Ok, What I am doing right now does seem to be working. Long post so sorry

I had a few questions about my diet and exercise plan.
First of all, I am 5'11 technically, but i'm pretty much 6'0. I weigh 165-167lbs currently, and I have a big frame. Oh, male too.

Heres my workouts- I do 30 mins of cardio a M-F and sometimes Sunday. The cardio is light-moderate, I keep my heart rate at 130.

On Monday, Wednesday, Friday, after my cardio I go and lift weights, typically concentrating on upperbody, like my chest, back, abs mainly, then arm curls if I am still feeling good.

My diet is this basically...
MWF I eat a Atkins breakfast bar on my way to school with my coffee, and I don't have a chance to eat again until 12:30, when I get out, but I go straight to the gym. By this time i've already consumed atleast 30 onces of water, so i'm comfortable working out. On these days i'll get home from the gym and typically have a snack, such as a shake and a advantage bar to get protein in my system. Later on I will always have a full meal, be it vegetables and a meat, or a sandwich (big one) on LC bread.

On T/TH, my diet is basically the same, except I have time to eat in the morning. I eat the same thing, but sometimes i will mix in some LC milk and LC cereal. I also have time to eat again before I get to the gym, which is not until after 4 when class gets out on T/TH. I typically will snack on something LC or make a sandwich on LC bread. End the day with a real meal.

I stay low-carb, under 30g M-F, but I typically do no go LC on the weekends, and if I do, its not 30g, more around 50g. I did this past weekend. But my typical weekend, I will consume 100-130 a day. I do not gain weight doing this, never have, and I jump right back into it on Monday, and continue to lose.

My goal right now is gaining LEAN mass, as I have very little fat left to lose, and losing it by just dropping the weight does not seem healthy to me (I do not feel I should weigh 165, because of my size I should be about 185). I still have some fat around my waist I would like to lose.

Do you have any suggestions for changing my diet, my exercise plan, et cetera, in order to gain more lean mass without dropping below 165? I know some SMALL friends of mine that weight 165...I tell them I weigh 165 and they freak.

Do weights first then cardio. Lose the Atkins bars (Sugar alcohols) LC bread another staller.
Check out the CKD sub forum and read CKD 101 and The stickie's.
JAg

I didn't think the Atkins bars matter because they did not have any sugar alcohol in them. Atkins products list sugar alcohol, such as the endulge products, which I do avoid. The bars I eat have 0 sugars, 0 sugar alcohol.

the point is it's not REAL food so it's not going to absorb as well as, say, a chicken breast.

This is true, so do you reccomend I drop the bars and just start using whey protein shakes/atkin shakes post workout?

I almost always have a real meal later in the day. Its almost ALWAYS either a steak filet or a chicken breast, and I saute some asparagus and brocolli in butter and garlic for a side.

i would recommend a shake for postworkout.... also if it's in an emergency but not as a planned meal replacement. eat real food instead.

i don't know anything about atkins shakes... i primarily use one scoop of cytosport muscle milk mixed with a scoop prolab whey.. which i highly recommend.

Do squats. Until you think you are gonna break (but use good form). They are a mass builder.

Squats, Bench Press, Pullups, Deadlift

If you are looking to add mass to your frame, those are the only lifts you want to be concerned with.

Drop cardio to 3x per week, after weights. Not on Squat day though. Or Deadlift day either.

If you did 4 hard sets of these (after warm-ups sets of course) in each workout ... and each lift as it's own workout ... and had a good meal replacement as a post workout drink I can almost ASSURE you of lean mass gains.

Ok lastly to all this, I want to make sure that at the end of 2 weeks, I weight 170, thats it not just fat and water packed it, should I buy one of those pinching things that measure body fat? I forget what they are called..

Calipers. Yes, you should have them.

Am I reading it right? You want to add 5 lbs. muscle in 2 weeks?

No, I don't think it is possible to add that much muscle in 2 weeks. I am talking about weighing myself and seeing 170, and thinking the ketogenic diet has caused me to put weight on that isn't muscle, i.e. fat and water. That is why I would probably want the calipers.

Also, I bought some ketostix, I tested myself today after my workout and after consuming 30g of 100% whey protein..It came back completely out of ketosis, is this common?

Yes. Whey knocks some people out. Don't stress it ... check in the AM