Ketogenic diet and bulking

[roids4life]

I was wondering would it be a good idea to go on a ketogenic diet while bulking?
My goal is to get to 10% fat while bulking. At the moment I'm around 16-17% body fat.

The keto diet would look something like this;
Five days zero carbs and high Protein and Fat intake. The aim is to for the body to use fat as fuel.
After five days of zero carbs I do one day of high protein, high carbs but low fat.
Then repeat this process.

What do you guys think?

Thank you.

 

[Labtec70]

In theory it sounds interesting and at least - in part - viable. However, when bulking for muscle mass, we like to hit the gym hard and intensely.
I very much doubt you'll be able train at any more than 70% of the intensity you are able to do with normal carbohydrate intake.

If intensity is important to you, as well as recovery, I'd at the very least eat 100g of carbohydrate on training days.

Of course...you can start out on the full keto and see how you respond to it, but if you do find yourself flagging in training then at least you'll know what the cause is. From thereon, you could increase your intake of carbohydrates incrementally. You would still lose fat weight too, because the higher intensity and duration of your training would increase in-line with carbohydrate intake.

Craig

 

[rustilldown]

In theory it sounds interesting and at least - in part - viable. However, when bulking for muscle mass, we like to hit the gym hard and intensely.
I very much doubt you'll be able train at any more than 70% of the intensity you are able to do with normal carbohydrate intake.

If intensity is important to you, as well as recovery, I'd at the very least eat 100g of carbohydrate on training days.

Of course...you can start out on the full keto and see how you respond to it, but if you do find yourself flagging in training then at least you'll know what the cause is. From thereon, you could increase your intake of carbohydrates incrementally. You would still lose fat weight too, because the higher intensity and duration of your training would increase in-line with carbohydrate intake.

Craig

This, or at the very least if you find yourself lagging energy start packing in carbs only pre and post workout so you keep them in the anabolic window when they will be utilized best.

 

[RickRock13]

A Keto diet is a poor choice when bulking IMO. It sounds like you are going for a recomp. What you might do is go for a caloric surplus on workout days while having a defecit on non workout days while adding some cardio those days. It works well for me to recomp, but it is slow and takes time. When you want to lose fat AND build muscle you have to be realistic. Don't expect to drop 6% bodyfat and gain 10lbs of muscle in a month.

 

[lithium1189]

Can't really afford depriving you're muscles carbs, for bulking anyways.

 

[Buildingup24]

I tried it for a summer. It's not ideal BUT if you do it right, you can get stronger and lean out. Don't expect miracles tho in 2 months. (It's a slow recomp process... But it's nice for summer cuz it keeps you lean and you can enjoy the carb ups on these weekend summers.)