The Ketogenic Diet: Part 2 Cyclical Ketogenic Diet

This is part two of the ketogenic diet series where I will be discussing the Cyclical Ketogenic diet.

What is a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet?

A cyclical ketogenic diet can be simplified by breaking the “cycle” up into weekly phases. One typically will follow a ketogenic type set up (high protein, moderate fats, no carbohydrates) for five days. On the sixth and seventh day, they tend to “load” up on carbohydrate rich foods to purposely saturate their glycogen stores which will sustain their weight/cardio training throughout the following week. The weekend carb load should be deliberately set above maintenance intake to ensure the excess carbohydrates are shuttled into glycogen stores, and not used for energy. If done correctly, the carb load will not hinder ones fat loss goals. Conversely the weekend is not a time to “cheat” and eat lots of high fat, high carb junk, or your fat loss progress will most likely be halted and the previous week’s efforts reversed.

Diet Setup for the Week

For example, if one was aiming for a pound of fat loss per week, they would set up their diet accordingly.

Male: 200lbs with a daily maintenance intake of 3000 calories per day. Set his protein at 1.5x body weight and then fill in the rest of his macros with fat calories. He will spend 5 days in a deficit, so in order to hit the desired 1 pound of fat loss per week, he needs to have a negative calorie balance of 3500 calories. 3500/5 = 700. So his daily caloric intake throughout the week would be 2300 calories (3000-700). Set his protein at 300g = 1200 calories. 2300-1200 = 1100 calories left for his fat intake.

1100/9 = 122g of fat

Weekly Diet (-700 calorie deficit per day) 2300 calories

300g protein

122g fat

The Weekend Carb Load

During this period of time, having control and structure regarding food choices will make or break the diet. For each day of the carb load as a rule of thumb, I would focus on consuming a surplus of maintenance plus 20-25% of total calories. So if one’s maintenance caloric intake is 3000, they would be consuming between 3600 and 3750 calories. One should aim to keep dietary fat very low (40-50 grams), get about 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight and fill in the rest of the calories with starchy carbohydrates. So for a male that weighs 200lbs, his macro nutrient goals would be 200 grams of protein, 50 grams of fat and ~590 grams of carbohydrates for a total of 3600 calories. During this short period of time the incoming carbohydrates will go to refilling muscle glycogen. Make sure that fructose is kept to a minimum, and that most of the carbohydrates come from starchy sources. Fructose fills liver glycogen only, and does not refill muscle glycogen like starchy carbs do. Starchy sources include potatoes, rice, bread, bagels, pasta etc. The extra carbohydrates coupled with a caloric surplus will send “fed” signals to the brain in the form of many different hormones that I won’t discuss in this article. Lyle McDonald has an entire series of articles where he explains these hormones in detail. His two part series on Leptin.

Weekend Diet (maintenance +20%) 3600 calories per day

200g protein

590g carbs

50g fat

My Thoughts

This is a very practical way to diet if one has the discipline to control their intake on the weekend refeeds. I particularly enjoy dieting this way as every 5 days I get to eat a decent amount of food, and still drop the fat at a reasonable rate.

In part three, I will be discussing the Targeted Ketogenic Diet.

Have any of you dieted in this fashion before? Happy with the results?

Share It!