Hey Guys! I've been reading a lot of negative feedback about a ketogenic diet while on a cycle. I've seen some pretty absurd statements, such as: "Keto eats muscle mass." I'm sorry but you couldn't be more wrong.

Let's take a basic look at exactly what ketosis looks like in the body.
The whole point of a ketogenic diet is to make a massive shift in how your body processes energy. Our bodies will run on either glucose in the blood, glycogen stores in muscles and liver, protein from our muscles, or fat (converted to ketones). When you consume carbs (all carbs contrary to what most believe) your body converts them into glucose in the blood stream. We have all seen the glycemic index and know that some convert more rapidly than others, this is not the point, the point is that they all convert at some point. However, when your body is in a state of ketosis, instead of relying on glucose in the blood, because there isn't enough available, your body converts fat into ketones through a process called ketogenisis. It is indeed possible to loose some muscle mass while on a keto diet, but 99% of any (if any) loss will occur in the first 2 weeks during the bodies adaptation to ketosis. You can do things such as fasting to kick-start ketogenisis so that this process only requires 3 to 5 days rather than 2 weeks. After you have made the transistion into ketosis, your body will no longer catabolize muscle mass, there has even been research studies (done by Tim Ferriss) showing a lean muscle tissue gain during a 7 day water fast which was preceded by 6 weeks of ketosis.

Now on to the 2nd biggest bull sh*t I've seen: Ketosis leaves you drained.
This is so false. Yes, the process of getting into ketosis will be taxing, and assuming your lifting during this time, your workouts will suffer, but only for a week or so (3 - 7 days for most bodybuilders). Once you enter ketosis, you will have far more, and much more consistent, energy throughout the day. Coming from a world of professional athletes, I can tell you that a large percentage of athletes, especially those that perform very taxing sports, take advantage of a ketogenic lifestyle. Why is that? because you can perform at the same level not having food in 24 hours as you can having eaten 1,000 calories an hour earlier. That may seem extreme, but ketosis works.

Obviously not eating for 24 hours followed by serious lifting won't produce mass gains, but it is easier to make very lean gains that last post cycle utilizing a ketogenic diet. You have to consume more calories than a traditional keto diet calls far, but all your gains will be lean, and 95% of any loss will be body fat.

Best example I can think of right now, an employee of mine, and training partner recently did a keto cycle under my coaching and his results were as follows (no gear, just diet and training):

Starting Stats: 5'10 184 lbs 14.3% BF
End of Week 6: 195 lbs 13.1% BF

That's a gain of 11 lbs in addition to a loss of 1 pound of body fat....I'd say that's pretty lean gains. If you care less about gains than you do shedding body fat, you would just lower your caloric consumption while on the diet and lose more BF but you probably won't make any gains.

Keep in mind guys that I suggest cycling this diet in intervals of 4 to 6 weeks, this will keep your results up and boredom down. I hope that this was helpful, and I'm sure I'll take a lot of sh*t for it, but I'm very open minded and willing to change my opinion on things so bring it on!