Ketogenic Diet

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Introduction/Summary.

1 What is the Ketogenic Diet?

• Greatly reduced Net Carbohydrate intake.
• Tightly optimized Protein intake.
• High fat intake or burn body fat.
• Ketoadaptation
• Supplementation.
• Medical supervision.
• Monitoring.
• Mention Atkins
• Reference Low Carbohydrate Diets

2 What ketone levels for how long?

Unknown. Suggest Min 0.5 for 2 weeks, better 1.5 for 4 weeks, both measuring fasting BOHB.

3 Are Carbohydrates Necessary?

Yes and no. Talk about fiber, need for glucose, option of getting it from protein.

4 Advantages of the Ketogenic Diet

• Ketogenic Diet as a Treatment. The greatest advantage of the ketogenic diet is probably its use for the treatment or management of disease.
  • Strong evidence and serious disease:
    • Epilepsy. The use of the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy is well-established.
    • Type 1 diabetes. At one time, type 1 diabetes (previously called childhood diabetes) was expected to be fatal within a year. The first approach was a starvation diet of 450 calories per day, which lead Fredrick M Allen to use a 70% fat, 8% carbohydrate diet that was the standard treatment before the discovery of insulin.
  • Limited evidence, but serious disease. Cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Schizophrenia, Depression, Bipolar disorder (therefore possibly Overtraining Syndrome). While the evidence is limited, these diseases have such a catastrophic impact on life that the ketogenic diet is almost certainly worthwhile trying.
  • Unclear.
    • Head trauma and hypoxia, Stroke.
    • Heart disease.
    • Autism.
    • Inflammatory disease.
    • Migraine.
    • Severe hyperactivity.
• Weight loss.
• Hunger. Initial hunger can be greater due to reduced food volume. However, ketones suppress appetite so hunger tends to be less on a ketogenic diet.
  • The Ketogenic Mechanism of Action is probably the ketones levels, so eating more can increase hunger.
• Muscle Building. The ketogenic diet tends to have a protein sparing effect. There are anecdotal reports (myself included) that it is much easier to build muscle on the ketogenic diet.
  • Anecdotal suggestion that over-ketosis might cause growth inhibition in children.
  • The Ketogenic Mechanism of Action is probably the ketones levels, so increased protein intake (or Net Carbohydrate intake) can impair muscle growth.

5 Disadvantages of the Ketogenic Diet

• Health Risks. There are some serious Health Risks of the Ketogenic Diet. These can largely be mitigated with care. Also, need list of contraindications.
• Medical Supervision. The Ketogenic Diet should only be started under medical supervision. If you're smart, detail oriented and willing to take a few risks with your health then you can be your own medical supervision.
• Difficult to Get Right. The Ketogenic Diet requires far more effort than most diets.
• Easy to get wrong.
  • Examples: Suntan lotion, Toothpaste, rounding errors on labels, errors on labels.
• Attention to detail required. The ketogenic diet requires you to
• Detective work.
• Supplementation required.
• Monitoring required.
• Lack of variety. Without hard work.
• Lack of spontaneity,
• Difficulty when traveling, can't sample local foods easily.
• Reduced speed.
• Individuality.
• Adaptation time.
• High calorie burn. Requires more fat, no increase in NCAP.
• Many unknowns.