Eat fat and lose fat! Don’t believe me. Well I didn’t either. After I started practicing it, I saw extraordinary results. I have touched on the benefits of eating fats in one of my articles, however, I haven’t given you details about its fat burning potential as a lifestyle diet. What if I told you that by eating 70% fats in your diet, you could potentially burn fat the fastest as compared to all the other diet protocols. Allow me to illustrate.
A research was conducted to determine the effects of a high fat diet. 83 subjects received a high fat low carb diet over a 24-week period. The level of total cholesterol showed a significant decrease from week 1 to week 24 and the subjects lost incredible amount of weight and bodyfat. The study shows the beneficial effects of a long-term high fat (ketogenic) diet. It significantly reduced the body weight and body mass index of the patients. Furthermore, it decreased the level of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and blood glucose, and increased the level of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol). The data presented in the present study showed that a ketogenic diet acted as a natural therapy for weight reduction in obese patients. You can read about the research in the link here.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/
Now this is called Ketogensis.(high fat diet.) It is a great tool to burn fat and change your body composition. In this diet, 60-70% percent of the calories you consume, come from fats, and the rest from protein and carbs. This is how it works. You have been eating carbohydrates all your life. Carbs supply your body with glycogen(glucose) which has been your primary source of energy. Now, you stop eating carbs, hence no glycogen. Your body still needs to function for which it requires energy, right? So, what does it do in the absence of glycogen? You guessed it right, it taps into your fat stores and starts to metabolize stored fat for energy. When we consume carbs our body releases insulin. The insulin production stops the fat burning process as the body starts to expend energy on storing glycogen. Ketosis is the absence of insulin so the body expends energy to burn fat and use fat as its primary source of fuel. In fact, our body functions better on fats than glucose. Your energy levels and mental alertness improves to a great degree.
All of us have done this consciously or unconsciously. In cases where you haven’t eaten for a long period, or when you’re fasting, your body’s glycogen stores are low. The body in this case starts to metabolize fat. The brain gets its energy from ketone bodies when insufficient glucose is available (e.g. fasting). What are ketone bodies? Ketone bodies are water-soluble molecules that come from fat cells during low carb diets, low food intake or starvation, or even in the case of type 1 diabetes. Your body can function on glucose, or in the absence of it, on ketones. As explained above, your body switches to ketones(fats) when it’s glucose levels start to deplete. So, consuming a high fat diet is actually very effective if your goal is fat loss.
Now, can you adapt this as a lifestyle diet? Well, there are different school of thoughts. I would say, it depends on your goal. Let’s take me as an example. I have used keto a few times to drop my body fat. That is, 80 percent of my macros(food) came from fats. Other than that, I switch between a carb cycling diet or a high fat low carb diet on some days of the week. Most of my energy comes from fats and a very small amount from carbs. I do a re-feed day with carbs every 12-14 days where I go up to 200-250 gms and reduce my fats to very low and then, back to the same protocol, low carbs, high fat and moderate amount of protein(around 30% of the total macros). But, the short answer is, yes, you can do a keto diet for a continued period. The only challenge is sustenance. Will you be able to stay without grains for more than a couple of weeks? Why do I ask? That’s cause’ we have been eating grains all our lives. I stay off it for 10-12 days and then re-feed on carbs. Having said that, it is still the best way to loose weight and drop body fat. I do it every time I need to drop a few pounds quickly (usually after a layoff, or a holiday) My recommendation will be to do it first for a period of ten days and see how you respond.
The benefits are Incredible! Let me list them for you.
- Weight loss as explained is rapid and you drop body-fat as well.
- Improved cholesterol levels.
- Better brain function and better mental alertness.
- Increased Mitochondrial Function. What is Mitochondria- it is the energy storehouse. Its primary function is to produce energy in the cell. The Mitochondria works much better on a ketogenic diet as it is more energy efficient. It also reduces the production of damaging free radicals.
- Lowered Inflammation-Ketosis has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties.
- A high fat diet keeps you full for a long time. Fat slows your digestion. It cant cope with water and rises at the top of your stomach and floats. Their incompatibility with water slows digestion and absorption takes time. Hence, you are full for a long time and don’t feel hungry quickly.
- Reduced protein intake- You don’t need to eat a lot of protein. The more protein you eat the more acidic is the environment inside your body. This is easy on your digestive system and helps to maintain an alkaline environment inside.
So, you can see the benefits. The predominant reason why people fail on this diet protocol is sustenance. When you stop ingesting carbs into your body you feel low on energy and your workout can suffer initially. Lack of pump is generally a result of this. The initial days are tough. Ketogenisis, the stage when your body starts to use fat as fuel source, takes about 2-3 days to come into effect. Our brain often misleads us to believe that in order for us survive we need to feed it with grains, aka glucose. It troubles you with lower energy levels, upsets your bowl movement, leads to mood swings, stress etc. If you can overcome the first few days, I guarantee victory will be yours. Once your body goes into ketosis, that is, it starts tapping on to your fat cells and the fat you consume for energy, you will see you’re more responsive. The energy levels are back to normal, in some cases even better. Simple, don’t let our little friend sitting inside our head dictate things to us. We control it and we will change the way it functions.
Below is the approved food list on keto
Healthy fats | Non Starchy vegetables | Protein | Dairy | Beverages | Condiments | |
1 | Peanuts | Spinach | Chicken | Milk | Black coffee | Mustard |
2 | Almonds | Lettuce | Fatty fish | Yogurt | Black Tea | Mint chutney |
3 | Walnuts | Cabbage | Lean beef | Cream | Green Tea | soy sauce |
4 | Flax seeds | Green beans | Lean pork | Paneer | Lemon pickle | |
5 | Peanut butter | Cucumber | vinegar | |||
6 | Ghee | Cauliflower | ||||
7 | Butter | Broccoli | ||||
8 | Egg Yolks | Celery | ||||
9 | Coconut oil | Tomato | ||||
10 | Olive oil | Soyabean |
A typical 2000 calorie keto diet will look somewhat like this.
Calories | Grams | |
Fats | 1200 | 133 |
protein | 600 | 150 |
carbs | 200 | 50 |
Your macros on a typical keto diet should be as demonstrated below
60-70 percent of your calories should come from fats.
20-30 percent should be protein
Remaining 10-20 percent should be carbs
Remember each gram of fat has 9 calories, example, one egg yolk has 5 grams of fat that is 5*9=45 calories.
Protein and carbs have 4 calories/gram. In case you have forgotten how to calculate your Basal metabolic rate(BMR) which is your calorie requirement, you can go to my fat loss article and access the BMR calculator
My strategy on Keto is somewhat like this. I eat 5-6 meals a day.
- Meal 1- Breakfast-fats and proteins(Whole eggs and egg white omelette with some peanut butter)
- Meal 2- Mid morning snack-fats and proteins(Egg whites with nuts and yogurt)
- Meal 3- Lunch-fats and proteins predominately with some fiber from veggies (Green leafy veggies with chicken/fish and egg whites)
- Meal 4- Pre-workout meal-Fiber and a fast digesting protein- some veggies and Whey Protein or veggies with chicken.
- Meal 5- Post workout meal-Fibrous Carbs, protein and fats(Chicken/fish and veggies sauteed with whole eggs, nuts and some peanut butter.
- Meal 6- Protein shake before bed or an egg white omelette(depends on my macros)
When i am not on a Keto diet, that is when i eat carbs from grains (although it is still a high fat low carb diet) my carbs come in at meal 4 and 5, Pre and post workout meals. I deliberately time them just when i need them, pre and post workout. I use them as an energy source before workout,and post workout to fill up the lost glycogen.Your carb absorption is optimal post workout. My energy source for the rest of the day are fats predominantly. The grains i eat are brown rice, oats, white rice, kidney beans ETC. Below are my macros on a normal high fat low carb diet. the only meals which change are Meal 4 and 5.
My strategy on high fat and low carb diet is somewhat like this.
- Meal 1- Breakfast-fats and proteins(Whole eggs and egg white omelette with some peanut butter)
- Meal 2- Mid morning snack-fats and proteins(Egg whites with nuts and yogurt)
- Meal 3-Lunch-fats and proteins with some fiber from veggies (Green leafy veggies with chicken/fish and egg whites)
- Meal 4- Pre-workout meal-Carbs(grains) and a fast digesting protein- Oats and Whey Protein or brown rice with chicken.
- Meal 5- Post workout meal-Carbs(grains), protein and fats(Chicken/fish and veggies sauteed with whole eggs, nuts, peanut butter, oats/white rice/Brown rice/roti/kidney beans(rajma) etc
- Meal 6- Protein shake before bed or an egg white omelette(depends on my macros)
Few guidelines you must follow
- Fat is high in calories(9 calories per gram as compared to protein and carbs which is 4 calories) make sure to stick to your macros and not to go over board.
- Make sure you eat green leafy vegetable as your carb source.
- Follow this diet for 7-10 days to see how you respond.
- The first 2-3 days you will be low on energy and their will be bowl disturbance. Don’t worry, that is natural and it will become normal after.
- Do not eat grains, sugar, fruit when following a ketogenic diet.
I have seen remarkable results on a high fat low carb diet. A Ketogenic diet is an an optimal way to drop fat in the short term. Train your mind and your body will follow.
Eat fat and lose fat!
We lift, therefore we are!
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Amazing..
Thanks buddy!