The Ketogenic Method: How to Safely Lose 5 to 10 Pounds in One Week

Bottom Line: You Want to Lose Weight Quickly but Safely, Am I Right?

by Amber J. Cabrera

Let me give you the skinny (pardon the pun) on how to do this by using your body's natural process. I'm going to skip all of the long-winded explanations and give it to you straight. Here we go.

The process is known as ketosis. It is your body's natural way of fighting starvation. Simply put, when your body is in a state of ketosis it uses your existing fat to burn as energy.

How do you get your body in a state of ketosis? Glad you asked. Before beginning, be sure you clear this method with your physician, especially if you are diabetic.

For the first 3-4 days, you will be eating nothing but lean protein. Chicken, fish, that sort of preferred protein three times a day. Only eat when you are hungry and realize if you have been eating poorly up to now, your body may overwhelm you with initial cravings. Fight through this 24-48 hour period by drinking a lot of water.

You will be drinking a gallon of liquid a day and 64 oz of that must come from just water. It is recommended that you preferrably drink as much water within this guideline as you can but this process also needs to be realistic for you. You can have sugar-free drinks with no carbohydrate content but I strongly recommend that you leave it to water if you can.

Water is important because it is going to help your liver and kidneys get rid of the extra ketones your body filters out. Water is essential for weight loss (not to mention overall good health for your organs) and should not be underestimated.

On day 3 you will check your urine with Ketostixs, which you can buy at most any pharmacy. They are paper strips that test for ketones in your urine. This lets you know that your body is burning your existing fat. Follow the color guide on the bottle. If you are getting a dark purple result, you may need to drink a lot more water.

Once you are in ketosis (either day 3 or 4) then you are going to add some good, clean, healthy carbohydrates to your program. That means green vegetables in small portions. An example of a meal would be chicken and broccoli. Stay away from corn and other starchy vegetables and no breads or pasta at this time.

That's basically it. Stay on this plan until you lose the weight you want. You will find that you lose about 5-10 pounds in the first week and can lose about 20-30 pounds in the first month.

This plan allows you to combine protein and healthy carbohydrates at each meal to balance out your blood sugar and use your existing fat as energy. You will notice that you are losing inches so pay attention more to that.

As for exercise, it is not dependent upon success for this program but it is always encouraged. However, the recommended amount is three times a week for about 30 minutes. The recommended method is walking.

I am not a doctor, I am just sharing what has worked for me so I strongly advise you to check with your physician to make sure this is something that is right for you.

Source: Personal experience

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION:
The Contributor has no connection to nor was paid by the brand or product described in this content.

Ketogenic Diet basics

The Basic Ketogenic Diet

by Mark Maunder

Note: Please note that if you are interested in a Ketogenic Diet used to treat Epilepsy or Pediatric Epilepsy, please start at Johns Hopkins who are the pioneers in this field. The wikipedia page for the Ketogenic Diet diet also has information on the diet as it relates to treating epilepsy. The diet below is simply for rapid and effective weight loss and uses a 1 to 1 fat to protein ratio rather than the 4 to 1 fat to combined protein and carbs ratio of the Ketogenic Diet pioneered by Johns Hopkins used to treat epilepsy.

Disclaimer: I am neither a doctor nor self proclaimed nutrition expert so please consult your doctor before starting any diet or taking any action that affects your health and wellbeing.

After finishing Gary Taubes latest book, which seems to have rapidly become the cornerstone of a new approach to nutrition, I’ve become very interested in the Ketogenic diet. The speed of weight loss I’ve seen is incredible and my energy level has remained high. The science behind a ketogenic diet is solidly backed up by Taubes research published in “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and “Why we get fat“.  According to Taubes’ research, it may also be the only way for people who have become severely insulin resistant, to effectively lose weight.

The Ketogenic diet has always lived on the fringes of diet lore and has been seen as extreme. But the reality is that the low glycemic index diet (Low GI Diet) is effective because it is close to, but not quite, a ketogenic diet. Other diets like the South Beach Diet are also only effective because of the reduction in carbs and consequently insulin levels.

The science behind this diet looks solid and it is part of the massive shift in nutrition research we’ve seen in the last few years. Prominent sport physiology experts like Tim Noakes have come around to this way of thinking and Tim in particular has said that everything he wrote about “Carboloading” in Lore of Running is wrong. (Lore of Running is considered the running physiology bible by many and contains much more than nutrition advice)

I’ve decided to put together a “Basic Ketogenic Diet” for my own reference and because the Ketogenic diets out there are either targeted at extreme bodybuilders (and usually cycle in carbs) or are peppered with pseudoscience and superstition. If you find anything technically wrong in this article please correct me as loudly as you’d like in the comments and please cite your source.

First a summary of the science behind the Ketogenic Diet.

Keep in mind I’m summarizing hundreds of pages of explanation and supporting data into a few paragraphs:

When you eat carbs your blood glucose level is raised and your pancreas secretes insulin. This insulin puts your muscle and fat cells into “storage mode”. Your fat cells store away the glucose as triglycerides. Insulin also prevents your fat cells from breaking down those triglycerides back into fatty acids and releasing them into your blood stream for use as energy. This is important: Insulin both causes fat absorption and prevents fat from being used as energy.

If you were to eat sugary snacks throughout the day you are keeping your insulin level high which constantly keeps your fat cells in a state of absorption and prevents the release of fat and its use as energy.

Eating fat and protein does very little to raise your insulin level.

So the bottom line here is, if you want your body to burn fat – meaning if you want your fat cells to break down triglycerides into fatty acids, release them into your blood stream and actually use them as energy – you need to keep your insulin level as low and absolutely avoid spikes in insulin.

A note on calories: Counting calories or increasing exercise output, according to the research of Taubes and many others, is a bad way to try to lose weight because what usually happens is instead of your body burning fat to make up for the deficit in calories, it simply decreases the amount of energy it expends. So you end up lethargic and still fat.

There is a lot more to this, but the science above is the rationale behind all Low GI, Low Carb and Ketogenic diets. It is why you lose weight on these diets while consuming the same number of calories.

Low Carb and Low GI diets work because they cut out carbs that cause spikes in insulin, which you now know will cause fat absorption and prevent fat burn.

The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.

During the diet you can measure how much fat your body is burning by monitoring your output of acetoacetate using Ketostix. When you enter a Ketogenic state, you will see a Ketone output of 5 to 20 mg/dL (According to “Why we get fat” by Taubes and my experience). The Ketostix I have also measure blood glucose which is useful to test for Ketoacidosis which you are not at risk for unless you are diabetic.

Note that Ketostix are used by diabetics to test whether they are entering a state known as Diabetic Ketoacidosis which is very dangerous. In this case they will see very high ketone levels accompanied by blood sugar levels of greater than 240 mg/dL. You should be seeing blood sugar levels of zero (according to your Ketostix) during your diet.

Please note that the diet outlined below is not the “Cyclical Ketogenic Diet” used by bodybuilders. It is a basic Ketogenic diet which I’ve found to be the most effective fat burning diet available. I’ve modified this diet from the classic Ketogenic diet used to treat epilepsy which recommends a 4 to 1 ratio of protein to fat. I’ve found that I can reach a state of Ketosis with a 1 to 1 ratio of fat to protein provided I keep the carbs very low.

Without further ado, the basic Ketogenic diet:

What you’ll need

• Ketostix available on Amazon.com.

The Diet

Note, you can eat as much of the foods below as you like, but I’ve found that I quickly feel full eating this diet. Don’t overeat and more importantly, don’t under-eat and make sure you’re getting the calories you need to function. This is NOT about cutting calories, it’s about releasing fat reserves and teaching your body to burn them.

Drink lots of water during the diet (but don’t go crazy). I find this helps increase my metal clarity and energy.

Taubes and others recommend not starting an exercise program at the beginning of this diet because during the acclimatization period you will not have enough energy and it usually results in people quitting the diet.

During the diet, measure your rate of fat burn by measuring your acetoacetate output with your Ketostix. Do this every time you visit the loo. You should see 5 to 20 mg/dL, and I’ve noticed it’s particularly high after a very fatty meal. Blood glucose (if your ketostix show this on a separate color tab) should be zero at all times. If it is not zero and above 200 mg/dL you may want to consult your doctor.

One of the most effective tricks during a diet is routine. Eat the same meals over and over or plan your meals ahead for the whole week. I’ve found it effective to pre-make dishes on Sunday and have them ready for the week. That makes it incredibly easy to stick to the diet because I avoid thinking which means I avoid creativity and creativity requires decision making which leads to hard choices. Just avoid the hard choices and have it all planned and some of it ready to grab and go.

The Leafy Green Salad recipe:

This is a recipe for a basic very low carb salad with lots of flavor. It’s great to add to any high-protein, high-fat meal.

• Spinach, lettuce and/or mustard greens.
• Red peppers
• Tomatoes.
• Optional raw onions.
• Optional green beans raw.
• Balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing with salt and pepper. Use lemon and lime very sparingly if you add it. The vinegar actually reduces the glycemic index of this salad (and other foods).

Below I have outlined three days with a total of 9 meals that you can mix and match as you like. At the end I include a list of Ketogenic-safe ingredients you can add or subtract as you like. Remember the key is to have a high fat, high-protein and no-carb or very low carb diet. That means absolutely no sugar.

• Day 1
  • Breakfast: 2 eggs done any way with yolks. Sausage containing no carbs or sugar. Bacon.
  • Lunch: Chicken with as much skin and oily gooey bits as possible. Steamed spinach or broccoli.
  • Supper: Steak with cheese. Fried mushrooms. Leafy green salad.
  • Before bed 1 glass of wine with a slice of cheese.
• Day 2
  • Breakfast: 2 egg omlette with friend mushrooms, cheese and chopped parsley.
  • Lunch: A whole duck breast if you can get it or chicken again with as much fatty skin as possible. Leafy green salad.
  • Supper: Hamburger made with high fat mince without the bun. The mince can contain the usual paprika, chopped onions and garlic if you like, but absolutely no syrup or sugar. Add Cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and any other leafy low-carb greens you like.
  • Before bed 1 glass of wine with a slice of cheese.
• Day 3
  • 2 eggs done any way with bacon and usual no-carb sausage.
  • Steak with cheese. Leafy green salad.
  • Salmon (or other fish) fried and served with Bok Choy and your leafy green salad.

You can mix and match the meals above and get a good Ketogenic burn going where you will notice rapid weight loss.

• Beef,
• Steak,
• Hamburger,
• Prime Rib,
• Filet Mignon,
• Roast Beef,
• Chicken,
• Duck (awesome if you can get it because it is very high fat),
• Any Fish, Tuna, Salmon, Trout, Halibut,
• Lamb,
• Pork,
• Bacon,
• Ham,
• Eggs,
• Shrimp,
• Crab,
• Lobster,
• Butter,
• Oils (Olive Oil, Flaxseed oil, etc.),
• Salt, Pepper, Soy Sauce,
• Spinach,
• Lettuce,
• Mustard Greens,
• Celery,
• Cheeses,
• Oysters,
• Abalone.

Add for variety but in moderation:

Read the ingredients (if applicable) and make darn sure they contain no sugar:

• Avocadoes
• Mustard (with no sugar or carbs),
• Tea no sugar with milk
• Coffee black no sugar
• Heavy Cream
• Broccoli,
• Cabbage,
• Bok Choy,
• Kale,
• Asparagus,
• Mushrooms,
• Cucumbers,
• Olives,
• Celery,
• Green Beans,
• Brussel Sprouts,
• Peppers (Red, Green, Jalapeno, Habanero),
• Onions,
• Nuts preferably almonds,

You absolutely must avoid all sugar on this diet because it is the highest GI carbohydrate that will very quickly spike your insulin and destroy any Ketogenic effect. Other foods to avoid roughly in order of damage they will do to the diet:

• All sugar.
• All Bread.
• Did I mention avoid sugar?
• All traditional carbs like rice, pasta, wheat, potatoes, even the low GI ones like beans and lentils.
• Beware of sauces that contain sugar or things like corn starch.

Effects of the diet:

• You will see rapid weight loss of up to 6 pounds for a 200 pound person in the first 48 hours. This is your kidneys releasing water as they expel their sodium due to the absence of insulin. It’s what you’ve usually heard described as “water weight”.
• Then you should see continued weight loss of anything from 0.25 to 2 pounds per day (an eighth to half kilo lost per day). But this varies greatly between individuals and is affected by a wide range of factors including your current weight and insulin sensitivity.
• For the first week you may experience slightly decreased mental clarity. This clears up after a week as your brain gets used to burning ketones for energy instead of glucose.
• According to data in “Why we get fat” your Vitamin C needs actually decrease on a low carb diet, so don’t feel the need to massively supplement.
• Research has shown (also from Taubes) that LDL (bad) cholesterol will elevate slightly but clump size will be increased which is a net positive because larger LDL is less likely to stick to artery walls. HDL (good) cholesterol is significantly elevated with a very low carb diet like this which is a very strong net positive. This also has other great health benefits e.g. Lower insulin reduces the risk of hardening of artery walls.

What about alcohol?

I’ve found a glass of wine on it’s own or with a small slice of cheese before bed seems, anecdotally, to increase my fat burn rate. Anything more than a single reasonably sized glass has the opposite effect.

Beer is the devils poison. It contains carbs in the form of maltase which raise your insulin level just like sugar does. The alcohol is turned into citrate in your liver which produces fat and that fat is efficiently stored thanks to your now raised insulin levels.

So absolutely no drinks with sugar. That means no sweet cocktails either. I also don’t buy the idea of low-carb beers.

I would imagine that one shot of spirits  wouldn’t be a problem provided it doesn’t contain any sugar and is something like Vodka, Whiskey or Tequila. I’ve heard they add caramel to tequila “gold” (the cheap crap) so avoid that.

I’ve found that drinking heavily, meaning several glasses of wine followed by cocktails or shots, has a deleterious effect on my ability to burn fat and my energy level. The effect seems to last 72 hours or more.

Conclusion

Once again I’d like to reiterate that I’m neither a doctor nor self proclaimed nutrition guru. But it does seem that both doctors and “nutritionists” including government sources have been pulling the wool over our eyes since 1960 about what we should be eating. The ideas that “fat makes you fat” and “lower calories to lose weight” are so entrenched in our consciousness that many people find the latest research difficult if not impossible to swallow.

If you would like to learn how this came to be, check out Planet Money’s excellent segment on “Who Killed Lard?” and the rise of Crisco and hydrogenated vegetable oil. It will give you an idea of the political forces that influence dietary advice.

As Gary Taubes commented: If we are going see a change in the advice that governments and health authorities are handing out, it is going to take 20 years which is a lifetime. So rather than wait for those slow moving wheels to turn, take matters into your own hands.

Increase mitochondrial density to burn more fat

How to Increase Mitochondrial Density For More Efficient Fat Burning

Written by Tony Schober

If you want to increase mitochondrial density, you must provide a stimulus to give your body a reason to manufacture more mitochondria. Here’s what you can do to increase mitochondrial density, and why it’s an important goal to have.

What are Mitochondria?

Mitochondria are the power plants of cells. Their primary role is to convert the nutrients we eat into energy – specifically through the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is then used by our cells to facilitate a whole host of body functions from breathing to exercising.

Without delving too deep into cellular biology, just understand that mitochondria are essential to our energy metabolism, and because of this, they play a very important role in fatty acid oxidation (fat loss). For fat loss to occur, fatty acids must be mobilized from fat stores and sent to mitochondria to be oxidized so that they can be used for energy.

Why Do You Want to Increase Mitochondrial Density?

If mitochondria are integral in the metabolism of fatty acids, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the more of them you had, the better? Increasing mitchondria (mitochondrial biogenesis) takes the demand off of 10 mitochondria and disperses the workload amongst 100 – enabling them to more efficiently do their job of converting energy (fat) into ATP so it can be used by the body. In reality, there can be thousands of mitochondria in each of our cells, and the human body has trillions of cells, so do the math – we have a lot of mitochondria. Still, it never hurts to have more.

Give Your Body a Reason to Manufacture More Mitochondria

In order to increase mitochondrial density, you have to give your body a reason to produce more mitochondria. As with most components of the human body, if you don’t use it, you lose it. Put into another context, if your body doesn’t need them, it won’t produce them.

Let’s take muscle tissue for example. Our body is not going to undergo the highly energy intensive task to build and maintain new muscle tissue if it has no reason to. If it’s not going to be lifting heavy weights, it has no need to build muscle to lift it. And just like when you stop working out you lose muscle mass, when you stop providing a reason for mitochondria to be around, you lose them too – making fat loss much less efficient.

How to Increase Mitochondrial Density

Alright, so we know what mitochondria are and why we want to increase the number of them. Now, how do we go about increasing the number of mitochondria we have. Fortunately for us, there are quite a few studies that have looked into this.

Both endurance and strength training cause an increased capacity for fatty acid oxidation that correlates with an increase in mitochondrial density [1]. The higher demand for energy by muscles created a higher demand for mitochondria to provide it.

Low volume HIIT (high-intensity interval training) increases mitochondrial biogenesis [2]. Within 24 hours of maximal intensity exercise, new mitochondria were being formed. The intensity of your exercise and the demand that places on your muscles is a major stimulator to increase mitochondrial density.

A combination of both endurance and resistance exercise causes a significantly higher degree of mitochondrial biogenesis than endurance exercise alone [3]. What can we take away from this study? Including both strength training and cardio into your fitness program is most effective for fat loss.

However, while this study defined cardio as 1 hour of cycling at 65% of maximum oxygen uptake, my hypothesis would be that a combination of strength training and HIIT would outperform strength training and steady-state cardio when it comes to increasing mitochondrial biogenesis.

Branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) supplementation increased mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle [4]. BCAAs are 3 of the 9 essential amino acids required for humans. These amino acids cannot be synthesized by the human body and must be supplied by your diet. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and is the reason why protein is an essential macronutrient. Eating between .8-1 gram of protein per pound of lean body weight should be enough to spur biogenesis.

To conclude, based on the scientific literature, if your goal is to increase mitochondrial density and the corresponding degree of fatty acid oxidation (fat loss), focus your exercise program around resistance training and HIIT, and formulate a diet that is rich in protein, and low-glycemic carbohydrates.

1/AJP - Regu Physiol October 1, 2011 vol. 301 no. 4R1078-R1087

2/Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2011 Jun;300(6):R1303-10. doi: 10.1152/ajpregu.00538.2010.

3/J Appl Physiol. 2011 Nov;111(5):1335-44. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00086.2011

4/Cell Metab. 2010 Oct 6;12(4):362-72. doi: 10.1016

Get into optimal ketosis

Warning: Not recommended for type 1 diabetics.

Any people stalling at weight plateaus while on a low carb diet have found optimal ketosis helpful. It’s what can melt the fat off once again.

So how does this work? A quick run-through: The first tip was to eat low carb. This is because a low-carb diet lowers your levels of the fat-storing hormone insulin, allowing your fat deposits to shrink and release their stored energy. This tends to cause you to want to consume less calories than you expend – without hunger – and lose weight. Several of the tips mentioned above are about fine-tuning your diet to better this effect.

How do you know you’re getting the maximum hormonal impact from your low-carb diet? You do that by achieving what’s known as “optimal ketosis”. 

Ketosis

Ketosis is a state at which the body has an extremely high fat-burning rate. Even the brain runs on fat, via ketone bodies. These are energy molecules in the blood (like blood sugar) which become fuel for our brains after being converted from fat by the liver.

To encourage ketone production, the amount of insulin in your bloodstream must be low. The lower your insulin, the higher your ketone production. And when you have a well-controlled, sufficiently large amount of ketones in your blood, it’s basically proof that your insulin is very low – and therefore, that you’re enjoying the maximum effect of your low-carbohydrate diet. That’s what’s called optimal ketosis.

Measuring ketones

Today, there are reasonably-priced gadgets available for measuring ketone levels at home. One needle prick of the finger, and in just a few seconds you’ll know your blood ketone level.

Blood ketones are best measured on a fasted stomach in the morning (before breakfast, that is). Here are a few pointers on how to interpret the result:

• Below 0.5 mmol/L is not considered “ketosis”. At this level, you’re far away from maximum fat-burning.
• Between 0.5-1.5 mmol/L is light nutritional ketosis. You’ll be getting a good effect on your weight, but not optimal.
• Around 1.5 – 3 mmol/L is what’s called optimal ketosis and is recommended for maximum weight loss.
• Values of over 3 mmol/L aren’t neccessary. That is, they will achieve neither better nor worse results than being at the 1.5-3 level. Higher values can also sometimes mean that you’re not getting enough food. For type 1 diabetics, it can be caused by a severe lack of insulin, see below.

Ketones in urine

Ketone levels can also be measured in a more old-fashioned way, with urine test sticks (sold prescription-free in pharmacies or on Amazon). Ketone sticks give less reliable results for several reasons, and the above recommendations can’t be straightforwardly applied to them.

My personal experience

Can measuring ketones help you lose weight and improve performance? Let’s try to find out.

Today my ketone experiment reached goal #1: achieving stable optimal ketosis*.

After getting my blood ketone meter I’ve eaten a stricter LCHF diet than I usually do. More fat, less carbs. No bread, no potatoes, pasta, rice or fruit. Instead I’ve eaten meat, fish, vegetables, egg and extra large amounts of high-fat sauces and butter. In the mornings coffee with plenty of butter/coconut fat in it. I’ve occasionally cheated with some nuts, root vegetables, berries, cream and a little wine.

After just a few days I entered light nutritional ketosis (over 0.5 mmol/L on the meter). But it took a full three weeks to achieve stable optimal ketosis (1.5 – 3 mmol/L) in the mornings. It was also interesting that it was much quicker to get high ketone readings during daytime and in the evenings (data not shown in the chart above).

I’ve also tested keto sticks for measuring urine ketones (cheaper and simpler). In my case the results so far track the blood ketones reasonably well, even if urine ketones is a more inexact and unreliable test.

So what do you think I’ve noticed? Does it feel different? What do you think happened to my weight & waist measurement (I started at a normal satisfactory weight) and training/mental performance? Answers are coming up, but feel free to guess in the comments!

Ketosis

*/ Ketosis is a natural state where the body is almost only burning fat.The secret of ketosis is to eat very low amounts of carbs and only moderate amounts of protein. Then add fat to satiety.

Some less informed people still confuse natural ketosis with the pathological stateketoacidosis. The latter has completely different causes, usually extreme insulin deficiency in type 1 diabetics. In this dangerous state the ketone koncentrations are around ten times higher then in normal ketosis, and the blood sugar is sky high.

Natural ketosis due to low carb eating is perfectly safe with stable well-controlled blood sugar and well-controlled blood ketones.

Four Weeks of Strict LCHF and Ketone Monitoring

Can ketone measurement help you lose weight and improve performance? 

Below are graphs of my weight and waistline over this first four-week period, as well as the results of blood and urine ketone measurements.

After two to three weeks of light nutritional ketosis, I’ve now spent 8 days in “optimal ketosis” – that is, between 1.5 – 3 mmol/L. Want to know what’s happened?

The effects of optimal ketosis

Weight

Although happy with my weight before this experiment, I’ve become noticeably leaner: -4kgs (9 pounds) and -6cm (2,5 inches) around the waist. This, of course, in complete absence of hunger – in fact, I’ve seldom felt so constantly sated. Food is tasty to eat at mealtimes, but I can skip a meal without even blinking.

My weight – initally 100kgs – was already well within normal range, considering I’m 202 cm tall – 6 feet 7 inches – and do strength training regularly. The other measurement I kept track of was my waistline. 94cm or less around the waist is considered excellent for men; I started out with 91cm, and am now around 85cm (33 inches). I need to punch a new hole in my belt, which means I’m leaner than I’ve been in a very long time. Not bad for a forty-year-old father who has limited time to work out and always eats his fill!

Mental effects

Being the father of a small child, I often get tired from lack of sleep, and during the first week of the experiment I sometimes felt even woozier than usual. This is natural while the brain adapts to running on ketones.

The last two weeks brought everything back to normal again. Or perhaps I even felt sharper and found it easier to focus for longer periods of time? Hard to tell. Perhaps it was just my imagination.

Some people have mentioned having more colourful, dramatic dreams when in ketosis – at least during the first period. I actually think this was the case for me during the first couple weeks, too.

Exercise

Due to a tight schedule, my exercise has been limited to one short weekly strength routine at the gym, in the style of “Body by Science”. I take note of the weights and times I manage though, which makes it easy to compare my weekly performance.

• The first session, following one day of strict LCHF, was nothing out of the ordinary.
• The second and third sessions, after 7 and 17 days respectively, showed a marked performance decrease. My muscles tired more quickly.
• The fourth strength training session, 26 days in, showed a better result than when I started.

Just as I had expected, exercise was tougher the first weeks of strict LCHF. However, four weeks in I was back at my original strength level – despite losing weight.

The combined result of less body fat while keeping (or slightly improving) my strength level reminded me of the new study conducted on elite gymnasts. Being stronger with less body fat is certainly much coveted by athletes.

Other early effects of ketosis

Another thing I noticed during the last week, i.e. during the most pronounced ketosis, is the diuretic effect. I was copiously leaking ketones (as is evident from the urine ketone levels), which take a lot of water with them going out of the body. A few of the days I drank lots of water trying to quench a stubborn thirst, and consequently paid frequent visits to the bathroom. My mouth felt dry no matter how much I drank.

Today, this is much less noticeable. Perhaps my body is adapting. Many people seem to stop leaking ketones through urine in the longer term, coupled with still being in ketosis according to their blood ketones. I’m excited to see if the same will happen to me.

A similar trend can be noted with the breath issue. The first days or weeks of ketosis, many exhale small ketone bodies, acetone. Ketosis breath has an odour reminiscent of fruit (that’s putting in nicely – others put it right up there with rotten apples), and may also be reminiscent of nail polish removers (which often contain acetone). If you find yourself experiencing this, bear in mind that it generally disappears in a couple or several weeks*. I’ll just wait and see if that’s true for me too, as I’ve had that kind of breath once in a while.

Sense of taste

Another interesting thing I’ve heard people mention during ketosis is the way they experience sweet tastes. For my part, I never drink soda and almost never eat any kinds of sweets as it is. I do however tend to enjoy fruits and berries regularly. Of course, striving for optimal ketosis means completely abstaining from everything sweet, and after doing so for a couple weeks, I one day mindlessly ate a piece of banana my daughter gave me. It felt like an explosion of sweetness. The fewer sweet things you eat, it seems, the more your sense of taste adapts.

The same principle appears to work the other way as well. Those addicted to sugar and used to consuming large amounts of sweets/artifical sweeteners daily, will have a hard time registering the sweetness of something only fairly sweet.

Transition troubles

From what I’ve read and heard, the first week of strict LCHF seems to commonly bring headaches, dizziness, tiredness, palpitations and irritability. I felt none of these things, save for a slight “woozy” feeling on some of the first days. This is probably because my everyday liberal LCHF diet should mean already I’m partly ketone-adapted. The lack of heavy transition troubles can also be because I took care to stay hydrated and get enough salt, which usually keeps the worst symptoms at bay.

Summary

This is going well so far.

• Weight loss without hunger, even down to being very lean. It’ll be interesting to see where my weight stabilises; I’m guessing, pretty soon.
• An overwhelming sense of satiety, which is quite practical if you don’t have time to constantly be eating.
• The exercise routine seems to be running smoothly now that I’m a few weeks in.
• My mental focus feels at least as sharp as before.
• On the downside, there’s sometimes been a pronounced diuretic effect, and ketosis breath once in a while. Hopefully, these will disappear with time.

I’m going to keep this going for a while more, to try and experience the full effects of ketosis, and also to be able to perform some interesting and accurate experiments with different types of food and ketosis. More reports to come!

Final Report: Two Months of Strict LCHF and Ketone Monitoring

What happens if you hugely digress from a low-carbohydrate diet and suddenly eat a whole load of carbs?

Here is my final report following two months of a very strict LCHF diet, and daily measurements of four parameters:

• Blood ketones (the red curve)
• Urine ketones (yellow)
• Weight (purple)
• Waistline (purple)

As you can see from the above graph, I took the opportunity to conduct a side experiment. The pink vertical column marks one weekend where I consciously completely deviated from the low-carbohydrate diet. I was on the Swedish archipelago “Koster” for the year’s lobster premiere, and simply had the same food as everyone else.

So, what happens if you totally veer off the low carb lifestyle after a long period of strict LCHF? Is complete havoc wrought in your body? Do you have to start from scratch again? Here’s the answer:

Lobster weekend

Here are the non-strict LCHF foodstuffs I consumed during the weekend of 28-30th September:

• Three small helpings of pasta
• One “Digestive” biscuit
• A total of 7 slices of bread!
• Some orange juice x 2
• Some chocolate (70% cocoa content)
• Liberal helpings of nuts
• Liberal helpings of sorbet and honeymelon
• Yoghurt with müsli and apple
• An unspecified number of wine glasses (many)
• A pizza!

Result

After finishing off that pizza on my way back home on the Sunday, my ketone meter read “LOW” – that is, a negligible amount of ketones. The ketosis was gone.

I’m sure you’re curious as to how long it takes to return to ketosis after such a monumental digression. Some have claimed it can take up to two weeks, but for me, it didn’t:

• The morning after, I was at 0.3 and one day after that I was at 0.5, which means I was back in ketosis. It took a week for me to get back to my previous “optimal” levels of over 1.5.
• The scales immediately showed +2kgs (+4.5 lbs), but these vanished in a couple of days. In other words, it was all water and glycogen weight. My waistline saw little or no change at all.
• I felt alright the whole time.

Summary: An entire weekend of cheating took me a few days to a week to bounce back from. That’s of course keeping in mind I was very keto-adapted going in. I can however imagine that some people may need more time.

Weight results after two months

As mentioned in my earlier accounts, weight loss was not my ambition when starting this experiment. I was happy with my weight and waistline, which I’ve kept for years with the more liberal LCHF diet I stick to. Interestingly, I still lost a total of 4.5kgs (almost 10 pounds) and a whopping 7cms (over 2.5 inches) around my waist. This happened without the slightest hunger pang.

I had to punch a new hole in my belt. My trousers were falling off – that’s how noticeable it was. I have however kept my original weights at the gym, so I’m assuming there hasn’t been significant muscle loss. This in spite of the fact that I’ve only found time to work out about once weekly.

Lessons learned

The biggest lesson I’ve learned during these two months is how much the effects of a strict LCHF diet can be intensified when taken to optimal ketosis. Also, I’ve seen that it takes more than just great care with carbohydrate to achieve deep ketosis; in fact, you need more fat and less protein than many believe. Too much protein tends to actually inhibit optimal ketosis (a ketone level of over 1.5), instead making it easy to stall at around 0.5.

A handy way to consume more fat and less protein is to drink your coffee with butter and coconut oil (mix with a blender!). One or two mugs of this kind of “fat coffee” gets you feeling so full you won’t be eating too much meat, fish or eggs. Perhaps this brings an environmental as well as monetary saving?