Cyclical Ketogenic Diet is one of the most popular and the most effective diet used by bodybuilders.
It 's popular mainly due to its ability to burn fat, whilst keeping a high percentage of already built muscle mass.
Today, I 'm going to tell you more about Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, or CKD for short.
The diet which is based on the limited carbohydrates intake.
Dr. Atkins developed CKD more than 20 years ago. During his career, Atkins tested this diet on more than 10k patients.
At the beginning of CKD, Atkins reduced carbs intake of a patient to zero. It took 2-3 days to use all the carbohydrates stored in the body.
After all the carbs were consumed, patient 's body started to use fats as a primary energy source. This state is called KETOSIS.
…show more content…
Interesting fact: The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet traditionally has been used in cases of intractable epilepsy. Children with epilepsy due to mutations in GLUT-1, which transports glucose across the blood-brain barrier, suffer from seizures in infancy. If not identified and treated, they develop microcephaly, mental retardation, spasticity, and ataxia as a consequence of relative brain hypoglycemia. These children respond well to the ketogenic diet, as it is believed to provide an alternative fuel source for their central nervous system.
Basic principles
The aim of the phase with a limited intake of carbs is to get and keep the body in ketosis. Transition to ketosis can be accelerated by exercise.
CKD is suitable for bodybuilding purposes due to the fact that it forces the body to use fat as a primary source of energy.
According to some studies, CKD provides another big benefit to bodybuilders, which is preserving the maximum amount of muscle mass.
It 's because your body has enough fat to burn, which is an easier way to get energy than transforming proteins to glucose.
How to eat in ketosis?
You 'll eat proteins and fats that both contain only a few carbohydrates.
One way to determine daily calorie intake is to use the formula (27 * Weight in Kgs).
25% of daily calorie intake are proteins, and the rest are fats. You can only eat ~20-40g of carbs per day.
I 'll give some food examples:
- scrambled eggs
- hard-boiled eggs
- bacon
- fish
-
…show more content…
Also, avoid sweet drinks (e.g. Cola) since they very often contain citric acid. Citric acid usually forces the body out of ketosis to the normal state.
Try to avoid animal fats. Eat healthy fats. Fish oil, flax seed oil and olive oil are suitable.
Divide daily calorie intake into at least 4 meals and drink regularly. You shouldn 't forget vitamins and minerals (you can buy vitamin/ mineral supplements).
[h3] How to find out whether I 'm in ketosis and how to train?
You can check if your body is in ketosis by using the urine tests. They can be bought in drugstores. They should be able to measure a number of ketones in the urine.
I guess you won 't need those tests regularly, only at the beginning. You 'll then be able to recognize ketosis by yourself.
Most of you will feel the same weakness in ketosis than in any other diet.
I feel good in ketosis but this does not apply to all of us. We are all different and some of you might feel uncomfortable with it.
Due to mentioned weakness, I recommend you to train hard only the first two days of ketosis and mainly big muscles.
Remember, you are on a diet so adjust (lower) the number of series and reps according to that.
The last day of CKD is important. You should prepare yourself for the volume phase and change the workout