Fitness Bump

I do both calorie and carb cycling, which is a great way to actually lose fat and build muscle at the same time. Basically on the low calorie days you keep your fats and proteins high, with carbs around 30 grams or below. Your calorie intake on those days might be only 2,000-2,300 calories. Once or twice a week you incorporate a high carb day, where you keep your fat intake low, consume the same amount of protein as on low carb days, and consume the majority of your caloric intake from carbs (rice, fruit, potatoes, etc.) On my high calorie / high carb days I eat upwards of 4,000-5,000 calories. I have found this works very nicely for me, and has not had any adverse effects on being keto-adapted. You can see changes in body composition in a matter of a day after a carb up. Your muscles look bigger and more defined (due to glycogen replenishment), and you sometimes see a noticeable fat loss, since spiking your carbs periodically triggers a hormonal cascade (with leptin being the key hormone) which leads to increased fat burning. It's a great tool for when you're really trying to get lean.

 

I can't "like" anymore posts today...

very nice write up rat. helped me understand some things.

 

Thanks, dude.

I could talk about this stuff all day long.

 

I don't know about Keto man. What are your goals, either fitness wise or body comp wise?

I did Keto for several months. I got very, very lean, down to 172 at my lowest, I'm 190ish right now. I definitely lost muscle and strength suffered. You can only support so much muscle and strength while depriving yourself of carbs most of the week. Insulin is the growth hormone, if you lift and carb you'll grow muscle. Carbs are also protein sparing, so you need way less whey / meat for optimum fitness levels. I recommend eating carbs around every workout. I do intermittent fasting, eat in a 6-8 hour window every day and just pack in as much ice cream and honey and cornbread and jam and rice and potatoes as possible. I workout somewhere in the middle of that 6-8 hour window, and get a few scoops of whey mixed in.

Carb days were definitely great and seeing the muscles return to where they should be all the time was nice lol. You'll find that you're a shrunken, deprived version of yourself almost all the time with brief respites of fulfillment. If you workout regularly I think you'll find the increased muscle mass you're carrying around will burn more than enough calories to keep you lean. Especially if you follow some form of intermittent fasting.

Protip, if you want to get shredded, do intermittent fasting and during fasting periods to combo the fat burning factors make use of
1. Ice
2. Caffein
3. Low intensity cardio

So if I want to get in crazy beach shape I might wake up around 8 every morning, make a huge iced coffee and take my dog for a long walk / jog in the sun, and fast until noon. Sick combo.

The ridiculous power of ice is encapsulated in the latent heat of fusion. Water normally requires 1 cal/g/*C when increasing temperature. There are two key moments where this energy exchange is massively increased . When ice turns to water, it absorbs 80cal! When water turns to vapor it absorbs 540cal. This is what makes sweat so effective at cooling us. With ice though, we have the power to control the exchange, and if you were to suck on a fair amount of ice, you will force your body to give up lots of calories to maintain homeostasis. Introduce a gram of *1C water into your body and you give up about 37 calories to heat it up. Introduce a gram of Ice and you give up roughly 117! Do this at a time where you're fasted and your body is ready and willing to burn adipose tissue for fuel and you can effect noticeable change in a matter of days. I can easily go from barely visible abs to very visible abs in 48 hours. Try out that trifecta and exploit the power of ice over cold water.

 

I do keto mostly from a health and wellness perspective.

As far as body composition, my goal is to get down to around 10% body fat.

I really don't see how keto would cause a loss in muscle mass. Lots of people have increased their mass greatly on a ketogenic diet -- myself included. The diet itself is muscle and protein sparing if done right. Anyhow, I usually cycle carbs on the nights following my workouts, and have only just recently begun doing so in an attempt to get my body fat percentage down.

Insulin is the most anabolic hormone in the body, but muscle growth has more to do with the presence of the branched chain amino acid leucine in the blood. Whey protein is a great source of leucine, which I also take in supplement form following every workout. I find that carbs are best used strategically, post workout, but maybe an hour or so after. As soon as you consume carbohydrates, you're shutting off the mTOR pathway that helps to build muscle, which is why I suggest holding off eating for about an hour post workout.

Some things work better for some people than others. Some people prefer to keep their carbs high, and if that works for a person then I don't see any reason not to stick with it.

I have been a pretty big proponent of intermittent fasting for a couple years now and have written quite extensively about it in here.

I've done a bit of reading on ice and cold thermogenesis, which people like Tim Ferriss are big proponents of, but I've never tried it myself but might now that the summer is coming.

 

good posts guys

I eat large amount of crabs and am bulking and I am very surprised and very pleased at the amount of mass I have gotten so far (In my humble opin)

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Here is an interesting Maximum Muscular Mass calculator for naturals...it's pretty spot on.

http://www.weightrainer.net/bodypred.html

My wrists: 6inch
ankle: 8.75
height: 72 inches
bodyfat (bf you want to be at)


results:

Height: 72 in Wrist: 6 in Ankle: 8.75 in
Your estimated maximum muscular bodyweight at ~12% bodyfat is: 206.2 lbs
Your estimated maximum bulked bodyweight at ~12% bodyfat is: 214.5 lbs
Your estimated maximum muscular measurements (@ ~8%-10% bodyfat) are:
Chest: 46 in Biceps: 16.1 in Forearms: 12.9 in Neck: 15.8 in Thighs: 25.1 in Calves: 16.8

My thighs are an inch away...arms getting close...

 

I wouldn't mind eating a large amount of crabs.

 

Routine 2. Wouldnt be surprised if i puked doing deadlifts one of these days. Gonna do some stretching later

im close to 205 but not really as lean as id like. Its a pain in the ass tryin to do cardio. Although ive been playing basketball since it warmed up. Thats not too bad

 

Upper body.

 

i thought everyone on this site was at least 8.5'...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOPJhZKa40g

 

Routine 1. Got 275 x 8 on bench which ties my personal best at that weight. I was 15 lbs heavier bodyweight last time i did 275 for 8 so im pretty happy about that.

Prob do some stretching and cardio later

 

Totalled last week out at 24 miles of cardio. That's a pretty huge accomplishment for me. I don't think I've ever done that much cardio. Ever. Even in high school. Such a good feeling.

Started this week off kind of slow. Took a break on Monday.

Went on a long hike early Tuesday morning with a friend. A good 3 miles uphill. Super rough on my breathing but I did it and we did it pretty consistently and quickly.

Hit the gym again yesterday

• 3.2 miles in 35 minutes. Was actually a record for me though I didn't feel totally on my game.
• Had a light leg day to get me back in the swing of things.

Tonight I worked much harder.

• 3.7 miles in 35 minutes and still felt quite pumped.
• Spent the rest of the night working on my back, shoulders, forearms, glutes, thighs, and calves. It felt like the most consistent and strong night that I've had and ended with my normal ab work.
• Cool down with 2.5 miles on the bikes

 

I got in a couple 3 mile jogs and 50 sit-ups today.

 

Routine 2. Deadlifts getting easier...especially since i stopped eating 1.5 hrs before working out.

im gonna try to do cardio and stretching later

 

did dead lifts as well today

felt real good in the gym

pull day is the best, basically hitting back and biceps.

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question

is it possible to stay the same weight (I'm 191lbs) and lose fat and make gains in muscle, again staying at the same weight, not going up and down.

 

^ staying exactly the same weight seems pretty unlikely, although i guess i won't say it's impossible. but my weight hasn't fluctuated more than a couple pounds either way in the past 6 months or so, and i've definitely gained muscle and dropped fat.

diet probably is a major part of it, although i really haven't even been paying too much attention to that. i've been eating less fast food, and drinking less beer, but it's not like i'm counting calories or paying attention to how much of each type of food i eat or anything. so i can't really give any great advice, it just seems like what you're asking about is what has been happening.

 

Yeah, because it doesn't take into account water weight, food you've recently eaten, whether you've recently went to the bathroom, etc.

EDIT:

It also depends on how often you weigh yourself. If you weigh yourself everyday, you're not going to really get an accurate reading as far as fat loss / muscle gain.

 

low carb diet

 

What about low carb diets?