Advice to all those having trouble cutting

[sjamal1023]

Hello all,
I just wanted to give a few pointers to those who are trying to cut. Mind you, I am no professional. I am simply someone who has been big, bulky, and well... fat my whole life. Nothing ever worked for me when it came to losing fat until I incorporated these things into my life. Some people simply don't respond very well to clean calories in vs. calories out. If you already know better, just leave your two cents/thoughts/opinions and anything I left out. I only wish to help those who are trying to change their lives for the better and get the best physique they can possibly achieve, with AAS or not.

Only 5 months ago, i carried an excess of about 45+ pounds of fat. Now, I'm a whole 2nd grader lighter at 170 lb 8-9% body fat, looking lean, ripped, and full of confidence to show off the new body. Keep in mind, this is by no means amazing, its just better than the average, and definitely way better than what I used to be. If you ask me what I'm doing now, well I'd say it's time to do what everyone here is good at doing: put on some muscle mass. I'll provide pictures ASAP for motivation, reassurance, or whatever you'd wanna look at me for.

Now time for the good part.

Here I will do my best to give a dumbed down explanation of Carb Cycling and Ketogenic diets along with proper training alongside them.

Ketogenic Diet or "Keto"
To understand the keto diet, one would have to understand some basics of human physiology first.
The body uses glucose to fuel itself. In any typical diet, carbohydrates are primarily used to be converted into glucose for your body to use as energy for reason being that carbohydrates are the quickest to be converted into glucose molecules. When carbohydrates are removed from the diet or brought to extreme lows (below 20-30 grams per day, typically), and one were to replace the calories that once came from carbohydrates with high amounts of fat and moderate protein, the body will start to tap into its glycogen stores to use all of its last bits of readily available energy. After that, something starts to happen... the body's liver will start metabolizing fat cells into fatty acids and ketones to be used for energy. This is called being in a state of ketosis. Simply speaking, the body will start to use its own fat for energy, meaning it will be consistently burning fat. The ketones will be used for supplying energy for your brain. This process can take anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks, depending on the individual's diet and training intensity/duration. The quicker you drop carbs, the harder you train, the longer you train, the faster you will enter into a state of ketosis.
This diet tends to work wonders for the endomorphic type because of their sensitivity to insulin . As long as there is high amounts of insulin in the body, one cannot burn fat. This diet method drops insulin to low levels and keeps them there. The keto diet tends to work remarkably fast for those over 15% body fat. It did for me and many colleagues atleast. I highly recommend this diet if you are in that boat. Also, because there's always low insulin states involved with this diet, people tend to be way less hungry when they're in a state of ketosis. But, a pure keto diet can only take you so far, atleast in my opinion. I do believe after a certain point, it is catabolic. Although, it is argued that being in ketosis preserves muscle mass because it forces you to consume higher amounts of protein, I think completely cutting out carbs can only be beneficial for so long. Thats when carb cycling comes into play...

If this all sounds good to you, then remember- Your new keto diet should be about 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbohydrates with of course, a calorie deficit. The calorie deficit is up to you, I personally don't like dropping more than 500. I respect my muscle.

Carb Cycling
Carb cycling is similar to the ketogenic diet in many ways except for one, depending on what variation of carb cycling you do, at some point it will involve a mass amount of carbs. Carb cycling involves entering a ketogenic state or getting close to it by going days or even weeks at a time without carbs then having a massive refeed of carbs. The point of this is to completely empty out all glycogen storage and force fatty acids out into the body to be burned for energy. Then, after a certain time, one would have one day of only eating massive amounts of carbs to refill the glycogen tanks in their body. The beautiful part about this, as long as fats are kept to a minimum that day (sub 50 grams) while eating massive amounts of carbs on the refeed day, the body will still continue burning fat for energy and only try to use the large amounts of incoming glucose by storing them its glycogen tanks. No fat will be gained even though some will consume upwards of 5000 calories that day (Heaven). While carb cycling, some include 50-100 grams of carbs a day on their "low carb days." I personally do not do this, and stick to having a minimal amount that come from "accidental carbs" like leafy greens or the tiny amounts found in meat. Carb cycling is great because it preserves muscle mass much more than keto diets and keeps your body guessing, leaving it to keep burning fat. I recommend going low carb for 5 days, then a carb refeed for 1 day. Repeat.

Full Diet Breaks
You'll either think I'm an idiot for doing this, or you will try it one day and thank me. Full diet breaks involve doing just that. Taking a full break off your diet and eating at maintenance for 1-2 weeks after some hardcore dieting, depending on your progress and fitness levels. Why do you need this?
1. Physiologically you need a break. After tough dieting, your body's hormones are out of whack and eventually no matter how much harder you train, no matter how much calories you cut, no matter the supps you throw in, eventually your body will stop losing fat due to f***ed up hormone levels. The break will help get those hormone levels back to normal and help restore your metabolism.

2. Psychologically you need a break. If someone told you "if you keep dieting at this rate, it'll take 20 more weeks to get to your desired goal" you'd probably say f***that. Now, if you knew you'd have a break every 6-8 weeks, it'd sound much easier and you'd have something to look forward to.

These are the methods I have used to get into shape. Any questions, concerns, comments are more than welcome. If anything here was wrong, please let me know so I can make changes accordingly. Again, I am no expert, I only want to help those who are in the same boat I was when it comes to cutting the fat.

Happy cutting.

[FONZY007]

Keto I'm interested in I need to lose 20 more


What would you eat for examples

[sjamal1023]

Lean meats cooked all in either olive oil or coconut oil. Coconut oil being preferred. Cheeses. Heavy whipping cream in black coffee. These are my staples in a keto diet. For meats, it's okay to go really fatty: steak cuts, ground beef, dark meat are all perfect. Avoid all fruit and starchy vegetables such as corn and potatoes. I stick to leafy greens. Spinach and romaine lettuce salads with olive oil and a pinch of fresh lemon juice make a great way to get fiber in your diet. Avoid milk as well.

[gbrice75]

I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but did you use the search feature first? Both CKD (and other ketogenic diets, e.g. Palumbo, etc) as well as carb cycling have been extensively covered on this forum over the years. Dare I even say beaten to death?

Also, please reference your source(s) as the write-ups are clearly not your own.

[sjamal1023]

Appreciated gbrice! now to find how to delete this post...

[gbrice75]

Appreciated gbrice! now to find how to delete this post...

Not necessary brother, unless you want to. Editing to reference your sources, however, would be appreciated.