[jerkyslim]

ive been bodybuilding for about 2 years now. im just bout to go into my second cutting phase since i started. the diet i use when i cut is simple; i just eat as little carbs as possible (plain and simple) and i drop the weight. Majority of the foods i eat when on this diet are high in protein with a good amount of fat (but i pay no attention to fats). My main concern is trying to keep as much muscle as possible while im trying to lose the fat. What can i do to my diet plan to enhance the preservation of muscle as i cut?????

[Thomas_Rivera]

I'm not really sure if your trying for a low carb diet where you still depend on carbs as the main source of energy, or if you're trying to get on ketosis.

If you are trying to get on ketosis, then having high protein intake will actually keep you out of ketosis. 58 percent of protein intake can be digested down into blood glucose. So if you are having 300 grams of protein, good chance that your supplying your brain with enough blood glucose to keep you out of ketosis. Low carb diets are inheretly muscle sparing as long as your intake of fat and protein are at the right places.

For low carb I follow 0-20 carbs a day, closer to the 1-10 carb range on most days. .9 percent of your body weight in protein or 150 grams of protein, whichever one is larger. The rest of the calories come from fat.

Doing low carb diets does however require that you don't lift heavy, without any glycogen stores you shouldn't be lifting heavy during ketosis. Any other questions about it, just ask.

[jerkyslim]

thanks man, so what rep to set range would u recommend during ketosis so i dont go and lift too heavy with low glucose levels.

[Thomas_Rivera]

Around 70 percent of your max at reps of 10-12. You'r better off going into CKD, it's basically ketosis, but with carb loads on the weekends for energy during the week.

My CKD diet and training threead

I outline the basics there.

[lil_big_junior]

nice post thomas

[bulk then cut]

hey thomas, on your log, its basically saying low carbs during week, and Lots of carbs on weekends? is that correct? but wouldnt that defeat the whole purpose of low carb dieting

[Thomas_Rivera]

Yes, and no. With two solid days of carb restriction it's very easy to go into ketosis, the fewer the carbs the quicker you can go into ketosis, keep that in mind for now.

The main fuel for the muscles during weightlifting happens to come from a carb source, muscle glycogen. The problem with this is if you lack muscle glycogen you can't lift moderate weights for a sufficient amount of time even. This is where the carb loads come into play, they are used to specifically increase the levels of glycogen in the body for the workouts during the week.

Without the carb loads, the workouts during the week would be lack luster at best. The carb loads allow you to operate at a close to normal range of excercise. I've done regular ketosis and have had workouts where I would get through 4 sets of leg extensions and not have the energy to do warm up sets of 135 in squats.

Ketosis by nature is very efficient at burning fat, so the five days on ketosis and the two some odd days off of it still are efficient enough to lose weight at a nice rate. Another thing that you have to take into consideration is that the body cannot fully utilize all of the ketones that are produced from fat, a percentage of the ketones are excreted through the urine and sweat, and the other portion are exhaled.

So my answer is no, for a bodybuilder CKD is in my opinion the best style of low carb dieting to go into. It gives the benefits of carbs during training with the effects of low carbs for weightloss.

[Thomas_Rivera]

Actually, if the brain gets anywhere under 100 grams of glucose it will induce some level of ketosis. The drive for ketosis is all driven around the brain. As long as the brain can get it's 100 grams of glucose, the body will not go into ketosis.

However, if you are giving less glucose than the brain needs it will activly burn protein and fat for glucose. When you are on ketosis for a long period, the brain needs less and less glucose, that means less protein loss.

[under construction]

hey thomas when I do a ketosis style diet the first three weeks I lose way to much weight to stay within the accepted 1-2 lbs per week for sparing muscle tissue but then it seems to settle in should I be worried about the induction weight loss taking muscle tissue or is it just a water thing

[Thomas_Rivera]

There should be a large drop in water weight from the lack of carbs and depending on your diet while on ketosis with a lower than average intake of sodium, which on any diet can tend to get a little above average.

What kind of ketosis are you doing? No carb loads? And I also need to know your:

Bodyweight
Approximate bodyfat
Macro calorie intake
Base caloric requirments to mantain bodyweight a day

3 weeks sounds about right for everything to even out. It takes around 3 weeks for your brain to make the full switch to using 75 percent of its energy requirments in ketones.

[Thomas_Rivera]

Anything else, just ask.

Another thing about the three week period. Thats the time where most of the body will stop using ketones and start using free fatty acids. Ketones are made by the liver through the break down of fatty acids. Free fatty acids can come through the breakdown of triglycerides.

At first that didn't make sense to me, I was under the assumption the body ran on ketones totally, but by week three its run on a combination of ketones for the mind and FFA for almost everywhere else.