Back in February I was listening to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and he had Mark Sisson on who is a fitness author and blogger, and a former distance runner, triathlete and Ironman competitor (video of podcast above). During the show he started talking about the ketogenic diet and by the end of the show I think everyone who listened to the podcast wanted to try it out just because it sounded so absurd.
So this is how I understood ketogenics, basically your body right now uses carbs for energy, with ketogenics your body uses fat for energy which is a better fuel. To transform your body to burn fat instead of carbs it takes just 21 days. During these 21 days you need to completely phase out carbs from your diet (good ones and bad ones), so no grains like wheat and rice, no high carb veggies like sweet potato or corn and no more sugar. You’ll instead have to limit your carb intake to just 15g a day. Secondly your diet will have to consist of 75% fat and 25% protein. By fat they don’t mean just good fats like avocado but any fat like butter and fatty meats. So what happens is your body looks for carbs for energy, doesn’t find any carbs anymore so it starts looking for an alternative source of energy, and it then sees all this fat coming in so it starts burning the fat for fuel.
As of this post I’ve been on the keto diet for exactly 104 days (3 months and 2 weeks). Not only have I lost a lot of body fat but its the first diet where I’m really not craving any food I can’t have. Three months ago I went and had my body fat percentage measured using the BodPod and I ended up with a BF% of 24. It was really surprising and upsetting because it was the highest I had been in years. Fast forward to last week, I got my body fat measured again and I was now down to 17%. The only thing that changed was my diet. I was still going to the gym 3 times a week, I wasn’t doing extra cardio or anything of the sort, it’s just the food that I’ve been eating that has been different.
Now I know what you’re thinking, if I get on any strict diet I’ll lose weight and thats true but I’ll also most likely be just having grilled chicken with steamed veggies and hating my life while craving all this delicious food I can’t have. But if you look at what I have been eating the past three months its ridiculous, I love the food I’ve been eating. Foods I use to stay away from like kebabs, butter with my eggs, cheeses, ice cream etc.. are all now part of my keto diet. I now make delicious fat bombs which are high fat, no sugar and very low carb ice creams at home to help me keep my fat intake high. My chocolate chunk avocado ice cream is my favorite but I also make an incredible butter roasted pecan ice cream. In the past 3 months I only cheated three times, and all three times I cheated it wasn’t because I was craving certain foods but because I was with friends and we just ended up at Elevation or Shake Shack. In all the previous diets I had tried, I always had at least one cheat meal a week and now I don’t.
So not only have I lost fat because of ketogenics, but I’m also loving the food I’ve been eating.
One more thing I wanted to talk about before I ended this post is the Ketonix breathalyzer. When your body is burning fat for energy it goes into a state of ketosis. So to know if you’re in ketosis or not (ie if you’re eating properly) you need to measure it and there are three ways to do that. The most accurate way is with a blood prick test but it’s also the most expensive while the least accurate and cheapest way is with urine test trips. The third option is not as accurate as a blood test but much more accurate than a urine test and it’s using a ketone breathalyzer. It’s also the most affordable in the long run since you can test your breath as many times as you want without having to get refills or anything. I ordered mine from Ketonix (pictured above) for $150 and it really helped me in the beginning keep me on track. So if you’re looking to try keto then I’d recommend ordering one.
The ketogenics diet works. My friends keep asking me how long I’m going to do this for as if its a temporary thing but right now I don’t have an issue staying on this till whenever. I’m enjoying all the food I’m eating, I’m burning body fat without even trying and I feel good. I’m now aiming to get my body fat down to 12% within the next 3 months but I’m also going to be adding cardio two or three times a week. Now keep in mind, I’m not a dietician, so if you’re interested in trying keto watch or listen to the podcast I’ve posted on top and then read up on it.
