Importance of Depleting Muscle Glycogen on Cyclical Ketogenic Diet

Dear Lyle,

I’ve been following the Body Opus diet for a couple months now, but not too precise. What I mean by that is that Monday and Tuesday training I’ve substituted, with Mike Mentzer’s advice to those who do not make continual gains, the consolidation routine. I do this by working out only every Monday (but include the depletion workout of Friday) and it consists of a 2 day program: 1-leg press, shoulder press, and pulldowns, 2-deadlifts, incline press, calf raises, abs.

Now that I’ve given you my background, my question is this: Should I follow the original workout schedule outlined by Duchaine or should I follow Mentzer’s advice as to keep training less doing no isolation exercises?

P.S. How has Dan’s “Body Contract” worked with people?

My first question would be simply this: How is the diet working for you? If you’re losing fat at a rate that is acceptable to you, then don’t change anything.

However, I doubt this is the case. One potential ‘problem’ with Cyclical ketogenic diets is that, to make them work optimally, you really need to deplete muscle glycogen completely within the span of 5 days. This requires quite a bit of volume (see other questions this month). AS well, the Mon/Tue/Fri workout seems to work best.

My general feeling is to use the time tested schedule that Duchaine suggests while you’re dieting and switch back to your mass training style of choice (in your case, Heavy Duty) when you come off of your diet. This should optimize fat loss (meaning that you don’t have to diet as long) but can make the mass gains that you want. Of course if you’re losing fat at a rate that you’re happier with, don’t change a thing.

As to Dan’s Body Contract workout, I don’t know anyone who has tried it. Since I don’t have two training partners, I can’t try it myself.

About the author

Lyle McDonald

Lyle McDonald+ is the author of the Ketogenic Diet as well as the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook and the Guide to Flexible Dieting. He has been interested in all aspects of human performance physiology since becoming involved in competitive sports as a teenager. Pursuing a degree in Physiological Sciences from UCLA, he has devoted nearly 20 years of his life to studying human physiology and the science, art and practice of human performance, muscle gain, fat loss and body recomposition.