So for the past 6 months I have been on a 2000 calorie keto diet and have lost 65 pounds of fat and added a substantial amount of muscle. I am 6’2" 255 pounds and my goal is 240 pounds. I lift 5-6 days a week and occasionally do cardio. My question is, as I approach my goal, should I start to up my calorie and carb intake or lessen my calorie intake? I keep my carbs below 60 grams per day and take in around 250 grams of protein a day and I log everything in a calorie counter program.
[quote]jsasso87 wrote:
So for the past 6 months I have been on a 2000 calorie keto diet and have lost 65 pounds of fat and added a substantial amount of muscle. I am 6’2" 255 pounds and my goal is 240 pounds. I lift 5-6 days a week and occasionally do cardio. My question is, as I approach my goal, should I start to up my calorie and carb intake or lessen my calorie intake? I keep my carbs below 60 grams per day and take in around 250 grams of protein a day and I log everything in a calorie counter program. [/quote]
are you using weekly or bi-weekly refeeds?
going so low on calories (and carbs for that matter) can significantly decrease metabolism, testosterone and thyroid levels…
I take 25mcg T3 daily and will have a higher carb day as needed.
[quote]jsasso87 wrote:
I take 25mcg T3 daily and will have a higher carb day as needed. [/quote]
ahh, problem solved - lol. well what i posted above is what happened to me and it sucks so i make sure to bring it up in any relevant situation…
well as long as your diet is pretty decent in quality i would assume no other hormone issues would be a problem…
from what i’ve read from poliquin and CT they say the closer you are to your goal, the more often you can have a carb up or cheat meal.
what is your BF%? pics maybe would help…
I made the mistake of not taking progress pictures. I will definatley post a recent picture though… I used an online bf% calculator using inches around the navel and it came out to 18%. Definatley not where I want to be but a huge improvement from where I was 6 months ago.
[quote]jsasso87 wrote:
I made the mistake of not taking progress pictures. I will definatley post a recent picture though… I used an online bf% calculator using inches around the navel and it came out to 18%. Definatley not where I want to be but a huge improvement from where I was 6 months ago. [/quote]
those are extremely inaccurate and BF% really doesnt mean that much at all… just for perspective. pics are much better for gauging things, IMO
Haha. That’s what I figured… I’ll try and have a picture up by tomorrow. I am aware though that eventhough I am close to my goal weight, I still have a lot of work ahead of me as far as overall body composition.
I agree that the leaner you are, the more often you can have carb ups. However, some fall into cheating rather than having planned meals or days of CHO (carbs).
If you don’t stall, don’t change anything. Once your progress stalls, it might be advisable to change your nutrition and cardio appropriately.
P.S. Congrats on the progress!
On a carb day, what is a good amount of carbs to take in? Normally I can’t get myself to break 100 grams without going over 2000 calories… Also, in the 6 months I’ve been dieting, Ive only given myself around 6 days where I ate whatever I wanted and still ate very clean. At this point I’ve also been thinking about having some oatmeal or another good carb source pre workout.
[quote]jsasso87 wrote:
On a carb day, what is a good amount of carbs to take in? Normally I can’t get myself to break 100 grams without going over 2000 calories… Also, in the 6 months I’ve been dieting, Ive only given myself around 6 days where I ate whatever I wanted and still ate very clean. At this point I’ve also been thinking about having some oatmeal or another good carb source pre workout. [/quote]
2000 cals?
thw whole point of a carb-up/re-feed is to boost metabolism and load your muscles with glycogen…
right now im at about 1800 calories a day w/ NO carbs mon-sat and on sundays i have a carb-up where i have at least 350 grams carbs and close to 3000-3500 cals…
you could bump the cals up quite a biton re-feeds to boost your metabolism and it may make fatloss even better… then again you may not need a carb up b/c your T3 levels wont be affected by the restricted cals/carbs
[quote]MAF14 wrote:
[quote]jsasso87 wrote:
On a carb day, what is a good amount of carbs to take in? Normally I can’t get myself to break 100 grams without going over 2000 calories… Also, in the 6 months I’ve been dieting, Ive only given myself around 6 days where I ate whatever I wanted and still ate very clean. At this point I’ve also been thinking about having some oatmeal or another good carb source pre workout. [/quote]
2000 cals?
thw whole point of a carb-up/re-feed is to boost metabolism and load your muscles with glycogen…
right now im at about 1800 calories a day w/ NO carbs mon-sat and on sundays i have a carb-up where i have at least 350 grams carbs and close to 3000-3500 cals…
you could bump the cals up quite a biton re-feeds to boost your metabolism and it may make fatloss even better… then again you may not need a carb up b/c your T3 levels wont be affected by the restricted cals/carbs[/quote]
I agree with your point about the boosted CHO not being necessarily as helpful, being that there will be no drop in T3 (being that this is in play exogenously).
That being said, I will personally only use/recommend higher kcals levels during a CHO-up on myself or others under three main circumstances:
- My/their appetite has gone, along with a higher than normal loss in fullness, and a loss of energy. A CHO up with high kcals always seems to bring myself, and some others, back to “baseline”.
and/or
- Psychologically, I/they NEED a refeed.
and/or
- Progress has slowed unexpectedly.
Otherwise, I use CHO-ups similar to Erik Minor’s suggestions, being that I will eat CHO and protein within my normal caloric allotment for the day.
Of course, I assume everyone uses different tricks to determine when CHO-ups are appropriate.