Ketogenic Dieting and You: A Progressive Approach to Ketogenic Dieting By Thomas Rivera What this article will cover: This article is directed towards healthy subjects to serve as a base point into ketogenic dieting. The focus of the article will at first be limited to running a CKD style diet, ketogenic diets relevant to athletic use, a small background on ketogenic dieting history and few links to sites that are helpful. Hopefully the article stands to create some insightful input and debate. Onto the good stuff.
What is ketogenic dieting? Simply put, ketogenic dieting is any form of diet where the body has a lack of external glucose and undergoes a process where it preferentially uses fat for energy and as a by product produces ketones. Ketogenic rarely if ever means 0 carb; it also doesn’t always mean low carb. There are some diets where the carbohydrate intake is a little higher; the point in any ketogenic diet is to have the body burning as much fat as possible. Ketones are also not the focus of the diet even though it is named after them, tryng to get super high ketone levels will not accomplish anything spectacular.
Is it the right diet for me? If you have problems shedding fat on higher carbohydrate diets then perhaps a ketogenic diet is the right choice. Before you do decide to make the jump into ketogenic dieting you should have a good bearing of how many calories you need to maintain weight.
Can I mix a high carb diet in with a ketogenic diet? In terms of what we are seeking to accomplish with a ketogenic diet the answer is no, you can not mix a high carb diet and a ketogenic diet. It defeats the purpose and just doesn’t work. You can mix some ideologies of prominent ketogenic diets together.
Different types of ketogenic diets: CKD - Cyclic ketogenic dieting, this diet will be the main focus. CKD’s follow the format of a low carb period followed by a carb load. The low carb period depends on your current body fat and weight loss goals as well as the carb up. The low carb period is usually 7 days at minimum and carb loads can last up to 48 hours. This diet is generally considered a recomp diet as the carb up is generally accepted as an anabolic period. The most well known of these diet is put forth by Lyle McDonald.
Anabolic diet – When people hear anabolic diet they think of the books “Anabolic solution for bodybuilders/pl” by Dr. Mauro Dipasquale. It is at heart CKD and calls for a slight derivation in macro intake that I will address later on.
TKD – Targeted Ketogenic Dieting, this diet is suited for people that like to get in carbs preworkout and want to avoid carb ups. Carb loads are usually rare for most people that enter TKD but I’ve talked to a few that do it every so often to test the waters.
Body Opus and Udv2.0 – Body Opus and The Ultimate diet version 2.0 is are diets set forth by Dan Duchaine and Lyle McDonald respectively. Body Opus is a self described militant approach to ketogenic dieting that involved eating exactly at set times, Udv2.0 was an update to try to approach body opus in a more accessible way. Udv2.0 is a higher carb diet than most other ketogenic diets. These are not very popular in the keto dieting scene.
Dave Palumbo Diet – This diet is of course created by Dave Palumbo, off the back it is into the heart healthy oils and fats and use of protein powders. Aside from the CKD/TKD side the DP diet would probably be the other popular diet.
Which diet style is right for me? I would suggest CKD for anyone starting out, because it follows a very basic low carb then carb load format its easy to figure out where in the ketogenic picture you want to be later on. I would suggest doing CKD for about 1-2 months before deciding.
How do I run the low carb days on a CKD diet? You want to run your macro count out in one of two ways initially.
1. Protein 30-40 percent, fats 60-70 percent, carbohydrates up to 30 a day
2. Protein 1 gram per a pound of lean body mass, carbohydrates up to 30 a day, the rest in fat.
Some people can get away with running their carbohydrates at a higher rate some can’t, you need to test around to see which works better for you. Either way you need to know your macro requirements to apply these formulas. Your carbohydrates should be mostly in the form of leafy green vegetables, trace carbs from eggs and nuts and a slight amount from seasoning and other veggies.
How do I run the carb load on a CKD diet (10 percent body fat and under)?
1. 4.5 grams of carbs, .98 grams of protein, and .43 grams of fat per a pound of lead body mass the first day. 2.27 grams of carbs, .2 grams of fat and .9 grams of protein per a pound of lean body mass for the second day.
2. Eat as many carbs as you feel for a given period within 24-48 hours will keeping protein and fat relatively low to avoid fat overspill. This option is usually for people that have a good feel for the diet.
You want to try to limit sugar intake and get as much glucose as possible, you also want to avoid excess fructose intake as it will impede your transition back into ketosis.
How do I run the carb load on a CKD diet (11/12 percent body fat and over)? Generally you will want to run the same exact thing as someone 10 percent and lower however at different periods. At a high body fat, 15-20 you would want to wait to carb load every two weeks and perhaps for 1 day instead of the full two. At higher body fats if training becomes an issue because of lowered energy in the gym due to a biweekly carbload you should do a mini carbload at 100-200 carbohydrates and this will bring you right through to the next carb load. Carb loads should be limited in the amount of sugar and fructose, glucose recomposition is the priority here.
Cooking Tips – 1. You can fry on this diet. Frying can get great flavor out of food. When frying make sure that the oil is hot, the food is at room temperature and the food does not cook too long.
2. Braising is also a great way to get rough cuts of meat done easily. To braise you simply sear a piece of meat on both sides in a hot pan, then use a flavored liquid to deglaze the pan. The pan is filled halfway up the meat then covered and slow cooked for up to 2 hours. On tough cuts of meat this works especially well.
3. Marinate all your food to avoid needing to use sugar based flavorings
4. Using lemon, orange or any citrus zest for that matter is a great way of adding deep flavor to food.
5. Mayonaise can act as a great base for low carb sauces.
6. Oils can be mixed with garlic and other flavorful seaonings/aeromatics for great dressings or dips.
7. Hotsauce is usually always 0 carb.
8. Sugar free jello is a great desert
9. ^^ This is especially true when heavy whipping cream made at home is used.
Should I drink alcohol? This is something that is very much yes and no. From a carb standpoint there are low carb solutions in alcohol, however I want to talk about the ketone aspect of alcohol. Consumption of alcohol increases ketone levels, this is both good and bad. Heightened ketone levels could have some beneficial side effects. During the intial three weeks your body actually depends more on ketones than it does ffa breakdown. Increased ketone production can also suggest increased fat breakdown
[1] . High levels of ketones however can illicit an insulin response and slow down fat breakdown.
Some Miscellaneous things – 1. Citrus, sugar substitutes and caffiene have a tendancy to throw some people out of ketosis within the first few weeks where ketosis is established. Test around and see how it effects you.
2. HIIT or LISS? Both, HIIT on non leg days and maybe some LISS if you feel like going for a walk, LISS on leg days.
3. Won’t HIIT rip protein out to make glucose? If you strongly feel that a 15 minute session with about two and a half minutes of sprinting is going to so detrimentally effect you, either take 10 or so carbs pre workout or don’t do it. You wouldn’t complain about squatting an extra set and if you do, well, that’s too bad.
4. Creatine? Good to go
5. When to use ketostix? When you start your diet you should use ketostix to measure when you are in ketosis, don’t worry about how deep. You can also use the ketostix to determine if you are adversely affected by caffiene, citrus or sugar substitutes by testing your ketone levels around 30-60 minutes after injestion.
6. Some people report that they see better results with eating cleaner sources of fat.
Links of interest Nutrition facts, calories in food, labels, nutritional information and analysis – NutritionData.com Use this site to get the macro content of all your favorite foods
The Ultimate Anabolic Diet Food List: 101 Foods You Can Eat | StrongLifts.com
Very good link with all the foods you can eat on a ketogenic diet
My blog (link in SIG) my blog will eventually be active and when it is you won’t want to miss it (A little self promotion, I know).
That’s all for now. I’ll leave you with a few links and will update as I organize information and collect new information to put in. Any questions can be Pmed to me but for the sake of others, post them up.
*Sources of information. The Ketogenic Diet, Anabolic Solution for bodybuilders and long term experience. *
[1]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC322666/ 
Strong Work.
