Why I am Keto...
Most of you know me from IG where, for the last five years, I’ve been sharing the yummy keto foods I indulge in regularly. Amazingly, the “KetoHead” community has grown to almost 20k strong! As you might imagine, lots of questions slide into my DMs, from people trying to make sense of this whole keto thing. Judging from the questions, I can see there is a lot of confusion about what keto is, and more importantly, what it’s for. Most of the questions I get, have to do with “doing” keto for “weight loss”. Yet, I don’t “do” keto...I am “am” keto (important distinction). And, not for weight loss, fat loss or anything to do with body composition. There are easier, less restrictive ways to achieve those goals, that don’t require me to be in ketosis and I was already in good shape before really getting into keto.
So if not for weight loss, then why? Before I get into “why”, let’s define what I mean by “being keto”. I don’t think of Keto as something you “do”, but rather, something you “are”. It’s less of a diet and more of a metabolic state. Just because I put butter in my coffee and eat bacon and avocados every day, does not mean I’m Keto. The metabolic state that eating a certain way puts me in, is what makes me Keto. So, simply stated, when I say, “I am keto”, I am referring to being in a metabolic state in which my blood ketone levels rise to .5mmols/L or higher and blood glucose remains below 80mg/dL.
Being Keto requires giving up some of my favorite foods in life, like pizza, croissants, chocolate, ice cream and all sorts of other carby sugary foods (not easy!). It also requires that I moderate my protein consumption, which makes it more challenging to add/maintain lean muscle mass (but I like big muscles L). Properly doing Keto for me, requires that I track macros, calories and blood ketone/glucose levels. This allows me to better understand my metabolic response to foods, which allows me to make adjustments to how I eat/train in order to stay on track with my goals. None of this is easy and it can be time consuming.
So, if being Keto is not my fastest path to fat loss/muscle gain, and it requires giving up my favorite foods, constantly checking my blood and meticulously tracking macros, then why do it?
The answer is simple. While I may have been successful at getting into great shape in the past, a set of 6-pack abs and buff arms, mean nothing if you feel like shit all the time. However, when I am in ketosis, I feel truly AMAZING. In fact, I feel better today in my 40s, than I did in my 20s.
Inflammation
Through my 30s, I suffered from debilitating chronic joint pain. It was difficult to workout. Often it was painful to walk. And, sometimes my shoulders and elbows would hurt so bad, that I couldn’t do simple things like put my bag in the overhead bin of a plane. Over the years I tried a myriad of ways to address the problem, but nothing worked. I had reached a point where I thought I would never again feel vibrant and healthy. That is until I tried a gluten/grain free diet and later on a therapeutic ketogenic diet. Simply by changing the way I ate, I was able to shut down all of the inflammation that had been causing my pain. I went from thinking my body was permanently wrecked from years of heavy weight training, to feeling reignited and reinvigorated. The ability to live pain free changed my life profoundly (good topic for another day).
Gastrointestinal
How I used to eat, didn’t just cause me to have chronic systemic inflammation, but it also caused me to have regular gastrointestinal issues like bloating, heartburn, constipation, etc. I thought this was just part of life and just lived with it. Going “grain/gluten free” relived some of these unpleasant issues. However, when I made the transition to keto, all was fixed. I can’t remember the last time I had heartburn and I rarely if ever do I experience any sort of GI distress or bloating. It feels amazing to walk around all day with a flat un-bloated belly.
Insulin Sensitivity
I lived in Colombia, South America for the first 10 years of my life. During those years I ate a diet consisting of whole foods and home cooked meals. When I was 10, my mom, sister and I moved to the US and settled in southern California. It was a radical lifestyle change in every way you can think of, including diet. For the next 10 years of my life, most of what I ate would consist of processed cheap carbs and sugar, usually in the form of high fructose corn syrup. Froot Loops and Lucky Charms for breakfast. Banana Nut Muffins from Costco for lunch. And frozen pizza and canned fruit for dinner. I believe that years of eating this way wrecked my metabolism and made me insulin resistant. According to the CDC, 40% of the US population is diabetic or pre-diabetic (yikes!). Insulin resistance is the first step down this unhealthy path. Going keto largely fixed all this in two ways. First, getting into ketosis requires avoiding high glycemic foods, so by default I am not experiencing any of the problems that come from insulin resistance. Second, being in ketosis seems to improve insulin sensitivity. Today, I am able to frequently cycle in carbs in the form of a refeed or cheat day, and I bounce back into ketosis in under 24 hours (it used to take me three or more days). This is encouraging as it shows me that I am becoming metabolically flexible, meaning an improved ability to function well whether I’m running on glucose or ketones.
Energy/Appetite/Brain
There was a time in my life when I was feeling so tired and rundown over a prolonged period of time, that I was convinced I had some sort of health condition like chronic fatigue syndrome or Mononucleosis. Health exams did not reveal anything of the sort, but nonetheless I got through those days with lots of coffee and energy drinks. I didn’t know it then, but I was simply riding the sugar rollercoaster. I would eat a high sugar meal that would cause a blood sugar spike. This would lead to an insulin spike and subsequent blood sugar crash. The blood sugar crash would then be followed by extreme lethargy and irresistible food cravings, which would start the cycle all over again. Being Keto got me off this carb merry-go-round. The moment I transitioned to using fat as my primary fuel source, the irresistible food cravings went away, along with obsessing over food all day long. I could work longer hours, be more productive and I require less sleep. And, my cognitive capabilities felt enhanced with better focus, memory and clarity of thought. Suddenly having energy to be productive, control over my appetite and clarity of thought allowed me to dramatically improve my life in all of the ways that you might imagine.
Longevity
According to the National Cancer Institute, one in two men and one in three women will develop cancer in their lifetime. It is the second leading cause of death in the US. Those are scary stats!! I’ve lost someone close to this dreaded disease. I don’t want to succumb to it myself and I don’t want to see anyone else I love fall to it either. The good news is that while cancer cells are able to use glucose (sugar) for fuel, many are not able to use ketones (fat). This was first noted in the 1920s by a German doctor named Otto Heinrich Warburgand it is referred to as the Warburg Effect. This means that that being in a state of ketosis, could literally starve cancer cells. For that reason, there is lots of promising research being done on the impact of the ketogenic diet on various forms of cancer. That is the reason I go into therapeutic ketogenic levels for 14-16 weeks per year. Many believe it’s a way to starve any precancerous cells that might be developing. While Keto is not a cure forcancer, it may be an effective prevention tool, as well as used in conjunction with standard of care to treat various forms of cancer.
So there you have it! I do keto because I feel amazing while I am in ketosis. Performance in the gym and body composition goals are still very important to me, and they would be more easily achieved cranking up my carbs and protein. However, I feel so healthy and vibrant while in ketosis, that everything else is secondary. And, it makes for a fun challenge finding creative ways to squeeze in more protein/carbs while still maintaining my desired ketogenic levels. This has led me discover all sorts of ways to cycle in/out of ketosis while reaping all of its great benefits. I look forward to sharing all of this with you and more in future blog posts. I’m currently working on a variety of experiments including a comprehensive review of every “keto” bar on the market today, the metabolic response to various types of “keto” snacks including “keto” wines, as well as varying types of “refeed” and “cheat” days. Maybe you’ll find these helpful :-)
Feel free to leave comments or questions below, as well as any suggestions for future blog posts :-)
Daily BG & Ketone Tests
Currently working on testing the metabolic response of various “Keto” bars…
SHREDDED!!
For me to get this lean, I need to change my macros in a way that bump me out of ketosis. I prefer to be slightly less lean and deep into ketosis…