KETO for the strength and body builders

I want to start a friendly discussion and motivation group and for the fitness nuts looking to shave those 10-20 visceral fat lbs that plague the typical lifter and amateur competitor in the off season.

After much research and trepidation I'm kicking off the Keto diet Nov 1st.

Concerns: muscle loss and strength decline

Goal: visceral fat decrease and over increase in vascularity and definition

Hardware purchase: Precision labs blood ketone meter and strips, as well as, CVS ketone urine test strips. Body fat scale and hand held electro body fat meter (not the best but good enough for me)

I pre-carb cleansed the last week of October and now I'm officially into the Keto diet.

I purchased the BPI brand pre workout mix that's Keto friendly and I'm premaking almond butter bombs (1.5 oz square bars of measured almond butter, butter, vanilla extract, sea salt, and truvia) as filler and Keto snacks between meals.

I'm posting my diet on the community boards and I'm staying in the same semi super set focused training routine that I'm used to measure results against a base line.

Oct. 29 - blood ketone level 0.0
November 5 - blood ketone level 1.1

No cheats, no day off, no breaks

I could use some more good fish finds as I'm trying mackerel and sardines packed in olive oil this upcoming week to give me a break from Salmon cooked 10 different ways. Flamed eel sushi was a good find and pretty good and high in unsaturated fats (not to mention good taste!)

Replies

  • I have lost 1.5 lbs of body fat and did lose a bit of muscle but was expecting that. Trying to slowly diet down the BF% to do like what you said get rid of the visceral fat layer become more defined and then from there take it to a building lean muscle approach. Been doing keto for about a week now and this morning I used a strip and am producing small-moderate amounts of ketones. I am also doing intermittent fasting from 8p-12p eating window 12-8p.

    Had some keto flu symptoms but not too bad. Headache this past Sunday and feeling a bit more tired than usual, lifted a little lighter this week than before keto but not too badly.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
    In.
    Both my husband and I have been trying to get rid of visceral fat for too long now.
    We have both been keto for 4 years now, but while we both lost 30#, tummies still persist.

    I have the the meter mentioned, but haven't used it in a couple of years. I'm T2D, so there's no re-feed or cheat days for either of us.

    We've changed our lifting program recently from 3 reps to 8-10 reps in an effort to get something new to happen. We kind of hit a wall, where nothing was really changing for a long time. My weight has gone up, but my size has decreased (same with DH) so that would be a good sign. Once upon a time, I would've been content with just being normal size, but now we both want to have some semblance of abs :p

    Even better, my blood sugar numbers have never been lower or more stable with the lighter weights and higher reps.

    Looking forward to following along =D
  • ljw5021
    ljw5021 Posts: 48 Member
    I've lifted plenty in the past on a paleo type diet but this is my first attempt going under 20g per day of carbs.

    In my experience with slightly less restrictive low carb diets, the best thing you can do is drop the number of sets and reps to a point where you can still load the bar with as much weight as possible (keeping form consistent).