Ketogenic Rapid Fat Loss (RFL) Diet While Sciatica (Sciatic Nerve) Injury

[aguadito]

Hello,

I've been bulking hard the past few months, my stats currently (x5) are:

bodyweight: 100kg (220lb), height: 1,88m (6'2)
bodyfat estimate: 22% (at my gym)
squat: 152,5kg
deadlift: 185kg
bench: 92,5kg
press: 68,5kg
clean: 82,5kg (x3 not x5)

Last week I got a nasty sciatic nerve pinch. Luckily no discs are bulged or herniated and it appears to be just a pinched nerve that I'm foam rolling, taking anti-inflammatories, and seeing a PT (AND A CHIRO) to deal with.

The best opinions i've gotten seem to say this could take 1 week to 6 weeks to clear up and I need to completely avoid squats and deadlifts and only return to even light training when i don't feel any pain from getting out of bet, bending down, etc.

So, I thought, why not cut some body fat if I can't train/eat properly? No need to eat like a horse if I can't train to build more strength and mass.

The next few weeks I will be eating a strict ketogenic diet, with limited cardio (walking at most until the sciatica feels better) and hopefully soon with some light lifting.

Tonight I will post what I ate and what activity I did.

[aguadito]

Ate today:

5 eggs with 3 Tbsp parmesan cheese

1 can tuna with 1-2 tbsp mayo

600g ribs without sauce

doesn't sound like a lot, i know, but apparently that's 2,000 kcal according to FitDay.

The ribs werent very filling unfortunately. I look forward to tomorrow, I'll eat more filling food.

No training today, just lots of stretching. Lots and lots of stretching. Fucking sciatica.

[hunter308]

What is your weight goal.

Bob Hoffman who owned York Barbell claims that a 6.2 guy who is lifting would fall into one of these groups

L 185
N 207
H 230

I'm 6.2 and 215 pounds which is fine for Winter but for Summer my plan is 205 or something like that.
Part of my problem is I'm fairly comfortable with my weight and my lifts are a hair above novice, yours
are higher than mine but I've been making assault on Marks program for a couple years now.

[algunos hombre]

Diets are catabolic, generally speaking. Do you really want to lower your metabolism and be catabolic while recovering from an injury?

Lifting with intensity during a diet is necessary to bias your body toward catabolizing fat rather than lean muscle. Do you really want to cut when you can't lift with intensity?

Perhaps eating at maintenance or a little above would be wiser. Remember that maintenance when you can't work out will be slightly lower than your maintenance during periods of higher activities ...

[aguadito]

Yesterday's contents:

5 egg

450g chicken breast skinless boneless, 3tbsp parmesan cheese

275g ground beef with 80g tex mex cheese

1 cup brussel sprouts, 1 cup broccoli


Total
kcal 2,155
fat 105.0
carb 18.4
prot 272.5

[aguadito]

today's:

5 eggs, 50g tex mex cheese

350g ground beef with 60g tex mex cheese

1 can tuna with 2 tbsp mayo

1cup broccoli, 1 cup brussel sprouts

Total
kcal 2,036
fat 125.6
carb 19.7
prot 201.0

trained as well, medium-intesnity, medium reps (8)

bench (80kgx8x3)
seated db shoulder press (to avoid aggravating scitatica) (26kgx8x3)
rows (60kgx8x3 -- very low weight because I was concerned about sciatica)
dips (8x3)
chinups (5x3--fuck my arms were tired)
hyperextensions (20kg plate x 15 x 3 -- part of rehabbing)

keto fucking drains the energy, but it's for a good cause I guess.

not really having much trouble dealing with it. i think I dreamed about eating a banana, seriously.

otherwise my energy is a little low post-workout, and I'm drinking tons of water.

tomorrow is day 4, should be officially in ketosis around that point.

not looking at the scale until day 8

[aguadito]

What is your weight goal.

Bob Hoffman who owned York Barbell claims that a 6.2 guy who is lifting would fall into one of these groups

L 185
N 207
H 230

I'm 6.2 and 215 pounds which is fine for Winter but for Summer my plan is 205 or something like that.
Part of my problem is I'm fairly comfortable with my weight and my lifts are a hair above novice, yours
are higher than mine but I've been making assault on Marks program for a couple years now.

I would barely classify my lifts as intermediate (I've been lifting 1.5 years on and off). But I'm aiming for 90kg bodyweight (200pounds) in the next 2-3 months. This includes water weight, so more realistically i'd be like 205 once I start eating "normally" again.

Since I won't be cheating and will power is not an issue (I could starve myself for weeks if that was necessary, I have zero problem altering my diet, and ketosis perserves lean body mass to near-perfection.

The best thing you can do is eat like a king and break through whatever plateau you're at.

[aguadito]

Diets are catabolic, generally speaking. Do you really want to lower your metabolism and be catabolic while recovering from an injury?

Lifting with intensity during a diet is necessary to bias your body toward catabolizing fat rather than lean muscle. Do you really want to cut when you can't lift with intensity?


Perhaps eating at maintenance or a little above would be wiser. Remember that maintenance when you can't work out will be slightly lower than your maintenance during periods of higher activities ...

Thanks for your post.

I am able to lift all the main lifts except for deadlifts and squats.

today was kind of a "test" to see what i could do.

I'm going to periodize medium and high intensity, and avoid squats and deadlifts until I feel 100%. I'd say I'm at 70-80% right now, with certain stretches and positions aggravating it more than others.

So, basically, I'll be eating at a slight deficit. I'm not incredibly active, but my TDEE would be estimated at about 2700 kcal right now on off-days. I trained hard today though, so my deficit will probably be somehwere between 500-1000.

I'll be working out in a similar fashion every other day from now on. I'm eager to get going with squats and deadlifts as soon as possible!

I just don't want to try any weight above bodyweight for squats until I'm around 90-95%.

I'd also like to give you this:
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/3/1/9

It is a good article about ketosis and catabolism. Basically, it summarizes a bunch of studies that analyze keto vs non-keto diets. I'll highlight this one:

Young et al. compared three diets containing the same amounts of calories (1,800 kcal/day) and protein (115 g/day) but differing in carbohydrate content [3]. After nine weeks on the 30-g, 60-g and 104-g carbohydrate diets, weight loss was 16.2, 12.8 and 11.9 kg and fat accounted for 95, 84, and 75% of the weight loss, respectively. Importantly, underwater weighing was used to determine body composition. Although these results should be interpreted cautiously given the low number of subjects, this study strongly suggests that a VLCARB promotes fat loss while preserving muscle mass, supporting the notion that "a calorie is not a calorie"

The other studies place pure-keto dieting as 95-99% of weight lost being fat. Let's say I drop my 10kg in the next few months. I'm quite okay with 100-500g of that being muscle...

So, you're right, diets are catabolic, when you eat carbohydrates.

When you stay in pure ketosis at a deficit, the weight lost is almost pure fat and water, due to the prioritization of body fat as the body's source of energy.

I will be monitoring bodyweight weekly, and body composition bi-weekly (dunking at my local university costs $20).

[algunos hombre]

Nope, diets are catabolic when they are hypocaloric. They are anabolic when hypercaloric.

Carbohydrate content has an influence in partitioning (at least, in that quoted study which admittedly had a low number of subjects, it did), as does protein content (see similar studies on hypercaloric diets and lean mass Vs. fat mass gained), but the big lever is calories. You can't synthesize mass out of air, and if you don't meet your caloric needs, your body will destroy itself to meet those needs (burning the furniture to heat the house, so to speak). In addition to diet, exercise plays a role, which is why weight training is recommended on a cut, to improve partitioning.

You over-emphasize the role of ketosis IMO. It's got its benefits, but it ain't magic.

"Lift all the main lifts except for deadlifts and squats" LOL. That is funny to me, because the program is built around the squat as the THE main lift, and there are only five lifts. Scoring 60% (3 out of 5 you can still do) is a fail in most grading systems.

I also think it's a risk not worth taking, to cut weight while healing.

But it's your body. Do what you want. Don't expect further input.

[mstrofbass]

Um...2000 calories? You aren't doing RFL.

http://blog.bstovall.com/2011/12/01/...fat-loss-diet/