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In this episode, I reveal my new cohost, Danny Vega. You’ve heard him in his episode a few weeks ago, so you know he’s awesome.
So we wanted to start of the new format by laying out the reasons why athletes should consider being ketogenic as their primary way of eating.
- Control
- Lower inflammation
- More stable energy levels
- Less food prep
- Increased energy
- Greater fat burning
- Increased strength to weight ratio
- Possible increase in testosterone
- No decrease in performance
The ability to have control over all the variables of training can help with reproducible results whether it’s prepping for a powerlifting meet, off season training, or powerbuilding and bodybuilding.
Eliminating the inflammatory foods removes the “background noise” and now I can really experiment with what works best for me.
The lower the level of inflammation, the better and quicker the recovery (and you can train harder).
Stable energy means no need for a pre-workout, intra-workout and post-workout meal immediately after training. It also means no more hypoglycemia during training or meets
Not everyone who works out is healthy. You can be falling apart in the inside if you’re not eating right. Plus, because keto is energy dense, there’s less for you to eat throughout the day. Keto can help you to beat a junk food addiction, and help to prevent binging (and eliminate cheat days).
More energy means motivation to increase your intensity. Increased intensity means better results. Better results, mean…more motivation. You get the idea.
Journal of the international society of sports nutrition 2012: low carb ketogenic diet did not affect strength in gymnasts, but it did affect weight and fat loss without decreasing LBM
Journal of clinical investigation 1996: Glucose and insulin regulate fatty acid oxidation = translation: sugar and carbs inhibit your body’s ability to burn and use fat as energy
Nutrition and Metabolism 2010: women who resistance train plus follow a keto diet were able to lose fat without losing lbm while the high carb group was able to slightly increase lbm without losing fat
American Journal of nutrition 2013: low carb high fat diet showed elevated levels of androgens in the male subjects
Journal of Applied physiology 1997: Phinney and Volek found that an increased consumption of fat vs lower fat correlated with increased serum T concentrations. In this study, the increase was directly linked to saturated and monounsaturated fats vs polyunsaturated fats
Nutrition and metabolism 2004: Phinney found that low carb diets do not decrease performance (contrary to the belief at the time due to poorly designed studies).
Caveats: allow at least 3-4 weeks for adaptation, sodium and potassium intake need to be sufficient (i.e. sodium at least 3-5g a day and potassium at least 2-3g a day.) Lastly, protein intake should be 1.2-1.7g per kg of bodyweight. Higher amounts may inhibit ketogenesis.
What to expect the first month
You’ll feel weak, flat, or out of gas. For some, that goes away pretty quickly. For others, it’ll take a while. Women may be slower to adapt, overall.
Things to focus on: good fat, water, magnesium, good salt (2 tsp/day), taurine.
Things to avoid: fancy recipes, counting net carbs vs total carbs, consuming too much protein in a sitting or in a day, snacking
Things to track: Fat, protein, carbs. A good ratio is 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbs.
When should you start: NOT DURING MEET PREP OR COMPETITION TRAINING TIME. Wait for the off season or when rehabbing an injury.