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.