#11 Robert Sikes – Keto Savage

From a measly 115 pounds to a miserable 230 pounds to a ketogenic professional bodybuilder, Robert has blazed his own trail.

Robert was not dealt a good hand with regards to becoming an elite bodybuilder.  He was skinny as a rail and had no gym experience whatsoever.  His first bench was an ice chest and his first weight set was pieces of loose steel his father had laying around the shop.  He didn’t have a clue about nutrition or training but he was hungry to learn.

He started following conventional wisdom in the bodybuilding community that suggested he eat TONS of calories (mostly from crap carbs) to gain muscle.  So…he did.  He ate 6,000 calories a day and went from skinny to fat with the hopes of someday competing.

Robert continued to follow conventional wisdom when he prepped for his first bodybuilding competition, this was, a disaster.  He won the show but at quite a cost.  He lost 70 pounds in three months, nearly starved himself to death, lost a ton of hard earned muscle, and developed extreme eating disorders.

There had to be a better way….

Then, Robert discovered the keto diet.  For the past 3 years he has maintained a strict ketogenic lifestyle year round.  He stays keto-adapted during his offseason, throughout his contest prep, for peak week, and post show.

The lean and flexible Robert has since won his pro-card, all while following the ketogenic diet.  This new way of life has allowed him to 10X his performance physically AND mentally!

Robert created the brand “Keto Savage” to share the wisdom of the ketogenic diet.  It embodies the legacy he is trying to leave: “Believe in yourself,  dig deep in your passion, and put in the work.  You can become extraordinary”

One of Robert’s favorite recipes can be found here: https://youtu.be/BlT4Fd2mnvc

His website is http://ketosavage.com

SHOW NOTES

• He was 115 pounds when he was starting working out
• Bulked up to 225 pounds on off season
• Cut down to 150 pounds in 3 months
• Had eating disorder and lost a lot of muscles
• Had been Keto for about 3 years and hadn’t look back then
• The first year when I started competing was the year 2012
• And I did 2 more in 2014 or 2015 and then up to this yea, 2017

HOW AND WHEN DID YOU START KETO?

• I started Keto after my 3^rd show
• I was doing John Kiefer carb back loading protocol.
  Basically, you have to stay Keto at the first part of the day and at night you can have carbs
• The science is pretty interesting and I did not gain really much of body fat so I was doing that
• I noticed I felt better before I was introduced to carbs. So I just kind of started removing them and it became full on Keto
• I have continued that approached and I haven’t have a carb based meal in about 3 years now
• I got my pro card at the first competition
• I’ve done about 4 and half months of prep to go into those competitions
• Typically competitors will leave proteins really high, and fat and carbs down. And I did the exact opposite
• My carbs were really low, my fat was high and protein
• Towards the end, I have about 1600 calories and 65 grams of proteins.
  Where as the other competitors were all taken about 300 grams of protein and 30 grams fat
• My intake was 300 grams of calories at that time.
  I was not tracking religiously
• My protein was probably a bit higher. I was probably around 70% grams
• I actually probably had more carbs
• My mindset was if I were Keto, my energy would be coming from fat.
  I don’t want to play with it. So I am going to leave that high and make protein a variable factor
• When you’re on the off-season, the primary focus is to build and maintain muscle. That is why I did not worry so much about taping my protein in prep because Ketones themselves are muscles sparing
• So I was much more concern about losing muscle and when I a trying to build muscle, I just slowly increase the protein
• But I still prefer a fairly high-fat ratio
• What we are doing now is a 3 month hypertrophy experiment
• The main goal is to determine what macro ratio leans itself to the most muscle gain with the least fat gain
• Kind of basically the underlining objective of what protocols best for building muscle for off-season with Keto
• The first month is a high protein ratio.
• All the additional 500 calories came from protein.
• The second month, all the 500 calories are coming from fat
• The third month, is going to be split down in the middle.
  So it is going to be 250 of fat and 250 of protein
• For the first month, I hated it.
• People say that I am biased towards high-fat ratio and there is a reason why. It is because my body performs better.
• During the first month I was taking in more grams of protein that I was taking a grams of fat which was very start conscious to what I recommended to do typically
• My body fats increased quite a bit which I expected because it was a surplus but not that much
• My muscle gain was very minimal compared to what I anticipated.
  So there were no really benefits.
• Plus I really felt worse, I felt groggier, more tired and more bloated.
• So I am not advocating a higher protein
• The second month, I haven’t test my body on how the fat has done, but I feel much more better, much more mentally clear and much more energy
• As soon as I increased the fat ration from the beginning of this month, I was literally able to wake-up to my alarm at 4:00 in the morning and have so much more energy, where as I was on the high protein month, I was literally hitting the snooze button.
• I did not expect a change overnight, but it basically happened overnight.
• Right now my protein is in 110 grams a day and I weigh 185 pounds.
• Compared to most bodybuilding style protocols, they are doubled that easily even triple
• I haven’t been on a test yet, but I feel I’ve built muscle
• In 3 years of doing Keto, I know that I’ve built muscle with Keto ratio
• There is a big difference between being in Ketosis and being fat adapted
• You can be in Ketosis in a matter of days especially if you cut out your carbs and do some fasting. You body’s going to be producing some Ketones and you’ll be registering above point 5 which is a standard being in Ketosis
• It does take some time for your body to really become efficient and settling those ketones into the cells and using that as a primary store
• But it is different for everybody especially for some people.
• But I’ll say, having been adapted for 3 years, it just keeps getting better
• Your body becomes more efficient
• Some used fat for fuel it is just not optimized. It is not efficient as they can get going forward to the future
• Your body’s going to continue to adapt to become more efficient on what is given.
  So if you’re continually using ketones or continually eating Ketogenic based diet then your body’s going to be more adapted
• Women are a little bit different from the hormonal stand point
• There are some studies and researches that women would benefit more from trace carbs coming in
• I have several clients that are strict Keto and they perform just fine and better
• So it just takes long for that adaptation to occur and if they give it more time, they’ll lose the need for carbs
• I’m a big fan of total carbs
• There’s a lot of science that indicates that the fiber is not metabolizing the same ways as the net carbs and that’s true
• But from a weight-loss perspective, I found much better results with getting total carbs and keeping those minimal
• My body seems to up right pretty well with minimal vegetable, but I still really to get micro dents vegetables when I do

A DAY IN YOUR DIET

• Last month was crazy because I was eating leaner stuff to get the high protein, but this month is just typical for me
• I wake up and have a Keto coffee. It normally has a couple tablespoon of butter, heavy cream or MCT
• My first meal is usually around noon or 2:00 PM and that can be anything from organic sausage or egg omelet
• Typical dinner meal for me looks like a rib eye steak or a salad with sardines, sometimes I do miracle rice for dessert that’s got have a bunch of almond butter and heavy cream
• Being a body builder, I keep my meals pretty simple

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE?

• Have a long game mentality
• You have to kind of have a long game approach and play for a long term and if you will do that, you will enjoy the process and it becomes not only easy to maintain but enjoyable
• If you have a doubt in you mind, tracking is a key
• When I am competing or prepping, I track everything
• Some people just want to have a healthy lifestyle, then that’s totally fine
• But if they want to change their body composition or obtain a certain look or goal, then just removing variables and tracking as much as possible is kind of make it much more come to life and you’ll be able to understand why you’re seeing the results that you’re seeing

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?

• My next competition would be in the year 2020 probably
• Until then, I will be experimenting and building muscles as much as possible. Refine the whole process
• Building my brand for my business perspective
• Start a clothing line
• But mostly on focusing on refining the diet and building muscles as much as possible
• The Keto brick is basically a complete meal replacement bar
• This thing is a thousand calories per brick
• It is basically a full blown Ketogenic
• The ratio is 80% fat and you can have an entire Keto meal that you can take with you anywhere
• There’s no nut and dairy in there
• When I am really in a low caloric intake and training really hard, and I am starving then I eat the miracle rice
• I like the rice because it kind of simulates like oatmeal or you can put it in the blender make exact consistency
• And I’ll put almond butter and Walden’s farm brand syrup which is zero calories

QUOTES

• Better to fall in failure that stay in mediocrity

• I listened “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday
• I listen to that on repeat every single time I am in a contest prep at the gym
• Anybody can do anything
• The power of thought and the power where you put your energy is literally saying anybody can do anything
• I started the launch of the website and the book on July 1^st of 2016
• The book is called “The Keto Adapted Performance Manual”

HOW CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU?

• Facebook: Keto Savage
• Youtube: Keto Savage
• Website: ketosavage.com
• Instagram: @ketosavage.com

• BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

FOR WOMEN

• I would suggest to give it a little more time
• Do not compare yourself to other people
• Just focus on you
• Give the time that it needs and takes
• Play for the long glame

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