Ecotrain QOTW - As crazy as it might sound ....

Yes, as crazy as it may sound I'm losing weight on a high fat diet!

That's right! I changed to a Ketogenic Diet which calls for low carbs and high fats trying for a ration of
• 75-85% fat
• 10-20% protein
• 5% carbohydrate

Now I'm not one to "go on a diet" but if I find something that will benefit my health I will incorporate it into my diet.

My husband had been doing some research for he wasn't feeling that great and was gaining weight in places he didn't want, showing signs of a fatty liver - not good!
I too, had fat in places I didn't want and was starting to feel uncomfortable with it.
He came across this Keto diet which will have your body become fat adapted - that is it starts using fat as it's fuel source.
Basically it works by your body going into “Ketogenesis” and starts “generating ketones”.
When the carbohydrate sources are sufficiently low your body does this naturally to generate some energy to fuel from fat.

The wonderful thing is I could now give myself permission to eat more fats, the good fats, that can be oh, so delicious!
When eating in the proper ratios I was actually loosing weight eating these fats.

Here's a more in depth look at the science behind the Keto diet from Will Little of KetoSchool.com -

When on “normal” diets (eating more than 100g carbs a day), before sending excess energy to fat cells, your liver and muscles will store carbs in a relatively simple storage mechanism called glycogen
Your brain normally runs on ~100g of glucose per day, so when your liver isn’t able to pump out sufficient glucose for this requirement, it starts producing ketone bodies to get the job done
Under “normal” conditions, insulin helps glucose from the blood stream get into cells, where glucose is converted into pyruvate and sent into the citric acid cycle to generate energy
Then, all that NADH gets converted to ATP (our cells’ main energy source) via oxidative phosphorylation.
Now, when there’s not enough glucose around to generate Acetyl-CoA from pyruvate as shown above, then Acetyl-CoA is generated mostly from oxidizing fatty acids
This not only produces a good amount of ATP on its own, but the build-up of Acetyl-CoA in liver cells induces ketogenesis
If their concentration is high enough in the blood, some of these molecules are excreted in breath, sweat, and urine (hence the fruity smell of keto-dieting people during induction). But most of the acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate is sent from the liver around to other tissues, where they are reconverted to Acetyl CoA which then produces energy

Plus Will Little added -

On a Keto diet hunger goes way down forcing more fat to come out of storage for energy than goes in. Mechanistically, without constant insulin spikes, your body can more easily take advantage of leptin-induced satiety.
With insulin levels relatively low on a regular basis, fat is pulled out of fat cells more readily and the body gets increasingly used to burning fat (consumed and stored) for energy.

The main state we were working towards as we switched from a standard diet to a ketogenic one, was to have our bodies become fat adapted.

What is "fat adapted" you ask?
Basically it is a metabolic state where the body uses your fat reserves as your energy source, moving away from relying on sugar/glucose often supplied from carbs.

I found when my body is in this state

• I feel satiated after my meals and easily go longer in between meals, it's a longer lasting fuel source.
• I have more consistent energy throughout the day, the fat stores are meeting my bodies needs.
• No more carb craving and I can do high energy tasks without needing to eat a bunch of carbs.

Another big part of the "Keto" diet and what we were working on at the beginning is being in ketosis, where ketones are produced from the fat.
A big bonus from this is the ketones can cross the blood-brain barrier and nourish the brain.
Plus there has been scientific studies showing that the ketones are also anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, and has anti-cancer actions.
So now you are switching from your body burning sugars/carbs to burning fat.

In this state you can experience

• improvements in your metabolism
• weight loss
• reduced inflammation
• a clearer mind
• sleep better

What quicken this process of going into ketosis was intermittent fasting.
Just like when you go on a mini fast over night, not eating from your last meal to when you get up and have your breakfast. If you can incorporate the intermittent fasting to a 10 to 12 even 14 hour stretch, this will stimulate the ketone formation.

This adaption to a high-fat diet is different for different folks and factors like your initial weight and other metabolic factors come into play. Also there may be some adverse affects when first adapting before you start to see the benefits that come over a longer period of time.

I chose to gradually make the transition and I was coming from a place where I had already cleaned up my diet a lot so I didn't experience to much adverse effects and I must say I'm really enjoying the benefits now especially the added benefit that my husband is totally into it and is becoming a gourmet Keto chef!

I can honestly say, now, that I can easily pass on all those carb temptations and would much rather have a fat bomb, some nuts or avocado.

There is a lot of information on becoming fat adapted and the ketogenic diet if you want to go in that direction.
We got a lot of information from Dr. Eric Berg
Check out his Youtube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/drericberg123

I'm very happy with the results I have got and it is now a part of my lifestyle.
If this spurred an interest in you, do your research and educate yourself and one of the most important things I found was to make a commitment and be consistent so you can realize the benefits!

May you be healthy and happy and if you want to know more about the changes I have made or have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments and I'll do my best to share what I know with you.

If you enjoyed this post,
Please don’t hesitate to follow me here on steemit at @porters