Episode 172: Robert Sikes ON Mastering Keto Bodybuilding

In this episode of the Ketones and Coffee podcast, I interview Robert Sikes, also known as Keto Savage, the CEO and founder of Keto Savage and Keto Brick. Robert shares insights from his extensive experience in ketogenic bodybuilding, discussing his approach to diet and training, the benefits of a ketogenic diet for bodybuilders, and practical advice on diet adjustment, competition preparation, and maintaining balance between personal life and fitness goals. 

Our conversation also delves into the mental aspects of bodybuilding, the importance of gradual calorie reduction, and the efficacy of the ketogenic diet compared to traditional bodybuilding diets. Additionally, Sykes introduces his comprehensive ketogenic bodybuilding prep course and emphasizes the significance of commitment and discipline in achieving fitness goals.

00:00 Welcome Robert Sykes: A Deep Dive into Keto Bodybuilding

00:35 Robert's Journey: Competitions, Business, and Family Life

01:16 Achievements and the Power of Keto in Bodybuilding

02:44 Balancing Business, Family, and Fitness

04:04 The Philosophy of No Regrets and Living Fully

06:27 Understanding the Bodybuilder's Routine and Diet

09:56 The Science of Keto Bodybuilding and Diet Optimization

20:52 The Importance of Gradual Caloric Reduction

31:25 Commitment and Discipline: The Key to Transformation

34:35 Introducing the Contest Prep Course: A Game Changer

36:21 Closing Thoughts and Gratitude

Connect with Keto Savage www.ketosavage.com

Keto Bricks: www.ketobrick.com

Comprehensive Keto Bodybuilding Course: www.ketobodybuilding.com


Call to action for listeners: Follow ketones and Coffee Podcast on Instagram ( https://www.instagram.com/keton.esncoffee ), Youtube ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZZmBEenvZnU8tA1npAODA ), 

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Transcript

Lorenz: 0:49

So I decided this guys today, we have a special guest joining us, Robert Sykes, AKA Keto Savage, the CEO and founder of Keto Savage, a health and fitness company and CEO and founder of Keto brick, a ketogenic meal replacement bar. He also wrote a bodybuilding. Robert Sykes, welcome back to the ketones, the coffee podcast, man.

Robert: 1:11

Hey man, I appreciate you having me. I'm excited to be here chatting with you. It's an honor yet again.

Lorenz: 1:16

Awesome, man. So I had you first back here April, 2022 episode 72, actually. Fast forward today, two years after episode one 72, if you can believe it, how have you been, man?

Robert: 1:30

It's been, it's been a crazy few years, man, as, as we can all attest. I mean, 2020 was wild. 2022, 2024. It's crazy. It's now 2024, but yeah, this past year has been a, a doozy for me with all the competitions and the having a kiddo and then all the business endeavors. So we've been going a million miles an hour, but we're just, It's happy to keep trucking, man. We got a lot going on right now, but it's all exciting stuff.

Lorenz: 1:54

a million miles an hour is right, man. I followed your socials, man. And, you know, COVID didn't really slow you down, brother. So, I, I was following you on socials, man. You first talk at KetoCon when I first had you on. And since then, you've been a monster on stage, brother. You've grown your business. Like you talked about in October, you won WNBF natural pro bodybuilder. Congratulations. And you talked about complete absence of carbohydrates, bro. How does that feel, man?

Robert: 2:23

It's good, man. I mean, I've been doing keto now for eight or nine years, and I competed in 2017 with the ketogenic approach. I got my pro card in a different federation then, and then I died it down in 2020 to compete, but then COVID canceled that like a week before the show. So 2020 yeah. Three was, was time to just get, get to work and you know, put, put what I had learned to the table from a ketogenic standpoint and did five competitions over the course of a few months. I think my first one was end of September. The last one was mid November. So very busy competition season last year and we were traveling nonstop, driving to most of these shows from one end of the coast to the next you know, with a one and a half year old driving with us, so it was total chaos, but a great experience for sure and it was awesome to do it all with the ketogenic approach, you know.

Lorenz: 3:12

Yeah, man. And also love when you said that, you know, and I quote, I truly hope that this win illustrates what it is possible with a well formulated ketogenic diet in the world of And that is the mic drop right there, man. You know, how in the world are you able to do all this? Man, you talked about having your businesses, being a father, man, also coaching clients on the side while doing competitions, man, like how, how do you put it in, in all, how do you fit it in your schedule now being here, you know, talking about you, you have your own podcast, like how, how, how are you able to fit all of that in your schedule, man?

Robert: 3:50

man? sometimes I don't know. I feel like I'm spread pretty thin right now, to be honest. Like, I'm trying to prioritize things, and I don't sleep very much. I can certainly say that I sacrifice sleep, which is not ideal by any means, but that's just kind of what tends to get pushed on the back burner, is sleep. But yeah, man, I feel like there's just, we all have the same amount of time in a day. You got to prioritize the things that you want to focus on. I don't do many things that waste time. I don't spend hours scrolling on Instagram. I don't watch Netflix. I don't have a TV. So I don't do any time wasting things by any means.

Lorenz: 4:24

Maybe I should have that. Tutorial from you for not not going on social media too much and scrolling. Right? You you know, I'm very grateful for what you're doing, man. You're putting everybody on notice. Like, I subscribed on your emails. And if I if I were you, I would too. No junk, as promised, right? Keto bodybuilding. com. And there was a quote there, man, that resonated with me, that reads and I won't read the whole quote. It says, It goes, regret is far worse feeling than a temporary low. Like, a regret is far worse than feeling temporary low. I like that, man. And that might be the quote for me. I just want to pick your brain today on what that means to you, man. Like, what does that really mean to you? Like, going back to, you know, from where you started what does that mean?

Robert: 5:15

Yeah, I mean, regret, like I used to be filled with regret. I mean, there was times where I was working a job I didn't like. I knew I was doing things that I wasn't passionate about and I didn't feel like I was living to my full potential. And now there's a lot of things that I have left to do. I don't feel like my life is done by any means. But I feel very confident that I'm spending my time doing the things that I am meant to be doing. I feel like I'm making a positive impact in this world. And for that reason, if I literally was not able to wake up tomorrow, if I didn't wake up tomorrow, I can confidently say that I was able to live and die without regret and things left undone. Yes, there's things I still want to do, but I'm doing everything in my power to do those things. I'm not leaving Anything in the tank, so to speak. And I think with that comes periods of time where you're just like drained and depleted and exhausted and fatigued. But I'm not feeling regret, you know, so there's definitely low moments, but I'd rather have those low moments than a sense of regret or feeling of inadequacy. So that's what it means for me.

Lorenz: 6:18

Yeah, man, that's strong when you're like, you're having that bad day. That's strong. That quote, I'll keep that in mind. Right somewhere, you know, it's just very powerful when you think about it. You know, down the line when, when it's all said and done, man, you don't want to have a full of regrets. Awesome, man. You know, when I first had you on the show, you talked about your story and how. You broke free from disordered eating, you developed from bodybuilding, and how, you know, the ketogenic diet not only improved your relationship with food, but also allowed you to surpass even your current level of health and success. I know we talked about how athletes in the bodybuilding community may struggle with, you know, disordered eating. And I want to understand that, like, Can you take us through what goes into a, you know, maybe a routine of a bodybuilder at the start of the prep and then the weeks after the competition is done, what goes into that that we don't understand as regular people that doesn't understand that world?

Robert: 7:17

Yeah, I mean, well, traditionally, bodybuilders, regardless of the diet you're following, you're typically tracking everything with a high degree of accuracy, like you're weighing out your food, you're measuring your macros, you're Fats, proteins, carbohydrates consumed, your calories consumed, and you know, you're adjusting your calorie and you're training appropriately so it's just a very measured, regimented approach and you do that for, you know, many, many weeks, many, many months, like my last prep was 33 weeks as an example, and you get really lean, you get really depleted, really dialed in your hormones are in a state of flux youryour metabolism is downregulated, your leptin and ghrelin hormones that regulate hunger and satiety are totally out of whack And then when that show is over, and there's nothing left on the calendar to work towards, it's very easy for many people to just throw all caution to the wind and eat everything in sight because they've felt depleted and restricted for so long. And with that, there's just a very negative downward spiral that oftentimes comes as that being the catalyst. And I mean, for me, my first show, I gained, you know, 20 pounds literally in 24 hours. And I just felt very frustrated with myself. I didn't have any self discipline. I feel like I just thrown away all the hard work that I'd worked, you know, so hard for to get to that level of conditioning and just thrown it away in an instant. And a lot of people that are following more of a traditional diet, you know, they'll, Eat really clean, like a chicken, broccoli, rice kind of approach. And then when that show was over, they just eat a whole bunch of junk food, lots of, you know, cakes, pizzas, and pies and things of that nature, cookies. And, you know, that's. Just kind of leaning into that disordered eating tendency for me with this last prep, especially I never changed the style of foods I was eating it was all the same types of foods all the good quality foods. I never like, you know Sacrificed a type of food that I enjoyed eating. I just simply Change the amount that I was eating. And when you're following a well formulated ketogenic diet, you're not eating really any processed junk food anyways. So after the show was over, I just simply scaled that intake back up slowly. But again, all coming from the same foods that I enjoy eating anyway. So it was much easier to bridge that gap and not kind of go into a tailspin after the show was over.

Lorenz: 9:31

Yeah, you can imagine like if you, if you go after a show, after a competition, it would go, you know, eat whatever you wanted just because you've been preparing for this for 33 weeks and you've, you've, you talked about being depleted. You know, and packing a lot of weight, you know, weeks after competition, then there's a lot of you know, struggle that happens internally when you, when you talked about, you worked hard, work your ass off just to get into a level of physique and then, you know, you let yourself go you know, just because the competition is over. Right. Do you think. The ketogenic diet allows you to be more, I wouldn't say disciplined, but more dialed in with lifestyle, you think?

Robert: 10:23

Evan Brand Yeah, well, the ketogenic diet, you know, if implemented properly, puts a pretty high emphasis of importance on, you know, sourcing your food from quality, quality ingredients from quality animal sources, knowing your local farmer and rancher, ideally like a lot of that is placed in high regard on a well formulated ketogenic diet. And if you're following that kind of as the baseline, then it's, It's harder to deviate from that willingly because you understand and appreciate how quality food matters. So if you don't really deviate that from, from that much on the norm, then after the show is over, then you don't really have that broadest spectrum to try and stray away from. So it's kind of healthy and helpful in that regard. Now you will gain some body fat for sure. Like right now, I'm, I'm you know, several pounds up from what I was at the leanest stage weight, and that's okay. That's what you want. Like, you can't maintain that show day level of conditioning indefinitely. And you've got to embrace that body fat that comes at a healthy rate and be okay with that, too. And that's not easy either. I mean, it's hard to see yourself super dialed in and conditioned. And then like embrace body fat gain and not having that level of definition, but, but you have to have that yin to the yang, so to speak.

Lorenz: 11:35

So would you say that on the ketogenic diet, when you're doing prep for a competition, you weren't necessarily dieting? You're not changing your Diet drastically from like eating a high carb meal to a, you know, chicken breast and broccoli type of meal just to be ready for a competition. But on a ketogenic diet, you're, you're basically just, you know, adjusting your fat intake and your protein intake, but you're essentially just eating the same meals. Does that

Robert: 12:06

Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty much doing the exact same thing whether I'm in a prep or not, it's just the amounts that I'm eating that changes and the level of accuracy and tracking. Yeah, because when I'm in a prep, I'm tracking everything, I'm weighing everything to the gram, everything is very dialed in, but it's all the same foods that I eat now in the building phase. Yeah. Thanks.

Lorenz: 12:24

How important is it? Do you think that being dialed in and tracking everything you even track hormone production? Right? I believe?

Robert: 12:34

I track, I mean, I get my blood work done, so I can see where my hormones are at, but I track, you know, electrolyte consumption, so how much salt I'm adding to my foods, like I track everything.

Lorenz: 12:43

Is that something that regular bodybuilders I mean, you know, non keto bodybuilders do? Is that something that they track normally or not?

Robert: 12:54

They'll normally always, you know, weigh their foods and get that, you know, macros tracked. Not everybody weighs their salt and electrolytes not everybody gets blood work drawn, but for me, the more, the more data you have, the better. You know, you can structure the plan and just make sure things are dialed in. I mean, what, what can be measured can be managed. So for me, I like having all the data that I possibly can.

Lorenz: 13:15

What do you think is the most important data that you've added since keto that helped you, you know, stay consistent or maintain the level of physique that you have, plus you know, feeling good at the same time. Cause I, I, I, I'm not a bodybuilder by any means, right. But I, I do know when you do lower your calorie intake, that it, it can get depleted, you can get depleted. Is there a data that you've started tracking that helped your journey? If you would rank it number one in your list, what would that be?

Robert: 13:58

That's a good question. I don't think there's like a objective data point that I think is, you know, has made a profound difference for me. So it's more so just the perspective overall, like I've done. So many competition preps now that I know what to expect and how my body is going to respond at a given caloric intake at a different macronutrient distribution and ratio with a certain amount of cardio, with a certain amount of resistance training and intensity. So like, honestly, just the more shows I do, the more perspective I gain. And I've got this innate sense of how my body is feeling and performing at a given set of variables. And that is super helpful because then I'm kind of leaning into that intuition that has come from just years of doing this. As far as like just hard data points like I track you know, body composition, body fat, attract my strength and lifting metrics so I can ensure that I'm not losing lean tissue or skeletal muscle tissue. I track, you know, you know, body composition via DEXA, calipers, in body test. Obviously, I track my weight and, you know, my macronutrients and total calories. So those are all good numbers and variables to track but honestly, just the the perspective gained over years of doing it is probably the most valuable asset for sure.

Lorenz: 15:11

I don't want to pin, you know, keto bodybuilders against, you know, regular bodybuilders. I don't know if I could call them regular bodybuilders. But do you think that the ketogenic diet is You know, I, I, I want to say superior option for bodybuilders, especially. And if you do, why do you think that would be,

Robert: 15:29

Well, I've done them both. Like, I've done, you know, the ketogenic approach, and then prior to going keto, I've did it, I did it, you know, traditionally with a high carb, high protein, low fat approach. And, you know, for me, I've definitely gotten leaner with a ketogenic approach. I've felt better. My hormones have been more stable. My relationship with food has improved. My performance and ability to have energy and honestly, just mental cognition and zeal for life has all improved in the depths of a prep following a ketogenic approach versus a traditional diet. So yeah, I may be a little bit biased, but I would definitely stack the ketogenic bodybuilding approach over the others for sure.

Lorenz: 16:06

How is the ketogenic diet stacking against other types of diets when in terms of just going into a prep and then going to bodybuilding, like how does it stack against other types of diets? What, what are the other diets out there, by the way, is this just the bro diet or is just a,

Robert: 16:21

Yeah, there's, I mean, several variations you know, bro diet you know, eating six or seven meals a day flexible macros, really popular. So basically just this massive emphasis towards calories and you know, tracking that, but it coming from a variety of sources. Not really as much attention towards quality of the ingredients. So lots of different approaches there. As far as main differences, especially with my protocol with the ketogenic approach, like my dietary fat stays relatively high throughout the entirety of my prep, even when I'm at that low calorie intake. My calories are lower, I'm still hungry, but since I am fat adapted and all my energy is coming from fat, both stored and dietary, by my fat, my dietary fats staying relatively high as percentage of total calories, you know, I've got a pretty good degree of of energy coming in at all times to be able to function at a higher rate. Whereas, if you're doing traditional diets, there's times where your carbs are very low. There's times where your fat is pretty much always low. And then there's times where your protein, Protein typically stays high, but protein is not a great substrate for energy. So in traditional, perhaps when you're, you know, taking in 300 grams of protein, but you're low carb and low fat, like you're not really feeling optimal. And I don't have to with a ketogenic approach.

Lorenz: 17:35

You know, I I imagine how a lot goes into a competition, obviously you want to be maintaining muscle, like you said, while you lose fat at the same time. What for you, what, what is the most important aspect of bodybuilding that, you know, going keto just makes things a lot easier. You know, we talked about, you know, just having that, you know, feeling good, you know, is, is having that energy, right? What, what is it about the ketogenic diet that makes, not easy, but easier, you could say, mentally or physically? Yeah.

Robert: 18:08

I think from a physical standpoint, like ketones are anti inflammatory having a higher fat diet, ketogenic approach typically leads to less inflammation so I'm able to train more frequently and as a natural bodybuilder. You know, being able to train more frequently and recover more efficiently is huge. So the recovery benefits are hard to go unnoticed. And then honestly, just from a mental cognition standpoint, like because ketones can cross the blood brain barrier and as ketones get higher when you're deeper into a cut, you know, like you're not having this massive downtrend in cognitive function. I'm able to You know, maintain mental acuity and clarity at a high level throughout my entire prep, whereas in the past, I would just be feeling like a zombie, like not able to carry on a conversation. And that's not really the case at all. When you take a ketogenic.

Lorenz: 18:55

Yeah. You talked about training more. How much more are we talking about, you know, comparing to, you know, when, when you were not on the ketogenic diet and when you did the ketogenic diet, how much more training are we talking about?

Robert: 19:10

My training has honestly been the same, but I recover better from my training now and I'm typically doing like a full body routine currently. So I'm training the same muscle group every single day I train, which is, you know, 56 days a week. Eso much more training frequency for a given body part. And I just have much shorter time to recovery. So that's been super beneficial. I could train with more frequency and with more intensity when I do train. So that, that's boated well for me and just adding more tissue over the years.

Lorenz: 19:41

And I've seen you train bodybuilding athletes and normal people. I, I seen you train normal people in general, you know, looking their best shapes of their lives at any age, you, you we talked about, you know, 50 year old, six year olds and you had our good friend coach Bronson. I think you coached him for the seven month cut as an example. So you, you I want to ask you about his. Your approach to his cut you had him at you posted this on Instagram and you had him to start at 2, 500 calories initially doing a high fat diet at 80%. And then over the seven month period, you gradually reduce his intake to 1, 700 and increasing protein to 190 grams at his height and 60 percent fat. And then he, he got shredded and the best he ever felt. But obviously, so you had a baseline, I believe you call it caloric maintenance at 2, 500 and gradually over the period of time tapering his calories down. What's the reason behind reducing caloric intake slowly? Why shouldn't people just drop their calories down to 1, 700 as an example?

Robert: 20:56

Yeah. Cause if you, if you start, you know, with an automatic drop of 500, a thousand calories, you will definitely lose some weight. But then you're going to plateau because your body's just going to reset at that lower metabolic set point. And then when you keep doing it, there's not really any, like you're going to run out of caloric runway. There's not really a room to taper it further. If you're having these massive aggressive calorie drops, whereas if you drop them very slowly and then you can kind of try and stay ahead of your metabolic adaptations, then you're going to be able to build up momentum and keep seeing progress as opposed to hitting those plateaus. Plus you don't want to leave any, caloric runway on the table, so to speak. So like if you're able to see a response by dropping 50 calories, then that's much safer than trying to drop by 500 calories. Like you don't want to take any more than you need to try and treat it like a minimum viable dose is key. And if you're making these very small incremental adjustments week after week after week, you can make it more sustainable. which is obviously beneficial from a psychological standpoint. But then you're also able to build up the momentum and feel confident you're not leaving any calories on the table because you are able to implement this minimum of effective dose.

Lorenz: 22:05

Yeah. And is it because we are all different? We respond to food differently. Now I imagine like somebody who is obese, let's say eating 3, 000, 4, 000, even 5, 000 calories, they have, they probably have a fast metabolism because they have to metabolize that amount. Right.

Robert: 22:27

Yeah. I mean, the metabolism is incredibly adaptable. I mean, like if you start eating more food, like your metabolism up regulates, if you start eating less food, your metabolism down regulates. People that are incredibly obese, they're often able to, you know, maintain a higher caloric threshold than people that are chronically under eating for sure because like their body's trying to, you know, maintain that higher degree of body fat that it's carrying around at all times. But I would still take a pretty gradual approach even to someone that is consuming a massive surplus like that just simply. Cause we don't know where their, their personal metabolic tipping point is. And you can't really figure that out within the degree of accuracy until you start chipping away gradually.

Lorenz: 23:09

is the problem with most. You know, the in and out, the eat less and exercise more. When we were talking about, when we were talking about people who are incredibly obese, right. When you talk about people who you know, go to their doctor and their doctor says, Hey, you got to eat less, exercise more. And they figure out like from 5, 000, they have to cut their calories to 2, 000. Right. And, you know, obviously if you cut your calories down to, down to half, Right. You're going to be you know, so depleted, right? How do you determine the optimal balance between, between that? So is that part of why we have to do it gradually?

Robert: 23:54

Yeah. Because when you're doing it gradually, like you're able to really fine tune. Various different tipping points in your body, like you're able to figure out what your unique protein threshold is. You can figure out what macronutrient distribution your body responds best to. You can measure your ketones and glucose, try to see when, where the trends are there. You can kind of be conscious of your sleep and how that is being affected as things change. But if you drastically cut your calories by a thousand, there's a massive window there and you have no idea at what point things would have started potentially changing because you just So I'm typically adjusting things in, you know, 25, 50, 70 cal70 calorie increments over the course of a week, and I'm very, very gradual with it. I'm adjusting things by 5 gram increments, 5 grams protein, 5 grams fat, very, very gradual, which makes it very sustainable. Like if you're, you know, chipping away That few of calories. I mean, you may be just simply changing your diet by reducing your intake by one whole egg a week. Whereas if you go the thousand calorie route, you're removing one or two meals a week, which is just. It's much harder to wrap your head around.

Lorenz: 25:59

And you said that you don't want to be cutting. A lot of calories and you get the same result, right? And reaching that plateau because by then you will have to cut more calories.

Robert: 26:13

Yeah. And you, I mean, people do that, like you're going to run out of calories eventually, like if you start getting like, you can only cut so far before you've got to reverse that

Lorenz: 26:22

yeah. And that's probably why, you know, the calories in that model is getting a lot little crap because of that, you know, And that's something that I've never, I haven't seen a lot of people talk about, about, you know, gradually tapering down their calories when in terms of just losing weight. And I want to go back to people who are, you know, training for a bodybuilding club. How do you ensure that clients are able to maintain strength though when I know we talk about prioritizing dietary fat during a cut. You had, you know, Brunson as an example, you know, do the same type of exercises without without lowering the load. Like how, how do you make sure that their muscle mass or they maintain strength in, in the process?

Robert: 27:16

when you're in a cut, the main goal is not to build more muscle, it's just to maintain what you've got so. You know, continuing to lift hard and heavy when you are dropping your calories is the best way that you can preserve lean tissue. It's going to be harder to lift hard as the calories are decreasing because your energy is, you know, decreasing, but if you're able to maintain that degree of intensity, then you're gonna be able to preserve that lean tissue much better because. If you start dropping into a deficit and you start reducing your training load, your body is going to become more susceptible to tapping into that stored lean tissue as a way to make up that caloric void. But if you continue to demand that tissue be used, Then it's gonna be, you know, it's gonna fight to preserve that. So, so really trying to maintain training load and intensity and volume is key. As calories drop, that's like the single best thing you can do to preserve muscle mass in the context of a caloric deficit. So it, it does get harder to do so, but really just, you know, knowing what your proxies of, of your lifting metrics are, tracking that, at least on your primary compound movement, so you can have a baseline there, and then trying to maintain that throughout the caloric deficit is key.

Lorenz: 28:29

And you've always talked about protein and you've always talked about how, you know, overdoing protein isn't really the way to go, right? How do you figure out how much, what's the threshold for, for each individual's protein intake?

Robert: 28:45

Yeah, I mean protein is super important, like you gotta have ample protein, but the notion that it's, you know, you can consume it in excess is not really,

Lorenz: 28:54

Yeah.

Robert: 28:54

because like there's a threshold to everything. So especially if you're trying to optimize from a fat metabolism standpoint, like if you're consuming excessive protein relative to dietary fat, then it's going to be more prone to, you know, go through the gluconeogenic pathways and you're going to be using that glucose inefficiently as a source of energy from the protein that's derived from, which is not efficient process for energy. So if you've got ample protein, ample amino acids to preserve tissue to build tissue, if you're in a building phase than any excess you know, calories would be better off partition towards dietary fat rather than additional protein. So knowing where that threshold is for each individual and getting that dialed in is key. I mean, you can tolerate, if you've got more muscle, you can tolerate more protein as well. I mean, like I consume quite a bit of protein, like I'm taking in 250 grams of protein a day right now you know, which is a lot, but I'm still able to produce ketones, And still totally fat adapted and, and, optimizing fat metabolism. But just figuring out where that unique threshold is a scheme.

Lorenz: 29:57

And because you can't increase a protein intake without sacrificing some fat, right?

Robert: 30:04

Yeah, I mean like the, there is a higher thermic effect of food with protein, but I wouldn't really ever suggest people try and, you know, use that as the main lever to manipulate when trying to diet down. So yeah, I mean, if you've only got so many calories to work with, that it's either gonna be partitioned towards, you know, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. So ideally the carbohydrate is, is not making up a majority of that intake and then from there, it's pretty much just figuring out, you What the ratio and distribution needs to be between the fats and the proteins,

Lorenz: 30:33

For somebody who wants to start maybe not a, you know, not go into bodybuilding, but be in the best shape of their life. Like, let's say somebody like me who wants to take it from, from here to the next level. Maybe somebody who has 20 percent body fat into 50 percent body fat. I know we talked about, hey, you gotta, You know, scalp in the gym, you got to be in the gym, you know, maybe five to six times a week. But what does that really mean? Mentally, like, how do you dial in, you know, maybe think about some of your clients, what do they need to do to finally, Hey, I'm going to dial into my, my fat and protein intake. How, how do I buy in and what, what are sort of the things that you talk to your clients about that they have to really prioritize in terms of just, you know, going into a cut, especially now where we're going into, um, into the spring, into the summer, like, a lot of people are exercising, wanting to lose weight. What's that? Some, what's something that you can prioritize in terms of just losing fat? Mm-Hmm.

Robert: 31:41

Commit to the process and do not deviate, you know, I've got, I've worked with like 600 plus clients at this point, and the ones that commit to the process fully and completely, they weigh out their food, they prep their meals, they don't miss their training sessions, they don't deviate. They see amazing results. The ones that are always fudging the numbers, having the cheap meals, skipping the training sessions, they're always going to be stuck in purgatory because they're never going to see the results they want. They're always kind of like going back and forth with things. It takes time to truly change your composition. And to get really and truly dialed in and leaned out to that degree. And anybody can do it, but you have to a hundred percent commit to the process. You can't, you know, half ass it and expect amazing results. So like when I'm in a prep, I flip that switch. And I'm all business. I've got all my food prepped and ready to go. I've got everything weighed out. I've got my structure set up, my schedule set up. Everything's dialed in and optimized. Everything is in place. And I do not deviate from it at all. And that is how you see the results. Super simple. Not easy. Super simple.

Lorenz: 32:52

Yeah. how how do you retract those demons though? you know, demons talking about just deviations,

Robert: 32:59

yeah, I mean, I don't know, I mean, perspective is a lot of it. Like the more you do it, the easier it gets because you have that perspective. But honestly, just like how bad do you want it? Like everybody's got, you know, conflictions in life. Everybody's got distractions. Everybody's got. Things that are pulling at them. But if you truly want it and you want to take it to the next level, then anything that does not contribute to you getting to the next level is noise in your life and should be removed from the equation entirely.

Lorenz: 33:26

How do you. Like, obviously a client may come to you and I love what you're saying, your client comes to you and he believes that he wants to, you know, shred, he wants to be shredded. He wants to have six pack abs by the end of this, maybe seven, seven months Seven month journey. How do you know that, that they're actually committed to the process? Or how do you get them to commit or is that part of the, or do you, do they have to come to you committed already?

Robert: 34:01

I mean, I can usually tell when I'm working with somebody, I can usually tell the first few weeks if they've bought in or not, like, you know, if they're active on my communication with them, if they're you know, sending me updates proactively. Then I know that they wouldn't like, I've got some clients that I'm always having to reach out to them. Like, Hey, what's your way in? Hey, did you work out this week? Hey, did you hit your macros? They're just like not responsive. You know, like if that's the case, then I already know everything I need to know. Like they're not going to be putting in the

Lorenz: 34:30

right, right. right. Ah, I imagined that. I imagined that, you know, somebody not being responsive. That means that says a lot, actually. Without saying anything Hey man, this new thing you got going on, man, you got this contest prep course. You talked about this content prep course and I heard it's the most comprehensive course on the internet right now. Talk about it, man.

Robert: 34:55

Yeah. So it hadn't officially launched. I don't know when this podcast is going to go live. The course will probably officially launch mid May is the goal, but yeah, it is basically hands down the most comprehensive course. On natural bodybuilding from a ketogenic standpoint that you will find online period full stop. No questions asked. I mean, it's basically Everything that you need to know about dialing things in from a natural bodybuilding standpoint With a ketogenic diet, like it goes into the training, the nutrition, the macros, the calculations, the meal prep the posing, the, the, the everything, like if you wanted to dial things in and not have to have a coach, then you could just simply get this course of everything at your fingertips to bring the best package and conditioning you could to the stage, you know, without, without question.

Lorenz: 35:40

I love it, man. Cause but this way, you know, you, you get to help a lot more people, right? Obviously you're just one person.

Robert: 35:48

That's the goal.

Lorenz: 35:48

everybody, Yeah, And I'm excited for it, man. It's like you're talking to me. It's like you're talking to me here. This, this, I get selfish now. This interview is for me. Haha.

Robert: 36:02

it, man. There's going to be a community feature there so everybody can kind of like collaborate with one another and have that accountability kind of baked into it. It's got like its own specialty AI software that is all built around, you know, my protocol and the ketogenic diet and everything. So it's, it's very comprehensive. I think it's just gonna be an amazing resource for everybody that wants to take things to the next level. My

Lorenz: 36:23

man. I appreciate that. I appreciate what you're doing, man. Appreciate you coming on here and just dropping some nuggets of information, man. You know, when it comes to keto bodybuilding, there's no other person out there who talks, who talks the talk and walks the walk at the same time, man. And not nothing better than to have Robert Sykes here on our podcast. So thank you, Robert, for. Coming on, man, sharing your story, man. You're, you're amazing. Keep doing what you're doing.

Robert: 36:51

pleasure, man. I really appreciate the opportunity. I'm super passionate about this lifestyle, so I appreciate you letting me just get the word out. So, yeah, man. Thank you.

Lorenz: 36:59

Thanks brother. Appreciate you, man. All right. Bye bye.

Robert: 37:02

Take care.