Abs Are Made In The Kitchen -- The Cyclic Ketogenic Diet

Abs are made in the kitchen. You can train your abdominal muscles every day your whole life, but if you aren't under 16% body fat, you won't even BEGIN to see them. It is different for everyone, but for me, I start to get oblique definition at around 16%, upper abs at 14%, and I have never been below that. My goal for October is 12% BF. I believe I am currently at 17% or so. I can currently do the maximum weight for three sets of 30 on every abdominal machine in the gym, but I can't see my six pack at all. The same is true for every muscle actually. If you never lifted a day in your life, but dieted down to 6% body fat, you would LOOK jacked, but be weak as hell. People who look strong, aren't necessarily strong, they just diet well, or run a lot, or both. My goal in lifting has ALWAYS been strength, I didn't really care how I looked (as long as I wasn't a fat blob). That's kind of why this new blog/Halloween thing is exciting to me, I've never trained with the idea of looking good in mind. In the end, you are what you eat.

Before I started this blog, and keeping track of my weight and what I eat, I was 240lbs, the heaviest I had ever been in my life. This was due to what was essentially 18 months where I could not lift, workout, or be active due to various medical issues. Thankfully, 13 years of weight training, an active life style, and an uber metabolism have still left me fairly muscular and in good shape, but nowhere close to my goals. Step one in Super Saiyan training, is to lose weight (preferably mostly fat), so I can afford to put it back on in the form of muscle.

Most everyone knows what Atkins is -- a low carb diet for those who are usually quite sedentary, don't work out, and just want an easy way to shed the weight quick. Atkins works quite well for the duration you stay on it. Many people swear by it. The Cyclic Ketogenic Diet (CKD) is for people whose main concern is FAT LOSS, and muscle preservation. It is almost impossible to lose weight while retaining muscle mass and strength, but CKD does a very good job at it.

Here's a quick overview of CKD:

CKD's are based on periods of your body being in a state called ketosis. Being in ketosis means your body produces ketones, which burn fat cells for energy instead of carbohydrates (glucose). Your body will actually naturally want to break down your muscle mass for energy. After 5 - 10 days (your preference), you begin a period of carbohydrate 'loading'. The theory behind CKD's is that breaking Ketosis every 5 to 10 days for 1-2 days of high carbohydrate intake will:
Restore muscle glycogen (the energy in your muscles)
Restore gym performance
Rebuild any lost muscle (and hopefully add some new muscle)

As a bonus, by loading in carbohydrates from a depleted base it is possible to super-saturate our muscles with glycogen. That is (in lay terms) muscles that are almost empty of glycogen (and water) are so hungry for glucose that they can be 'tricked' into taking up as much as 50% more glycogen (and water) before they realize why or what has happened. In this super-glycogenated state our muscles look and feel perpetually 'pumped' and swollen. And swelling a muscle cell to the limit is a powerful stimulus for muscle growth.


Explaining it a little more, carbohydrates in your diet cause insulin (a storage hormone) to be created in the pancreas. It is used to store glycogen, pump amino acids into muscles, while causing excess calories to be stored as FAT. If the purpose of this diet is to break down fat, how can you do that when your body wants to store it for later (just in case it needs it)? It is difficult to do.

Once on CKD, and your body realizes that it is out of carbs to burn for energy, it must find another resource: FAT. This will happen during a metabolic condition known as "Ketosis". This is when your liver is out of glycogen, and starts to produce ketones. If you are fed pretty much entirely fat, and protein, your body will use the dietary fat, along with body fat for energy, while the protein goes to muscle repair. So, ironically, you need to EAT FAT, to BURN FAT. You generally want 70-80% of your daily caloric intake to come from fat. The diet allows for some fibrous vegetables at dinner time (broccoli, asparagus, spinach) to help… move things along, so to speak.

My daily diet looks like this:

7am: 3 eggs, 3 sausages/bacon/steak (all cooked in coconut oil) and green tea to drink
10am: 4 slices of salami, 4 pieces extra sharp cheddar cheese, water to drink
1pm (after workout): Tuna/chicken salad (spinach) with walnuts and peppercorn-ranch dressing and green tea to drink
4pm: protein shake (40grams protein) with 1tbsp all natural peanut butter, and 1tbsp coconut oil, water for a drink
7pm: Salmon/swordfish/steak (all cooked in coconut oil), water again
+ almonds
10pm: More coconut oil / peanut butter / flax or fish oil. more water

This is my food pyrimand, minus the fruits:


There is a reason for the coconut oil, you can do some research on MCT oil (or coconut oil) but it is essentially fat, that tastes amazing, that WILL NOT STORE AS FAT. It also helps your body get into a state of ketosis quicker. There is lots of science behind this.

Now, what is the most effective way to lose weight on this diet? Walking. Yup, that's it. If anyone has ever been on a treadmill, you see the cardio zones, right? warm up, fat loss, cardio, max, or whatever they are labeled. Having your heart beat around 120-130bpm (which I think is about 60-65% of maximum) is OPTIMAL for fat loss. Even if you are not in ketosis, your body will want to burn fat more. Just an aside here for those who lift, and run in the same workout: LIFT FIRST!!!! If you run first, your body will use its stores of glycogen right away, which you NEED (unless in ketosis) in order to build muscle. If you run after your workout, it doesn't matter, you are still burning calories.

I have been on this diet three weeks, while eating junk food and drinking booze like a motherfucker carbing up on weekends, and I have lost 15lbs. I am down to 225. My goal weight before I start putting on muscle again is 205lbs (maybe 210 if I get impatient).

The only lifting I have been doing at the gym is shoulder-rehab-physical therapy type stuff just to make for DAMN SURE my labrum is 1000000% when I actually resume weight training (lightly) next week.

I will remain on this ketogenic diet for at least two more weeks. I am going to switch my cardio to High Intensity Interval Training soon, which also lends itself to fat loss, but I don't know if it is a good combo with CKD -- I guess I will find out. Until then, I'll just be walking a lot -- outside (took a nice long walk under a full moon that warm night a few days ago) and at the gym

And now, your weekly DBZ spoof.

What does the scouter say about his power level?

So, I'm not sure where the idea originated, but I'm pretty sure
absolutely positive it involved lots of booze in the Sin Bin. Me and Tutes have been talking about it for a while, but never really got around to taking it seriously: We would dress up as Goku and Vegeta for Halloween. Well, now is the time to get serious.

For those of you not familiar with the anime DBZ, I don't blame you. It is mostly a whole bunch of yelling, cheesy banter, with 30 seconds of fighting if you are lucky. Really, I think it gives anime a bad name, but for whatever reason, it is one of the most popular animes around. Goku is the most powerful warrior in the series, and at some point he achieves a legendary strength and power status, a Super Saiyan.

This blog will chronicle my attempts to become my own personal Super Saiyan. No, I won't be shooting Kamehameha waves out of my arms, or flying around on a nimbus cloud (sadface) but I will be battling back to a physique and fitness level that I once had. The past two years I have been wracked with injury and medical issues that have pretty much prevented me from working out at all since July of 2009, when I tore my labrum. The recovery for that injury was long, and hard, and it took until September 2010 before I could lift (regularly) again. However, just as I was beginning to get back into things, I had to get another surgery which prevented me from lifting for another few months. Before these two injuries, I was the most fit and in shape I had ever been in my life, and I was actually only about 6 months away from achieving my lifetime fitness goals. Once I got there, I could workout 3 times a week, if that, to just maintain my level of fitness. It is much easier to maintain, then to gain, and the stronger you get, the harder it is to put on more muscle. To give you an idea of where I was, according to weight training performance standards, I was at a level of strength that "fewer than 1% of the weight training population will ever achieve". Just like the Saiyan race, fewer than 1% of them will ever become Super Saiyans (though in the series, every single one does, wtf). So, my goal of becoming a super saiyan is very fitting. I want to get back to where I was, and then some.

I have been weight training since I was 13, and doing so regularly since I was 18. In all that time, I have never had a specific goal, I always just wanted to get stronger, lift more, push myself harder. I loved the feeling, it is a natural high when I push myself in the gym, and I feel the endorphins rush all throughout my body. Now, I have a specific goal, and here it is:



Not related, but funny. When I searched for this picture, I typed "Goku Jacked" And Google said "Did you mean Goku Naked?"

Anyways, I doubt I will actually look like that, but my training, at least until Halloween, will be slightly different than it has been most of my life. I am actually still strong enough, from years of NATURAL weight training, that I could really just diet/cut weight/do cardio until Halloween, get down to 200lbs, and look pretty close to that (just not as big). Even though I want to look the part, I still can't give into a complete training regimen that focuses on looking good (cutting weight), I need the strength too, for me. Instead of focusing on 95% strength goals and 5% looking good, I will probably be doing about a 50-50 split until Halloween. Here is my current plan:

February 6th - 12th: Start new diet (ketogenic)
February 13th - March 5th: Low intensity cardio, shoulder PT exercises
March 7th - April 3rd: High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT cardio) early in the morning, Resume Weight training in the afternoon/evening
April 5th - May 5th: Halt Ketogenic diet, start standard cut diet, kick the HIIT up a notch, as well as the weight training
May and June: Bulk Diet, strength (BEAST)mode: 5x5 training or German Volume Training (10 weeks), followed by low intensity cardio.
July + August: Change lifting program, Normal clean diet
September + October: HIIT resumes. Lift easy here, focus on cutting.
2 weeks before Halloween: No carbs

There it is. The purpose of this blog is two fold: Yes, it will be extremely epic to be dressed as a super saiyan, look jacked as hell, and scream at my saiyan counterpart and do shots all night on halloween. More importantly though, it is about me getting healthy and fit and strong again. I had my quarter-life-crisis back in May 2010, and I have almost everything settled out again except for my health. Being strong and fit is a part of who I am, and it feels weird not being where I was a year and a half ago. Time to get back there, for me.