The second part of the Ketogenic Files has been “gathering dust” on my hard drive for several months. With all the work with our Talent Hunt and other projects I simply forgot about it. Anyways, here it is. I’m terribly sorry for the delay.

I’ve received a lot of questions about my style of ketogenic dieting. To shed some more light on my approach, I’ve compiled a little FAQ from all the questions I’ve received. Here’s The Ketogenic Files, Part II.

Disclaimer: The answers within this FAQ are my personal opinions gathered from my own experience and working with hundreds of clients over the past +10 years. Please keep in mind that I will not go into depth, nor will I reveal all my “secrets”, as these are reserved for my clients who pay for my help and advice. This Q&A will be rather basic, but it should both help and point most of you in the right direction.

 
Q: I must say that I’m deeply impressed of how you keep track of all the small little details in your data. I’ll keep it simple, the carbs you add under the week. Is it done simultaneous as before your disease or spread out over the week?

A: First off, you should only add in carbs to your diet if you’re below a true 10% body fat. That means visible abs. Now, introducing carbohydrates to one’s diet should be done in a slow and controlled manner while using a carb-cycling protocol. It’s a logical approach. Your insulin sensitivity is more than doubled during and following a training session. So, the first step is to include some carbs on your training days and add them to your post workout drink. About 25 to 50 grams (depending on your muscle weight and training volume) is adequate. You could also add in about half of that during your workout (although that will hinder fat oxidation somewhat as glucose becomes the preferred fuel.)

After about one to two weeks, you have two options depending on your situation. You can either add a small amount (20-30 grams) of carbs to your last meal of the day or to your breakfast. By adding some carbs to you last meal you will lower the release of cortisol while you sleep and it will wind you down and make you sleep better (since carbs increase serotonin levels.) And don’t worry, adding a little carbs at night will not make you fat. They will be stored as muscle glycogen and will be available the next day to be used for fuel. If you instead get energized by carbs you can go old-school and add these carbs to your breakfast instead.

Now, if you have poor insulin sensitivity (as I have), this is about as far as you should go. If you have a good tolerance of carbohydrates, you should probably continue to add in some carbs at weekly or bi-weekly intervals and adding some on your off-days as well (about half the amount compared to your training days.) Spread them evenly among your meals. This kind of carb-cycling will help with keeping fat-gain to a minimum when you transition into a muscle building phase. Slowly add carbs to your training days and keep them somewhat low on non-training days. If you notice that you gain fat, just back off a little on your non-training days. And if you find yourself at a standstill, add in some more after your training sessions.

 
Q: Does the carbs in protein powder interfere with ketosis? Is it enough to take you out of ketosis? What’s the limit? I try to keep my carbs below 20 grams a day.

A: I don’t really count them. Just as carbohydrates from green fibrous veggies, carbs from protein powder can be viewed as trace carbs. However, this only holds true if you get most of your protein and other nutrients from real whole foods (as you should!) As long as you only consume protein powder two or three times a day it’s not a problem (as one portion of 30-40 grams usually only contain 1.5 to 3 grams of trace carbs.)

As for an upper limit of carbohydrates it solely depends on your lean muscle weight, your activity level and insulin sensitivity. Smaller people, and/or people with poor insulin sensitivity, should probably not exceed 10 grams of carbs in one sitting and 20 to 30 grams in one day. Big muscular guys, and/or very active people with great insulin sensitivity, should probably not exceed 20 grams in one sitting and 50 grams in one day. That being said, I’ve had some really muscular clients who’ve stayed in ketosis on close to 100 grams of carbs a day.

 
Q: What about leptin levels on a ketogenic diet? Shouldn’t you include carb-up meals to keep leptin levels high?

A: Leptin is usually only an issue in really lean individuals or in those who are very far below their natural set point (your natural set point is the body fat percentage/body composition you’ve been at for an extended period of time.)

While eating carbohydrates can help in bringing leptin levels back up - so can any form of overconsumption. If leptin is down and you overfeed by 1500 calories from additional protein and fat, you will positively affect your leptin levels.

 
Q: What about meal frequency on a ketogenic diet, or any diet for that matter. It seems that some people, especially here in Sweden, believe that eating several times a day for stimulating one’s metabolism is just a myth.

A: This idea of eating only a few meals a day is not something new. It’s just a fad that comes and goes. Remember Serge Nubret? He managed to diet on only one meal a day – of course with help of great genetics and some highly anabolic substances.

In 1997 we ran the Animal Diet on the Ironmag website. It was a fasting approach with only a pre-workout snack, a post-workout shake and a huge meal an hour later. Most fasting diets geared towards gym-goers have copied that concept. Problem is, it usually work for only a very limited time, especially if you carry some additional muscle mass.

The people touting these concepts usually focus only on theoretical ways to burn fat. As they lack experience with actually working with clients, they don’t see the big picture with arising long-term problems such as hormonal changes, the lack of essential nutrients and individual differences.

Bottom line is that diets such as The Animal Diet, The Warrior Diet, Intermittent Fasting, or keeping a really low meal frequency, will work for fat loss if done correctly (with a very high activity level to increase insulin sensitivity and eating only clean foods such as meat, fish, nuts, berries and veggies) and if you’re not carrying more muscle mass than the average athlete. It will also “help” if you have a really slow metabolism as the fasting will then be less catabolic. However, if you’re a big guy and/or have a raving metabolism, you will lose muscle mass if you keep at it for longer periods of time. It will also be a big health concern if you choose to eat less frequent for extended periods of time. It’s close to impossible to get all the essential nutrients you need in only one or two meals a day. One should also be aware of the fact that our digestive system is in much worse shape than it was in the days of our ancestors (where this diet comes from.) Considering digestive problems, gastric acid deficiency, etc., most people will not be able to digest and absorb huge meals.

To sum it up, I experimented with these kinds of diets over ten years ago and guess what? Yeah, I still recommend at least four to six meals a day and up to eight meals for really muscular bodybuilders or highly active athletes with a high energy requirement.

 
Q: Very interesting reading. Is the body’s requirements of vitamins/minerals, calcium and fibers satisfied trough vegetables or are you using specific supplements. Are all milk-products banned from the ketonic diet? (including low-carb).

A: Considering today’s poor soil conditions and the decline of micro nutrients in both vegetables and fruits, I always recommend some additional vitamin and mineral supplements for athletes. I do not recommend supplementing with calcium for men though, as excess calcium can increase the risk of high blood pressure and ischemic heart disease.

Dairy products are not allowed in a ketogenic diet and shouldn’t really be a part of any diet as they’re among the most allergenic foods you can find. Most people are mildly intolerant to dairy products (as they are to grains) but don’t even know it because they only get barely noticeable symptoms (some mucus, a little water retention and maybe some gas.) However, even the mildest intolerance to a food source will be stressful on your body with increased cortisol levels as a result.

 
Q: Any interesting articles/studies you can recommend regarding ketogenic diets?

A: For the basics, you can check out The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald and The Anabolic Diet by Mauro DiPasquale. These books, however, are quite outdated and do not really take health into consideration.

 
The past few days has been really, really hectic for me; as I’ve been working hard to finish our website and discussion board for our Talent Hunt 2008 project. And today, I’m glad to say, it’s finally online. Take a look at: www.talangjakten2008.se

As I more or less have retired from participating and writing at public discussion boards, I will however, when my time permits, do my best to answer as many of your questions as possible at our Talent Hunt Board (there’s a separate area called “ask the coaches”.)

If you live outside of Sweden and find our language retarded (well, it is, kind of), then you could always try google translate >> www.talangjakten2008.se in (sw-)english…

 
I’ve received a lot of questions about my style of ketogenic dieting. To shed some more light on my approach, I’ve compiled a little FAQ from all the questions I’ve received. Here’s The Ketogenic Files, Part I.

Disclaimer: The answers within this FAQ are my personal opinions gathered from my own experience and working with hundreds of clients over the past +10 years. Please keep in mind that I will not go into depth, nor will I reveal all my “secrets”, as these are reserved for my clients who pay for my help and advice. This Q&A will be rather basic, but it should both help and point most of you in the right direction.
 

Q: Who would you recommend a ketogenic diet to? Are there any specific criteria for choosing it?

A: This depends on your genetic insulin sensitivity and your level of body fat. The fatter you are, the poorer your insulin sensitivity and the worse you handle carbohydrates. So, if you don’t handle carbs well and/or are overweight, you shouldn’t eat them. It’s even worse if you drink a lot of caffeinated beverages, since caffeine decreases insulin sensitivity even more. Besides, most people are kidding themselves about how much carbohydrates they need. How much do you really move about in a day? How much do you exercise on a daily basis? Oh, close to nothing, uh? Forty to fifty grams per day of good carbohydrates is plenty for most of the population.
However, if you’re lean, active and train at least five hours a week, then you can eat some carbs. Get lean first if you want to eat them. The leaner you are, the more carbs you can eat.

I would say that for fat loss, a ketogenic diet the best choice for anyone above 15 percent of body fat.
 

Q: What are your thoughts on re-feed/higher calorie days, i.e. eat whatever you want once a week? Do you have any of those, or do you consume the same number of calories each and every day?

A: I don’t like “eat whatever you want” re-feed days. All they do is reinforcing bad behavior patterns and your cravings for carbohydrates/crap food. I do however use re-feed meals or even re-feed days containing good carbohydrates depending on the client and his/her situation (level of bodyfat, lean body mass, activity level, signs of metabolic slow down, etc.)

As we’re discussing ketogenic diets, the most important rule is no re-feeds/carbs at all for the first three or four weeks. You need to be in constant ketosis for about three weeks to enter a glycogen sparing state (that means that your body has adapted to ketosis.) At that point your body is as efficient at using ketones as it is at using carbohydrates. This also means that there is no real reason for carb re-feeds during a ketogenic diet.

However, as you get leaner and are playing in the single digits of body fat, you might risk slowing your metabolism due to cutting calories lower or increasing your activity to keep burning off fat. If this happens, a re-feed day or two is in order. Having high carbohydrate days can somewhat elevate your metabolism by helping with the conversion of T4 to T3. This strategy however, should only be used when the body temperature drops.

Another approach I also use, especially on bigger guys that carries some muscle mass, is that once they entered a glycogen sparing state, they’ll consume one carbohydrate meal once a week. A meal of 150 to 200 grams of good carbs is enough to keep your glycogen stores almost full (once you’re in a glycogen sparing state, that is.) This will help with workout intensity, keeping the muscles fuller and retaining muscle mass.

And no, I don’t consume the same number of calories every day. I consume more on my training days than my off-days – simply by adding BCAA, glutamine and whey protein around my workouts.
 

Q: I read that you can pretty much eat whatever you want on a ketogenic diet as long as it does not contain carbs. So I guess bacon, cream, cheese and butter are good choices?

A: This is where most people really screw up! Bacon, cream and other fat sources high in saturated fat and/or trans-fats are old-school, outdated and plain stupid. A high intake of saturated fats in comparison to healthy and essential fatty acids will increase inflammation (and thus cortisol), decrease the function of your cells and decrease your insulin sensitivity - only to mention a few problems.

Would you like to boost your metabolism, decrease inflammations and improve your insulin sensitivity? Then there’s no better choice than fish oil. Fish Oil and Omega-3 supplementation should be the base of your fat intake. Then add healthy fats such as olive oil, borage oil, evening primrose oil, macademia nut oil and coconut oil for cooking.

It’s also extremely important that you eat a lot of vegetables! See the next question for more details.
 

Q: If you consume next to none carbohydrates during a longer period of ketosis, doesn’t your body become very acidic in its pH? Isn’t that bad for the body?

A: You’re correct that being in a state of acidity (chronic metabolic acidosis) is really bad for you, since your body must, at all costs, be and operate in a stable pH. Therefore, any dietary acid load has to be neutralized by one or many number of homeostatic base-producing mechanisms. These includes, for example, the breakdown of the strong base calcium from the bones and the breakdown of glutamine from skeletal muscle; resulting in both loss of bone- and muscle mass. However, you’ve got the acid-forming compounds somewhat mixed up.

First, all proteins are acidic in various degrees. But since proteins are needed for tissue repair, keeping you in an anabolic state, keeping your metabolism going and plain and simple essential, you need to keep your protein intake high. And while a high protein diet is acid forming, proteins also seem to counteract some of its own acid load by increasing the body’s capacity for excreting those acids.

The other essential nutrient in your diet is fat. Fat is neutral and doesn’t contribute to an acidic load.

Carbohydrates, which are not essential in any way, are a trickier group. Most rich carbohydrate containing sources, such as grains, are about as acidic as most meats, milk, diary and eggs. Products such as cereal, noodles, oats, pasta, rice and most bread are very acidic.

This leaves us with vegetables and fruits, which are both alkaline (base producing.) Since fruits contain fructose they need to be limited to carbohydrate loading meals only. So, on a ketogenic diet, it’s important to get a lot of vegetables. And since we’re trying to eliminate carbohydrates, these vegetables need to be limited to the green fibrous types (broccoli, spinach, lettuce, cucumber, celery and cauliflower.)

As you can see, the modern diet with processed food, some proteins, a lot of grains, sugar and very little veggies are extremely acidic. A well balanced ketogenic diet is not.
 

Q: I know some people who get their carbohydrates from vegetables only. And for me, it seems that they never put on any muscle.

A: Well, I know a lot of athletes (especially strength- and power athletes) that are on a low carbohydrate diet year round, and they thrive on it. Where most people screw up is simply that they do not cover their nutritional bases and needs. If you want to build muscle on a ketogenic- or low carbohydrate diet, you need to get at least 1.7 to 2 grams of protein and 1.3 to 1.5 grams of fat per pound of body weight. And the fats must be from healthy choices (fish oil, omega-3 capsules, olive oil, Macademia nut oil, GLA and CLA.) No more than 25% should come from saturated fats.

And as always, it’s crucial to pay close attention to one’s nutrition and supplementation before, during and after every training session.
 

Q: I’ve never seen anyone as ripped and vascular. What do you do to bring out that level of vascularity? Have you done a carb load, used arginine, caffeine or something similar before taking the pictures?

A: The pictures you’re referring to were taken during a ketogenic diet and where my subcutaneous fat was measured to about 4%. Since I’m on a strict ketogenic diet, carbohydrates are out of the question since they would put me out of ketosis for hours. I only take creatine and BCAA before and during my workouts. Both supplements help with energy and keeping you focused. I do take some glutamine after my workouts as a carbohydrate substitute, but that does not play a role in vascularity during the workout. I don’t use acetyl carnitine and for caffeine, I really try to limit my consumption since it interferes with your insulin sensitivity and ability to store glycogen. Caffeine or similar products should be limited or eliminated during the better part of your fat loss program. Only use them at the end if you hit a plateau that you have trouble breaking trough.

My vascularity is a result of many factors such as; a low level of body fat, over 20 years of training experience in various sports, being in a glycogen sparing state, and somewhat a result of my genetics.
 

Part two of The ketogenic Files will be up in a week or two.

 
We at reFORM are happy to announce this year’s participants in the reFORM Talent Hunt.

Denice Lundevall, Västerås (Bodyfitness)
Elinor Abrahamsson, Skara (Bodyfitness)
Monica Helénius, Göteborg (Bodybuilding)
Morgan Jonsson, Västerås (Bodybuilding)
Nuray Salibram, Varberg (Bodybuilding)
Nikola Fara, Göteborg (Classic Bodybuilding)

We will post a more detailed presentation of each participant within a few days along with start dates and some more information.

 
Just added a quick update to the OLB 2008: Shredded files. Read the whole story here: OLB 2008: Shredded, First of May Update

 
Just a friendly reminder: we will close for applications on April 30. Do you want to compete in Bodybuilding, Athletic Fitness, Fitness or Classic Bodybuilding? Would you like to take your body to a whole new level? What about getting all the help and supplements you need absolutely for free? Does it sound like an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? If so, make sure to apply today!

Find out more at our reFORM website!