would argue that this is a bad choice because too much water and stimulants can drown out your reading and can alter the levels.
-Be sure to drink your body weight in water (ounces) and to keep your sodium levels high
-If you’re having problems with your bowel movements pick up some fiber one to add to your shakes/meals in order to keep things moving. You can find this at the grocery store or at CostCo/Sam’s Club as well.
And that's about it folks....suggestions are welcome and thanks for reading.
