The hot new trend that I see currently is the Keto Diet. Those of us who have been in the fitness industry for any length of time know that this is not a new thing. In the past it was called things like the Atkins Diet, or the South Beach Diet. The premise is the same, lower your processed carbohydrates and you’ll drop body fat. It’s really not that complicated. It’s a great way to lose body fat. I do have some concerns with what I’m seeing though…..
What most people don’t know is that if you over consume protein, your body turns protein into sugar via gluconeogensis. Especially if you are particularly carb sensitive which most people with a lot of body fat are. So, the trend that I’m seeing is pound the meats, and cheeses, sour creams etc, and cut out the carbs. This may work in the short term. You’ll drop some weight quickly, but that’s mostly due to water loss. You see, your body stores sugar in the muscles as glycogen. Those glycogen molecules are surrounded by water molecules. When you drop the carbohydrates, you shed the glycogen and shed the water which can result in rapid weight loss for the short term. As an example, in our nutrition program we do a carbohydrate refeed followed by fasting. When I’m carb depleted and do a massive carb load refeed, I have gained 18lbs in one day, only to shed it by Wednesday of next week. Weight is not a good indicator of progress. Ultimately fat loss is about making hormonal changes in the body, and this should be done by eating a nutritious diet.
We recommend meat and vegetables for most meals. When you cut out the processed carbs, and begin eating meat and veggies, you’ll decrease your body fat, increase the good nutrients so the body runs well and is healthy, and increase your performance. One of the flaws I see when people are doing the current versions of Keto is they are cutting out all carbohydrates and just eating meats and fats. This can lead to deficiencies of nutrients for optimal performance. If you do it correctly, you add the veggies back in, you’re most likely not in nutritional ketosis, but you’ll still burn body fat and add muscle so it’s a win.
I think nutritional ketosis is a valid way to lose weight, but it needs to be done correctly. We do this in the nutrition program and take several different approaches optimizing for health and fat loss.
7-24-18
Strength:
Deadlift while resting complete sets of auxiliary work
MetCon:
400m run
2 min rest
5 rounds
