Phase 2: The Keto Bulk
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Gallowmere1984
Posts: 6,626 Member
So, after a six month 1450/day LC hellcut, which took me from 194.6 lbs. to 150.2, followed by a month and a half of maintenance seeking, it's time to change direction. While I technically started a few days ago, I took the picture here yesterday, to use as a starting point.
Caloric goals have changed, and since I have never run a bulk before, and I am now more active than I have ever been in my entire life, I am having to follow Fitbit's burn estimates, as it's the closest to an educated guess that I can get. Given my current bodyfat levels though, I'm not overly concerned if it's a bit high, and will be watching the tape and calipers as I go. For the past few days, I've been running between 2700 and 3000 kcals/day. I'm still pretty close to my old macro allotment, but due to the total calories being so much higher, I had to change from 5/65/30 to 5/70/25.
I will also be allowing myself more wiggle room in the net carb department, since I am very likely burning them off quite rapidly, or just mildly replenishing glyco stores, post lift. Though, by more wiggle room, I mean that instead of staying sub-20, I'll be staying sub-40, so it's not like I have a sudden desire to go on beer and pizza benders or anything. I get all of the insulin spikes I need from whey proteins and ribeye steaks.
I'll be posting updates here every couple of weeks, as yet another means of keeping myself accountable, and it provides a convenient way to glance my lifting/bulk up progress, just in case something happens to my phone.
Anyway, picture, and then lifting/bodyweight work results from the start.
8/10/16
Walking weight: 154.1
Day 1: 8/6/16
Deadlift: 135x3/225x3/275x1/275x1
Dumbell Row: 45x5/50x5/60x3/80x1
Bench: 45x5/95x3/115x1/115x1
Zercher Squat: 135x3/185x3/225x1
P. Fly: 80x3/80x3/80x2 (not doing these retarded wastes of effort anymore)
Day 2: 8/7/16
Overhead Press: 45x5/65x3/85x2/85x1
Hammer Curl: 30x5/40x3/35x3/30x3
Tricep Pulldown: 50x5/60x3 (got tired of waiting on the old lady who insisted upon standing in position in between sets for five minutes at a time)
Cable Row: 85x5/100x5/115x3
Calf Raises: 45x5/90x5/135x5/180x5/225x3
Day 3: 8/8/16
Bodyweight Squats: 15/12/13/10/9
Lunges: 10/9/8/5/3
Push-ups: 15/12/10/9/6/4
Leg Raises: 10/9/8/7/4/3/2
Cossack Squats: 10/8/6/5/4 (my adductors are tight as *kitten*, need to do these more often)
Day 4: 8/9/16
Deadlift: 135x5/225x3/275x1/295x1/225x5
Barbell Row: 65x5/95x5/135x4/
Barbell Shrugs: 225x5/245x5/275x3/295x2
Dumbell Row: 50x5/60x3 (burned out quick)
High Row: 45x5/70x2/55x3/55x3
Hanging Leg Raise: 10/8/7/6/5
Day 5: 8/10/16
Ab Wheel: 10/9/7/6/4/2 (This thing is *kitten* brutal)
Weighted Vest Squats: 15/12/9/10/6
WV Lunges: 10/8/7/5/3
Oblique Crunches: 10/10/10/10/10/9
Cossack Squats: 6/5/4/2
Caloric goals have changed, and since I have never run a bulk before, and I am now more active than I have ever been in my entire life, I am having to follow Fitbit's burn estimates, as it's the closest to an educated guess that I can get. Given my current bodyfat levels though, I'm not overly concerned if it's a bit high, and will be watching the tape and calipers as I go. For the past few days, I've been running between 2700 and 3000 kcals/day. I'm still pretty close to my old macro allotment, but due to the total calories being so much higher, I had to change from 5/65/30 to 5/70/25.
I will also be allowing myself more wiggle room in the net carb department, since I am very likely burning them off quite rapidly, or just mildly replenishing glyco stores, post lift. Though, by more wiggle room, I mean that instead of staying sub-20, I'll be staying sub-40, so it's not like I have a sudden desire to go on beer and pizza benders or anything. I get all of the insulin spikes I need from whey proteins and ribeye steaks.
I'll be posting updates here every couple of weeks, as yet another means of keeping myself accountable, and it provides a convenient way to glance my lifting/bulk up progress, just in case something happens to my phone.
Anyway, picture, and then lifting/bodyweight work results from the start.
8/10/16
Walking weight: 154.1
Day 1: 8/6/16
Deadlift: 135x3/225x3/275x1/275x1
Dumbell Row: 45x5/50x5/60x3/80x1
Bench: 45x5/95x3/115x1/115x1
Zercher Squat: 135x3/185x3/225x1
P. Fly: 80x3/80x3/80x2 (not doing these retarded wastes of effort anymore)
Day 2: 8/7/16
Overhead Press: 45x5/65x3/85x2/85x1
Hammer Curl: 30x5/40x3/35x3/30x3
Tricep Pulldown: 50x5/60x3 (got tired of waiting on the old lady who insisted upon standing in position in between sets for five minutes at a time)
Cable Row: 85x5/100x5/115x3
Calf Raises: 45x5/90x5/135x5/180x5/225x3
Day 3: 8/8/16
Bodyweight Squats: 15/12/13/10/9
Lunges: 10/9/8/5/3
Push-ups: 15/12/10/9/6/4
Leg Raises: 10/9/8/7/4/3/2
Cossack Squats: 10/8/6/5/4 (my adductors are tight as *kitten*, need to do these more often)
Day 4: 8/9/16
Deadlift: 135x5/225x3/275x1/295x1/225x5
Barbell Row: 65x5/95x5/135x4/
Barbell Shrugs: 225x5/245x5/275x3/295x2
Dumbell Row: 50x5/60x3 (burned out quick)
High Row: 45x5/70x2/55x3/55x3
Hanging Leg Raise: 10/8/7/6/5
Day 5: 8/10/16
Ab Wheel: 10/9/7/6/4/2 (This thing is *kitten* brutal)
Weighted Vest Squats: 15/12/9/10/6
WV Lunges: 10/8/7/5/3
Oblique Crunches: 10/10/10/10/10/9
Cossack Squats: 6/5/4/2
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Replies
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One thing that I have noticed: I am absolutely going to have to get rid of some of the old staples of my diet. Spam, bacon,canned tuna, and Oscar Meyer Smokies don't cut it when one is trying to eat this many kcals per day. I seriously put down so much sodium two nights ago that I gave myself a raging headache. 9000mg per day might be a bit much. Needs more eggs and plain 73/27 ground beef.5
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I will be following along! I am curious to discover how bulking works with low carb.
What are your goals? Are you trying to gain as much bulk as possible in 'x amount of time' or are you doing it the slow way?2 -
Good luck! Very interested in your progress. I'll be resuming a bulking protocol in November...interested in how the keto bulk goes!1
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Amazing "hellcut"! Congrats. Good luck on the bulk - starting out strong. I'll be following!1
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Thanks for sharing all this. It will be interesting to watch your progress.
Are you using resources like ketogains?1 -
Yes, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to following the progress of your efforts!0
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First, I have to say I'm jealous of your cut (though it seems I'm jealous of damn near everyone's success with weight loss, so...). I've been trying to lose from 201 to 150 since Jan. 2014 and haven't made it below 157 yet despite feeling like I'm starving for most of that time (and being at about the same calorie level for most of that time too.
Second, I'm also interested to see how well you "bulk" because I hope to be ready to start that phase by next summer.1 -
Thanks for sharing all this. It will be interesting to watch your progress.
Are you using resources like ketogains?
Beyond Darthluigi's calculator, not really. I dislike trying to mimic the diets, routines, and programs of others. Since everyone is just a bit different, I prefer the experimentation, analysis, reconfigure approach. Requires a lot more effort than following someone else's protocol, but I am fine with that.samanthaluangphixay wrote: »I will be following along! I am curious to discover how bulking works with low carb.
What are your goals? Are you trying to gain as much bulk as possible in 'x amount of time' or are you doing it the slow way?
I am going to be taking it slow, and honing in my numbers with a bit more precision. I am not a fan of the ridiculous "bulk, cut, bulk, cut" six month treadmill that a lot of guys hang themselves with. The lean mass losses during cuts are always unacceptable to me. That's why I wanted to start as low as I could, and slow build. Three years seems like forever to the impatient. To me, that's just the start of lifting progress; the infancy.2 -
These lifts are an embarrassment, but meh, gotta start somewhere, again.
Day 4: 8/11/16
Back squat: 95x5/115x5/135x4/135x3
Hack Squat: 135x4/115x3/115x4
Bench: 65x5/95x5/115x2/115x2/115x2
Dips: 3/(burned)
P. Fly: 70x5/100x5/115x4/130x2
Oblique Twists: 25x9/25x5/25x5
Tri PD: 50x5/60x3/60x2/57.5x5
Leg Ext: 70x5/80x6/90x5/100x5/110x4
Hamstring Curl: 70x5/80x5/90x5/100x5/110x3
Standing Calf Raise: 205x10/225x8/245x6/265x6
Avoided burning the triceps too hard, as I'll be looking at overhead work tomorrow.1 -
When I was lifting weights regularly, the eating involved made me hate eating. I consumed significant calories via supplements because I was just. so. tired. of chewing. I wish you the absolute best with this.1
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When I was lifting weights regularly, the eating involved made me hate eating. I consumed significant calories via supplements because I was just. so. tired. of chewing. I wish you the absolute best with this.
Understandable. I do run a bit of caloric supplementation via coconut oil added to protein shakes. However, I take a lot of inspiration from some of the turn of the century strongmen. Let me see if I can find this particularly insane example.
Yeap, found it. Interesting history lesson from an era before steroids were even a thing:
http://www.bobwhelan.com/history/saxontrio.html
Notable paragraph:
For breakfast they ate 24 eggs and 3 pounds of smoked bacon; porridge with cream, honey, marmalade and tea with plenty of sugar. At three o'clock they had dinner: ten pounds of meat was consumed with vegetables (but not much potatoes); sweet fruits, raw or cooked, sweet cakes, salads, sweet puddings, cocoa and whipped cream and very sweet tea. Supper, after the show, they had cold meat, smoked fish, much butter, cheese and beer. Following this they had a chat and at one o'clock went to bed.
If those three could eat like that, and look like this:
then I feel like what I am having to do is nothing in comparison.
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According to my Garmin I should have eaten 4000 calories today in order to run a 500 calorie deficit. I'm 900 short of that number and can't imagine eating more tonight. I'm not bulking but I'm training hard...the eating is the hardest part when bags of tortilla chips are not an option.2
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Man how I would love to find myself in that situation some day! LOL I can't imagine eating 4000 calories! And I think I do train hard....the 1800 or so I wind up eating is maybe not enough?1
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Undereating is a thing. My energy levels were dropping so I started doing some detective work and it looks like I was undereating by quite a bit.
The key is to eliminate the guesswork in your daily burn as much as possible. Get a DEXA scan for body comp to set protein and an RMR test for base calories, then use an activity tracker 24/7 for training sessions and steps. Set your MFP calorie goal to your RMR minus 500.
The first trick is to set the activity level in your fitness tracker so that your resting calories are as close as possible to your RMR.
The second is that training sessions will upload to MFP but other calories will not. I've started adding a manual exercise each evening for the difference between my total active calorie burn for the day and my recorded activity.
The end result we're looking for is that we're not cutting calories to the point our body starts to compensate with negative metabolic adjustments, i.e. low energy.
It's worth the effort to do that analysis, especially if you're very active or an athlete of any kind. Undereating will hold our performance back as much as overeating.2 -
Funny but serious article that is relevant (if Gallowmere's post above isn't enough): http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/man-who-ate-trained-like-7614915
Even though the subject of the article at way too many carbs and for more protein than he needed for his 207 pound body, his physical condition improved dramatically.2 -
Majcolorado wrote: »Funny but serious article that is relevant (if Gallowmere's post above isn't enough): http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/man-who-ate-trained-like-7614915
Even though the subject of the article at way too many carbs and for more protein than he needed for his 207 pound body, his physical condition improved dramatically.
I like the cut of that guy's jib. If that dude kept that up for a couple of years, he'd be yoked as *kitten*, assuming he kept progressively increasing the weight used. Hell, even the results for 30 days was pretty damned impressive. Considering how little lean mass he had, with that many kcals, if he weren't busting *kitten*, he'd have just gotten fat, as opposed to leaning out.1 -
Day 5: 8/12/16
Life happens, couldn't get to the gym, so did this instead.
Ab Wheel: 10/10/10/6/2
Weighted Vest Squats: 15/10/12/7/5
Weighted Vest Side Reaches: 10/16/10/12
Weighted Ankle Air Bike: 10/10/10/10
Weighted Ankle Leg Lifts: 10/5/10
Weighted Ankle Hamstring Curls: 20/20
Day 6: 8/13/16
Overhead Press: 55x5/65x3/85x3/95x2/105x1/115xmiss
Klokov Press: 45x5/55x5/65x4/75x2/85x1+miss
Barbell Skullcrusher: 45x5/55x3/55x2/45x5
Tricep Pushdown: 50x5/57.5x2/50x4
Incline Bench for Burnout: 45x5/55x5/65x5/75x3
Iso-incline Press: 50x10/100x2/70x3/50x5/50x5/50x5/50x4
20 pounds (nearly 30, but a near miss) added to OHP in less than a week. I'll take it. Dem noob gains.2 -
Day 7: 8/14/16
Deadlift: 155x5/225x5/245x3/275x2/295x1/300xmiss/275x1
Barbell Rows: 95x5/105x5/115x5/135x5 (sloppy as *kitten*, so deloaded)/115x5/115x5
Shrugs: 225x5/245x5/275x3/295x1 (need to get my straps back)
Dumbbell Row: 50x5/60x5/60x4/60x3x3
Assisted Chins for Burnout: 40x5/55x4/70x6/85x7
Sodium crash ensued about halfway through the dumbbell rows, and completely manifested during burnout chins. Cramps, numb face and tongue, smell of iron, blah blah etc. Thought for a second I had *kitten* up and finally given myself a stroke. Couldn't help but laugh, but at the same time find it really *kitten* tragic if I were to be the first person so pathetic as to die doing assisted chins.0 -
Let's see how many times you can set off the MFP censor in this thread alone, @Gallowmere1984
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Haha, you should see my posts on the main forum. I was actually permabanned back in the days before UA acquired MFP, lifted the old bans, and changed the rules for instituting new ones.0
