Ketogenic Bodybuilding: A Natural Athlete’s Guide to Competitive Savagery

What makes me qualified to write a book on ketogenic bodybuilding? That’s a fair question. After all, since the ketogenic diet has become popular, keto coaches are now a dime a dozen. Everyone seems to know how to coach you on your keto journey and what meals and macros will help you reach the goal! Still, optimizing your nutrition, especially in the context of preparing for a bodybuilding competition, shouldn’t be taken lightly.

So, what makes the principles laid out in the following pages more qualified than any of the other keto resources that turn up in a simple Google search? Well, for starters, I’m an actual bodybuilder. I am a natural athlete and have decided never to introduce illegal, performance-enhancing drugs into my protocol. I’m also keto-adapted and have been for the past seven years — no “falling o the wagon,” no carb-laden uncontrolled binge fests and no compromises! I practice what I preach, and I do so every damn day!

Before finding keto, I had followed a traditional, “bro-dieting” approach to my nutrition. I would eat every two or three hours, and I would count my calories and macros to the gram. I followed this protocol for the first ve years of my bodybuilding career. I experienced “success” in the sport in the sense of building muscle and being able to get incredibly lean for a competition, but that success was short-lived, and it was far from sustainable. I developed severe eating disorders and had a terrible relationship with food. My hormones would take a nosedive with every prep I went through. I all but lost my mental clarity. I was the poster boy example of a stereotypical bodybuilder: chicken and rice at every meal, disordered eating and zombie mode toward the latter half of my prep. I experienced massive drops in strength and stamina, I had zero sex drive and I went through harmful surges of body fat after shows, followed by the negative cycle repeating all over again. I was not the perfect picture of health, and I had no idea where to turn.

In 2014, I started dabbling with “carb-backloading,” a dieting approach in which you remove all carbs during the day and only consume meats and veggies. At night, you are supposed to ingest a large bolus of high glycemic carbohydrates to intentionally spike insulin and provide fuel for the following day’s workout. This was all fine and dandy, but I noticed that I had GI distress on the days following the massive carb-ups. I decided to avoid them entirely and see what happened. Lo and behold, I felt better in the absence of carbohydrates. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my first foray into the keto diet.

In 2014, there was zero hype about the ketogenic diet. There were no food products, no podcasts, no books, no nothing. I was in uncharted territory, but I was experiencing benets and decided to run with it. I noticed an almost immediate improvement in my relationship with food, and my battle with disordered eating started to subside — that alone was reason enough for me to stick with it, but that wasn’t all that changed. I experienced a drastic improvement in my gym performance.

My inflammation disappeared, and I cut my recovery time in half. My energy, both physically and mentally, shot through the roof! My strength steadily improved, and it was much easier to maintain a lean physique without all the chronic calorie counting. I didn’t know exactly what I was doing, but I knew I was on to something!

In 2017, I decided it was about time to step onstage again. By that point, I had been following the keto diet for a few years, and I felt pretty confident about its effects on my overall health. I was unsure how competitive I would be on a bodybuilding stage with keto, but I figured it was worth a shot and that I’d blaze my trail or die trying.

There were no keto coaches at that time and certainly none that were competitive bodybuilders, so I was flying blind and learning as I went. I tracked every morsel of every macro that went into my mouth. I tested blood ketones, glucose, hormones, everything! I took detailed progress pics and measurements, tracking my training and assessing how I felt. I left no stone unturned and documented everything to the best of my ability. I wanted to learn as much as humanly possible and pave the way to a healthier protocol for competition prep dieting.

When the show day finally arrived, I was at peace with myself. I knew I had put in the work, and I was prepared to let the judges take it from there. I meditated until it was my turn to step on stage. Fortunately, the judges liked what they saw.

I brought a level of conditioning that I had never achieved before. My skin was paper-thin, showcasing every artery, vein and capillary that could possibly be seen. I filled out and had a crazy pump that took all the other competitors by surprise. As I waltzed onto center stage, I knew I had just brought a level of conditioning to the table that was going to redefine what was possible in the world of natural bodybuilding.

And what’s more, I did it following a strict ketogenic protocol that I developed myself through rigorous trial and error and self-experimentation. I earned my bodybuilding pro-card that day. From then on, I proudly wore the title of professional, natural, ketogenic bodybuilder — one I still hold very dear and carry with pride.

I’ve since dedicated my life to refining my methods and teaching others these techniques. I genuinely believe it to be significantly healthier than traditional dieting methods. It’s incredibly sustainable, as I’ve followed it flawlessly for the past seven years. My performance has only improved, and my lifestyle is optimized. Unfortunately, the industry is still filled with doubters clinging to their dogmatic beliefs about carbohydrates being required in the sport of performance bodybuilding. Their ignorant interpretations of the diet can sway you — or, you can listen to me.

I’ve coached hundreds to success with my methods, many of whom have earned their pro status and since become coaches themselves. I don’t have all the answers, but I am condent I know one thing pretty damn well: how to optimize your health and performance by leveraging the ketogenic diet. I’ve quite literally made this my life’s purpose. After battling with disordered eating for years and being lost in a sea of endless information regarding human performance, I set out to discover the solution. Ketogenic natural bodybuilding is that solution. So, if the possibility of taking control of your nutrition, removing the guesswork from the sport of bodybuilding and becoming an overall badass excites you, please continue to the next page.

This is an excerpt from Ketogenic Bodybuilding: A Natural Athlete’s Guide to Competitive Savagery published by Legacy Launch Pad. Purchase the book here.