I am currently sitting at 50lbs lost with Nutritional Ketosis and it seems there has been an increased interest in “keto” as of late again. Because, I have been successful with my weight loss people in various friend groups are frequently approaching me seeking advice about “keto”.

A far better FAQ is located here: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq#wiki_all_about_ketostix

Nate’s Rules:

These rules are my own bastardization of Tim Ferriss’s slow carb diet, and popular knowledge about nutritional ketosis.

• Shoot for 20 net carbs
  • Use this calculator to find your optimal diet composition
  • Eat 30g of protein within 30min of waking
  • Don’t drink calories
  • Don’t work to make substitute versions of other foods
  • Don’t cheat, if you do cheat – only do it once a week (preferably at one meal, and go all out)
  • Don’t use Stevia or Erythritol until near your goal weight (I believe this mitigates the “cephalic phase insulin release” or better known as the “anticipatory insulin response”)
• Controls and Metrics
  • Kitchen Scale
    • Log food to MyFitnessPal
  • Bathroom Scale
    • Fitbit Aria is my scale, it enables tracking of weight and bodyfat percentage, I weigh myself first thing in the morning after using the bathroom everyday
  • Fitness Tracker
    • I personally use the Fitbit Blaze this tracks my resting heart rate and exercise; this is not needed, but it integrates with MyFitnessPal (my food logging software), integrates with my Bathroom Scale (Fitbit Aria), and provides data to my 3rd party “Nutrition Information” android application which subtracts fiber from the carbohydrate count.
• Other
  • Stay away from keto specific Facebook groups, most of them are a gigantic circle jerk obsessing over creating ‘keto friendly’ versions of carbohydrate rich foods and they are also obsessed with showing off their ketostix (gross.).
    • If you want to be a part of a keto specific community checkout /r/keto
      
  • Find a friend to talk stuff over with, my cousin Amber was this person for me, we shared screen caps of our daily macro totals via snapchat, articles, and food ideas
    • Do you want me to be your keto friend?
      Add me on snapchat: nateminnesota

FAQ

Do I need to purchase any specific products to lose weight with ketosis?

No!

Nutritional ketosis is about lowering the body’s insulin levels by lowering blood glucose levels this can only be done with diet. When the body’s glycogen (glucose) stores have been depleted in the liver the body will naturally switch over to utilizing ketone bodies assuming enough fat is present in the diet and assuming the person has enough fat for the body to metabolize.

If there is not enough fat in the diet, and if there is not enough fat available in the body; the body will switch to gluconeogenesis which is the process that the body uses to break down dietary protein or muscle mass into glycogen (glucose).

I feel like garbage.

Are you hydrated?

Are you getting enough electrolytes?

Are you suffering from the keto flu?
This will pass within a couple of days to a week.

Are you nutritionally deficient in some nutrient?
(I had issues with my potassium)

…I am just a guy on the internet, you should probably talk to your doctor.

I’m hungry.

Try to get 30g of protein within 30minutes of waking up.

Should I purchase exogenous ketones to “kick start” my weight loss?

No.

The body will kick off nutritional ketosis by itself, make sure you are appropriately hydrated and getting appropriate levels of electrolytes.

Exogenous ketones (usually in the form of BHB, taste like garbage, and generally are only going to benefit people that are seeking athletic performance or a boost to mental performance).

The boost to mental performance will come after the keto flu.

Should I exercise?

Yes.

When exercising consider upping your protein intake after the workout, but make sure you don’t use exercise as an excuse to overeat (“because I earned it”).

Exercise stimulates a cocktail of hormones that make you feel good and that will increase your basal metabolic rate.

Exercise can help push through weightless plateaus via the stimulation of HGH.

Should I purchase MCT oil?

Maybe.

MCT oil is easily converted by the body into ketone bodies, other than this it is  nutritionally void. It is also pretty expensive compared to the alternatives.

If you want or need more fat in your diet, look to animal fats (butter, ghee, bacon grease, ….) or coconut oil. One of my favorites is 64g of wild friends chocolate peanut butter with 32g of coconut oil, my daughter calls this “Daddy’s ice cream”.

Should I track my ketone levels via ketostix (Urine Test Strips)?

No?

Keto urine test strips (Ketostix) are cheap, but are only effective when your body is inefficiently using ketone bodies (i.e. your body is not using all the ketone bodies that your body is producing). Overall hydration will effect the concentration of ketones in the urine, for these reasons I have stopped using ketostix. I did find them encouraging initially, and when I was tuning my protein and carbohydrate intake initially and then when I was mitigating my keto rash.

A better product to track blood ketone levels is the Precision Xtra by Abbot Laboratories, often the device can be acquired for less than $20 or free; but the ketone test strips are pretty spendy (around $1 per strip).

Read More Here: https://www.reddit.com/r/keto/wiki/faq#wiki_all_about_ketostix

Should I track my Blood Glucose levels?

No.

Unless, you are interested in the science of ketosis or if you have a underlying medical condition.

Assuming no underlying medical conditions, the liver has the ability to maintain the body’s necessary levels of blood glucose.