Is Keto Diet Safe With HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE?

 Over 1 in 3 US adults have hypertension. Hypertension puts you at increased risk of heart attack stroke kidney failure all kinds of terrible things. So now let's talk about hypertension should you eat keto or not. It's really helpful to think about hypertension in the context of metabolic syndrome or syndrome X. This consists of abdominal obesity hypertension or high blood pressure include increased triglycerides increased blood sugars and low HDL or what we call the good cholesterol right.

So even though your doctor just wants to talk about total cholesterol and LDL that's not even in the criteria for metabolic syndrome by any of the huge health regulatory bodies including the World Health Organization. The American Heart Association doesn't even mention LDL and their definition of metabolic syndrome nor do they make in total cholesterol that's how unimportant those two metrics are. So don't worry about that so they everybody says without exception that metabolic syndrome can't be cured. And what they mean by that is it can't be cured or reversed by pills and they're right about that there is no medication that's FDA approved or otherwise that you can take to cure your metabolic syndrome or your hypertension unless you fix the underlying problem.It is definitely a chronic progressive disease that leads eventually to suffering disease and death. 

What if there were a way that you could lower your insulin levels which everybody with metabolic syndrome and almost everybody with hypertension has elevated insulin levels, and what if there was a way you could lower your insulin level and also what about inflammation. The metabolic syndrome and hypertension are very inflammatory conditions and so if you're worried about blocking up the arteries in your brain or in your heart or other body parts that you want to keep working this is an inflammation is a big deal what would you possibly do to decrease inflammation yeah so people who are already eating a ketogenic diet.

The ketogenic diet does both of these things it reduces your chronically high insulin level and it reduces your chronically high inflammation level, and that is how you reverse hypertension.

How you reverse metabolic syndrome or syndrome X?

Elevated insulin levels and hypertension go hand-in-hand no one's really proved yet if one causes the other. But they're very very highly associated to the point where it's obvious that that what causes one causes the other. But we don't know all the details of that yet bring your research is ongoing but we do know that when you lower insulin levels and when you lower levels of inflammation the ultimate endpoint the heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, and chances of those are slashed and that's what we're all looking for. We don't really care well these in between kind of middleman numbers are we just don't want to have a heart attack, stroke, kidney failure.

We don't want to die and so by eating a ketogenic diet you're going to lower your insulin level you're gonna lower your levels of inflammation and that's gonna slash your risk of heart attack stroke and other things. The whole reason we care about high blood pressures it's been proven to increase your risk of heart attack and stroke. And so if we can lower your insulin and lower your inflammation then we're gonna lower your blood pressure because you're gonna lose weight you're gonna lose that belly you're gonna you're gonna raise your HDL you're gonna lower your blood sugar you're gonna lower your triglycerides.

All these things protect you from heart attack and stroke so that's what'll fix both of these if you want to if you want to lower your risk of heart attack and stroke even more you can make sure your potassium level is optimized. You can make sure your magnesium level is optimized and you can make sure that the chronic stress in your life is minimized those are the things that are going to protect you from a heart attack or a stroke not a handful of pills from Big Pharma.

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Keto Flu And Its Remedy

What is Keto Flu? 

When you first start a keto diet, your body may go through a brief bout of what’s commonly referred to as the “keto flu.” The symptoms, which can include fatigue, stomach pain, and dizziness, have nothing to do with ketosis or ketogenesis. Instead, the “keto flu” is triggered by the body’s response to carbohydrate restriction. 

Keto Flu Symptoms

Think about your switch from a carb-heavy diet to a low-carb diet like a breakup. Saying goodbye to that easy, familiar source of energy can be difficult, even if you know that there are rewards to follow. See, most of your cells prefer to burn sugar for fuel and that’s what your body is used to. When you start to restrict those carbohydrates, the body undergoes a series of changes on cellular and hormonal levels. And some of those changes cause the keto flu. 

In addition to fatigue, stomach pain, and dizziness, other symptoms can include sugar cravings, dizziness, brain fog, irritability, nausea, cramping, muscle soreness, and insomnia. The good news is that, while symptoms often start during the first day or two of carb restriction, they usually last for less than a week. The number and severity of symptoms and the length of the keto flu will be different for everyone. This is mainly tied to each person’s level of metabolic flexibility, which means how well you can adapt to using different fuel sources, like carbs, fats, protein, and ketones. 

Metabolic flexibility

Metabolic flexibility mostly depends on genetics and lifestyle factors, like how much sugar and processed foods you were previously eating, and how much you exercise. A healthy diet and plenty of exercises before you start keto may help to reduce or even prevent keto flu. One of the main reasons keto flu happens is that when carbs are restricted, insulin levels drop and trigger the kidneys to release sodium and water. 

Glycogen, which is the body’s storage form of sugar, is stored with water, as well. So, when the body begins to break down glycogen, some water will be flushed out. The start of a keto diet can also lower T3 thyroid hormone levels, which can cause feelings of fatigue, depression, and mental fog. Levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, maybe also increase, because the ketogenic diet triggers a starvation-like response in the body. 

Keto Flu Remedy

The main way to combat keto flu is to drink lots and lots of water, with a pinch of unrefined salt added. It is very easy to become dehydrated on keto, so stay vigilant about your hydration. The suggested water intake for most adults is between at least 2.7 and 3.7 liters of water per day. Also, be sure to supplement your diet with sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Sodium and potassium are lost at a rapid rate at the start of keto because of the decrease of insulin. This can cause fatigue, lightheadedness, headaches, constipation, and cramping. 

Physical Remedy For Keto Flu

 An hour of light exercise, like walking, first thing in the morning can also tremendously help with keto flu. This will help deplete your glycogen stores and kickstart ketosis, which helps the keto flu go away faster. Just remember to drink even more water when you exercise. A good night’s sleep can also work wonders for fatigue and stress relief, and some people find that daily, 15-minute meditation practice is also very helpful. With some preparation, you can get through the keto flu.

Food Intake For Keto Flu

Add more leafy greens and avocados to boost potassium in your diet. Try recipes like a spinach watercress keto salad, easy keto creamed spinach, and avocado egg salad. Also, add an extra sprinkle of unrefined salt to your food to compensate for sodium loss. Extra magnesium will help prevent and treat cramps, improve sleep quality, and increase insulin sensitivity. To boost those levels, add more pumpkin seeds, almonds, and spinach to your keto diet. 

Almond butter chia squares is a great recipe to make for this purpose or sprinkle some extra pumpkin seeds on your breakfast keto porridge. You can also purchase potassium gluconate and magnesium citrate supplements from a pharmacy or health food market. The recommended daily doses for most adults are 5 to 7 grams of unrefined salt; 3,500 milligrams per day of potassium; and between 310 and 400 milligrams of magnesium. 

One other way to help lessen the effects of keto flu is to eat more fat. Animal fats and dairy take a long time to create fuel for the body, but MCT oil, which is made of medium-chain triglycerides, go straight to the liver after digestion. There, they can be converted into ketones and sent to the cells in your body for fuel.

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Keto carb limit

Carbs On Keto

There is no legitimate carb limit for keto. The truth is that every person has a different carb limit that they should stick to so that they can achieve ketosis and trigger ketone production. It would make things easier if there was just one magic number to keep in mind. But, it's important to remember that there are multiple factors that can change and determine that figure. 

Keto Carb Limit

For your body to start producing ketones and burning fat, you must rearrange your eating habits to include very few carbohydrates. That means avoiding foods like grains, fruits, tubers, and all sugars. The focus instead is on fatty meats, oils, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, high-fat dairy, as well as nuts and seeds. Some fruits, like avocado and berries, as well as sweeteners like stevia and erythritol, can also fit into the diet. With those basics down, let’s tackle carb limits. 

While these carb limits can change from one person to another, there is a carb limit that almost anyone can use to achieve ketosis. This limit is 35 grams of total carbs and 25 grams of net carbs. Remember, net carbs are found by subtracting the grams of fiber from the total grams of carbs. If you are not getting into ketosis, or you want to find your personal carb limit, then you must know the other factors that contribute to ketosis. 

Keto Adaptation

Everybody can adapt to burning ketones for fuel. In the process of keto-adaptation, your cells become more efficient with this process. The longer your body is familiar with burning ketones for fuel, the more quickly it can shift into ketosis, compared to when you first started a ketogenic diet. As an added bonus, as your body becomes more keto-adapted, you can typically add some extra carbs and remain in ketosis. 

We encourage you to start slow with this concept and to follow a strict keto diet for at least 3 to 6 months before experimenting with your carb intake. Your cells need time to get used to producing and using ketones for energy. Besides the amount of time you've been in ketosis, exercise, eating appropriate protein levels, and mitigating stress are other factors that can improve or impair your body’s ability to adapt to the ketogenic diet. 

High-Intensity Activity

Exercise is an important factor in determining your carb limit. High-intensity activity will help deplete stored sugar, called glycogen, from your muscles. To use up your stored glycogen, do 30 to 60 minutes of high-intensity exercise for a few days, something like weightlifting or CrossFit. Make sure to re-hydrate and take mineral supplements afterward, if needed. Once your glycogen is depleted, you can do 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise daily to encourage fat - and ketone-burning - something like a brisk walk or cycling. 

For improved results, do the exercises before you’ve eaten anything. By increasing your activity levels and doing the right types of exercise at the right time, you can achieve ketosis more quickly, burn more fat, and improve your health.  Keep in mind that too much exercise can cause additional stress on the body and may impair your ability to stay in ketosis. 

Can Stress Kick You Out, Keto?

Stress is another factor in determining your carb limit. Stress-related hormones like cortisol raise your blood sugar levels and can lower ketone production. Occasional stress cannot really be avoided, but the real problems come with all-day, everyday stress. Over-exercising, not eating enough, focusing too much on mistakes, worrying about the future, and non-stop work without breaks, are common culprits of all-day stress. 

All of these stressors combined can cause heightened blood sugar levels and can keep you from losing fat or maintaining muscle mass. There are plenty of ways to help keep stress under control. They include consistent healthy eating habits, improving sleep quality with additional sun exposure, replacing some high-intensity exercises with low-intensity options, and occasional meditation.

Protein Intake

Consuming too much protein can also inhibit your body’s ability to get into ketosis or to reach a deeper level of ketosis. In a ketogenic diet, about 25% of your calories should come from protein. When protein intake is too high, the body is flooded with amino acids, which releases insulin. Insulin sends a message to cells that there is ample energy available from the amino acids, and they stop producing and burning ketones. 

With all of these factors in mind, you can start experimenting with your own personal keto carb limit. We find the best way to do this is to add just 5 grams of complex carbs from vegetables or low-carb fruits each day until you notice a drop in your ketone levels. Then, decrease your carbs until your ketones rise back up, and you’ve found your new carb limit. To accurately track your ketones while doing this, make sure to use a blood ketone meter, and measure your ketones at the same time each day.

Ketone Level

Avoid using urine strips for this, as they will be too inaccurate for reliable results. The goal is to increase the carbs you’re consuming a little bit at a time while maintaining a medium or deep level of ketosis. This will be around 1.5 on your ketone meter. The amount of time you've been in ketosis, exercise habits, stress levels, and protein intake all affect your personal keto carb limit. 

Each one of these factors has the ability to increase or decrease that daily net carb number. You can experiment yourself, or just stay below 35g total carbs to keep you in ketosis.

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The Latest Vegan vs Keto Head to Head Study

 Inroduction

The first thing that I'm sure you'll say is that this is a month in total it's too short and of course, this is a short trial but this comes down to study design they're not looking for prevention of stroke or heart attack risk. This wasn't designed to do that, it wasn't powered to do that. You need thousands of people over many years to establish that kind of thing and you obviously can't lock people in a room to do that. For a long period of time, the prime outcome for this study was to measure energy and macronutrient intake with a bunch of secondary endpoints like measuring insulin and blood glucose.

What was the thinking behind this? 

Well, the central ethos to low carb diets which is the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity was kind of the inspiration for this. We know that um insulin we've known this for decades has a very important role in how fat is laid down and how it's used up. And we know that insulin levels go up when you eat more carbohydrates. So carbohydrates cause insulin release and the thinking is that insulin causes fat storage so the level of circulating fuels in your blood decreases and this tells your body to eat more and to deposit fat. And moreover, you use less energy and this is the idea behind low carb diets which remember haven't we have been around for a long time since the 70s. Also, it's important to remember that this theory was counterintuitive to the commonly beheld uh hell theory which still a lot of people believe. Now that it is just purely about total calories in and calories out and it doesn't really matter what the constituents are.

Keto Diet

So the carbohydrate-insulin model challenged that simplistic belief I do apologize for the wind the study in hand randomized participants to either 14 days low carb or 14 days low fat and then switched them over. They were all non-diabetic participants, they had an average age of around 30 and an average BMI of about 28 so they were overweight. The low-carb food was consistent with keto meals it was animal-based with non-starchy vegetables i.e things like greens and the low-fat . one was consistent with a plant-based vegan healthy diet.  Again with non-starchy vegetables alongside things like sweet potato and so forth as expected the insulin and blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the plant-based group versus the keto group.

Blood ketones were higher in the keto group so far nothing new nothing that surprising so why am I telling you about this trial because people ate significantly less on the plant-based diet right.  From the beginning and even with the documented high insulin levels which should we would think would tell them to eat more. They ended up eating less and they actually consumed about 700 calories less per day and quite strikingly this was seen in every single participant. There was no noise that it was every single participant from day one and this is simply because of plant-based diets.

Plant-Based Diet

Plant-based foods are just lower in calories per gram so you feel full and you've eaten fewer calories and there were no differences in hunger fullness satisfaction eating capacity and interestingly things like familiarity and enjoyment. Were also the same as well which is part of the selection criteria they didn't choose fussy eaters and they chose people who would be familiar with most of the food that they were presented with. So with the low lower caloric intake of the plant-based diet, people lost more body fat, not on the keto.

One they lost more water weight on the keto diet which is a recognized phenomenon that occurs early on and this is to do with glycolysis activation mobilizing water. But body fat was not significantly reduced with the keto diet overall in spite of the keto group eating 700 more calories per day. They lost more weight overall but I reiterate this was not body fat weight loss so should we chuck out the carbohydrate-insulin model like a tub of e-number enriched margarine. Well, a lot of people think we should, and is the effects on insulin and glucose in the keto diet and the lower levels of particular interest and importance to metabolic health and diabetics.

Probably yes is a healthy plant-based diet a good starting place for good weight loss, I think it probably is as I said at the start the most tire something to people who aren't staunchly in one of the different camps is the endless arguments that assume that life is binary and you can only do one diet or the other. And you can't possibly be flexible in your choices but can't we all just get along because there is actually some common ground here.

Vegan vs Keto

Keto and plant-based diets might seem a world apart but are they really they both emphasize moving away from the standard American diet which we all know is awful that's the overwhelming message that emerges from a multitude of trials including work by this same group. That we can argue to the vegan cows come home about all the different macros and ketones and so on. But the ultra-processed foods like ready meals and cookies and crisps frankly.

Foods with long lists of additives refined carbs salt and so on they're the real problem I read somewhere. Don't quote me on this, but something like two-thirds of the American diet comes from ultra-processed foods compared to about five percent in Portugal and eight percent in France. I think the UK was somewhere in the middle around 30. So this trial is an important extra data point by all means to criticize the duration, but people complaining about the sample size are missing the point here both groups lost weight.

Conclusion

So instead of fighting between belligerent camps or more importantly instead of berating yourself for not sticking to a certain diet and messing up your ketosis or you know being unable to stick to a diet. that your friend Karen promises you are the best one just try one intervention first. And that's cutting your intake from highly processed foods down to as close to zero as you can and I appreciate that the term highly processed is also confusing and that needs a bit of clarification as well but whenever people talk about the healthiest populations in the world. In Italy or Japan, none of them are doing extremely restrictive diet and there's little in common between a lot of these places in terms of what they're actually putting in their food except there's one thing that is in common they are mostly natural good unprocessed foods.

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Types of keto phases you must know before start.

Introduction about keto phases

Each keto phase brings a whole different set of highlights of benefits of results if you know how to work with it these are the four phases of a ketogenic diet and the macronutrient ratios to follow with it doing a keto diet to really get the optimal body. Composition results can be divided into four phases and if you kind of rotate through these phases properly ending up in maintenance, you can have some really good results.

I'll outline it at a high level here really quick phase one is the induction phase or indoctrination phase where you are trying to get your body to utilize fat a little bit better phase two is really where you start to see a lot of the aggressive weight loss so there are some macronutrient shifts. We make their phase three is the pre-maintenance phase where you are kind of gearing up the body to get into maintenance mode and then lastly for the fourth phase is the maintenance mode itself where there's some specific surging of fats where you have more fats in and then fewer fats that are going to allow you to get more out of it. 

Now this isn't just me talking a lot of this is my own anecdotal experience from 10 years of keto but a lot of it is heavily rooted in science and a lot of it is also heavily rooted in dr jeff volk and dr Finney's research which we'll talk about a little bit but you're not here for scientific goblet group you're here for pragmatic practical actionable steps.

Keto phase one

 So let's talk about this phase one is the indoctrination phase and most people out there are going to tell you you need to eat a bunch of fats when you first start keto because you're trying to get your ketone levels super high well there's one big problem with that you do not have the enzymes or just the portfolio of things to break down.

 That many fats yet it's not going to end well you're going to end up storing more and you're going to end up slowing down the results you see you need what is called ketolytic enzymes. These ketolytic enzymes are enzymes that help burn fat into ketones and you don't have a lot of them yet when you first start so what happens is you consume a bunch of fats and it's not going anywhere you feel bogged down it's one of the reasons why you might feel kind of run down when you first  start.

 So what should it look like well believe it or not it should be lower fat in the beginning I would recommend a macronutrient ratio about like this I would say about 55 protein 35 fat and 10 carbs mainly coming from fiber and of that fiber of which is soluble fiber for the most part that seems really low on the fat side.


Well it kind of is and I want you to do this for four weeks but there's a bigger reason than just the enzymes and the ketolytic enzymes. Now I'll say you the gory details on  PPAR(Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor) alpha.

 It's like the beginning of all the successful stuff you want with keto when PPAR alpha is activated.
 
1. It activates more fat mobilization meaning more fat gets moved around it 
activates more thermic effect from that fat more thermic effect in terms of your 
body temperature being elevated in burning calories.


2. It activates more lipid transporters in the vehicles that actually bring the fat into the cell but guess what PPAR alpha only gets turned on when you are liberating your own fat out of the tissue into the bloodstream.


3. It is a sensor it senses when you're pulling fat from your tissue if you have too much fat coming in from your diet you are inhibiting that from happening and therefore you're not activating this important critical kickstart. So follow those macronutrients for the first four weeks and it will make a big difference that all the way trickles down to the quality of meat that you consume not eating high-fat cuts of meat-eating lower-fat cuts of meat that are leaner just for this time period. 

Keto phase two 

Phase two is where we can increase our fat intake a little bit more okay I would say not a ton more I would say at this point you go do about 50 protein about 40 fat and 10 carbs. So you're reducing protein a little bit and increasing fat because now you at least have the ability to utilize that fat a little bit better but I still like most of your overall energy or your ratio as far as that's concerned coming from protein.
 
But one of the big things that you can do during phase two is I want you to increase your activity is what I consider the activity phase your body is in prime weight loss mode. Right now this is where the bulk of the fact that you're going to burn happens the first phase you burn some fat but it's also fat that you burn that might come back really easily because your body hasn't readjusted to that as or hasn't calibrated that as the norm. So this phase is the magic phase, where you increase your activity exercise as much as you won't try to get that in. 

Keto phase three

We call phase three or jeff bullock and dr Finney calls phase three the pre-maintenance phase weight loss. It starts to slow down during this period and that's somewhat normal. This phase is only going to be for two weeks. In this phase, you wanna still keep between 45 and 50 of your calories coming from protein and you want about 40 or 45 percent of your calories coming from fat. And the remainder again coming from carbs from veggie sources and things like that now with this phase you kind of go into a holding pattern you're going to notice that your weight loss starts to slow down you've been eight weeks on the ketogenic diet.

   But what's happening in your body is getting somewhat fat adapted and you're getting efficient at utilizing fat as a fuel source so your body's not having to use it as much now so it's not having to just accelerate the liberation of it. Because now it knows how to pump the brakes and give you exactly how much you need at a given time. But additionally your caloric window your deficit it's kind of shrinking right your body's adapting. 

  It's understanding your metabolic rate might slow down to adjust for the calories you're consuming so one of the things that I would recommend during this phase is the time where you can reduce your calories a little bit.

 While still keeping the ratio the same so in the previous two phases you probably aren't going to adjust the calories too much the pre-maintenance phase is your last-ditch effort to get that little bit of weight off and reduce calories. It can range again from two weeks all the way to ten weeks if you still feel like you need to lose weight. Because you can progressively reduce calories. so phase one and phase two just to recap don't really do a lot of caloric deficit there implement the ketogenic diet in the ratios.

 But don't really start having a caloric deficit come in until pre-maintenance premaintenance goes on until you really reach your maintenance phase or the weight that you're happy with but you can move into.

Keto phase four

Phase four if you're comfortable with your eating style even if you need to lose more weight so what I mean by that is phase four isn't just for maintaining weight. Phase four is for this is where I plan to be for a long time so maybe you've got into the groove, you don't have a whole lot of weight to lose. And you just want to stick with something that's sustainable phase four is where you are okay to drop down protein.

 If you want to personally I think keeping protein levels relatively high is highly beneficial and that's simply because protein has powerful satiating effects. Just protein itself takes 20 percent of the calories in the protein just to digest the protein so that's like you're getting a fifth of what you're eating essentially for free.
 
Because your body has to be able to use a fifth of that energy just to metabolize it. But if you wanted to this would be the point in time where you could reduce protein. Why because the ketones have such a leucine sparing effect and what that means is your ketones will help keep muscle on you even if you don't have a ton of protein coming in you're also highly adapted to using fats at this point. So the more fat that you consume the more energy it will probably equate to whereas prior in phase one. And two if you had a bunch of fat it wouldn't necessarily equate to energy because your body wouldn't have the enzyme portfolio to convert it to energy.
 
Now it does there's a really interesting study that was published in the journal of clinical endocrinology metabolism that found lean individuals that would go on a five-day sort of splurge having high amounts of fat would ultimately end up increasing their PPAR alpha levels. 

Now, remember PPAR alpha from phase one so what that means is if you need to sort of re-engaging or re-sort of reset and get those PPAR alpha levels up again during this maintenance phase you can do periods of five-day high fat low protein and it kick-starts that process again so what I would typically recommend is maybe every other week go down to like 40 macros.

Coming from protein 50 coming from fat and 10 coming from the carb and you do that every other week or every three weeks where you just dramatically increase your fats for a little bit and drop your protein and that can kind of kick start that PPAR alpha again.

Now the funny thing is it's been demonstrated to increase uncoupling protein okay that means that it's going to again elevate that core body temperature uncoupling proteins are like the uh like the radiator heaters that you have in a college dorm room right okay old school heaters that they plug in and they dissipate energy from the electrical outlet.
 
As heat imagine that happening as far as fats concerned that's what's happening with uncoupling proteins you have more of those you have more radiators radiating heat burning calories that same study also indicated that it helps increase what's called pyruvate dehydrogenase okay now that that is is something that's going to help you metabolize glucose so let's say you have a cheat meal well if you have more of this pyruvate dehydrogenase floating around or available then.

When you do have a cheat meal your body is going to be able to have better glucose tolerance and ultimately help you rebound a little bit better. So to recap to give you everything just in the big clear easy picture so phase one you're gonna has 55 protein 35 fat 10 carbs. 

Lower fat higher protein utilizing butcher box if you can you're gonna do that for four weeks then you move into the next four weeks okay where you're going to increase fat slightly and you're going to start exercising more aggressively get that exercise in during that four week period then the next pre-maintenance phase is going to range anywhere from two weeks to 10 weeks. 

Sometimes, even more, where you're going to implement a few changes and you're really trying to reduce calories but really keeping the macronutrients about the same and finally phase four with the maintenance. Where you find your maintenance calories but every other week or every three weeks you have this fat surging for five total days don't go crazy just bump the fats up a little bit, so as always keep it locked here in my blog. 

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Ketogenic or Keto Diet For Beginners

 

what is the ketogenic diet?

 Now the ketogenic diet is a sustainable enjoyable high fat moderate protein low carb lifestyle quite honestly that's based on evolutionary logic and rigorous scientific literature. There is so much science backing up the ketogenic diet I think we're in really good shape when we look at the overall health effects and what it's going to do for our body composition and for a multitude of other things. But before I get into the diet specifically we have to talk about what the ketogenic diet is about like what our ketogenic diet is all about creating ketones are beta-hydroxybutyrate acetoacetate and acetone.

 

Macronutrient

 

You think it's gonna go way down the rabbit hole of science I'm not even gonna go into detail on those ketone bodies I just want to explain that these are the ketones that the body creates ketones are basically a fourth macronutrient. The macronutrients that we know are proteins fats and carbohydrates but ketones are sort of a miraculous fourth macronutrient although we don't find it in nature. Our liver creates it and this whole separate macronutrient gets treated in the body in a different way than proteins fats or carbohydrates. So we're gonna break down why these ketones are awesome and why you need them and why you lose so much weight on the keto diet.

 

Brain in Keto Diet

 

Let's go ahead and break it down why do we ketone it's like why does our body even create them in the first place it seems like it's not just for weight loss right? see, it comes down to the fact that our brains draw so much energy from our bodies. So we don't realize that this little two to the three-pound brain inside of our head uses up like 25% of our daily energy needs that is a lot of energy. And the crazy thing is people don't realize this but the brain actually runs mainly on glucose.

So what that means is that when we are in periods of starvation or when we can't have carbohydrates for whatever reason from an evolutionary standpoint this would happen all the time. It would mean that the body would have to start breaking down our proteins in our muscles and in our joints in order to create glucose. 

To fuel our demanding brain now show me the logic in that being an efficient process why would our body want to sacrifice? 

All of its own tissue just to fuel the brain that's where ketones come in so the body has a mechanism where it says oh if there are no carbohydrates. We shift the fuel source over to ketones the liver starts creating ketones which happen to fuel the brain and fuel the body perfectly if not better than glucose. So that's how this all comes into equation it's simply that it's an evolutionary logical thing but it also has more to do with just enhanced metabolic health.  That's why ketones are so important and why we actually have them but how do these ketones actually have us lose weight how do they affect us there well for one just the act of going onto the ketogenic diet forces us to utilize fats for fuel.

 

Carbohydrates

 We are always kind of have this barrier between us right with carbohydrates whereas if our body learns how to use fats because we're on a ketogenic diet the cellular tissues actually begin metabolizing that fat for fuel which allows us to stay very lean. Because the fat that's on our body becomes an avid fuel source. It lowers insulin is a fat-storing hormone despite what some people will say insulin is the absorptive hormone and if insulin is high in the blood or even activated we're going to be storing it. So if insulin is low because we're on the ketogenic diet we're in a good spot and were much less likely to store fat. 

Even if we're not actively burning it, at that point in time now let's back this up with some research because that's just kind of how I roll there's a study that was published in the journal lipids took a look at 40 individuals and put them on either a high-fat low carb ketogenic diet or a high carb low-fat diet. And it measured them for about 12 weeks and it wanted to take a look at a couple of different things. But basically what they did is they took the keto group and they said okay eat as much food as you want and they ended up capping out at about 1,500 calories. 

Because the keto diet is so satiating so the keto diet group ate about 1,500 calories. And then the high carb group did is they had them match calories to the keto group so they ended up being matched at about 1,500 calories so at the end of the day it was your caloric. They both ate the same amount of calories they just let the keto diet kind of paved the way now what they found at the end of the study is nothing short of just insane the keto diet group even though they ain't the same amount of calories as the other group lost twice as much weight. okay, not just a couple pounds twice as much weight okay they also had improvements in their overall lipid profile they had a decrease in their triglyceride levels lots of positive things.

 

LDL

 

 

LDL did increase but that's not always a bad thing because the very small particle LDL it's the bad LDL there was a decrease in that so they actually had an improvement in their overall total lipid profile. Now the kind of disseminating this information took a look at 162 people divided into three groups in these three groups all ate 2000 calories to start they had a high carb low-fat group. They had a moderate carb, moderate fat, moderate protein group sort of a standard diet. And then they had a low-carb ketogenic diet again started them all at 2000 calories. And the interesting thing about this story is not only was it very controlled but instead of just seeing how much weight they would lose. 

They wanted to see if the metabolism would improve, so what they did is they said okay we want you to maintain your weight for 20 weeks on these diets. So we're gonna feed you exactly what needs to be fed in order to maintain your weight basically they're trying to see if the metabolism got faster want to know something wild at the end of 20 weeks. They were having to feed the ketogenic diet group people 209 more calories than when they started and way more than the other groups showing that the ketogenic diet boosted the metabolism to the point that even for these subjects to maintain the weight. They had to eat over 200 calories more than they were before so they were shifted to a keto diet and suddenly their bodies incinerating more fuel pretty cut-and-dry.

 

Keto Menu

 

well, the thing is there's a lot of different things that you could eat. The basics of it meats you can eat your grass-fed grass-finished beef. You can eat your good-quality pork you can eat your good-quality pork chops you would eat your good-quality bacon you would eat gain meat. So you can eat venison you can eat poultry so chicken turkey all of that stuff is good to go you can eat a pigeon if you wanted to. 

Then we move into some of the other ones we've got eggs you can eat eggs and don't worry about the cholesterol because your body needs the cholesterol, especially on the ketogenic diet. Cheeses guess what almost all cheeses are fair game now. I'm critical of some cheeses because as you get down the ketogenic rabbit-hole I think that you should probably pay attention to eating cleaner cheeses. But for all intents and purposes, cheese is good to go maybe not processed cheese but enjoy it. Coconut tons is one of the best sources of medium-chain triglycerides and good healthy fats that you could possibly get. So I highly recommend eating lots of coconuts.

Then nuts honestly some nuts have higher carbs and others but again for most of it, you can eat all the nuts. You can eat walnuts, pecans, almonds, and cashews. Now when comes down to seeds, you can enjoy your seeds too so that means you can have chia seeds, flax seeds, pepitas, sunflower seed anything like that. 

Veggies just because you're not consuming carbohydrates don't mean that you can't eat veggies. You shouldn't have high sugar veggies like bell peppers. But all the leafy greens you're good to go most of even the starchy veggies like a lot of squashes and things like that you can have spaghetti squash a zucchini or you can have a lot of these veggies and the cool thing is you can make zoodles with zucchini.

People think oil is just canola oil you've got so many different options coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, walnut oil. So you want to make sure you're getting grass-fed grass-finished to spend a couple extra dollars and get the good stuff but actually by the way if you guys do eat good quality meat.

The ongoing study has found that not only the ketogenic diet reversing type 2 diabetes but it also has a 74 percent success and retention rate after 2 years. That's higher than anything else in the world of diets so that retention rate that success rate people are still happy after two years of eating this lifestyle. Because they don't feel like they're deprived of anything it's that amazing. 

Keto adaptation

 

Keto adaptation is that's a period of time that it takes for your cells to get accustomed to using fat for fuel. So it varies and it can take as little as 10 days to as long as three months to really start getting adapted. But studies have shown that the keto-adaptation phase actually continues for years meaning you get more and more efficient at utilizing ketones. 

So one thing that you need to know is that the mitochondria which is where energy is kind of manufactured in the body go through mitochondrial biogenesis. So mitochondria dies off and then it creates new mitochondria and it takes time for each generation of mitochondria to just slowly make them adapt. It takes you know probably about 10 12 weeks or so for the mitochondria to start to develop that affinity for fats. So give yourself 10 to 12 weeks before you feel really really good on keto. The first few weeks you might feel a little bit lethargic it's kind of a keto flu stuff where your body's just adjusting your minerals.

 

 

To start the keto diet what do I do?

 

The first thing the reference is just the simple macros that you need to follow. That's gonna be 75% fat 20% protein calories and 5% carbs give or take that's just kind of a rough idea. Your ketones at least when you get started you can use the urine strips but the problem if the urine strips are they measure excess ketones they don't measure what your body's actually utilizing. 

So I recommend using blood testing I know you have to prick your finger you don't have to do it but just do it for a little while until you realize what kind of things you can get away with eating. Because some people can eat more carbs and others and some people this and that you just want to find your sweet spot. The macros that I laid out that's kind of my sweet spot and it is for a lot of other people but you have to find your own sweet spot so outside of weight loss are there other benefits like what other things can we expect with the ketogenic diet. 

Well, the first one is you're gonna fight cravings so whether you struggle with your weight or not if you're someone that deals with cravings then you probably want to try the keto diet. The reversal of diabetes now I'm careful to say it can reverse diabetes that's a pretty outlandish claim. The studies do say that they have seen evidence of reversing diabetes all because of the controlling of insulin so that's a powerful thing in fact there's a study that was published in the frontiers of endocrinology that showed that people that were diabetic that's on the ketogenic diet actually ended up having an 81% reduction in the overall amount of insulin that they had to take they reduce their insulin medication.

 So powerful effects that's again shown in good scientific literature and then there's also evidence that shows that it's good for heart disease that's it who would have thought that eating cheese and bacon and eggs would be good for heart disease right well it all has to do with inflammation. If we don't have the inflammation from all the sugar and the carbs then our arteries work better and our cells are functioning better. But we also improve our lipid profile remember we're reducing our triglycerides and even if cholesterol is going up we're reducing the kinds of cholesterol not just LDL but that specific LDLs that aren't measured in a general lipid profile that are actually bad for our heart.

So we're doing ourselves a solid service it is really powerfully good for the heart then we have the daunting thing that nobody probably wants to talk about because it's sad and honestly hits home for me and that's cancer it's got some powerful anti-cancer properties. 

Thank you for reading this article. You are most welcome to suggest to me if you find any mistakes in this article.