......for non bodybuilders????

My husband is a bodybuilder and has followed a Ketogenic Diet on and off for years. I've watched him in amazement morphing his body in very little time (but lots of effort) His diet is something like this:

Mon and Tues 75% fat; 25% protein; under 20g of carbs
Wed, Thurs and Fri 75% protein; 25% fat; under 20g of carbs
Sat and Sun he 'carbs up' and eats anything and everything under the sun.

I've recently noticed that I've put on about 30lbs in the last 8 months or so. I quit smoking and the weight came on like a freight train. I tried upping my exercise and lowering my over all calories and I had little success stopping the fat train so I decided that I would follow a modified version of what my husband does.

I don't lift weights at all. I do Ashtanga yoga 6 days a week and walk at least 3 miles a day, 5 days a week. And yes, Ashtanga yoga (aka power yoga) is more than a little stretching.

So far ketosis has worked better than I thought it would but my question is.... What will happen if I 'carb up' with my husband? I have no intention of eating like he does (I don't think I could if I tried... the man can eat) but he thinks we should be able to treat our self’s at least once a week. I'm not convinced that I want to come out of ketosis and then whack my self back in on Monday. I only started this last Sunday and today is the first day I woke up and actually felt ok.

I'm looking for others to share there experience with Cyclic Ketogenic or just to hear what happened if they pigged out on carbs for a day and then went back to a strict keto diet.

Please any and all thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I am doing your husbands diet and this is my second carb up was in ketosis for 4 days before my last carb up and this time I went 5 days.I think its working out pretty good for me,will go back to low carb on monday.

CKD works best if you are lifting hard. If you are something something of equivelent intensity, maybe karate, then it will work. You'll have to judge yourself how your yoga compares. 3 miles a day of walking is good, but it's not enough to warrent a big carb-up.

As I know to my cost, women can't carb-up the way men can. I'm really sorry, but if you start eating anything and everything, you'll undo all your work. What you can do is to reverse your normal keto diet, and spend one day a week (or even one day in every 10) eating a high carb, low fat diet at maintenance calories or very slightly above. But you'll have to keep it as clean as possible, and avoid all the junk and sugary foods.

The general rule with carb-ups is that the harder you work in the gym and the more muscle mass you carry, the more you can carb-up.

is it best to carb up on your lift days or your off days?

EDIT:
p.s. 10 posts Woohoo!

Rest while carbing up. In fact, for maximun effect, do a total body workout before you start carbing up, so that your muscles are literally starved for glycogen, and will start grabbing every carb you eat and shoving it into your muscles. Then rest for the next day, and allow your body to use those carbs to replenish and rebuild your muscles.

so whats the best way to cycle?

like how many days low and how many high? should the high days be in a row...like mon-fri have low carbs and sat and sun go high...or is it better to spilt them up? what is "high"...like just totally gorge yourself on carbs or should you limit to like a few hundred grams?

It varies a lot, depending on what your aims are, what your lifestyle is, how much muscle you carry and a lot of other things.

What works for a lot of women would be something like a three day split of legs and abs, back and biceps, chest, shoulders and triceps (or three whole body workouts) with suitable cardio on non-lifting days. Then start your carb-up day by eating some fruit for breakfast, doing a full body depletion workout (lots of squats, bench press, deadlifts, stiffleg deadlifts, pull-ups, shoulder press etc) with lighter weights and shorter rests than usual.

Then have a big PWO shake, and start eating high carb, moderate protein, low fat for the rest of the day. This is a refeed day, so keep your calories above maintenance. Around 20% over works well for me.

In general, men can eat more than women on carb-up. So can anyone who's carrying a high proportion of muscle, or who has a very active lifestyle.

Drink lots of water during your carb-up, and don't freak when you put on 2-4lb of weight, it's all water and will disappear as soon as you go back to ketosis. When you start working the following week, you should feel the difference in your overall strength.

The after your carb-up, go for a high proportion of fats to speed up return to ketosis.

so only one carb-up day?

Sorry, for women a one day a week on carb-up usually is as much as you can manage. If, for some reason, you want to do two days, you need to be much more conservative about how much you eat.

However, if instead of a seven day cycle, you went for ten days, you might find that a two day carb-up would work.

And as I've already mentioned, if you work out really intensely or carry a lot of muscle, then you can start aiming for those 5000 cal carb-ups. I've never managed that myself, but I know women who do.

Helen,

you realize im male right? people do say i look like my mom though

how about having 2 high days and seperating them...like: 3 days low-1 high-2 low-1 high-rinse&repeat?

thanks for your help.

Opps, sorry, I got side-tracked because Beck started the thread.

Ok, if you are male and less than around 18-20% bodyfat, you might be able to go for two days carbing up. If you are over 25%, then definitely stick to one day or less. This isn't a hard and fast rule, it's just to give you an idea.

Two high carb days separated means you spend a lot of time not in ketosis. On the plus side, you'll have lots of glycogen for heavy lifting, but you'll have to decide if it's worth it.