Tips for lifting progressively heavier weights on keto

SteelToeShitKicker · 2018-06-14T17:47:23+00:00

Keep doing keto (~1,200 calories per day)

It's completely unreasonable to think you are going to progress on your lifts at a 1,200 calorie deficit, even at your noobie weights. Choose the appropriate hill to die on, this isn't it.

Reach180 · 2018-06-14T18:04:45+00:00

In spite of losing so much weight, my body fat percentage is still quite high.

You have no muscle, bro. And you're starving away what you do have.

And even when you're on Keto, it's not easy to get all the protein you need to build. Like, if you're eating eggs, bacon, beef, and fatty meats, you'll hit your calorie limit and barely 100 g protein.

Keep your keto if you want, but make sure you track your protein along with your calories. Get your body-weight's worth in protein....It will almost certainly mean you'll need to eat some lower fat meats like chicken breast or pork tenderloin sometimes if you arent' already.

So 192g protein per day- hell, round it up to 200. And up the calories to 2000. (I estimate your TDEE at 2200). You'll continue to lose fat.

Stick with whatever lifting you're doing now. And don't do cardio.

Cam_Winston21 · 2018-06-14T17:54:05+00:00

In spite of losing so much weight, my body fat percentage is still quite high.

That's because you're losing as much muscle, if not more, than you are fat.

What I quoted is exhibit A.
Your lifts are exhibit B.

1,200 calories is nowhere near enough. You are starving your muscles of the nutrients than they need in order to grow, so they're not, and your body is feeding off of them in order to survive on 1,200 calories. Eat steak, find your TDEE and subtract 500.

FlyingSexistPig · 2018-06-14T19:04:51+00:00

You have to increase your calorie consumption. Since you're lifting, get to 2000 calories per day. Your protein consumption should be 200-300 g/day, based on your weight and the fact that you're lifting.

Macros for you:

Carbs: under 20 (I'll call it 10 for calculations here)
Protein: 200 - 300 g/day
Fat: 80 - 125 g/day

This would be a good 2000 calorie/day diet giving you enough protein to really grow your muscles while still losing weight. Your body should have no problems losing your body fat while lifting at 2000 calories/day.

No cheat days.

RandomlyChosenTitle · 2018-06-14T20:38:09+00:00

You're starving yourself. Literally. Your body is preserving fat because a 1200 calorie a day diet signals that food is scarce, so your metabolism has slowed as a survival mechanism. You're burning muscle because it requires a high calorie intake to preserve, and your body is trying to shed anything that requires excess energy (because you've told it that the calories aren't available).

red-sfpplus · 2018-06-14T21:46:08+00:00

Who the fuck can bench 130 but cant push a measly 5 more pounds so they have a full plate on there?

Die under the bar if you have to faggot.

And eat if you want to grow.

WTF does this have to do with getting laid anyway?

amalgamator · 2018-06-14T22:12:45+00:00

One problem with losing so much fat so quick is saggy skin. The sweet spot should be 1lb/week and keep your protein high to preserve muscle.

At 1200 calories you are missing out on “newbie gains”

That being said - the ideal is to diet down to 12% and THEN bulk up to 15%.

Just don’t diet down so harsh.

https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html/

Also - it’s ok to find another program that incorporates higher rep ranges and more variet. Maybe try a PPL type program?

Steve_rebooting · 2018-06-14T18:06:51+00:00

You have two problems... low calorie intake while attempting to build muscle.... muscles need food to grow... You cant cut your body off of nutrients and expect it to build.

2nd - Your technical form on lifts needs to be good. Anything less is both a waste of time and a recipe for injury. If you cant lift a weight through proper range of motion (without breaking form AND without using momentum.. like swinging arms/hips) then you are lifting too heavy. Lower your weight to where your form is perfect and work up from there. Anytime you break technical form, or have to use momentum, then you are too heavy

youcantdenythat · 2018-06-14T19:48:47+00:00

Have you checked out the ketogains sub?

gameoflibidos · 2018-06-15T14:42:01+00:00

Honestly.. I've been at this for almost 3 years now.

After newbie gains... you can't increase much power on lifts when you are cutting (eating a calorie deficit) .. i'm currently doing a cut as well.. all my lifts are falling slightly.

If you want to see power and muscle size gains.. you must eat a bulk diet for awhile and lift heavy. That's why a bulk/cut cycle exists. I thought I could do it too.. but it's nearly impossible to gain strength and muscle while also losing fat. You must do the 2 things independently.

I suggest getting to your goal body fat percentage first. Keep lifting the whole time, but do not expect any gains.. in fact expect slight set backs.

Once you hit your % goal... if you feel you look skinny fat (which you will with those lifts at 6') then do a clean bulk cycle for about 6 months. Followed with another Keto cut cycle. Most people bulk fall/winter... cut late winter/early spring

ReddJive · 2018-06-14T17:51:07+00:00

Seriously. You can either loose weight like crazy or gain muscle. Cant do both.

I ran into the blog post. Great advice.

The Secret

My favorite parts

Many, many, many people that come to me say they like carb cycling, but what I see is a random amount of high to low carb days where they eventually land on a low carb day where their workout split calls for an intense lower body day. They go to the gym and get buried under the smith machine at planet fitness while doing 1/4 squats because they don’t have any carbs in their body. You can't race a mustang without gas in the tank....or to more closely match this example: you can’t drive a smart car through the parking lot of Whole Foods without any E-85 ethanol in the fuel compartment!

Many of my clients want to eat for a bodybuilder physique but want to lift like a powerlifter doing heavy singles in the gym. Because of the fact that they have no time under tension in their workouts, they take 3 hour rest periods and leave a note saying “be back at 5pm” on their squat bar, and they do nothing to elevate the heart rate for any extended amount of time: they do not expel the same amount of calories as a bodybuilder - hence they should not eat exactly like one.

FvckYourSafeSpace · 2018-06-14T20:06:15+00:00

🤦🏼‍♂️ try a balanced diet with a moderate deficit instead

Trtntrenbrah · 2018-06-14T18:11:25+00:00

1200 cals.....fuck dude. What’s ur macro break down look like?

Are you doing re-feeds to keep ur metabolism up?

Two_kids_in_a_coat · 2018-06-14T18:27:58+00:00

Way way way to low on the calories. Up your food intake but keep it healthy. (Probably 2200-2700 caps) Lots of protein. Focus on building muscle. Every lb of muscle you gain burns 50-70 calories at rest per day, but no muscle you’ll just get weak and skinny/fat.

Stick with stronglifts, do not worry about failing.

PBL89 · 2018-06-14T18:36:00+00:00

How long have you been doing SL5x5? Also eating 1200cal a day means no gains

The point of SL 5X5, in my opinion at least it to progressively de-load to work back up to your fail points.

If you fail the lift you do not add weight. I typically stay at the same weight for maybe 1-2 more tries then ill de-load all my weights on all lifts about 2-3 weeks back and begin again. Keep doing this to let your form get back and build strength.

Once ive done SL5x5 for a while i change up to more reps vs weight

markpf73 · 2018-06-15T00:59:45+00:00

How old are you? I found at 40 squatting 3 times a week caused bursitis of my hip. 5x5 was good until it wasn’t.

I deloaded, backed off my programming to lift every 72 hours using an app called warmup. It gives you a proper warmup. Work sets of 3x5. I only up my weights 5 pounds a month.

I’m 40, not at my lifetime bests and probably will never get back there but I am making gains, feel great, strong and random women find reasons to touch me.

ImSteveMcQueen · 2018-06-14T20:53:19+00:00

I've lost ~40 pounds of fat in the last 1.5 years on keto and gotten significantly stronger. I'm 6'1", 210 lbs, 32 waist, DL 300 ish, BP 230-240-245, preacher barbell curl 90+ lbs, etc.

I don't know my BF, but my stomach is flat and my abs are starting to show a bit. My bicep veins are starting to show as are my bicep dimples. My GF is complaining that I'm on the verge of not having enough fat on my pecs, that I'm becoming too hard and lean... which means nothing to me, of course.

Everyone is different. Here is what worked for me.

Get adjusted to a high fat low carb diet. Don't worry about cutting calories. Just get used to cutting out carbs and get rid of the carb craving. This can take 6 months. You'll know when this is happening by when you find apple juice tastes revoltingly sweet and you crave all things fat.
Learn to eat only when you are actually hungry. I don't need 3 meals a day on keto. Once my ketone production gets fired up and insulin (average and peaks) drops, my hunger virtually disappeared. I then started practising eating only when I was hungry and not over eating when I ate. I never did count calories. I just let my body adjust and followed what my body actually needed.
Implemented intermittent fasting... ie going longer and longer periods between meals. Ketone production is curtailed by insulin. Any time you eat more carbs than what your muscles can store as glycogen, your pancreas makes insulin to lower your blood sugar by storing glucose as fat.

Now that you aren't hungry, stretch out the time you go between meals. I now go at least 12 hours but usually 16 or even 20 hours between my last meal of the day and breakfast the next day. Eat a LCHF meal at 5PM, go until noon for the next one, wa la you have a 19 hour fast going during which your insulin levels fall, ketones rise and major fat loss happens.

It has been shown that grow hormone levels rise during fasting.

4) Throw in fasted work outs or eat only a bit prior to a work out. Say you eat 50 grams of carbs in a meal, just because. That is 200 calories. Then you do a 500 calorie work out. Carbs are the easiest fuel to burn and get burnt first. Your body will not produce any insulin in response to those carbs. Ketone production will continue unabated. Fat loss continues, unabated.

I think it takes a bit more to build muscle when fasting/keto especially with a calorie intake deficit, but I've done it.

I don't do 5x5. I I think it encourages poor form and doesn't exercise the muscle enough. For me, I set up multiple stations and circulate between them. Usually 3 or 5 of BP, (weighted, inclined) situps, DL, preacher BB curl, pull downs, (weighted) pull ups or tricep pull downs.

I start each station with a low, warm up weight. For BP today I started with 20 x 135. Go through each station. Then I up the weight at each station. For BP I did another 16 x 185. Go through each station. Up again. BP was 7 x 225. Up again, this time to my recent max. BP today was 235, because I'm tired. I'll do 3 x 5 or so at that weight. If it isn't enough, I'll top up to 240 for one of the sets. Go through each station. Then deweight back down to 225, then 185, etc, then 135, pulling as many reps as I can on the lighter weights.

At the end of this I'm sweating and totally spent. This works well for me.

This winter I did a bulk. I maxed at 230 lbs, 20 pounds heavier than I am now. It was actually hard putting weight on eating strict keto, so I was cheating with some carbs. Then I got sick for a while, so I sat at that weight for a month. Once I was better I did a bit of a cut and it came right off in the last 6 weeks.

I was weak when I restarted lifing. Nevertheless my weights went up and up, gradually. I keep getting leaner and leaner. And I'm not really hungry, ever. I feel great. My blood pressure is 124/79 ! And my GF says I look fantastic and she can't keep her hands off me.

Another tip, make sure you are getting enough protein. My favorite goto if I suspect I'm low is to mix a clean whey powder with 35% whipping cream, which is 100% fat.

I never counted calories during any of this. I have no idea what I currently eat. If I'm hungry, I eat, if not, I don't.

redpillrobert · 2018-06-14T18:37:53+00:00

wow. at that height you should want to stay at that weight. maybe even get back up to 205. here: the daily caloric needs for someone who is 205 lbs at your height is about 3,000 calories. that's what you should be eating. fuck keto. you eat the calories for the ideal body you want to have. at your height i would say close to ideal is 200-210 lbs.

now, 200 lbs can look one of two ways: small waistline and huge chest/shoulders/arms, or the opposite. that's where your lifting comes in.

stop doing keto. get your calories to between 2800-3000/day, and keep lifting. your body shape will start to change. your muscles need carbs and calories to grow. you're just shooting yourself in the foot trying to do both at the same time.

Title	Tips for lifting progressively heavier weights on keto
Author	pursuing_the_ideal
Upvotes	6
Comments	75
Date	June 14, 2018 5:35 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askMRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8r3s2z/tips_for_lifting_progressively_heavier_weights_on/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askMRP/tips-for-lifting-progressively-heavier-weights-on.204345 https://theredarchive.com/post/204345

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