With the recent start of both The Biggest Loser (season 7) and the Australian version (season 4), I get a lot of questions from clients and people around the ‘net about this “calories in vs. calories out” dogma. Those of you who’ve been reading my articles know that for the last 10 years I’ve been saying “a calorie is not a calorie” and that one should concentrate on nutrient quantities and partitioning/timing.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Calories can be helpful and you still need to “burn” more energy than you consume to burn off body fat. However, calories should never, I repeat, never be the base for establishing the amount of food to eat. Saying, “I’m eating 1500 calories worth of food”, doesn’t say anything. 1500 kcal of what? Bread and butter? It’s totally meaningless and it gives you a wrong idea of nutrition. What is important is the amount of nutrients you’re getting, where they come from and when you consume them.

Let me give you an example:

Some trainer says that their client consume 1500 kcal and then you, a regular guy without any deep nutritional knowledge, assumes that 1500 kcal is a good place to start, right? Or at least less than you need, so you’re calorie deficient. Right? Okay, so what will these 1500 kcal consist of? Well, you probably think that low fat diary, grains, rice, coarse rye bread, chicken, fruit etc. are healthy foods. So you just put together some meals from these choices. Heck, it’s not that important. It’s calories in vs. calories out after all, right? Thus your diet might end up something like this:

A few slices of bread with low fat cheese, oatmeal with orange juice, some fruits, a chicken salad and a fat free yoghurt. After doing some counting on the amounts of the selected food you end up with roughly 1500 kcal. Great, right? You think? Let’s sum up the nutrients you’re getting.

It might be something like this:
Protein: 60 grams (might be enough if you’re 100lbs and in a coma)
Fat: 20 grams (way too little and mostly saturated)
Carbohydrates: 260 grams (sure, if you move about all day and have good insulin sensitivity)

Now, let’s imagine a diet were we concentrate on good food choices, such as meat, fish, poultry, game, veggies, nuts and some occasional fruit, and were we will have a good nutritional balance and timing. This diet might give you:

Protein: 190 grams (protein in every meal)
Fat: 55 grams (mostly from fish oil and vegetable oil)
Carbohydrates: 55 grams (after workout)

Both diets gives you roughly 1500 kcal. But do you honestly think they will produce the same results? Of course not! A calorie is not a calorie!
A hundred calories worth of carbohydrates will not cause the same hormonal response as a hundred calories worth of protein or fat. And a hundred calories from sugar will not have the same physiological effect as a hundred calories from fiber, even though they are technically both considered carbohydrates.
People who says otherwise are either completely ignorant or are using huge amounts of illegal chemical substances.

This is, (somewhat simplified), why I prefer to use nutrient quantities to design a diet instead of using calories to establish the amount of food to eat.
Maybe we should rephrase that old dogma to “Nutrients in vs. energy out.”

 
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.

This is a rant.

I’ve touched this subject several times since the late 90’s in articles, forum posts and seminars. But since I see people quoting unrelated or flawed studies on daily basis at various forums, it’s still as relevant as ever.

So, what’s my beef with studies? Well, for starters:

• Most studies are performed in an unlikely environment, not applicable in the real world
• Most studies are performed on an exclusive group of people, and the results cannot be transferred on to other groups
• Most studies has too few participants to get any noteworthy data
• Most studies are too short to show any significant data
• The interpretation of studies is multiplex with many potential pitfalls (just take a look at journalists and their sensational conclusions)
• Studies are constantly contradicting each other, which leads to another big point…

According to Greek epidemiologist John Ioannidis’ mathematical model, a well-designed study (with no professional bias) has an 85% chance of being right, while a poorly designed study with researcher bias has a 17% chance.
After breaking down all the research data he collected between 1990 and 2003 he concluded that 50% of all published research is probably wrong.

Now, this is why I only cite well-respected and well-backed up studies in my articles and why I never jump on the bandwagon when some new contradicting and sensational study is being published.

However, I still skim trough studies and reports on a weekly basis. Most of it is not applicable in the real world, but now and then something interesting shows up. If it’s relevant I’ll do my own field testing and discuss it with other fitness professionals. However, most of the time those studies only validate what we have been doing for years. When it comes to the know-how, the research community is often years behind innovative trainers and coaches.

Now, in our field of training and nutrition – please don’t cite studies or draw your own conclusions from them unless you know exactly how to interpret research data and has less than several years of experience training people. Leave that to the experienced experts in the field.

Some years ago we ran an article series in Ironmag called “Supplements worth your money”, and since there seems to be a lot of confusion on this subject, I thought I’ll revamp the series with some blog posts.

Fish oil, or Omega-3 capsules, ranks at the top of my must have supplement list. Since the late 1990s when large clinical trials were published supporting the cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, fish oil has been one of the most sought after supplements. If you do a search for fish oil supplementation at PubMed, you’ll get more than 1800 studies, and that number is steadily increasing. Besides its cardiovascular benefits, fish oil has shown to reduce risk of and/or treat psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, and aggression/hostility. And as little as three or more servings of fish/week or one fish oil capsule has been associated with 50% decreased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, for us gym-goers, the really interesting pieces are the metabolic and anti-inflammatory properties of fish oil.

Fish oil and the metabolic rate
A study by E.E. Noreen showed that 3g a day of concentrated fish oil supplying about 900 mg EPA and 600 mg DHA increased resting metabolic rate by 199 kcal to 488 kcal a day after 28 days of supplementation. That’s a huge metabolic boost!
Also, fish oil increases the levels of fat burning enzymes and decreases the levels of fat-storage enzymes. And if that’s not enough, omega-3 fatty acids allow the body to burn fat at times when fat burning is normally inhibited by insulin release, like after a carbohydrate meal.

Omega-3 and inflammation
Inflammation is associated to a host of human conditions such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, joint pain, obesity and even neuropsychiatric conditions (as mentioned earlier). The biggest contributor to inflammation is a diet high in trans- and saturated fats and by an excess of dietary sugars. In addition, an over consumption of omega-6 fatty acids (such as corn, safflower, sunflower and soybean oils) has been shown to promote inflammation.
Now, on a cellular level, inflammation is mediated through eicosanoids. Eicosanoids are built from 20-carbon long chained fatty acids. Inflammatory cells typically contain high proportions of arachidonic acid (AA) and low levels of other 20-carbon fatty acids (EPA), thus making AA the usual substrate for eicosanoid synthesis. Consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) results in increased uptake of these fatty acids into cell membrane; and cells with higher DHA and EPA contents, as opposed to AA, produce fewer inflammatory eicosanoids, thus decreasing local and systemic inflammation.
Most inflammatory conditions could probably be improved and/or treated by supplementing omega-3 fatty acids.

This is only a small piece of the tip of the omega-3 iceberg. There are a lot of other conditions where omega-3 supplementation has shown improvement, including cancer.
When it comes to dietary recommendations for omega-3 fatty acids, it is still a matter of debate among scientists (depending on desired disease prevention). However, to cover all the bases and to get a metabolic increase, I would recommend about 1000mg EPA and 600mg DHA. This would probably sum up to about 4g (or 4 capsules) of fish oil daily (depending on concentrations).

Finally, you should be aware of that there are several other nutrients that influence your body’s Omega-3 status. Zink, at 25 mg, has been shown to increase omega-3 status significantly in our cell membranes at the expense of saturated fats. Selenium deficiency has been shown to increase the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio and can also interfere with the conversion of omega-3 into EPA and DHA. A deficiency in folic acid has also shown to decrease omega-3 status, but will increase your omega-3 status when supplemented. Also, a diet low in antioxidants has shown to lower the levels of essential fatty acids within the bloodstream.

Not so long ago I held a small seminar about eating healthy. One of the topics that emerged was gut health, autointoxication and that bizarre colon cleansing fad a lot of people buy into today.

Intestinal autointoxication refers to the scenario where some diseases arise from toxins produced within the gastrointestinal tract. Today it’s widely known in the scientific community that a poor diet and stress wreaks havoc upon the digestive system by promoting a decline in beneficial and healthy bacteria. The common norm of most illnesses, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia (FM) are an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth: SIBO). Symptoms of SIBO include bloating, constipation, abdominal pain, diarrhea, gas and fatigue. It also interferes with absorption of nutrients, which may not only cause malnutrition but may interfere with your mental wellbeing. And an overgrowth of certain types of bacteria may contribute to obesity by enhancing the uptake of calories from fibers and increasing storage of energy into fat cells.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of other stressors such as heavy metals, pesticides, medications and food dyes that interfere with our intestinal health. But it’s not a reason undergo time wasting colonics or embark on some unhealthy juice fast or bulking up on laxatives. All you need to promote normal bowel movements and to detoxify is fiber from vegetables and whole grains. And to keep the gut healthy with friendly bacteria such as Lactobacillus, nothing beats plain old yogurt. Also, the beneficial bacteria have a working relationship with Omega-3 fatty acids, so make sure you supplement with some fish- or flaxseed oil.

In the end, eating a healthy diet containing of lots of vegetables, vegetable- and fish oil, lean meat and some fruit and berries is still your best insurance against any kind of disease or stressor.

One question I often get from new clients concerns the post workout shake. A lot of athletes, especially women in the bodybuilding and fitness industry, still consume solid food after a training session as their “recovery nutrition”. When I hand them a nutritional program with a personalized post workout shake, the usual respond is; “Is that really necessary? Can’t I have a fruit or a sandwich instead when I get home?”

As I’ve written before, it’s crucial that you get carbs and protein immediately following a workout if you want to gain muscle mass and/or recover from the exercise. A liquid shake are palatable, easy and quick to consume, and can easily provide all the nutrition you need at this vital time. Since this shake should be made of whey protein and high-glycemic carbs like maltodextrin or Vitargo, it’s also absorbed much faster than solid food; usually within 30 to 60 minutes. Whole solid foods may take two to three hours to absorb and fully affect the muscle; thus missing the critical forty-five minute metabolic window.

The sooner your post recovery nutrition gets to the muscles, the better your chances are for recovery and muscle building. Waiting until you get home, or consuming solid foods won’t cut it. If you’ve busted your ass in the gym, make sure you get the most out of it. Don’t neglect the power of liquid post workout nutrition.

More on recovery (previous blog-posts):

Antioxidants as a postworkout weapon

Workout drinks