Keto-adaptation: When Ketosis is Not Enough Lisa C. 9:36 AM

After close to 7 years of low carb living (with some time off the wagon for bad behaviour), I arrived at a point of some fat gain through carb creep and justifying it by the fact I have a physically strenuous day job. The Primal "80/20 Rule" can be a good one, but easily abused when one can justify things like eating a banana several times a week because, "well, I'm still under 100 carbs today (so much better than a SAD diet!), maintaining weight, 80/20 rule!" These little divergences accumulate and before you know it you're not in ketosis anymore. So that's my deal, but having the desire to get back on track and be better than ever before, physically and mentally, I needed to change my ways. Being in plain old ketosis is awesome and has so many benefits, but with my goals it's not quite enough.

In a little more than 10 months I will have lived on this earth for half a century. I don't know where the time has gone, and I certainly don't feel nearly 50, but there it is. My goal, by the time I hit 50, is to be more lean, and to be as ripped as I possibly can. Basically, to be in the best shape I have ever been in my life. This last month I've been eating a strict Ketogenic diet. The macro ratios I've worked out have me under 20 carbs a day, but most days I'm at zero or under 5. (Work out your macros here: Keto Calculator). Very high fat meals, moderate to low protein, and very low carbohydrates have left me without much of an appetite most of the time. I eat, and I'm satisfied quickly. I have been logging my food intake daily to make sure I am hitting my macros on MyFitnessPal. It is a very good site for tracking, and user written scripts allow for tracking of net carbs. So far I've gone down two pants sizes. I don't own a scale, I don't really care about weight as it doesn't tell the whole story, but this is where I started:

My totally TMI "before" pic.
Soft-ish and curvy, hoping to turn it into harder and ripped.
Can it be done close to age 50?

I had considered doing a Cyclical Ketogenic diet while doing Tabata/HIIT, but as sensitive to carbs as I seem to be, I'm sticking with Keto all the way for now to see how that goes. According to some, carb cycling is not necessary as long as one is Keto-adapted.

Ketosis and Keto-adaptation: What's The Difference?

Ketosis is the state of the body where one is burning fat for energy. It can be achieved through eating a low carbohydrate diet. If one is overweight the obvious benefit is your body starts using your excess fat stores as fuel, even if one does no exercise to at all. Everyone is different, and the level of carbohydrate restriction varies from person to person in achieving ketosis, which is typically measured using Ketostix.

Keto-adaptation, also referred to as Nutritional Ketosis, is also a state of ketosis, but by sustaining a state of strict ketosis over a prolonged period of time (very high fat, low to moderate protein, very low carb) the body not only shifts its fuel source to fat burning, it becomes optimized to use ketones as fuel and "skeletal muscle can directly and readily burn fatty acids as a primary fuel."  The length of time it takes to achieve Keto-adaptation will vary from person to person, some taking as little as three weeks, others a month or more. The key thing that happens in the body in ramping up to Keto-adaptation is the formation of new and more abundant Mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells. Obviously this process takes time. Achieving keto adaptation can be measured with a blood ketone testing meter, and much less reliably with Ketostix. The sweet spot on the meter reading will be between 1.5 – 3 mmol/L for optimal weight loss and performance. Becoming Keto-adapted can benefit those who are simply trying to lose weight, and those who wish to maximize their results from intense workouts.

If you've hit a barrier or stall in your weight loss or workout, try this. It may be just what you've been looking for to break a stall or help with your physical performance. It can't hurt. Heck, even professional athletes are jumping on board, with fabulous results.

I will be updating about my progress as time goes on, and sharing any tweaks, triumphs or troubles along the way. Let me know if you have any questions, and if I don't know the answer I will direct you to someone who does, as best as I am able. There is a lot of good information on the Internet about all of this, along with some bad. Sometimes it's hard to suss out the bad from good, but those who have accomplished their goals via this lifestyle will always have my respect and my ear. If you want to try this yourself, a good place for information and support is the Keto forum on Reddit, along with the Ketogains forum there. Stay tuned...

"You look tough!" Anonymous 11:33 PM

As I've stated previously, I work in a grocery store. It's a smaller, privately owned grocery that gets a fair amount of traffic through it for its size. I often have customers who come through my line who remark about the "Low Carb" sticker I wear on my name tag. There are also a fair share of male customers who are none too shy about making flirtatious overtures to me. Today a customer (a middle aged man a bit older than myself) was the first to remark about my physique, and not in a way that was a come-on.

I was scanning his groceries, lifting some heavier items out of his cart and on to the conveyor belt when he said, "Wow, your arms look...do you lift weights? They look like you lift weights..." To which I responded, "Uhm, no...not really...but I do a lot of heavy lifting while I'm working. It's really the only workout I do." And he said, "Well, you look tough!"

"Thanks," I said, sort of blushing by now, "I eat a low carb type of diet, and that has a lot to do with it."

"It's working well for you, that's for sure!" and I finished scanning his groceries and he departed. I thought it was interesting since I was wearing a form fitting long sleeved hoodie (it was a bit cold here in my part of the Midwest today), and I wondered how he could really tell what my arms looked like. It's probably a good thing they weren't bare. I'm not sure he would be so impressed, as I am not really that defined. There's definitely muscle there, though.

I had my daughter snap a quick shot of my arm this evening. It has me wondering about how they might look if I seriously started lifting.

I'm thinking about it. Obviously it's not the arm of a bodybuilder, but it's not too bad for a little 45 year old woman, huh? Those 40 pound bags of rock salt, cases of beer, and 20 to 30 pound bags of dog food that I lift all day are doing some good, I guess. But really, it's a wonderful thing that eating in an inherently low carb manner, such as eating Primal, is very sparing of muscle.

I am kind of stoked that someone noticed the guns. ;-)

So, what do you think...should I start pumping some iron, or is that overkill?

Finally Barefooting! Anonymous 4:15 PM

I needed new shoes and finally bit the bullet and invested in a pair of Vibram Five Fingers KSO's this morning! This is my first pair, but I've coveted these shoes for a long time. Okay, well really, this is my second pair of VFF's...second pair in one day - - the first pair had some stitching missing from the heel pull, and I took them back to exchange them for a perfect pair. I was fortunate they had another pair in my size, as I was informed that if they had to be ordered they could take two months to come in. The store where I bought them is the only one who carries them within a 50 mile radius of where I live.

The instructions that come with the shoes say to put them on and wear them for a couple of hours a day at a time to grow accustomed to them. I wore them out of the store and have not taken them off since. I am not having any problem becoming accustomed to them. Probably because my favorite thing has always been going barefoot. I was fortunate that while I was growing up that my guardians never made a big deal out of my not wanting to wear shoes. I had my share of bee stings (and I am allergic), but never had any other major issues going barefoot until I was older. Yes, of course I wore shoes to school and if I was in a public place, but at all other times my shoes were off.

I remember an interesting day my 6th grade year in Phys Ed. I attended a small private school in Florida, and our Phys Ed instructor was also the football coach, Coach Luker (I can't believe I remember his name after all these years, lol). Typically we would do things like play kickball, or basketball, but this day we were going to run some relays and sprints, and do some other activities outside. Before the start of the first race I asked the coach if I could take off my shoes to run. He looked at me and said, "Sure, I guess. Don't get hurt now." I told him I wouldn't, it was just how I felt best running. The first sprint I ran was up against a boy who was pretty fast, and I beat him, handily. The second and third races were the same result, and now my classmates were getting ticked because they couldn't out-sprint me. Several asked if they could take off their shoes, as well. The class was turning into a "let's see if anyone can beat Lisa" class. I raced every single one of my classmates, several times each, and no one ever beat me. That was all we got done in class that day. I ended up with an award at the end of the year in Phys Ed from Coach Luker. All he could do was smile and shake his head that day during class, and when I was running he was cheering me on. Oh, and I remember him recounting a story about some football player who kicked barefoot. He was duly impressed.

I don't know if I could have ran as fast with shoes on or not, but I knew barefoot just felt better to me. It still does. I still shun shoes when I am able. Tomorrow I am going to wear my Vibram's to work. I am taking a backup pair of regular shoes just in case my boss flips out, even though our handbook merely states that we are not allowed to wear open toed, open heeled shoes, or sandals, none of which the VFF's are...but they are not very traditional looking, to say the least! So far I love them. They will be the next best thing to being able to go barefoot at work, if I can pull it off without protest from the upper management! I'll update and let you know after I get home tomorrow.

Me, Before and After Low Carb Anonymous 9:12 PM

For the naysayers that claim low carb doesn’t work and is unhealthy…

The photo on the right is of me yesterday (02-01-2010). I cut off my head in the larger shot because I had no makeup on and I’m vain! The small inset photo proves it’s me (just don’t enlarge it too much, okay?).

The photo on the left is of me and my elementary school chum, Paul, about 3 years ago. It was Paul who had suggested I give low carb a shot, as he had lost a significant amount of weight himself doing Atkins. I had been depressed for some time, and had also been on several rounds of Prednisolone for inflammation in my lungs (I suffered from chronic asthmatic bronchitis). The combination of being ill and taking the steroid treatments did nothing good for my weight. Getting fatter and fatter did nothing good for my depression. I craved carbohydrates constantly. I had hypoglycemia so bad that in the afternoons after lunch I had to lie down for a nap because I could not stay conscious.

To make a long story short, I took Paul’s suggestion to heart and started Atkins the day after that photo was taken. I don’t really know what my starting weight was (I could not bring myself to step on a scale), but I estimate I was close to 190 pounds, and I am only 5’ 2”.

I lost a significant amount of weight in only 2 weeks, and after that the fat came off more slowly, but it was steady and I never gained. Not too long into things I started to incorporate some dietary ideas from Protein Power as well (Dr's Eades' plan). As time wore on I started feeling better and better, and the weight loss became an afterthought as I basked in the feeling of good health and a boosted immune system. I no longer had to use a bronchodialator as I had on almost a daily basis for years. I could be in a house full of sick people and not get sick myself. For me, that was simply amazing.

I transitioned at some point to a more Primal way of eating, and still eat that way to this day.

I eat meat and saturated fat on a daily basis, and also nuts, berries, and the occasional glass of wine. Sometimes I have heavy cream on those berries I mentioned, and I am fond of cheese and the darkest of chocolates. I do eat some fibrous vegetables, but not always. I have no problems with constipation as a result of not eating a lot of fiber…my diet is high in fat and it takes care of things quite nicely, thank you. I am never hungry, and sometimes I go for long periods of time without eating and without any hunger pangs or effect on my blood glucose.

I have no idea what I weigh now as I quit weighing myself a long time ago, and just judge by the way my clothes fit and the way I look. I don’t really care about that number on the scale. I just know I’m not fat anymore.

I am not skin and bones. I still have the womanly curves that I am supposed to have, and I’m glad for that. I can sprint and play like I could as a young child. I am 45 years old and have never felt better.