#328 How to Reverse Diet and Keep Weight Off - Robert Sikes KetoSavage

Robert Sikes (0:00)

When you think of, you know, cutting down and dieting in your decreasing calories, you know, our metabolism is very adaptable. It's going to depress as a natural result of that lower intake. The reverse is true as well. Like, if you start increasing your intake, your metabolism is going to improve as well. And then you're going to be in a better position to add more lean muscle tissue while being in a caloric surplus.

Siim Land (0:17)

Welcome to the Siim Land Podcast. I'm your host Siim Land, and our guest today is Robert Sikes.

Robert is a natural ketogenic bodybuilder, entrepreneur and coach. He's now published a book called Ketogenic Bodybuilding. This episode is brought to you by Bon Charge, formerly known as BluBlox. My favorite light and sleep optimization company is BluBlox, has rebranded themselves as Bon Charge. They're now involved with a huge range of evidence-based products to improve your wellness and life in every way. Their extensive range of premium wellness products helps you to sleep better, perform better, have more energy, recover faster, balance your hormones and reduce inflammation. My favorites are their red light light bulbs, because they can be used to create a melatonin-friendly environment in your bedroom by shining only red and not blue or green light waves that will reduce your sleep quality. After starting to use these red light light bulbs, I find it much easier to fall asleep and feel less awake before bed. If you want to try out these amazing products that are the cornerstones to my most optimal sleep, then head over to boncharge.com forward slash Siim Land and use the code Siim15 to save 15%.

Robert, welcome back to the show.

Robert Sikes (1:22)

Hey man, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

Siim Land (1:25)

Yeah, and it's been like, you know, I've known or we've known each other probably online for maybe like four years or something like that. And back first, yeah, like I think you and I were probably the first people who started talk about like keto and bodybuilding. And how can you do that?

You have like an amazing journey documented on your YouTube channel of how you like went into shows as a keto bodybuilder. And I actually won some of them, if I'm not mistaken. So, yeah, that's where I first came across you and you had, yeah, like I think you're probably the most knowledgeable person when it comes to ketogenic bodybuilding and just, you know, natural bodybuilding in general. So, yeah, it's been just great to see your journey over the years, starting your keto brick business and and other brands. So, yeah, I'm just glad to have you on the show again.

Robert Sikes (2:19)

I mean, you go way back, too. But like, I remember when your book, Keto Bodybuilding, was on Amazon because I was looking for any type of bodybuilding on keto sources that I could find. And yours popped up as one of the only ones, really. So you've been in that space for quite some time. I guess we met in person for the first time at Metabolic Health Summit, I guess, in like 2019, I guess that was.

Siim Land (2:40)

Yeah, 2019

Robert Sikes (2:41)

I think. Lots of changes then.

Siim Land (2:45)

Yeah, and you recently published the book as well, which is called Ketogenic Bodybuilding. And yeah, I think, yeah, you know, like I said, you're the best person when it comes to Ketogenic Bodybuilding. And I think natural like contest prep, you also have it nailed down pretty much to like mastery levels. So yeah, we're going to talk about all these different topics.

But before we do that, like, you know, maybe many people might not have heard or maybe they don't remember anymore about but how did you stumble upon the keto diet? And like, why did you choose to do bodybuilding with keto? Which is kind of not the conventional way.

Robert Sikes (3:25)

Yeah. So I started bodybuilding, I guess, back in like 2000, I guess, probably about 2008 or so, when I started bodybuilding. And I didn't this was not when I was doing keto, like I was just a super small kid in high school. I was 115 pounds, scrawny, not a good look. And I tried to get bigger. So I got into bodybuilding and I was just reading magazines, muscle and fitness magazines, flex magazines and following all the traditional wisdom in the sport, eating six or seven meals a day, lots of carbs, lots of rice, chicken, broccoli, that kind of deal.

And it worked. I got lean. I bulked up. Then my first show in 2014 won the show, but I did it all the wrong way, man. Like I bulked up to 230 pounds and then I cut down to 153 So I lost like 80 pounds roughly in the course of 12 weeks, lost a bunch of muscle in that process, and then developed a bunch of disordered eating tendencies and did that for like two or three years. And I realized that there just had to be a better way, which is kind of when I started dabbling into keto and I was doing John Keefer's carb backloading protocol at the time.