THE KETOGENIC DIET

https://www.youtube.com/chriscip

WHAT IS KETO, HOW DOES IT WORK AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

The concept behind the ketogenic diet or “lifestyle” is to achieve overall wellness through the modulation of insulin and inflammation. Both insulin and inflammation can be traced back as being contributing factors in many chronic health conditions.

As the body heals and reaches a state overall wellness then achieving a healthy weight and body composition are just a side effect of that wellness.

To understand how the ketogenic diet helps you achieve wellness, we must first understand the impacts of insulin and inflammation on our body.

INSULIN AND GLUCOSE

Normally the carbohydrates in the foods that we eat are converted into glucose (aka sugar) by the liver, which is then utilized by the body as fuel.

However, the body can only hold about 1-2 tsp of sugar (or glucose) in blood at any given time.

Having too much sugar in the blood stream can be considered toxic and can lead to many chronic health conditions such as insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Your body’s mechanism for removing the excess glucose from the bloodstream is by releasing your fat storing hormone called insulin.

Insulin will then escort the glucose to adipose tissue (fat cells) where the body then can utilize it at a later time for fuel when needed.

The main flaw in the “modern diet” which most of us consume, is that we do this process of storing fat daily. Never are we in need to tap into our abundance of stored energy which we have accumulated around or waists, hips, thighs etc.

INFLAMATION

Cellular inflammation is the initiating cause of many chronic diseases because it disrupts hormonal signaling networks throughout the body. Uncontrolled inflammation plays a role in almost every major disease, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and even depression.

When the body's cells are inflamed we may have difficulty properly absorbing nutrients, sending hormonal signals and perform most other cellular functions.

Many of the foods that we eat in the typical modern diet are highly inflammatory. A “clean” keto diet utilizes foods with an anti-inflammatory fatty acid profile of higher omega-3 and lower omega-6’s.

Without chronic inflammation the body can perform more efficiently. Hormone signaling plays a major role in our bodies regulation. From letting us know when we should stop eating when we are full to letting our bodies know when we are in a deficit and should signal fat burning for fuel.

THE MODERN DIET

The modern day diet tells us that we need to eat carbohydrates and that we need to eat every two hours to keep our metabolism stimulated.

The food pyramid provided by US Department of Agriculture and US Department of health and human services dictates that we should have…

6 to 11 servings of bread, cereal, rice and pasta per day.
2 to 4 servings of high sugar fruits.
2 to 3 servings of milk, cheese and yogurt.
2 to 3 servings of meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs and nuts..

HOW KETO WORKS

Based on the simple facts which we just laid out in regards to the fundamentals of how insulin, glucose and inflammation work. Does the recommended modern diet of carbohydrates, highly inflammatory foods and constant eating not seem counter intuitive for achieving an overall wellness and maintaining a healthy body composition?

Insert the ketogenic diet/lifestyle here.

Keto, utilizing a low carb protocol will cut off your bodies current preferred fuel supply of carbohydrates, keeping your insulin and glucose levels stabilized, This will train the body to used the stored fat in our adipose tissue as your new preferred fuel source. Through the process of fatty acid oxidation and lipolysis the liver will break down adipose tissue (fat cells) creating Ketone bodies. These ketone bodies will replace glucose as a more efficient fuel source. This is called being in a state of "ketosis."

The way in which we do this is by reallocating our (macros) macronutrients. Into the proper metrics. Macronutrients are the digestible carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the things that we eat.

Traditional keto consist of the following macronutrient amounts:

low carb
high fat
moderate protein

However, if you are active such as myself, I have found through experience that being more aggressive with these macro nutrients will accelerate the results.

MACROS/CARBOHYDRATES

The first thing we are going to do is reduce our carbohydrate intake. Standard keto protocols will dictate that you have 50 g carbohydrates or less per day. However, I am going to slash that number in half and recommend that you eat 25 g or less of net carbohydrates per day. With all of that coming from whole food, high fiber sources such as cruciferous vegetables, nuts and seeds.

MACROS/PROTEINS

Focus first on your protein needs, make sure you are eating adequate protein to support muscle growth. Muscle growth increases your metabolism burning more calories. The recommended formula that I use to calculate my protein needs is 0.75 to 1.2 g of protein per pound of reasonable target body weight (depending on age, gender, body type and activity level).

MACROS/FATS

We come in all different shapes, sizes, ages and genders with all different activity levels ranging from sedentary to athletic. The macro nutrients for one person or not going to be the same as the next person and this is especially true when it comes to fats.

One common mistake and misconception I see often about keto is that you need to eat more fats, more often. This is not true, more fat does not equal more keto. In fact too much fats can just end up around our waist.

We are going to use fats to fill in the remaining gaps in our diet, here is how.

HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR MACROS

Let us first calculate how much protein we need per day. I am going to use myself as an example. I weigh 160 pounds and i am active daily so I'm going to use the higher end of the formula of 1.2 g of protein per pound.

160 pounds X 1.2 = 192 g of protein per day.

Each gram of protein consists of 4 calories

192 g of protein X 4 cal per gram = 768 calories from protein

If I am eating a 2200 cal per day diet

2200 - 768 cal = 1432 calories remaining

Let's just say 432 of those calories are carbohydrates such as nuts, seeds vegetables etc.

1432 - 432 = 1000

I am left with 1000 cal per day for my fats

Fats consist of 9 cal per gram

1000 ÷ 9 is approximately 111 g of fat per day

CLEAN KETO VS DIRTY KETO

There are two types of keto, clean and dirty. While both types of keto have a similar goal of macronutrient metrics, that is where the similarities end.

Dirty keto is the driving factor behind the misconceptions regarding the ketogenic diet. What is the difference between clean and dirty keto?

Dirty keto is only concerned with reaching your macro nutrient numbers regardless of the quality of the food which you are eating. An example of this would be a low quality fast food burger, without the bun, in a lettuce wrap with soy based Hellmans mayonnaise and processed cheese.

The clean keto version of this exact same meal would be a grass fed burger, without the bun, in a lettuce wrap with an avocado oil based mayonnaise and grass fed or aged cheese.

Even though the dirty keto version may be achieving the proper macro nutrient numbers, it is still utilizing poor quality and highly inflammatory ingredients. Where as the clean keto version also achieves the proper macro nutrient numbers but does sell enough anti-inflammatory and nourishing manner.

TIPS FOR CLEAN KETO:

Eat whole foods
All foods should be organic or non GMO
All meats and cheeses and dairy should be “grass fed”
All poultry, fowl and eggs should be “pasture raised”
All seafood should be “wild caught” or “non-farm raised”
Coffee and teas should be organic, fair trade or single source
Beware of food labeled as “keto friendly,” always read the ingredients. Many keto friendly foods have dirty keto ingredients.
Avoid nut bars, protein bars and “ready to drink” protein shakes. Read the label, most have dirty ingredients.

KETO FASTING AND FITNESS