Fat Fast Cookbook: 50 Easy Recipes to Jump Start Your Low Carb Weight Loss (5 page)

The term
nutritional ketosis
has become popular in the low-carb community in recent years thanks to a series of books written by Drs. Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek. They first used the term in their 2010
New York Times
best-selling book,
The New Atkins For A New You
(written with Dr. Eric Westman). Phinney and Volek continued to use and define
nutritional ketosis
in their
subsequent books,
The Art And Science of Low Carbohydrate Living
and
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance
. This branding of the
nutritional ketosis
concept has been the best addition to the low-carb vernacular since many stor=opped calling low-carb a
diet
and started calling it a
lifestyle
.

So what’s the difference between
nutritional ketosis
and the ketosis that has been a part of the Atkins diet for the past four decades? It’s a subtle but very important distinction. First, though, let me express my incredible gratitude to Dr. Atkins for helping to change my life through his diet. Starting at 410 pounds in 2004, I lost 180 pounds that year and my life has never been the same. I’m honored and blessed to have a very popular health blog called
Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb
,
and three top-ranked iTunes podcasts (
The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show
,
Ask The Low-Carb Experts
,
and
Low-Carb Conversations
), dedicated to spreading the message of low-carb living to the masses.

Though I never had the privilege of meeting him face to face, nothing I am doing today would have been possible without the inspiration and education that came from that amazing man. His legacy is still making ripples in the world nearly a decade after his tragic death following a slip-and-fall accident on an icy New York City sidewalk. His memory lives on through those of us who have picked up the baton and continued the race. God bless you, Dr. Atkins, for saving my life, and the lives of millions of others who benefit from your passionate zeal about low-carbohydrate nutrition, and what it can do for those who want to become healthy.

If Dr. Atkins were still around, I’m sure he’d be all in favor of this notion of
nutritional ketosis
. So what exactly is the distinction between nutritional ketosis and Atkins? Nutritional ketosis is ketosis, but ketosis may not necessarily be nutritional ketosis. Traditionally, ketosis has been measured with urine testing strips. These turn some shade of pink or purple when you are excreting ketones (acetoacetate) in your urine. But in their book
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance
, Drs. Phinney and Volek recommend measuring blood ketones (
beta
-hydroxybutyrate) as a better and more reliable way of gauging ketone levels, allowing you to aim for the optimal range of 0.5 to 3.0 mm. The two most popular brands of blood ketone meters are
Precision Xtra
and
Nova Max Plus
. Both provide invaluable information about your level of nutritional ketosis. While test strips for these meters can be pricey, ranging from $1 to $6 per strip, it’s worth knowing exactly where you stand when it comes to your low-carb lifestyle. A Google search will help you turn up the cheapest sources for a monitor and strips.

by Jimmy Moore (Updated from original article published on
CarbSmart.com
)

I’ve been doing my own personal n=1 experiment of nutritional ketosis since May 2012, reporting about it on my blog every 30 days. The longer I’ve been eating to produce enough blood ketones to turn myself into a fat-burning machine, the more I’ve learned about the mistakes I was making that were actually preventing me from reaching the level of nutritional ketosis needed to produce fat loss and improve various metabolic markers. Correcting these mistakes has helped me effortlessly shed a significant amount of weight, lower my blood sugar and A1c number, improve my lipid panel, and so much more. The following is not a comprehensive list of the common low-carb mistakes. However, these are worth a closer look if you are struggling with your weight and health goals. You just might be surprised!

1.
   
Consuming too much protein.      
What?! But I thought a low-carb diet was supposed to be
high-protein!
That is what we hear out there, don’t we? The reality is that a well-formulated, low-carb diet is actually high in FAT, not protein. I bet you never thought that protein could hinder your weight loss—but it can. Why? Here’s the word: GLUCONEOGENESIS! Say whoawhat? When you consume excess protein, your liver transforms it into glucose (sugar). If you are eating a lot of lean meats like chicken breasts, turkey, and lower-fat cuts of beef or pork, you might be defeating the purpose of your low-carb lifestyle. Try choosing fattier cuts of meat and controlling the absolute amount of protein you are eating (I aim for 12% of my total calorie intake) to see how that impacts your blood ketone levels.      

2.
   
Using urine ketone testing sticks to measure ketosis. 
This is a biggie! Low-carbers have long relied on urine ketone test sticks (commonly sold as
Ketostix
) to detect the level of acetoacetate the body is excreting. Watching the sticks magically turn light pink to dark purple has always fascinated low-carb dieters, myself included, making us feel we are doing something constructive. It feels like a reward for our efforts. Unfortunately, these pee sticks are inexact. Further, they don’t measure the specific kind of ketones your body can use as fuel. As I learned in
The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance
, it’s better to test your blood for
beta
-hydroxybutyrate. This indicates whether or not you are keto-adapted, burning fat, and using ketones for fuel—the true essence of nutritional ketosis. You’re looking for a level between 0.5 to ve 3.0 millimolar for optimal fat loss and keto-adapted performance. As I said earlier, you’ll need a blood ketone meter, like the Precision Xtra from Abbott, to see where you stand. The information gained from measuring blood ketones instead of urine ketones is solid gold for knowing how well you are doing on your healthy low-carb eating plan!

3.
   
Not eating enough dietary fat.      
One of the lingering effects of the low-fat propaganda of the past three-plus decades is the idea that dietary fat is harmful, that it will clog your arteries and make you fat. So it’s probably not surprising to hear that many who begin a low-carb diet simultaneously cut their fat intake with the best of intentions. They erroneously think that if low-carb is good, then low-fat
and
low-carb is dietary nirvana. But that’s a fatal flaw in attempting to get into nutritional ketosis, stave off hunger and cravings, and experience the benefits that come from eating this way. Even if you think you’re consuming enough high-fat foods, you may need to ramp it up a bit more. I’m eating around 85% of my calories from dietary fat during my n=1 experiment. I’ll share some high-fat foods you can consume in a moment, but the key is to get creative and don’t fear the fat. While you may not necessarily need to eat 85% of your calories in the form of fat, like I do, you’d be surprised how adding just a bit more fat to your diet can make all the difference in helping you to reach therapeutic levels of nutritional ketosis, shed pounds, and gain the health benefits that come with it.        

4.
   
Eating too often/too much food.    
What’s this? Is he talking about calories on a low-carb diet? Yes and no. Yes, it is indeed possible to eat beyond satiety and consume more food than you really need. But if there’s anything I’ve learned about what happens to the body once you become keto-adapted, it’s this: hunger is completely zapped, you
forget
to eat, and you generally feel energized and mentally alert while going many hours between meals. When you are producing sufficient ketone bodies—remember, that’s between 0.5 to 3.0 millimolar—your body and brain are fueled efficiently.
I’ve fallen into a regular pattern of eating a calorie-sufficient set of meals with 85% fat, 12% protein, and 3% carbohydrate, consuming high-quality, nutrient-dense, real, whole foods. Consuming even one meal with this macronutrient makeup can keep me satiated for upwards of 12 to 24 hours. As you can imagine, this period of spontaneous intermittent fasting helps lower overall food and calorie consumption naturally without feeling miserably hungry between meals. Too many people habitually eat three full meals and two snacks daily because they always have and their fluctuating blood sugar levels required them to do so. But if you allow your cultural paradigms about food to shift from eating by the clock to eating when hunger kicks in, you might be pleasantly surprised to see your blood ketones increase and healthful weight loss commence.           

5.
   
Failing to stabilize blood sugar levels.    
You might be wondering,
What does blood sugar have to do with nutritional ketosis?
Why should you worry about your blood glucose levels if you’re not a diabetic? The reality is EVERYONE should be using a glucometer, easily accessible from any pharmacy or Walmart. Thatu calmart.’s the only way to know exactly what our blood sugar numbers are. Keeping carbohydrate intake to your personal level of tolerance, moderating your protein intake to match your metabolic needs, and eating ample amounts of satiating fats, will lower your fasting blood sugars into the 80s and even the 70s. When I first began my blood ketone experiment, my fasting blood sugar was regularly in the upper 90s to lower 100s. Once I attained an average blood ketone level of 2.0 millimolar over a period of time, my blood sugars suddenly dropped to an ideal level. Normalized blood sugar has kept my hunger at bay, regulated my mood, and given me a sense of well-being not experienced with the roller-coaster ride that alternating hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia produce. Get your blood sugar regulated and nutritional ketosis will be so much easier to attain. Conversely, nutritional ketosis will help you regulate your blood sugar.
The two work hand-in-hand.

by Jimmy Moore (Updated from original article published on
CarbSmart.com
)

The most frequent question I’ve received from people about this by far has been,
What the heck are you eating?
It’s a fantastic question as I have consistently had blood ketone levels over 2.0 millimolar for most of this experiment. I have been reluctant to share my exact menus—they work for me, but some people may not need to eat exactly like I do to experience similar results; others may need to be even more strict. The best thing for you to do is test to see how you respond to various foods and adjust accordingly. We are all different and require varying levels of fat, protein, and carbohydrate for our specific metabolic needs. If you are like me and are metabolically deranged from years of poor nutritional choices prior to finding low-carb, it may be necessary to cut your carbohydrate intake down to the bare minimum, and reduce protein as well.

One of the major keys to my success with nutritional ketosis has been a very deliberate increase in fat consumption. I haven’t been afraid to consume copious amounts of fat on my low-carb diet; in the absence of carbs, it is the body’s fuel source. But pushing fat levels even higher while restricting carbohydrate and protein has made all the difference in the world. I remember when I first began this experiment, I got a lot of e-mails from readers who asked how I got my fat consumption up to 85% of my calories. Some joked,
What are you doing, drinking butter?
I can’t help but laugh at this notion, but it does give me a teachable moment about the differences in the macronutrients.