Keto Bodybuilding: 7 Phases To Transform Your Physique

Can a ketogenic diet really help you achieve bodybuilding glory?

Maybe you’ve plateaued at the gym, and those stubborn fat stores just won't budge. Or perhaps you’re struggling to unlock a new level of performance or get stage-ready for your first competition.

You’re craving some serious definition — to build the ultimate physique that screams hard work, self-discipline, and dedication — without the “bro science.”

Keto bodybuilding is a tried-and-true solution to achieving these goals! It harnesses the fat-burning power of a ketogenic diet while strategically training your body to build and preserve slabs of lean muscle.

My 7-phase Keto Bodybuilding Premium Course cracks open the secrets of keto nutrition and training to forge the champion’s body you desire. So, let’s review how a keto diet differs from other high-carb, high-protein diets, and then I’ll share my proven game plan.

Why Keto Diets Ignite Your Fat-Burning Furnace

A ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet. The goal? To reach and maintain the metabolic state of ketosis, where your body shifts from burning glucose for fuel (from carbs or muscle glycogen stores) to running on ketone bodies (from fatty acids).[*]

Fat is a superior energy source. It provides a steady, long-lasting burn, unlike the quick and fleeting sparks you get on higher carbohydrate diets. That means no more blood sugar spikes, sugar crashes, or setting alarms to eat every 2–3 hours.

Reach ketosis, and your body torches your body fat reserves for energy. This skyrockets weight loss — specifically, fat loss — without compromising your endurance, strength, or performance.[*][*][*]

Bonus? Keto dieters also experience elevated mental health benefits. We’re talking higher brain power and attention to focus during your workouts and prevent injuries.[*] Or less anxiety to keep your head in the game throughout this challenging journey.[*]

But Can You Build Muscle On Keto?

Research shows that keto diets, combined with a strategic training program, can help you:

• Build twice as much lean body mass and muscle mass [*]
• Preserve your hard-earned muscle tissue (even during a calorie deficit!) [*][*]
• Lower inflammation to support muscle repair, growth, and recovery [*][*]

🤔  Intrigued? Read this guide: Can You Build Muscle On Keto? Science Says Yes!

So while carbs are traditionally seen as the holy grail for muscle hypertrophy (aka muscle growth), a high-fat, low-carb diet like keto optimizes your muscle gains while shedding fat and boosting your physical and mental performance. You couldn’t ask for anything better.

The key to achieving these wins? A well-designed, step-by-step keto bodybuilding program.

The 7 Phases of Keto Bodybuilding

It’s time to ditch the guesswork and get dialed in. Building a shredded physique, whether for competition or pure aesthetics, requires a strategic, clear-cut blueprint that helps you get leaner and avoid common pitfalls during the process.

My how-to Keto Bodybuilding course covers everything from mindset and technical prep to perfectly adjusting your macros to melt away fat while maintaining muscle and optimal hormonal health.

The first step starts with the Preliminary Groundwork. This foundation covers keto-specific guidelines, pre- and post-workout nutrition, fasting, your relationship with food, choosing a show, and more. With these basics covered, you’ll be primed to conquer:

Phase 1: Establish Your Baseline

Phase 1 determines your future success. You’ll weigh in and assess your body weight, body fat percentage, and ideal targets. We’ll use this data to calculate your starting caloric intake and initial macronutrient ratios (carbs, fat, and protein).

Can’t you just plug this data into an online macro calculator? You could, but they wouldn’t be personalized for your unique body or metabolic needs. I’ll show you how to:

Find your true starting calorie intake. It’s essential to begin with a slight calorie surplus or true maintenance intake during Phase 1. This gives your body enough caloric runway to work with when we start slashing calories later. Start too low, and you won’t have enough calories to manipulate come cutting time, which will lead to poor results and even crummier feelings.

Determine your starting macronutrients. Your macros will not be fixed on my blueprint — they will continually evolve as your body changes. We’ll:

• Start with a high fat intake (80% of calories) to push your body into ketosis. Fat is your primary fuel source now, and your goal is to maximize fat adaptation and keep your energy levels high.
• Cap total carbs at 20 grams per day. Don’t worry; I’ll dive into how your body’s natural process of gluconeogenesis provides what little glucose your body actually needs.
• Determine how many grams of protein you need from the rest. Your protein intake takes a backseat to fat here, but that won’t last forever.
  

📊  Data is power. Stop guessing and start making actionable, data-driven decisions with my ultimate spreadsheet for calculating and tracking your personalized macros.

Uncover your training baseline. Forget intuitive cardio or strength training. We’ll find your baseline, track your progress, and know exactly where to demand more from your body to optimize muscle building. Then you can strategically embrace progressive overload tips (increasing weight, reps, or sets over time) and follow cardio progression.

🏋️  I’ll cover training for keto specifically, advanced training techniques, adapting your resistance training over time, my favorite cardio activity (spoiler: it’s not the treadmill), and more. You’ll even score my 8-day split training routine and a pump-up circuit for Show Day.

Phase 2: Establish Your Protein Threshold

You should be in deep ketosis by Phase 2. So, you’ll need to start decreasing dietary fat and increasing your daily amount of protein. 

Protein delivers the essential amino acids that trigger muscle protein synthesis (MPS) and support muscle gains. But you can’t gorge yourself here.

Your protein threshold is the unique point at which you specifically start to notice an adverse effect from continually increasing protein.

So we’ll use the spreadsheet to track week-by-week changes, look for protein threshold indicators, and fine-tune these macros for building.

Phase 3: Taper Macros

After being relatively conservative with your calorie deficit in Phase 2, we'll start to get more aggressive in this phase. You’ll decrease your macros across the board.

Many trainers oversimplify here by knocking off 20% of your daily calories or a standard 500. But I believe in gradually and methodically chipping away at your macros each week. It’s an easier, more sustainable way to create the caloric deficit you need to sculpt your masterpiece.

We’ll tweak your resistance training regime and start increasing your cardio at this time too, tracking metrics and using the spreadsheet as we go.

This is where champions are made. Your mind will start playing tricks on you, and you may doubt the process. So take bi-weekly progress photos and track your strength gains to see the physical, tangible changes you’re making.

💪  Leverage my Nutrition Toolkit for easy meal plans, grocery lists, hunger-crushing hacks, and more to keep your momentum going during this challenging phase!

Phase 4: Introduce Ketogenic Caloric Refeeds

There’s a lot of confusion about refeed days. But a correctly implemented keto caloric refeed can help optimize your physique and overall mental and physical health in several ways. 

They can temporarily boost your metabolism, allow you to continue lowering body fat, and empower you to bust through late-game plateaus.

However, if you introduce refeeds too early, your body will not respond well. You also won’t see results if you treat this phase like a feeding frenzy.

So the focus here is learning how to strategically increase your dietary fat and protein during refeed days, analyze their impact, and manipulate your electrolytes for greatness (sodium, potassium, and magnesium). We’ll explore how to make calculated manipulations to your training too.

😎  Take full advantage of my Supplements Appendix. Dial in on electrolyte supplements, vitamins, creatine, caffeine, protein powders, exogenous ketones, MCTs, and more!

Phase 5: Peak Week and Show Day

Peaking properly is an art. We’ll determine what your body responds best to and implement it flawlessly to master competition prep and dominate your fellow competitors — even as a first-timer.

Your Peak Week Pass includes: setting expectations, learning what NOT to do, training and cardio manipulations, refeed meals, and tips for posing and managing stress and travel.

Your Show Day insights cover the morning of the show, Show Day nutrition, routine and training, posing onstage, placing and awards, and what to do after the awards in the following days.

🏆  Step on stage with confidence! The Posing and Judging Appendix contains everything from posing tutorials and routine pointers to what to wear, hair removal, competition drug testing, music, and more!

Phase 6 and Phase 7: Reverse Dieting

Many people experience drastic post-contest weight gain when adhering to a mainstream cutting regime and then spiral into eating disorders.

Having a roadmap for reverse dieting ensures you won't experience a negative rebound post-show and put on excessive body fat.

Phase 6 covers Reverse Diet Refeeds. You’ll learn why reverse dieting is necessary, how to form a reverse diet refeed plan, reverse diet training and cardio, and more.

Phase 7 details a Reverse Diet Baseline and Beyond. We’ll phase out refeeds, increase total calorie intake, monitor body composition and strength progression, make weightlifting and cardio adjustments, and discuss when you can jump into another prep.

Stop Winging It; Start Winning It

The internet is full of conflicting information when it comes to keto bodybuilding — and trust me — winging it can lead to frustration and stalled progress. But sculpting your dream physique shouldn’t be a guessing game.

That’s why my Keto Bodybuilding Premium Course cuts through the noise, giving you a proven system, tools, and guidance designed for muscle-building success.

Enroll now to secure LIFETIME access to our ENTIRE COURSE LIBRARY (200+ videos), PLUS exclusive downloads, discounts, and perks! YOUR transformation story starts HERE!