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Keto bulk/recomp experience?

duteshredded
duteshredded Posts: 32 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
Gonna try to keep this short, I’ve lost quit a lot of weight doing a low carb diet for the second half of last year and attempted to bulk twice this year already with it being a higher carb diet. Both times my appetite would go out of control and I’d end up eating way too much of all of the more satiating whole food carb sources(oats, potatoes etc) and they wouldn’t keep my hunger away as it seems keto is so easy for me to control the amount I eat even if it’s super low cals. I’d just end up getting fat again quick with no real gains for whatever I’d just feel like *kitten*

Has anyone tried to recomp on keto by adding calories back in slowly like 100 per week or so? And how did it go?

Or even a bulk with keto, is it just as good for building muscle as a carb diet?

I’m about 57kg at 5’6 and feel really small in terms of mass but my bulk attempts never work out.

I was going to continue cutting for now till I’ve reached the leanest I’ve ever been which isn’t too far away then try bulking again with carbs but with 100 cals added a week but I’m not sure if I’d be better off doing keto still to build muscle

Replies

  • Emmapatterson1729
    Emmapatterson1729 Posts: 1,295 Member
    Not there... But I've read through a lot of keto forums.

    Have you tried to keep carbs lower and bump proteins way up? I know a lot people doing keto who want muscle mass majorly up their proteins.

    Not too many ketoers in the general forums. The Keto group or the Low Carber Daily Forum group would probably have people who could give opinions or experiences.

    I eat keto, but have no desire to bulk up, lol.
  • duteshredded
    duteshredded Posts: 32 Member
    Emmapatterson1729 wrote: »
    Not there... But I've read through a lot of keto forums.

    Have you tried to keep carbs lower and bump proteins way up? I know a lot people doing keto who want muscle mass majorly up their proteins.

    Not too many ketoers in the general forums. The Keto group or the Low Carber Daily Forum group would probably have people who could give opinions or experiences.

    I eat keto, but have no desire to bulk up, lol.

    I’ve always had my protein above 1g per lb of bodyweight and carbs mostly under 50 at least only coming from veg and seasonings

    My fats are usually low tho to be able to lose weight just because of my tdee being so low because of being sedentary and only lifting
  • Emmapatterson1729
    Emmapatterson1729 Posts: 1,295 Member
    There's definitely people in the keto group that could probably give tips or experiences.

    I know there's a few in there that intake up to 2 grams of protein per Kg of body weight for muscle building.

    Good luck finding answers!



  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,439 MFP Moderator
    From the evidence I have seen, bulking on keto is fairly suboptimal. Having said that, I did help a few people (largely lifting noobs) to recomp on keto and it worked ok. I do think most of it was driven by their training age (which was pretty much zero).

    What you can do is more of a TKD diet to see if that improves not only performance, but also aids in muscle gains. During a TKD diet, you would time fasting acting carbs (i.e., glucose) around your workout. Carbs prevent protein degradation and increase insulin to allow for greater nutrient uptake. At this point, you would want 20-40g of mainly glucose, which you can get from candy like gummy bears, sour patch, etc...

    One of the bigger things is having a well structured lifting routine where you are hitting the big lifts 2-3x a week and that is based on progressive overload.
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