Proteins are assembled from amino acids using information encoded in genes. Each protein has its own unique amino acid sequence that is specified by the nucleotide. Catalyst: Blog: My six week ketogenic diet experimentdownload video: mp. Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Catalyst. This blog is not meant in any way as medical advice. Please consult a medical profession before commencing any new eating regime. What would you say if I told you there? So when I heard about the ketogenic diet from a colleague I was immediately intrigued. This simply sounded too good to be true. Could I really eat fat and get lean? Enjoy peanut butter treats and squeeze into my skinny jeans? Never one to shy away from a challenge, I decided to see for myself, and so my six week experiment with the ketogenic diet began? In its most simple form, this is an extremely low- carb, high- fat diet. By lowering your carb intake your body is pushed into a metabolic state known as ketosis (key . To be more precise, it uses ketone bodies or ketones from the breakdown of fatty acids in the liver. Hence the name, ketosis. Now fatty fuel can come from a meal you. While it may sound a little questionable, ketosis is actually an entirely natural metabolic process that the body initiates to help us survive when our food intake is low. Typically our body runs on glucose derived from the breakdown of carbs . But when your body doesn. The ketogenic diet is basically tricking your body into thinking your food intake is low, while actually allowing you to eat your fill. So what do you eat on a ketogenic diet? First and foremost, the term . The first step however, is brutal. To get into ketosis all major carb sources in your diet have to be eliminated, so it. The more restrictive you can be with your carbs at this stage, the quicker your body will enter the ketosis. Between 2. 0- 3. 0 grams of carbs is recommended (roughly 2 slices of bread or 3 large carrots) so as tough as this was (and believe me, it was) I lowered my intake to the guideline amounts. The second challenge was to work out what I could actually eat . A wealth of meal ideas are available online, and after a few weeks sticking to these I began to tweak and devise my own (a couple are below). The food on the keto plan is, in one word, yummy. A big change from my usual low- fat fare, and once I got over my initial fruit withdrawals, I genuinely began to enjoy it. ![]() The trick came less in changing what I ate, but changing my mindset. For this experiment to work I had to switch both my metabolism and my ingrained attitude towards fat. With every cheese plate eaten that little demon on my shoulder sang . Hungry Girl is your go-to resource for guilt-free eating. Here you'll find diet-friendly recipes (easy and delicious ones!), tips & tricks, supermarket finds, and.First few days were uneventful but on day 5 I was struck down with the . Then I got brain fog, you know that hazy state where you walk into a room and can? But the most notable side affect was an incident of what I believe to be reactive hypoglycemia. After hitting the gym for a normal workout my hands began to shake and my heart felt like it was banging on the wall of my chest. I was then overcome with waves of severe nausea. Apparently reactive hypoglycemia happens when your body is in the process of transitioning from burning carbs to burning fat. Your pancreas hasn. Eventually more insulin gets secreted than is needed and a blood sugar crash results. Your body then snaps into action to get you some sugar and fast! Adrenalin is released to tell the liver to break down some protein into glucose causing the symptoms. Did I say the first step was brutal? ![]()
![]() Once you transition it is smooth sailing. Energy levels begin to rise and the keto flu is but a distant memory. With all the food weighing and rigorous carb counting I approached my first ketosis test with both excitement and trepidation. Had it worked? Was I a fat burning machine? A quick trip to the pharmacy to buy some ketosis test strips followed (the strips measure the ketones in your urine), followed by a bathroom pit stop and voila success! My reading was 4 mmol/L a very high level indeed. With levels of 1. Excitedly I jumped on the scales. Firstly, eating too much protein. Protein is converted to energy before fat. On this diet you should get 7. I was only counting carbs and alas my protein and fat intakes were nearly equal. To help me stay on top of the tricky calculations and keep track of my food I devised a spread sheet. Secondly, and sadly, some people do in fact need to count calories on this diet and I. When I added it up I was eating a whopping 2. That is double the 1. I would usually consume. Most people would be satiated on a much lower calorie intake but I. So, what happens when you overeat on at ketogenic diet? Well, as my results will show, not very much. Overall I gained a mere 5. I lost 3. 5 kg of fat because I gained 4kg of muscle (yay!). I was actually shocked that I hadn. I definitely feel stronger and I have bulked up especially in my arms and shoulders . Compliments have been pouring in as people comment on how . A welcome side effect for a change! So with the experiment drawing to a close and obvious positive changes to my outward appearance I began to wonder what might be happening on the inside. So I headed to my GP for a check up. Tests revealed my overall cholesterol level increased from 4. L to 5. 7 mmol/L . Which is still in the healthy range. While an increase in cholesterol sounds negative it may not be. The majority of the increase was in my HDL (the . My doctor seemed very happy with my 2. HDL result, and if she is happy I. My LDL (the . My liver and kidney were both healthy and functioning in normal ranges. It has taken me the full six weeks to really settle into low carb living. But now that I. My next challenge is to lower my calories to somewhere near what they were before I went keto. Stay tuned for part 2. Ironically, my early research demonstrated that it takes at least 3 weeks for the body to adapt to using mostly fat during exercise, and that regular intake of a modicum of salt is a vital part of this adaptation process.
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