In previous posts, Barbara and I have talked about our goals and successes with the ketogenic diet. In my last post, I showed you the simple strategy we use to configure our macros for the diet. 

You’re now familiar with what a keto diet is and how ketosis affects your body. You’ve established why you want to go keto (e.g.. weight loss, help in treating a specific health condition, or enhanced physical performance). And you’ve solved the mystery of macro calculation.

So now you’re ready to dive right into the keto diet, right? Well, not so fast. Slow down a bit.

You’re not going to just jump into a lake without knowing something about the depth of the water or its temperature. So it is with the keto diet. Even after knowing what your daily macronutrients should be, there are still several other important things about the Keto diet that you need to know.

You might have heard some of the horror stories from people who’ve tried keto. Some report that they experienced the dreaded “keto flu”. Others complain that their strength training suffered horribly, some are hungry all the time, and others complain that they just can’t find good keto recipes.

In this post, I’ll show you how Barbara and I avoided most of the problems associated with the ketogenic diet and how we quickly corrected a very annoying unexpected problem.

First, let’s get some preliminary stuff out of the way.

Preliminary Stuff

Before Barbara and I went keto, we had a complete physical and blood panel. There was no medical reason preventing us from trying the keto diet. Also, even though we wanted the health benefits of ketones, we weren’t using the diet to treat any specific disease.

As I’ve said in the past, if you’re going to go keto, make sure you’re healthy enough to do it. If you’re using keto to treat a specific disease (type 2 or type 1 diabetes, hypertension, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer) or if you’re taking meds for a condition, make sure you do it under the supervision of a doctor who understands low-carb diets.

Okay, let’s get to the important nuances of a keto diet.

What Does High In Healthy Fat Mean?

A ketogenic diet is characterized as a low-carb (<30 grams net) high-fat diet. It’s called high fat because a majority of your macros will come from fat. Fat comprises about 70% of Barbara’s diet and mine.

However, just because a keto diet is high in fat doesn’t mean that Barbara and I can eat any kind of fat we want. Most of our fat comes from meat (grass fed when possible), butter, olive oil, coconut oil, salmon, sardines, avocados, eggs, and cheese.

I’m a big advocate of quality extra-virgin olive oil. I probably enjoy a good EVOO as much as some people enjoy a fine wine. See my olive oil post here.

The fats we avoid like the plague are highly processed seed oils (corn, vegetable, soybean, etc.). See my post on the dangers of soybean oil here.

Most of the fats we eat are saturated. The mainstream medical community still has this perverse antipathy to saturated fats. However, saturated fat is not your enemy.

Crucial Things We Had To Be Aware Of Concerning The Keto Diet

Before Barbara and I went keto we did a ton of research. One thing we were concerned about was the dreaded “keto flu”.

The Keto Flu

Some people who jump right into a keto diet often report experiencing symptoms like fatigue, headaches, irritability, and muscle cramps. These symptoms have become known as the “keto flu”. But this isn’t really the flu. Experts relate that these symptoms are a result of the body moving away from carbohydrate metabolism to fat metabolism.

The transition away from carbs allows the kidneys to work more efficiently whereby they excrete more sodium and water. Also, a keto diet eschews high sodium containing processed foods. If you were consuming a lot of these foods prior to keto, their removal from your diet may contribute to sodium depletion.

A simple fix for the “keto flu”, or to avoid it altogether, is to maintain the proper intake of sodium and water.

Barbara and I never experienced the “keto flu”. One probable reason is that we had a gradual transition to keto. We were paleo for many years, then switched to low-carb, and then to keto. By the time we went keto, we were already somewhat fat adapted. So apparently our sodium intake was adequate.

Also, you have to make sure you get enough water when on keto.Generally, we drink at least 6-8 glasses of water per day. This seems to be adequate for us.

Barbara and I experience this rapid weight loss when we first went low-carb, but not when we went keto. Our weight loss on keto was gradual and sustained.

Let’s explore the recommendations for sodium, potassium, and magnesium intake in more detail.

What Should Your Sodium Intake Look Like On A Keto Diet?

A teaspoon of table salt has about 2.3 grams of sodium. Doing the math means you’ll need at least a little over 2 teaspoons of salt a day.

No, that doesn’t mean you have to dump all that salt onto your food.

You’ll get some sodium naturally from food (pickles, etc.) and some from salting your food. If you don’t think you’re getting enough sodium, you can get even more from bullion cubes or broth.

In my case, and it’s something Barbara finds utterly disgusting, I’ll put some pink Himalayan salt in the palm of my hand and just lick it up. I learned this from Dr. Mercola who said he does it 6-8 times throughout the day.

Caution On Sodium Intake

Some individuals should exercise caution when adjusting salt intake. Individuals with persistently high blood pressure and fluid retention and people taking NSAIDs should be wary of raising their sodium intake until their conditions resolve. See here. Also, people performing heavy work or physical exercise in the heat may need more sodium.

If you’re healthy and concerned that consuming 5 grams of sodium is dangerous, this 2014 study should allay your concerns. After observing 100,000 individuals, it found that the lowest mortality risk occurred at 5.0 grams of sodium per day.

For Dr. Phinney’s sodium recommendations, see here.

Let’s take a look at potassium.

What Should Your Potassium Intake Look Like On A Keto Diet?

Potassium is another important electrolyte to consider on a keto diet. It is generally recommended that you get at least 1000-3,500 mg of potassium daily. If you’re on a well-formulated keto diet, you should get enough potassium from foods like raw spinach, avocado, mushrooms, salmon, steak, and pork loin.

To be on the safe side, occasionally we’ll sprinkle some of this potassium salt on our meat. Caution: it tastes rather blah.

What Should Your Magnesium Intake Look Like On A Keto Diet?

Magnesium is a mineral that many Americans are deficient in. According to a 2011 report in the Journal Nutrition, 45 percent of American adults do not get the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) amount of magnesium from their diet.

Barbara and I were already aware of the importance of supplementing with magnesium well before we went keto.  We were taking 200 mg/day.

Since we were getting 200 mg from our supplements and the rest from our food, we thought we were okay. We found out the hard way that we were very wrong.

Constipation: A Side Effect Of A Keto Diet

After a few weeks on the keto diet, I developed constipation. This was the first time I had this problemsince before going on a paleo diet years ago. Suggestions to eat more fiber and drink more water were not helpful as I was already doing that.

I read that upping my magnesium intake might help. So Barbara and I increased our magnesium to 600 mg/day. Literally, overnight the problem disappeared and never returned. What a relief that was!!! This is the magnesium that we use.

What About Micronutrients?

Since Barbara and I were on a paleo diet for at least 5 years, we were already eating a lot of whole foods and we continued doing this on our keto diet. We eat at least 3-6 portions of above ground leafy and cruciferous veggies daily. This ensures that we get a good supply of micronutrients.

Maintaining A Good Omega-6 To Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio On A Keto Diet?

An important nutritional parameter Barbara and I seek to maintain in our keto diet is an optimal omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio.  These fatty acids are essential fatty acids. That means that even though our bodies need them to function properly, our bodies cannot produce them. We must, therefore, get them from our diet.

Omega-3 fatty acids are recognized as promoting healthy cells and having beneficial anti-inflammatory properties. Several studies had been performed that show they help in reducing the risk of heart disease. See here, here and here.

Omega-6 fatty acids are important for maintaining cell wall integrity and providing energy for the heart. However, when the omega-6 level is elevated, they become pro-inflammatory in a negative way.

Increased omega-6s have been associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, CVD, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. See here and here.

More importantly, for health concerns, is the proportion of omega-6 to omega-3 you get from your diet. Here’s why.

Today’s research suggests that a healthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should fall between 1:1 – 4:1. However, with today’s Western Pattern diet this ratio has now increased to between 15:1 – 16.7:1. See here and here.

This ratio does have health consequences. For example, a ratio of 4:1 was associated with a 70% decrease in total mortality, a ratio of 2-3:1 suppressed inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a ratio of 5:1 had a beneficial effect on patients with asthma, whereas a ratio of 10:1 had adverse consequences. See here.

An Additional Supplement To Our Keto Diet

In my last post, I included a sample of what we eat during a typical day. You may have noticed that MCT oil was on that list. MCT oil is not essential to a keto diet, but if you’re looking to up your ketone production, it may help.

MCT Oil

Remember one of the main reasons for us going keto was so that our bodies would be in a state of ketosis. MCT oil is a supplement that is known for increasing ketone production in the body.

It’s a medium chain triglyceride oil that is derived from palm kernel oil or coconut oil. Upon being ingested, MCT oil passes directly to the liver where it is metabolized into ketones.

MCT oil has been reported to help with metabolic syndrome, and to increase cognition in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s patients.,

Also, since your liver converts MCT oil directly to ketones, it won’t store the oil as fat. The newly produced ketones, therefore, are an instant source of energy for our bodies.

Anecdotally, individuals had reported increased clarity and energy after consuming MCT oil. You can add my name to that list.

This is the MCT oil we are currently using. I pour one tablespoon into my 12:00 PM green tea, and I’m good for the day. There is no change in the taste of the tea, but the consistency is a little oily. It is oil after all.

For more on the benefits of MCT oil, see here. It’s important to note that you don’t need to consume MCT oil to be in ketosis.

Some Cautions When Consuming MCT Oil

There’s one more diet tweak I’d like to mention.

Fasting

Many people who practice a keto lifestyle engage in fasting. If you refrain from eating, your body will have no choice but to consume its own fat for energy. Thus you will lose weight. Also, because no carbs are being consumed, your body will produce ketones.

Fasting will also aid in bringing your body into a better state of insulin sensitivity.

However, I have tried prolonged fasting (more than 24 hours), but it doesn’t work for me. I’ve found the stress on my body is too much for me to handle. Barbara coped better with it, but she also found it stressful.

Since we were not trying to lose humongous amounts of weight, we decided not to incorporate it into our keto regimen.

For everything, you want to know about fasting, visit Dr. Jason Fung’s site here.

There’s also some controversy in the keto world about the dangers of a loss of muscle mass when fasting. Dr. Phinney says it’s possible while Dr. Fung says it’s not. The jury is still out on this issue.

While we don’t fast, we do engage in delayed onset eating.

Delayed Onset Eating

While we don’t do prolonged fasts, we do practice delayed eating. We generally finish eating about 8:00 pm and don’t eat again until at least 12:00 PM the following day. That gives us a 16-hour fast period every day. Eating this way should produce better insulin sensitivity and more ketones.

I’m never really hungry until about 12:00 PM so I’ve experienced no problems with this practice. At 12:00, I’ll have a couple of eggs, bacon or a sausage, some greens, green tea, MCT oil, and a scoop of collagen, and I’m good until about 4:00 PM. At 4:00, I’ll have a sardine salad, EVVO, greens, almonds, more green tea, some avocado, and maybe some blueberries. Then at 7:00, I’ll have whatever Barb is cooking up for dinner.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Going forward, we’re concerned with 4 things:

1. Maintaining our waist measurements
2. Increasing muscle mass
3. Optimizing body fat percentage
4. Continuing to produce ketones

In order to accomplish these goals, we’ll stay on a keto diet. We don’t eat a lot of refined carbs, potatoes, or rice so that won’t be difficult. Some keto experts state that when individuals who have been on a keto diet become fat adapted they can up their carb intake.

I don’t anticipate doing that at the moment.

In order to gain muscle mass, I probably will up my protein intake to 0.8 grams per pound of lean muscle mass. That means I’ll consume about 104 grams of protein a day.

I may also slightly increase my fat intake. But I have to be careful here because I still have a bit more body fat to lose.

Barbara is completely ecstatic with the diet. She’s just about hit her target weight and has boundless energy. Keep going, girl. 61 is the new 41. She may up her protein a little, but for now, she is happy where she is.

Do You Strength Train And Walk?

While the keto diet is a healthy diet, it’s not everything you needfor a long, healthy life. Strong muscles and moving often are also important.

If you already strength train, keep getting stronger. If you don’t but want to, here is the easy method Barbara and I use.

And keep walking. It may be one of the best exercises you can do.

That’s it! Oh, wait, no, it’s not. Remember, we have over 50 delicious low-carb recipes for you to check out. See them on our home page.

If you’re someone who needs more keto info, see the ketogains.com Reddit FAQ page here. Also, check out Mark Sisson’s new book, The Keto Reset Diet. It containsa wealth of information on the keto diet.

Okay, that’s definitely it for this post. We love to hear your comments. Have a blessed week!

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post Our Keto Journey Part 5: Important Tweaks We Made For Keto Success appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.

In this fourth post in our series Our Ketogenic Diet Journey, I’ll give you a behind the curtains peek at how Barbara and I configured our ketogenic diet.

The keto diet with its amazing health benefits is finally becoming mainstream. More and more people are turning to the diet as an effective weight loss strategy and as an important means to help in the management of a variety of health problems.

However, a common criticism of the diet is that it’s extremely hard to configure and follow. I read on forums all the time people asking questions like: how many carbs can I eat? What should my maximum protein intake be? I’m eating a high-fat diet so why am I not losing weight?

People want to follow the diet. And they want the health benefits it confers, but they think it’s too complicated to follow and get right. But it doesn’t have to be. In this post, I’ll show you why.

Once Barbara and I decided what our weight loss and health goals were, we discovered an easy and efficient way to configure our macronutrient (carbs, protein fat) intake per day. After establishing those parameters, we followed a simple system that converted our macros into an easy to follow daily food plan. As we’ve shown in the last two posts, our results after following this system have been amazing.

Getting Macros Right Is Important But They’re Not Everything

A proper macronutrient configuration is the basis of a keto diet. However, before I show you how we configured our macros, I’d like to mention a few important things to be aware of.  Since this diet changes the body’s main fuel source from carbs (glucose) to fat, certain physiologic adaptations will take place.

This means that certain dietary considerations other than macros are important in a well formulated ketogenic diet.

In our next post, I’ll show you which minerals and electrolytes are essential for success. Then I’ll reveal some simple but extremely important tweaks we use to deal with some of the common problems people experience.

However, in this post, I’ll be primarily concerned with how we configured our daily macros.

Okay, now with that said, let’s get on with the configuring.

What Is A Ketogenic Diet?

In order to configure a well-formulated ketogenic diet, it’s important to understand exactly what a keto diet is and what it’s used for.

Simply, a ketogenic diet restricts the consumption of carbohydrates to a degree that causes your body to adapt to metabolizing fat for fuel instead of glucose. One adaptation that takes place during this process is the production of ketones in your liver.

When your body is producing ketones, then you’re said to be in ketosis. Keto expert Dr. Steve Phinney states that to be in ketosis, you should have a minimum concentration of 0.5 mmol/l of ketones in your blood. It’s these ketones that researchers believe confer the amazing health benefits of the diet. See here.

However, today not everyone is going keto to treat a specific medical condition. This is important when configuring and adhering to a ketogenic diet.

Why Do You Want To Go Keto?

Many people today are going keto not because they want to produce ketones, but because they want the fat shedding effect of the diet.

But this is important. If you just want to lose fat, you don’t have to produce ketones.

Barbara and I had been on an 8-month quest to lose body fat. Then we stalled. Our low carb diet (100-50g carbs/d) stopped working. So we decided to lower our carbs down into the range of a keto diet (<30g/d ).

By dropping carbs into the keto range, our bodies became more insulin sensitive which allowed fat to be unlocked from cells and made available for fuel. By burning our own fat for fuel, we lost weight and fat.

This means that if you’re going keto just to lose weight, you may not be particularly concerned with being in ketosis. If you slip up one day and go over your carb limit, it won’t have a damaging effect on your overall goal. It also means that you don’t have to be fanatical in checking your ketone levels.

However, if you’re going keto to assist with a medical condition, then producing ketones is vitally important.

A Therapeutic Ketogenic Diet

If you’re going to go on a keto diet for a particular health reason such as help in treating type 2diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s, and even cancer, it then becomes a therapeutic ketogenic diet.

In this case, it’s very important that your body is constantly producing at least 0.5mm/l of ketones. This means that you must regularly check your ketone levels. The best way to do that is with a device like this one.

It also means that you must strictly adhere to your keto diet. Consuming excess carbs can kick you out of ketosis very rapidly.

Individuals With These Medical Conditions Should Exercise Caution When Considering A Keto Diet

Because of the potent nature of a ketogenic diet, certain people should use caution before jumping into it.

Type 1 Diabetics

Since individuals with type 1 diabetes don’t produce enough insulin to metabolize the glucose they ingest, their bodies will turn to fat for energy. This causes an increase in ketone concentration.  A keto diet may then further increase ketones to dangerous levels (see ketoacidosis). If you’re a type 1 diabetic, don’t do this diet unless supervised by a physician trained in low-carb diets.

Type 2 Diabetics

Keto diets through their limitation of carbohydrate intake lower blood glucose concentrations. Since many type 2 diabetics take glucose-lowering medication, they have to be extremely cautious not to allow their blood glucose to drop to unsafe levels while on a keto diet (see Hypoglycemia). If you’re on glucose-lowering meds, you must work with your physician as you transition off of medication.

Individuals On Anti-hypertensive Meds

A keto diet has the potential to lower blood pressure. This coupled with anti-hypertensive meds could drop blood pressure to unsafe levels. Again, work with your doctor if you go keto and you’re on meds for an illness.

What About Pregnancy?

Is keto safe during pregnancy? Good question. For some expert insight see here and here.

Okay, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how Barbara and I do the diet.

How We Constructed A Well Formulated Ketogenic Diet

You may have heard the keto diet described as a high healthy fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. Well, that sounds intriguing, but what exactly does it mean? We now come to the trickiest part of formulating a keto diet: figuring out macronutrient (carbs, protein, and fat) intake. However, once you get the hang of it, it becomes quite easy.

The important thing to remember is that both carbs and protein have targeted amounts.

How We Determined Our Carb Macro

Traditionally, a keto diet requires the consumption of carbohydrates to be kept at or less than 30 grams net. Net refers to total carbs minus fiber. For example, if you consume 50g of carbs and they contain 20g of fiber, your net carbs would be 30g net.

Again, the reason carbs are kept low in this diet is so that your body will shift from burning glucose for fuel to fat. Depending on how adapted your body is at utilizing fat as a fuel, some people might be able to consume slightly more carbs and still produce ketones. On the other hand, some individuals might have to consume less than 30 grams per day.

We set our carb intake to be <30g/day net.

How We Determined Our Protein Macro

Protein consumption must be kept at adequate levels. Protein is extremely important for maintaining, repairing, and building muscle mass and for proper organ function.

The Protein Controversy

Some ketogenic diet advocates like Dr. Rosedale, Dr. Mercola, and Dr. Jason Fung recommend a lower protein intake. Keto expert Dr. Steve Phinney recommends a higher daily protein consumption. His recommendation is to keep protein consumption between 1.5 – 1.75 grams of protein per kg of “reference body weight”. Reference body weight refers to optimal lean body weight. See here.

The people at Ketogains.com, who have successfully worked with many people on a keto diet, recommend protein intake to be from 0.69 to 1.2 grams per pound lean body mass. However, going over 0.8g is only suggested for people doing heavy lifting and endurance training.

In my case, I initially kept my daily protein intake to about 0.7g per lean pound. Since my weight was 175 pounds with about 77% lean mass (23% body fat), my protein intake would be about 94g of protein/day.

Here’s the math.

175.0 x 0.77 x 0.7 = 94 grams of protein/day.

This protein intake is close to that recommended by Dr. Phinney. Now, since I have reached my fat loss goal I will increase my protein intake so as to gain more muscle mass.

In order to determine your lean body percentage or, conversely, your body fat percentage, see our last post here.

Why Did I Choose To Go With A Higher Protein Intake?

I tried using Dr. Rosedale’s recommendation for protein intake which for me was about 67g of protein/day. However, I found that I didn’t feel well, and I also lost a lot of strength.

I seem to feel better and achieve consistent strength gains at between 90g – 100g of protein/day. Dr. Phinney has also pointed out that consuming excess protein provides no extra health benefit and might actually interfere with ketosis. Dr. Mercola has an excellent article on the dangers of consuming excess protein. Note that Dr. Mercola uses 0.5 x lean body mass as a multiplier for protein intake.

For good information on keto and protein, see Marty Kendall’s post here and Amy Berger’s post here.

How We Determined Our Fat Macro

Dr. Phinney recommends eating fat to satiety. What’s important to remember here is thatif you want to lose weight, you must eat fewer calories than your body will burn in a day. 

For example, if your body’s maintenance energy intake is 1400 cal/day and you’re fat consumption is causing your calorie intake to exceed this amount, you will not lose weight. The trick is to get your body to use your own body’s fat for fuel.

Some people feel you have to wildly increase fat intake in order to produce ketones. This is not true. A well-formulated keto diet, with fat eaten to satiety, should provide enough fat to produce a sufficient amount of ketones.

So exactly how many grams of fat should you eat in a day? As I said, Dr. Phinney recommends eating fat to satiety.

However, this didn’t work for me. I love coconut oil, and I was eating it like candy thinking the fat was okay. But it wasn’t because I wasn’t allowing my body to burn its own fat.

I’ve found that the simplest way to figure out my fat limit and my other macros is to use a macro calculator. Barbara and I use this one made by the really cool people at Ketogains.com. Thanks, Luis and Tyler.

How To Use The Ketogains.com Macro Calculator

The ketogains.com macro calculator is a convenient way to set up your daily macronutrient intake. Barbara and I have used it with great success.

The calculator allows you to choose three scenarios according to what your desired goals are. All the scenarios are designed to keep you in ketosis.

You can decide if you want to lose weight, maintain weight, or gain muscle. Remember that not everyone will achieve or stay in ketosis at the same macro intake. But the calculator is designed to keep your carb intake below 35 grams/net.

Barbara’s goals and mine initially were to be in ketosis and lose more body fat. In order to do that, we had to have the right macro balance. Here’s how we used the calculator to achieve that. These numbers are from when we first went keto in August 2017.

I’ll show you how I used the calculator to configure my macros, and then I’ll show you Barbara’s target macros goals.

As I explain how to use the calculator, keep in mind that my specific weight loss goal was to lose 10 pounds of fat around my waist.

John’s Macro Configuration Using The Ketogains Calculator

Here’s a screenshot of step one.

As you see, I first set my current body weight data. The next step was to set body fat percentage (BF%). A quick way to find out your BF%, though not the most accurate, is to compare yourself to some pictures of people with varying BF%s. This method worked reasonably well for my purposes.

Since I sit most of the day, I set my activity level at sedentary. The information in the gray boxes will be set automatically.

The next step is to set my diet goals and exercise data.

Since my goal was to lose body fat, I set my calorie goal accordingly. As you see, my calorie intake will be at a 20% deficit to what my total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) would be to maintain my current weight. I perform heavy strength training for about 20 minutes, 5 days a week, and power walk at least 20 minutes/day.

The next step is to set my protein intake.

As I mentioned before, my protein intake is 0.7g/day of lean body mass. After setting this metric, voilà, my daily macros pop up.

Protein Intake: 94g
Net Carbs: 25g
Fat: 112g

Results After 3 Months On A Ketogenic Diet

After consuming the above amount of macros for about three months, I lost 10 pounds and 2 inches off my waist (37” to 35”). My BF% dropped to 20%. I lost a little strength at first but gained it back within a few months. I had great energy most of the time (some fatigue left over from CFS recovery) and a lot less body fat.

Currently, my waist is under 34.5” so I’ll adjust my macros to start putting on more muscle mass. We’ll see how that goes.

A Note About Quick Weight Loss

People who go keto experience quick weight loss. This is probably due to an initial loss of water. However, after this, weight loss will be progressive and sustained. Since I was already low-carb (<50g of carbs/d) before going keto, I had already lost significant weight, but I had plateaued. Keto allowed me to lose an extra 10 pounds of fat quickly.

What About Hunger?

As I said, this diet left me with a 20% calorie deficit. While this is a significant decrease in calorie consumption, I personally had no problem with fatigue or hunger. If I did get hungry, I’d just eat some healthy fat (EVOO, coconut oil, butter etc.).

Barbara’s Macros

The following are some screenshots of Barbara’s macro breakdown.

Barbara’s daily caloric intake ended up being 1010 daily calories. This is quite low. Generally, you don’t want to be less than 1000 cal/day. But she also had no real loss of energy or hunger problems. If she did get hungry, like me, she added some extra healthy fat.

Barbara’s Macros:
Protein Intake: 61g
Net Carbs: 25g
Fat: 74g

You’re probably now asking, “How in the world do I translate macros into real food intake?” This takes a little bit of work, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to figure your daily macro goals pretty easily.

Enter Myfitnesspal.com

In order to figure out how much food was equal to the grams of macronutrients we required per day, we used a free calorie and nutrient app from myfitnesspal.com (MFP). It’s a handy tool. Once you get the hang of using it, customizing your desired daily macro intake becomes a snap.

Note: These are screenshots from my laptop. The iPhone app is a little different but still easy to use. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out.

Here’s an example of my daily goals.

As you see, my daily nutrition goals are close to those from my ketogains calculator. To set your goals, tap the settings icon and then go to goals. It will also set some micronutrient goals, but we’re not interested in those right now.

Now for the fun part: entering your daily food consumption.

Entering Food On Myfitnesspal.com

When you’re ready to enter food on MFP, from the main toolbar tap “Food” and this page will open up.

You can now start entering food for the day. If you want to add food for breakfast, hit add food at breakfast. You can even add your macros from your favorite Gluten Free Homestead recipes by clicking on the “Recipes” tab.

You’ll be taken to a page where you can search for a food you want, like scrambled eggs. The MFP database is extensive and includes a lot of popular brands. It will also keep track of all the foods you’ve added. Here’s an example of part of my favorite foods.

Let’s add some food and see what my one-day food intake looks like

My One Day Food Intake At 1500 Calories

Okay, here’s a sample of my macro intake for a day at 1500 calories. Now, you bigger fellas out there don’t make fun of my meager calorie intake lol. It worked for me.

As you can see, I came very near to hitting my macros for this day. My net carbs were low at 17 (30 – 13 fiber). I usually keep my carbs low. This is one reason I don’t check for ketones. I know I probably should. However, my carbs should be low enough to produce ketones. The only thing that could knock me out of ketosis would be excess protein, but my protein is what it is in order to maintain muscle.

The major variable here is fat intake. You have to be careful here. Remember if you’re going keto to lose body fat, you don’t want to go crazy consuming loads of fat. But you also might have to adjust your fat intake to make sure you’re getting enough calories for energy.

I like how Luis Villasenor at Ketogains.com puts it.

Consume adequate protein, limit carbohydrates, and use ‘fat as a lever’.

Again, if you are on a keto diet for therapeutic reasons (Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, Parkinson’s or cancer), then checking ketones is a must. However, if your goal is weight loss, then checking your results (weight loss, waist size, muscle gains) might be a better strategy than constantly checking ketones.

Barbara’s Daily Food Intake At 1010 Calories

Some Things To Be Aware Of With Myfitnesspal

When entering some food portions, you might have to adjust food portion sizes. For example, you might select an 8 oz. chicken breast, but you only eat half. So you’d have to enter 0.5 to get your right amount.

Also, sometimes when entering food, you have to weigh out the portion you are going to eat. As you see above, I only ate 1 oz. of sweet potato so I had to weigh it on a food scale.

Remember, it’s hard to get this stuff exact, but you can get a close estimate of your daily food intake. After a while, you’ll get to know what you’re eating, and the whole thing will become a lot easier. After a few weeks, we seldom tracked our food. If you’re very overweight due to poor food choices, you may have to track your macros for a while before you get on the right track.

The MFP free app also has some other features. It will track some key nutrients included in the food you eat. Notice it recorded my fiber intake. Remember, this is very important for determining your net carbs.
There’s also a section for recording your water intake, daily exercise, and some key body measurements.

Okay, that’s about it for configuring macros. Now bring on the bacon!

Next week, I’ll look at what is meant by healthy fat; getting good micronutrients; the proper intake of sodium, potassium, and magnesium; the “keto flu”; and some other important aspects you need to know to be successful on the ketogenic diet.

If you have any questions, let us know. Have a blessed week.

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post Our Keto Journey Part 4: How We Calculate Our Keto Diet Macros appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.

In the first post in this series, John presented a 5,000-foot view of what a ketogenic diet looks like. If you’re completely unfamiliar with a keto diet, we suggest you read that post first. In this post today, I’ll share why I went keto. In the next post, John will be sharing his story.

The important takeaway in these next two posts is that not everyone goes on a keto diet for the same reasons. Some go on it to treat a specific illness while some go on it because it may have the potential to prevent certain diseases. Others go on it because they want to lose a lot of weight quickly, some believe it’s a healthy way of eating, and others are seeking enhanced sports performance.

Let me tell you why I decided to go keto and why you may want to consider it too. 

Why I Went Keto

John always jokes that when we first met, every time we’d go out to lunch and I’d always order the big salad. Seinfeld wasn’t a thing yet so I wasn’t copying Elaine.

I’ve been a low-carb eater since I was a teen. Obesity and type 2 diabetes run in my family, and that’s something I’ve fought hard to avoid my whole life.

Preventing weight gain was an ongoing battle for me, and I fought it by limiting carbs.

However, after I had four children, you can guess what happened. Yes, I put on the inevitable extra pounds. Since I was still going low-carb, I lost some of the weight, but there were still 20 stubborn pounds that refused to leave.

When I turned 60, still low-carb and after 3 years of strength training, those pounds had increased to 23. And I just couldn’t lose them. Now, 23 pounds may not seem like a lot to some. But when you’re 5’1” and those pounds show up in the wrong places, you want them gone with a passion. But even more so I wanted those pounds gone because I knew I would feel better and be a better version of myself overall.

So, I needed to take a more radical approach.

That’s why I turned to a keto diet.

Ultra Low-Carb Diets Result In Fat Loss

By now it’s no secret that low-carb diets promote fat loss. When you consume carbs, they’re turned into glucose in your digestive tract which is then sent into your bloodstream. Your pancreas releases insulin which takes the glucose out of your bloodstream and sends it to your cells to be used as energy.

However, if you’re eating excess carbs and your cells have enough glucose for energy, insulin acts as a storage hormone and packs that glucose into your cells where it’s converted to fat.

Now, if you continue to consume excess carbs, particularly refined carbs (like pasta, bread, rice, sugar, and fructose) and carb dense veggies like potatoes, over a long span of time (years), insulin will not only continue to pack glucose into your cells, it will lock it in and you’ll get fatter. This is called the Carbohydrate-Insulin Model of weight gain.

But, here’s a bigger problem. If you continue to eat excess refined carbs long enough whereby insulin is constantly spiked, then it can lead to serious conditions such as insulin resistance, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

However, if you engage in carb restriction and decrease insulin secretion, then eventually you’ll lose fat. And the stricter your carb restriction, the more weight you should lose in a quicker amount of time.

So, in order to lose the excess weight quickly, I decided to go keto. As John mentioned last week, the ketogenic diet is ultra low-carb (<30 net carbs/day). At this amount of carbs, fat loss should happen quickly.

Before I go any further there’s something important I want to point out that has seemed to confuse many individuals who consider going keto.

If You Just Want To Lose Fat You Don’t Have To Go Keto 

Here’s the thing. If you just want to lose fat, you don’t have to go keto. You don’t have to produce ketones to lose a lot of weight quickly.

Since carbohydrate restriction and lowering the amount of insulin your pancreas is secreting are the important factors in weight loss, you don’t have to be concerned with ketone numbers.

If you have a specific medical condition you’re trying to heal, sure go ahead and strive to produce ketone levels above 0.5mmol. But if you just want to lose weight, it’s not necessary.

If you have a specific medical condition you’re trying to heal, sure go ahead and strive to produce ketone levels above 0.5mmol. But if you just want to lose weight, it’s not necessary.

That being said there was another reason why I wanted to be on a keto diet.

A SURPRISING BLOOD TEST

Right before going keto, I had a blood panel done. To my surprise, my HbA1c (an average of 3 months blood glucose) was borderline pre-diabetic. That was a big surprise!

A high HbA1c probably indicated a certain degree of insulin resistance. How could that be after years of going low-carb? Answer: Maybe for my body, it wasn’t low carb enough.

So, in order to lose those extra pounds quickly and bring down my HbA1c, keto was the way to go. But my reasons didn’t stop there.

A FAMILY HISTORY OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

If you’ve had a family member or a close friend who has suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), you know how horrible the disease is.

My mom, Shirley, developed AD at 72 years old. For the next 10 years, I experienced all the pain and suffering of watching my once happy and vibrant mom have her memories, personality, and life drain away. It was devastating. My mom was my best friend.

Imagine having a conversation with your mom and out of the blue she says, “I don’t have any children.” You reply, “I’m your daughter. I’ll always be your child, and I need you to be my mom.” She responds with, “No, I don’t remember having you.” Whoa, stop, get out the kleenex.

I don’t talk about this much because I get so choked up that I just can’t talk.

The sad thing is I wish I knew then what I know now. When my mom got AD, the doctors told us there was no treatment for the disease, and they had no clue why people got it. That meant that my mom would just get progressively worse.

Today, this is not the case. We now have good evidence showing that a keto diet can be a powerful tool for preventing and treating AD. I wish I’d known this when my mom was suffering from Alzheimer’s.

In order to get a good idea of why ketosis and a keto diet might be effective for AD, it’s important to have some knowledge of what the disease is all about. John wrote the following science section on Alzheimer’s. Since he’s a science geek, it may be a little science-heavy, but the information really helped me understand the disease.

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Researchers are now beginning to discover that AD might actually be a metabolic disease mediated by the brain’s response to insulin. Growing evidence appears to confirm that AD is highly associated with poor glucose utilization and insulin resistance (IR) within the brain itself.

Many scientists are starting to refer to AD as brain diabetes or type 3 diabetes.

The important thing to understand is that AD is a problem of energy deficiency within the brain. The brain is simply not getting enough fuel to sustain its important functions. While our brains only constitute about 2% of our body’s mass, it uses about 20-25% of our total body’s energy. And it needs all that energy to function well.

If fuel is in short supply, brain neurons that work the hardest, those responsible for memory and cognition, will be among the first to suffer decline.

But here’s the big problem. Brain energy deprivation caused by poor glucose utilization and IR could begin in individuals as early as their 30s or 40s. This means that AD might start as a silent process that takes years to eventually manifest. By the time the disease is discovered, it could be too late to treat it successfully.

Below is a summary of the important risk factors for AD. Again, there’s some science here, but if you can get through it, you’ll really understand why ketosis can be an important therapy for Alzheimer’s patients. If you’re really not into science, scroll down to Your Brain And Ketones section.

Associated Risk Factors For AD

ADVANCED AGE

As of 2017, there are approximately 5.3 million Americans over the age of 65 suffering from AD and approximately 200,000 individuals under age 65 have younger-onset AD.Thus AD appears to be a disease associated with old age. However, while symptoms usually manifest in advanced age the disease was probably active for decades.

THE APOE4 GENE

People who carry the ApoE4 gene are 4 to 15 times more likely to develop AD. However, not everyone who has the gene develops AD, and some people who have AD don’t even have the gene. Therefore, the gene is not sufficient to cause AD.

So, why is there an increased risk for AD in ApoE4 positive individuals? Doctors are not sure, but there is some evidence that a high carbohydrate Western Pattern Diet could induce the gene to cause pathology. See here and here.

CHRONICALLY ELEVATED INSULIN LEVELS

A risk factor that seems to play an important role in AD is chronically elevated insulin levels, also known as hyperinsulinemia (see here, here and here).

Generally, when a person goes to their physician for a check-up, the doctor will perform a fasting blood glucose test (FBG). If your FBG is within normal limits, your doctor will conclude you don’t have diabetes.

If you have a really good doctor, they might perform a HbA1c blood test. This is a lot more reliable than a simple FBS.

Now, this is where it gets tricky. As I mentioned before, a high Hb1Ac, but a normal FBG level is evidence of a degree of hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance (IR).

Unfortunately, doctors rarely check insulin levels. Therefore, an individual could have IR for years and never know it. This could mean that diseases closely linked to IR like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, gout, benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), PCOS, and AD may be in their germinating phase.

We now suspect this was the case with Barbara’s mom. She was never diagnosed with diabetes, but her doctor told her to watch her sugar. Add this to the fact that she was overweight her entire life. She probably had insulin resistance for years before developing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease.

There is now compelling evidence that AD is a form of brain diabetes. Like diabetes, AD exhibits altered glucose metabolism, inflammation, and insulin resistance.

AMYLOID BETA (A?) PLAQUES

If you’re familiar with AD, you’ve probably heard that amyloid beta (A?) plaques play a major role in causing the disease. A? is a protein that is often secreted by neurons in response to an injury. Normally, this protein is removed by the glymphatic system.

However, if A? is not removed, it can form plaques that block the synapses between neurons thus interfering with neuronal communication. Blocked signaling between neurons can lead to the symptoms found in AD such as cognitive decline and memory loss.

Here’s where things get interesting. While it’s true that individuals with AD have been found to have amyloid plaques, it’s also true that others who had AD didn’t have them. And some individuals who didn’t have AD were found to have A? plaques. See here.

While A? plaques could make AD worse, they’re probably not the main cause.

Concerning AD and A? plaques, the authors of this study concluded that,

Therefore, low regional CMRglc [glucose utilization] appears to be a very early event in the disease process, well before any clinical signs of dementia are evident, and well before cell loss or plaque deposition is predicted to have occurred.

See also here and here. So again energy deficit seems to be the be the big factor in AD.

BETA-AMYLOID AND INSULIN-DEGRADING ENZYME

As I mentioned before, A? must be removed so as not to create plaques. Insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE) which degrades A is important in this process. However, degrading A? is not IDE’s main purpose. Its main purpose is to clear excess insulin.

So, when an individual’s insulin levels are high, IDE’s main job becomes clearing insulin and its secondary concern, clearing is ignored. This could pave the way for increased A? plaques formation.

Interestingly, people with the ApoE 4 gene appear to produce less IDE.

Okay, what’s the takeaway here? Very simple. When it comes to Alzheimer’s risk, it’s mainly about insulin resistance, energy deficit in the brain, and many times the presence of the ApoE4 gene. Let’s see where the ketogenic diet comes in.

Your Brain And Ketones

As we’ve seen, Alzheimer’s Disease is primarily caused by poor glucose metabolism in brain neurons. Because neurons are prevented from using glucose as an energy source, they are essentially being starved to death.

Now, get ready for some good news. Glucose is not the only fuel your brain can use. It can also use ketones as an alternative energy source. Ketone metabolism by brain mitochondria isn’t impeded by the same factors that hamper glucose utilization.

While your brain will always metabolize some glucose, ketones can provide up to 60% of your brain’s energy. A blood concentration of 0.3–0.5 mMol of ketones, supplies 3–5% of whole brain energy requirements, a 1.5 mMol concentration provides about 18%, and at 6 mMol, they supply about 60% of brain fuel.

Theoretically, this means that ketones can supply a large part of brain energy which could theoretically limit cognitive decline.

But is there evidence that this is the case? There sure is.

A KETOGENIC DIET HELPS WITH AD

A small study of 23 older adults with mild cognitive impairment compared the effects of a high carbohydrate versus a very low carbohydrate diet (<35 grams) over the course of 6 weeks. The low-carb diet was designed to specifically cause ketosis.

Remember that an effect of an ultra low-carb high-fat diet is the production of ketones in the liver. These ketones can then provide the energy needed by the brain.

The researchers found that the low-carb group had improved memory performance whereas the high-carb group experienced no improvement.

This result was even produced at a relatively low average ketone reading of 5.4 mg/dl. This is about 0.5 mMol. Dr.s Phinney and Volek suggest that ketones above 0.5 mMol of concentration in the blood constitute a ketotic state.

The study also found that memory improved as ketone levels increased.

The authors concluded that,

These findings indicate that very low carbohydrate consumption, even in the short-term, can improve memory function in older adults with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

MCT OIL SUPPLEMENTATION HELPS IN AD

MCT (medium chain triglyceride) oil is a fat harvested from coconut and palm kernel oil. It has the unique ability to pass from the digestive tract right to the liver where it’s metabolized into ketones. These ketones pass into the bloodstream where they can be used for energy by the brain.

These two studies (here & here) found that MCT raised ketone levels sufficiently so that improvements in AD and mild cognitive impairment were observed. The best results occurred with higher ketone levels.

However, there’s a caveat to these studies. Both studies found that individuals with the ApoE4 gene did not fare as well as those without it. This could be because both studies did not control for a low-carb diet and were only interested in MCT results.

Remember, as I mentioned in the risk factors above, individuals with the ApoE4 gene do much better on a low-carb diet than a high-carb one.

COCONUT OIL

Coconut oil contains about 60% MCT oil. The consumption of coconut oil should, therefore, produce some increase in ketone levels in the bloodstream.

Watch this to see a remarkable video on how Dr. Mary Newport treated her husband’s Alzheimer’s condition. The remission of his symptoms was astounding.

Interestingly, even though Mr. Newport was ApoE4 positive and not on a low-carb diet, he still experienced significant improvement from coconut oil alone.

As time went on, Mr. Newport was enrolled in a study that tested a relatively new medical food called a ketone ester. This improved his condition even more.

KETONE SALTS AND ESTERS

Ketone salts are precursors to ketones manufactured in a lab. When taken orally, they raise ketones in the blood quickly and to a high level (approx 6 mMol). They can be purchased commercially, but there has been some controversy concerning their use.

Ketone esters are also manufactured in a lab and they can also raise ketones quickly.

This study, which included Mr. Newport alone, showed that ketone esters can produce significant improvement in AD patients.

Since ketone esters are still relatively new products, there are still some questions concerning their use in the general public. They’re quite expensive, and users say the taste is absolutely horrible.

For more information on ketone esters, listen to this podcast with Dr. Ben Greenfield and Dr. Richard Veech here. Dr. Veech was the doctor who administered ketone esters to Mr. Davenport.

Note that while MCT oil and exogenous ketones like ketone esters can create ketosis, in order to be effective they have to be constantly administered. A keto diet, on the other hand, will cause ketones to be constantly produced.

However, a keto diet may not raise ketone levels to the degree exogenous ketones will. But unless you’re treating an active disease, this may not be necessary.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Back to Barbara.

Well, we covered a lot here. A ketogenic diet can cause rapid weight loss and be healthy at the same time. In a future post, I’ll describe how I lost 23 pounds in a few months on the keto diet.

In the treatment of AD, research has confirmed that creating ketosis through a keto diet, MCT oil, or ketone esters is an important therapy. And ketosis is also being used to treat Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and many other diseases.

If you have a family history of AD or have the ApoE4 gene or some of the other risk factors, then going keto could be an important preventative tool.

I don’t know if I’m ApoE4 positive. I asked my doctor to do the test, but she didn’t do it. She didn’t think it was necessary. Not necessary? I have a family history of AD and diabetes. And if I have the ApoE4 gene it could increase my chances of AD by 15 times. It’s a constant battle trying to educate our physicians (remember, I had to demand a HbA1c be done). Next time I’ll demand an ApoE4 test.

To guard against AD and to continue to lower my HbA1c, I try to keep my daily intake of net carbs to less than 30 net grams. Am I in ketosis every day? I don’t know for sure, but it’s not necessary to check ketones at this point. However, my blood did test positive for ketones.

So there you have it. What do you think? I encourage you to join in the conversation. Comments are awesome?  In our next post, John will share why he went keto. Then we’ll show you how we’re doing it.

This article originally appeared on glutenfreehomestead.com.

The post Our Keto Journey Part 2: Getting Rid Of Stubborn Pounds And Guarding Against Alzheimer’s appeared first on The Progressing Pilgrim.