I just started the TKD diet last week. This is my first try at a low carb diet, and so far its gone pretty well, i've already lost 7 or 8 pounds. My goal is just to get a little leaner and get down to about 205. After I reach my fat loss goals I am going to try to move to a little less extreme diet.

I got in to ketosis in about 48 hours as measured by the ketostix that I purchased. I then began carbing up before my workout... 15g the first couple times, 30g the next few, then 45g, then 50g today. And I'm still in ketosis right after the workout. I thought for sure after having all those smarties, when I got home the ketostix would stay brown, but they turned a nice dark purple... darker then it had been in a few days.

I lift fairly intensely... after starting my workout with a lot of energy, about 2/3 way through my performance went way down and I sort of crashed (my workout has shifted to a little higher reps/lower weights since I am in a cutting phase). Should I increase the carbs even a little more now so I can get through my workouts?

Also, since so far I seem to have an easy time getting in to and staying in ketosis... is it ok to moderately increase my carbs from 20g to 30g a day?

Why not stick with what is working so far until your fat loss starts to slow? If it aint broke, dont fix it

If anything I would keep the pre workout carbs to 50 grams and maybe try adding a small amount after your workout. Ive read the most TOTAL carbs you should have on a TKD on a lifting day is 100 grams. So if you take in 50 before, maybe 30 after, and keep the rest of the day below 20.

You could even start taking in your post workout carbs about halfway through your lifting for a mental placebo affect and also so they are being digested before you even stop lifting.

One other thing I just noticed is I HIGHLY suggest not doing the typical "Im trying to lose fat so Im going to do more reps and less weight" nonsense. You want to keep as much muscle as possible when cutting so continue to lift heavy!

Thanks for the advice... I'll try to keep with the low carbs during the day.. under 20g, but up my workouts a little bit closer to 50, with a little bit of extra carbs post workout. Is it important to get out of ketosis by the end of your workouts, or does it matter at all?

Also... I'll keep lifting heavy... besides, it's more fun that way.

Im not sure on that question, I just know that you only want to disrupt ketosis for as short of a time as possible on a TKD.

Yup heavy it is, save that muscle mass and let your caloric deficit and cardio melt the fat away.

Good luck!

Just a note, Jack (Hi, by the way!),

Sometimes testing dark purple, especially when you know you probably shouldn't be, means your body's dumping ketones. This can happen when you get enough carbs to switch back over--then the body doesn't WANT to burn ketones anymore because it's a harder process than burning carbs. Particularly quick-burning carbs. Wait a pee or two and test again. (If you're drinking enough water, it shouldn't take long.)

On the other hand, 50g may not be enoughto bump you out, and looking at your weight, most of it probably went to your muscles pretty quickly. If you're bonking, take some extra dextrose (AKA Smarties) a few sets into your workout for an extra boost.

You may need to fiddle with it until you get what your body needs.

Good luck!

Oh, and if you feel you need more carbs, go for it. It did amazing things for my workouts (though I wasn't on TKD).

You have a lot of body to fuel. And it needs what it needs. I think 30g for someone your size is much more realistic than 20g.

Just my opinion.

I went up to about 50 carbs (that's alot of smarties) on the last workout, and I went much further than I had the previous few workouts. However, when I got to my abs, about 45 minutes in, I completely crashed... but this wasn't too abnormal since I went pretty heavy on the deadlifts and the other back excercise.

Overall, these last two weeks have been very succesful. The weight loss has leveled off a little bit, but my pants are a little looser, and I can see a bit more muscle definition. It feels great! Hopefully I won't take too many steps backwards this weekend since I have to go out of town to a wedding.

Question about the ketone strips. I have been testing at various times... And since the third time I tested (the first two when I knew I was just starting and I hadn't been under 20g more than 48 hours didn't change color) they have changed color indicating Ketosis. Is there any preffered time to do these tests. I have been testing first thing in the morning, sometimes after workouts, and before bed. Are these things accurate?

Ketone strips are mostly accurate. But I've read criticisms that they test only one type of ketone (apparently there are five, or something), and that's why some people never test dark, or sometimes even change the strips at all.

The strip reading depends on water, exercise, and fat consumption, mainly. There are other factors too.

My recommendation is to test at various times of the day (and around workouts) to get a feel for how your body responds to different things. Once you have a pretty good idea what's going on with your body, if you still want to test daily (I do, but lots of people don't), then do it first thing in the morning. That way, you get a good base reading to use day-to-day. Just my couple of cents.

Congratulations on your progress, and keep up the good work! It's always great to hear of other peoples' success.

i am doing ckd right now, would i lose more bodyfat doing TKD???

Hard to say...if you are out of ketosis less, then probably yes. But if, as often happens, you end up being out of ketosis for 4-6 hours around your workouts, maybe not.

You may have to figure out what works for your own body by trial and error. But generally speaking, the longer you are in ketosis every week, barring metabolic adaptation, the more fat you will burn.

One thing CKD has going for it, though, is the resetting of leptin levels, which tricks the body into thinking it has tons of food, and it can afford to let go of its fat stores. So in that regard, CKD has a bit of an edge, in my opinion, over TKD.

Does that help, or just muddy the waters further?

no that sounds good... would it be possible to just say do a 12 hour carb up then?(sort of a higher balance on the fat burning side as opposed to putting on muscle, it took me til about wednesday night to get back into ketosis on the 24 hour carbup i was doing.) if i take in over 30 carbs a day i will be kicked outta ketosis, so i try to just do 0 but take in a few from seasoning (burrito mix, soy sauce, etc) and salads...thats the only carbs i take in...anyway i think i would ENJOY the ckd more than tkd as i read on tkd all you get basically is candy, on ckd i can actually eat real food, before ckd i ALWAYS had done low fat for years and had no problem with it, i love my carbs more than my fatty foods...

basically im thinking then a limited ckd would be better than the tkd for me as i am effected by carbs a lot... so i guess one spike would be better than spikes virtually every day eh?

Seems like a CKD with a shorter carb load like you mentioned would be a great idea. Also every weekend you could experiment with the length of the carb load to find what works best for you. Ive tried an 18 hour carb load and it worked great for me......

It also takes me until Wednesday to hit ketosis, I wouldnt worry about that too much.

Another option is to change the frequency of your carb up. If your schedule allows maybe carb load ever 10 days for example instead of every week.

The best thing about this plan is the flexibility, you can try new things every week to find what works best for you. Maybe give both of these ideas a shot..........

One more thing, how many carbs did you take in during your 24 hour load?

im not sure what it was, i think around 800 though... i just used the CKD calculator
http://www.users.voicenet.com/~petr...ss/ckdcalc.html and did the amount for the first 24 hours.

i am planning on doing it on sunday ...from like 9 am - 9 pm with a depletion exercise early sunday morning, i wont be doing the fruit before it though to switch my liver into carb burning mode but was wondering if i should do some cardio upon completion...? also about the times.. i go to bed late, so i wont be hitting the sack soon as im done eating.

mainly im going to be eating rice and pasta...maybe some no fat chocolate milk early in the day with some pancakes, i'm sure i'll eat other stuff in between (maybe a low fat cheeze pizza) but haven't decided yet.

im not sure how much carbs i should take in though? should i do a days worth in 24 hours? or should i split the 24 hours and do that... around 400 carbs?

If I were you and this is what I do is to limit my carb load to a certain amount of time, make sure to keep my fat as low as possible and just eat until Im full with good carb load foods.

Your plan for Sunday sounds great!!! Do an early morning depletion workout and then a 12 hour carb load.....just make sure to get some protein in, low fat, and plenty of carbs. If you want to be really specific shoot for 400 grams or so and see how it works out for you. You can always adjust next week........keep good records.

As far as the cardio after the depletion workout.....I wouldnt do it and dont think its needed at all. After the workout your body will be begging for carbs so after you put down that last weight have a shake ready to go with dextrose and protein......

Sound good?