The Secret To A Lean Physique

The Secret to a Lean Physique – The Keto Diet!

A lot of people are always asking me what I do to drop body fat or maintain a lean look so i'm going to share with you a popular method of dieting that I have been following for some time and it has enabled me to maintain a lean and muscular physique with relative ease as well as allowing me to be flexible with what I'm eating without worrying about putting on fat.

Today I will be talking about the Keto Diet. Ketogenic dieting, Keto for short, is a popular type of dieting that can product fantastic results in a very short period of time and is similar, in parts, to other popular diets such as Atkins and Paleo.

To get this diet to work you will need to get your body into a process called ketosis. This is where your body stops using carbohydrates as fuel and gets it burning ketones instead. The way to do this is to start drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake to 50g per day or lower. If doing this correctly, it takes the average person 7 days to achieve this. If already doing high intensity training, this can be achieved within a few days. Think of this as kind of a metabolic reset for your body.

The diet will consist of you replacing those missing carbohydrates and calories by consuming high amounts of fat. Eating fat to burn fat?? Sounds absurd right. Well there's science behind the madness!

Being in a state of ketosis will increase your body's ability to utilise fats for fuel, as the body gets very lazy on a high carbohydrate diet. When on a typical high carbohydrate diet the body can expect a steady energy source, but in ketosis the body has to become efficient at utilising fats for energy.

As well as burning body fat more efficiently, ketosis also has a protein-sparing effect which means that as long as your protein intake is sufficient, the body will go to fats for energy with more protein available for other functions. Hold on, doesn't a calorie reduced diet result in loss of muscle, we hear you ask? Yes, in general dieting tends to cause this as the body has less energy coming in and will look to other sources of energy – protein and muscle. However, ketosis is different! When in ketosis, the brain prefers ketones to glucose, so with the body possessing large amounts of fat (both stored and consumed), there is no need to oxidise protein to generate glucose. The body will be forced to use fat storages for energy, lowering your body fat whilst the protein goes to work on building and revealing those muscles!

A keto diet also enables the body to keep hormone levels low. This enables beneficial hormones to be released such as growth factor and some other powerful growth factors. A normal high carbohydrate diet will spike hormone levels and prevent the body from using fatty acids as energy.

As with all diets, there a few things to be prepared for when starting out. During the first few weeks of the ketogenic diet, you can usually expect a few side effects such as a small level of fatigue, brain fog and a bit of dehydration. These can all be combated with taking a few steps to prevent them such as increasing your water intake and ensuring that you stay hydrated throughout the day, especially around workout times. Limitless is a great product to take and especially during this phase as it will help keep energy levels high as well as mental focus and reducing tiredness and fatigue.

Once in ketosis, the body will no longer experience “low blood sugar crashes” that you usually get with high carbohydrate diets and once you get used to it, you should also have much more energy throughout the day than you used to have! Also, make sure you are taking a high-strength multivitamin as, with the carbohydrate intake being reduced to below 50g per day, issues of micronutrient deficiencies can occur. These side effects can last for up to 2 weeks but are perfectly normal and just your body's way of adjusting to the changes. It can be tough for some people but battle through it and you'll be amazed at your results after a few weeks, promise!

With a normal ketogenic diet your protein will come from lean sources such as eggs, fish, chicken, beef, pork, turkey and lamb. Your 50g or lower of carbohydrates allowed daily should try and come from vegetables and these should mostly be leafy greens such as spinach, kale, broccoli, green beans and asparagus to name a few. They will provide your fibre as well as help you suppress your appetite and you'll feel fuller for longer.

Now onto the main part of the diet; Fats. You'll mainly want to stick to healthy fats such as Omega 3 and Omega 6 and will get a lot of these from your intake of fish and eggs. Other great fats to be eating include avocados, butter, hard and soft cheeses and peanut butter. Nuts are also useful such as macadamias, walnuts, almonds, cashews and pistachios, however be careful with the quantity you eat per day as the fatty acids and calories can become hard to keep track of.

Your diet will consist of around 75% fats, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrates. The key to this diet working is that you cannot go over 50g of carbohydrates per day as doing so will take your body out of ketosis again and back to square one as it will take another 1-2 weeks to get your body back into ketosis. This diet won't suit people who like to stray from their diet too often with a few carbohydrate heavy cheat meals so I'd recommend this diet as a good way to quickly drop body weight up to 8 weeks before an important event or occasion such as a holiday or photoshoot. This will enable you to stay focused on the diet as you'll have a deadline for your goal and won't be too tempted to come off your diet. This diet can suit people whose carbohydrate intake is already very low as it won't be too taxing to get used to it but it can also be perfect for people with a short amount of time (3-4 weeks) to drop their body fat quickly.

I follow this diet almost all year round as it's an easy way to stay lean as it keeps my metabolism fast and I generally feel healthier when on it. With my carbohydrate intake drastically reduced I hardly ever experience any negative effects associated with eating carbohydrates such as bloating, water retention, lethargicness or crashes.

Around 8 weeks out from something important i'll start to be very strict with my diet and ensure everything I eat is accounted for as I stay under 50g of carbohydrates per day. My training will include 2 cardio sessions and 4 weight sessions per week. Cardio will be one session of HIIT and one of LISS. Around 4 weeks out I'll drop my carbohydrate intake to 30g per day and increase my cardio sessions to 4 times per week and reduce weight sessions down to 2-3 times per week, which will be full body circuits. The cardio sessions will be HIIT and LISS, 2 of each performed first thing in the morning before breakfast as fasted cardio.

The supplements I used to help me along the way were LA Whey Gold to increase my protein intake, Norateen Heavyweight II to aid with muscle growth, Sculpt to protect my muscle when dieting, Limitless for energy and mental focus and Thermoxen for help suppressing my appetite. I also like to use a combination of Possessed and Vasculator to get a good muscle pump in my workouts and Repo for muscle recovery.

If you only want to use this diet for a short term weight loss goal to drop body fat within 3-4 weeks then you can skip straight to what I do from 4 weeks out and just stay extra vigilant with your diet and training to reach your goal.

If followed correctly, within a few weeks you'll have an impressively toned physique ready for whatever goal you've been training hard for. People will admire it and you'll be asked what is your secret! You will also be able to pull this diet and training plan out of the bag whenever you have something else you need a deadline to be ready by. But don't take my word for it, give it a go and see the results for yourself!