Cyclical Ketogenic Diets - My First Carb Day - Keto Cut Day 16
Hey everyone! On day 16 of this Keto Cut, I finally have my first cycle day! It's been great to lose the first 8lbs so far and I'm glad to be able to take a mental, physical and even emotional break from the diet for 1 day.
Cyclical Ketogenic Diets and Why I Choose to Cycle
There's some controversy over carb cycling when it comes to ketogenic diets. Some people claim that having this so called "cheat day" will throw off your diet and cause the scale to go haywire which will cause the dieter to lose their mind!
There's been a solid amount of research done on the effects of carb cycling, especially as it relates to high-level athletes and the research has shown quite a few benefits to it.
From my personal experience with being on an SKD (standard ketogenic diet) and being on a CKD (cyclical ketogenic diet), I can tell you that I have much better results on the CKD. When I first start out the diet, I'll wait about 2 weeks before having the first cycle day. I usually will lose about 10lbs by this time and I feel that it is a good milestone to give myself a little pat on the back while replenishing my depleted glycogen stores. After the first cycle day, I'll take another cycle day about once every 7-10 days.
So what exactly is a "cycle" day?
When you're on a CKD, the cycle day is meant to be a carb-loading phase. Some people eat carbs for 1 meal, some people eat carbs the whole day and others even eat carbs for anywhere from 2-5 days. It really depends on the person and what their goals are.
For me, 1 day of eating carbs is typically enough. I'll usually have 4-5 meals and I'll eat the far majority of my carbs post-workout to try and get the best possible insulin response.
On my cycle day, I usually will eat nearly anything I want, or at least, anything within reason. I don't have a huge sweet tooth, so the majority of what I'll eat will consist of bread, rice and pasta which are some of my favorite carbs. I'll usually indulge my small sweet tooth by having 1 treat at the end of the day - usually something like a slice of chocolate cake, some chocolate chip pancakes or even some blueberry pie with a little ice cream on top.
Others may opt for a more scientific approach - where they track everything they eat on their cycle day - I've tried this approach in the past and found that it still didn't make a huge difference. I prefer to just eat the carbs that I crave while trying not to overeat to the point where I feel sick. This lets me take a huge mental and emotional break from having to constantly track every little grain of rice or piece of chicken that I consume.
The only thing that I'll loosely track is the fat intake - I prefer to keep my fat really low on carb days - usually, around 40-60 grams if I can. As far as protein goes, I usually just eat as much as I want on these days as well (again, within reason).
Once you have a few cycle days, you'll also notice that you can kind of eyeball everything you eat and have a pretty clear picture of how much you're consuming. As long as I'm not consuming an outrageous amount of calories, I feel just fine staying in the dark on the exact numbers.
Just for fun, here's a few pictures of some of the stuff I ate today:
Day 16 Log:
Weigh-In:
| Start Weight (lbs) | Goal Weight (lbs) | Weight Lost (lbs) |
|---|---|---|
| 198 | 173 | 8 |
| Today's Weight (lbs) | Fat Mass (%) | Body Mass BMI |
|---|---|---|
| 190 | 23.3 | 23.5 |
Workout:
Back/Bi Day:
| Movement | Weight lbs | # Reps | # Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deadlift | 315 | 5 | 4 |
| Cable Low Row | 160 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Hammer Lat Pull Down | 145 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Bicep Curl EZ Bar | 70 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Preacher Curl EZ Bar | 70 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Cable Rope Curl | 40 | 12-15 | 4 |
| Cardio | 15 Minutes - Stair Master |
What I Ate Today:
| Meal | Food |
|---|---|
| 0 | Coffee 2 TBSP Half & Half |
| 1 | 2 Eggs, 2 slices of bread, ~1 oz cheddar cheese, Turkey Sandwich with spinach, cheese and hot peppers |
| 2 | 4 homemade tacos with lean ground beef, queso and peppers |
| 3 | Hashbrowns and Chicken |
| 4 | 2 Slices of Chocolate Cake with Powdered Sugar |
Note: As I mentioned, I don't really track the quantity of what I eat on these cycle days, it gives me a nice mental break. This is a list of what I ate and approximately how much I ate, but it's definitely not exact, it's just based on me eyeballing it.
Here's the Question of The Day, don't forget to post your answers in the comments!
QOTD: Do you prefer cheat days/carb-up days while dieting? Do you track on those days or just let loose a little?
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below and I look forward to seeing you in the comments!
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My daughter-in-law had a biopsy done two days ago for lumps on her lymph nodes. We won't know the results for a few days yet. I have told her about ketogenic eating and how it emulates fasting which will shrink tumors of all kinds, but I'm not sure she has the courage to try keto or fasting. Her diet is primarily bread, potatoes, cheese and meat. The ketogenic diet as well as fasting forces the body to consume its own fat reserves and other superfluous tissues and among those tissue is fat and tumors. In a conversation a leading doctor was heard to say that if "this gets out" meaning fasting and the ketogenic diet, it could destroy the health industry. If autoimmune diseases become a thing of the past hospitals will only be able to do what they really do well which is trauma care.
I'm sorry to hear that, I hope the results come back on the positive side for your daughter-in-law. Ketogenic eating can definitely have a positive effect on tumors and has been shown to have these effects in a variety of studies (I'm sure you know about them!)
Absolutely, there is definitely an issue in the medical and pharma industries that are forcing down natural and healthy alternatives to expensive medications and treatments. Marijuana has been touted for decades as being a horrible drug that everyone should stay away from, but as more and more research comes out, we can see that it has extreme upside for people with a variety of different symptoms and issues.
Thank you for your well-wishes for my daughter-in-law. I am aware of the studies that show that fasting and ketogenic eating will dissolve tumors. The leading expert in this is currently Dr. Thomas Seyfried at Boston College. He took the findings of Dr. Otto Warberg that found that cancer's favorite food is glucose and began a research program. Dr. Seyfried has found that tumors are weakened when the body is forced to burn ketones during a fast or during ketogenic dieting as long as protein amounts are limited because the body can turn protein into glucose. Our bodies recognize the difference between superfluous and essential tissues in the body and begins to dissolve what it doesn't need to feed what it does need according to the research. "Superfluous tissues" include fat and tumors. Soft tumors are dissolved in as little as 3 days with harder tumors taking a longer water-only fast of up to 21 days. Sometimes 3 seven day fasts over a three month time work well. Water-only fasts are most effective according to the research, but ketogenic diets have been shown to do the same thing, but may take longer. My daughter-in-law has opted to follow her doctors advice and submit to surgery, radiation, and chemo therapy. With this knowledge of fasting and its ability to dissolve tumors it is hard to watch people die of cancer. In just the few years I've known about this I've watched 4 people in my circle of friends and acquaintances die. I've told them about fasting and ketogenic eating, but believing it takes a shift from faith in man's wisdom to God's wisdom and most just can't do it. Our bodies have very clearly been designed to deal with the influx of contamination from our gluttony and have an innate ability to heal itself of any autoimmune disease. When it comes to our health, that leap of faith from man to God is what most people just can't do.
Yes, you're very very well aware of them! Thanks for sharing your insight, you've inspired me to read through them again myself!
^^ This is especially great, thank you for furthering my education on it!!I'm really sorry to hear about your friends. "Our bodies have very clearly been designed to deal with the influx of contamination from our gluttony and have an innate ability to heal itself of any autoimmune disease." - I 100% agree with this and yes, it is a great leap of faith that most will have trouble taking. I've talked to a close friend (who had a recent diagnosis) about doing keto and he chose to follow his doctor's advice and eat in almost the complete opposite manner.
That's the hardest thing. To know what has cured people, give them the information, and then watch them die following some other path. In Turkey mainstream physicians have found that Otto Warberg was right and have started water-only fasting people 7 days before chemo-therapy for cancer. The cancer cells are weaken, normal cells refuse to take in the chemicals, they use less chemicals for the therapy to achieve better results. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/03/19/metabolically-supported-therapies-cancer-treatment.aspx
Hi Dear Khaleelkazi nice to see you in your other Nice post, and congrats for loss your 8lbs, and especially Thanks for you good explanation about diat and food, and i learn lot of things about diat and food and Weight lose, Well thanks for sharing with us, Thanks a lot.
Have you been a medical student, you sound like one.
Thanks for the diet chart.
Haha I'm not a medical student, but I have a nice obsession with this stuff, so I'm willing to spend some time trying to learn!
That is great you are a knowledge seeker,highly appreciated.
I've had an obsession with health related issues and keep up to date on the latest information. I've devoted many hours each week for years trying to "keep up" and then I look at my wife's parents who don't do anything. They eat what they like, its cooked to death, they don't exercise, they don't take supplements or vitamins, he smoked until age 65, he was also an alcoholic until he was 40. He just recently passed away at 93 years old and she is 88. Go figure.
Yah man cheat days are not only a good reward for your hard work and tastebuds, they are good for you body too (in some sort of moderation.) Just like you have to keep switching it up in the gym (dumbells one day, bar the next, totally different exercises) to keep your body guessing and stay out of a rut, you have to do it with diet too.
Shock and celebrate and know that any step back will be taken back in no time because of the positive habits you have already developed and the discipline you will show afterwards.
You go gurl! ;)
I 100% agree @zekepickleman! It's all about changing it up and shocking your body - that's what yields the best results! Eating chocolate cake is always a plus as well, am I right ;)
Preach on!
This seems very similar to the carbnite diet protocol!
I mainly do refeed days, in which i decrease fats to as low as possible and increase carbs, sometimes i go and eat 500-1000g carbs in 1 day, from waht i read this has some scientific background to it, it increases leptin levels for a little while which increase the fat loss progress! I normally do them if i find a 1-week plateau in which my weight is constant and i don't see any changes in my body
It is kind of similar. Carbnite is eating carbs on a much more regular basis than cycling. I've done both and have had great results with each diet! Yeah refeed days absolutely have some great research behind them! Cycle days are kind of a version of refeed days - I keep the fat as low as possible and then bump the carbs way up. They're a great way to break through those plateaus!
That's not fair you eat this alone I want to eat as well really yummy to look I want to be there <3 by the ways your fact are the awesome man really highly appreciated. But I will try it into my home because Sunday is on thanks for sharing lovely that is!
haha it was delicious!!! I got to enjoy it with a few friends! Thanks and let me know how it turns out for you!
Do you Know @khaleelkazi I just make this post and eat this food haha because you make me hungry really
https://steemit.com/food/@aqib-ashiq/good-food-is-good-mood-tuesday-rocks
I think I want cheat days, but by the time I get to one of the days I don't want it anymore! This happened when I did Body For Life.
Yeah I sometimes get the same feelings, sometimes I just want to charge ahead with the diet rather than take a cheat day!
I think we all need to relax and give ourselves a break once in a while. I am not on keto right now but I am thinking to start it soon. I have started with cutting out all liquids consumed but water and I am working to cut down the number of calories that I consume daily while tracking everything consumed. After I am able to do these things on a consistent basis, I will work on going keto. My friend has been pushing me to try it and my research has proven that it would help me to reach my goals. Thanks for sharing!
Ivy
That's great! It's always a great first step to cut out those empty calories from beverages! Keto is really amazing and I hope you do try it! let me know what you think of it when you do!
Keep it up. About to go on a 30 day balls out challenge.
Informative post. Thanks Man.
Thanks for reading. What did you find informative about the post?