Intro
Normal diet into becoming a fat burning machine.
If you're going to do it, you'll want to do it properly and avoid some of the pitfalls. Otherwise you're just (temporarily) punishing yourself and not getting the return you want.
Last time I went KETO it was relatively quiet on the interwebs with science behind what you were doing. My trawlings back in 2016 brought up lots of inspirational stories of people who had shed loads of weight, which is great for some motivation if you're after weight loss (and you aren't as cynical as me about online testimonials on websites where they're trying to sell you something). What was lacking in easily available information on the how and why of the KETO worked. Mostly it was websites that said do this - and this will be the result. Fine for some people. Not for me.
The way my brain is wired makes me need to understand exactly how something works, why it works, ways to enhance or tweek it to your liking and what to expect physiologically. I was starved of this information.
How the information came about
Fortunately the web now has an abundance of "information" on KETO, so I've saved you some time and consumed as much as it as possible. Now I'm not academically trained in nutrition and physiology but I am a critical thinker and have the ability to use the following to deduce what I believe to be the key bits of KETO. I do this by:
- Reading everything with an open mind, no preconceived outcomes.
- Absorbing current science that allows me to fact check what I read.
- Applying logic to what I read in conjunction with applying acquired scientific knowledge to call out the questionable information sites.
- Seeing common themes between articles *
* I've found that the web tends to regurgitate content so while drawing common themes is a tool, this isn't a main driver for my belief that content becomes information as...
I have found that the vast majority of the "information" out there is just recycled garbage. And it gets rehashed and re-published all over the place - making the density of pseudoscience, sales pitch waffle and un-researched ideology far outweigh the good stuff.
What makes a quality KETO diet
So here we go. What have I learned...
"It's all about macros"
Bullshit. Don't fall for the KETO food pyramid crap that is widely publicised.
Everywhere you look it's the same highly ambiguous crap. Don't listen to it. Here's why...
Protein
Your body needs a certain amount of protein each day. This is (predominantly) based on the amount of protein needed to repair your body. Some of this will be general repair and maintenance, some from recovering from exercise.
For an example... If you subscribe to the percentages above then say you wanted to target 2,300 calories a day (just a random figure for an example and not a suggestion) and you followed the above then you would be consuming the following:
Based on the pyramid or doughnut chart at 25% = 575 calories which equates to 143.75 grams of protein per day.
Based on the pie chart at 15 - 30% = 345 to 690 calories which equates to 86 to 172.5 grams of protein per day.
Now let's take that example but reduce the calorie target to 1,800 per day.
Based on the pyramid or doughnut chart at 25% = 450 calories which equates to 112.5 grams of protein per day.
Based on the pie chart at 15 - 30% = 270 to 540 calories which equates to 67.5 to 135 grams of protein per day.
Do you believe that needing more (or less) calories for whatever it is you're trying to achieve has any effect on the amount of protein your body needs to repair itself? No. So why let your protein drift with your caloric target.
Find out a sensible estimate of what protein your body needs to repair itself and use that as a fixed target.
I'm a big fan of [https://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/] for estimating protein requirements. Feel free to use your tool of choice.
Now - slightly different logic on carbs.
Less than 50g per day. I aim for under 25g to be sure. That's not a percentage of caloric intake. It's fixed.
Fat
Eat to satiety or to your calorie target depending on your goal.
Let's give some examples:
Person A needs:
- 100g of protein for their body to adequately maintain itself
- 30g of carbs as that's what they settled on as an amount under 50g
- A desire to consume 2,000 calories a day
- 100g of protein at 4 calories per g = 400 calories
- 30g of carbs at 4 calories per g = 120 calories
- Protein and carbs total 520 calories per day
- 2,000 goal minus the fixed amounts consumed between carb and protein = 1,480 calories to consume
- These calories need to come from fat
- 9 calories per gram of fat - this leaves 164.5g of fat to consume to hit the target
Person B needs:
- 100g of protein for their body to adequately maintain itself
- 30g of carbs as that's what they settled on as an amount under 50g
- A desire to consume 2,000 calories a day
Here's the calculation:
- 150g of protein at 4 calories per g = 600 calories
- 30g of carbs at 4 calories per g = 120 calories
- Protein and carbs total 720 calories per day
- 2,000 goal minus the fixed amounts consumed between carb and protein = 1,280 calories to consume
- These calories need to come from fat
- 9 calories per gram of fat - this leaves 142g of fat to consume to hit the target
That's how this diet is calculated.
Why is knowing this important?
If you provide your body with excess protein, beyond what it requires to maintain your itself, then your body will metabolise the protein as an energy source - causing you a problem and potentially kicking you our of Ketosis.
If you use the percentages to work out protein needs and have a low calorie goal (for weight loss) then your protein levels are going to be insufficient to maintain your body and you will loose muscles as your body fails to repair them each day.
The not conclusion
This post has already become extremely long so I'll wrap it up here and continue my findings in a future post. If you've read this far - thank you. You're clearly as into Keto as I am.
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