Over the past couple weeks, a friend of mine has been focusing on her diet more, which prompted me to look again at mine and see if there were any changes I could or should be making.
I listen to several podcasts about ketosis and the keto lifestyle, and upon reflection, I had to admit that I wasn't feeling as amazing as I had the first month when I was tracking my macros. I still felt really good, but some of the top tier benefits seemed to have faded. So I started looking for patterns.
Since I haven't been tracking my macros, or even logging my food, its hard to be precise. I decided to look at my eating habits, specifically my unplanned snacks.
I'm a habitual eater. When I'm bored, I graze. This hasn't been a problem for my weight or body fat since starting ketosis, I'm steady at 8% body fat and have maintained the lean body mass I started with. I just didn't feel the general sense of amazing well-being I did at first.
I considered the idea that I'm just adjusted to the new-normal and don't experience it as a "high" anymore, but I wanted to test that.
When I reflected on things, I realized my grazing consisted mostly of proteins, a piece of bacon or two, a shrimp or two, whatever little bit was available. Its a habit I developed trying to put on weight for two decades. My life style doesn't work for eating every 2 hours, or six meals a day, or whatever protocol hard gainers are supposed to use. So I snack, mostly on proteins, whether I'm hungry or not, just pop a piece bacon in my mouth or cheese, or whatever is handy.
In the mornings, breakfast is usually coffee with MCT oil, coconut oil, butter, cream, a pinch of salt, peanut butter and a scoop of protein powder. I have trouble consuming enough calories to build muscle, so I got in the habit of high calorie liquid meals years ago. (This one is around 900-1000 calories -- not recommended for losing weight.) Some days, I'd follow this with a solid breakfast of eggs, cheese and bacon, with some veggies.
I recently learned that protein powders digest more quickly than protein in food, which makes sense. Basically, all the work of digesting the protein is done already. This causes the protein to enter the blood stream more quickly, which can lead to an insulin response. Exactly the sort of thing ketosis is intended to avoid.
Between my breakfast habit and grazing habit, I figured I'm eating too much protein. This is purely a guess, since I didn't have consistent data, but given that my weight an body fat have been stable for a couple months, I figured it was a sound guess.
The ketogenic lifestyle effects the body's need for protein, its protein sparing. The body derives energy from macro-nutrients (Carbs, Fats and Proteins... And alcohol, but that's a complex topic). Protein is the last fuel the body wants to burn, but it will use it if it has to. When fat-adapted (meaning your body preferentially burns fat as the primary energy source) it has a a huge source of fuel, and thus a lower need for burning protein. Therefore, if you consume the same amount of protein as when you ate more carbs, your body doesn't burn it, it has more than enough to build or repair tissue, so it must either store it or excrete it.
For years, while on a standard carb heavy diet, I tried to consume at least 150g (up to 200g) of protein a day. That's what it took for me to put on muscle mass. The generally accepted belief in the lifting community is that 1g-2g of protein per pound of body weight is ideal (though there are as many theories as their are lifters.)
Although ketosis is not well studied among strength athletes yet, the growing body of anecdotal evidence is that 0.5g per pound of body weight is enough to maintain lean body mass, and perhaps even gain muscle mass. For me that's about 66g of protein per day -- about 1/3 what I was in the habit of consuming!
The science is not in on the exact amounts, but evidence is pretty clear that athletes in ketosis need far less protein than high-carb athletes. There is even evidence that ketogenic athletes can build muscle while in a calorie deficit, which flies in the face of the practices of high-carb muscle building theory that has dominated strength sports for decades.
As a simple test, I began lowering my protein. I cut the protein in my coffee-calorie-bomb in half, or out completely when paring it with eggs and bacon. I cut way back on the protein grazing (I wasn't really hungry anyway).
Low and behold, within a day, I was back to feeling that "really good"general feeling I got the first month. I've been focusing on continuing this change for a past couple weeks. When I slip up, I know it, I feel a drop in my overall sense of well-being. I'm a little more sluggish, a little less "on it." But when I'm doing it right, I feel great. I sleep great, I wake up rested, I have energy all day long, I don't get hangry, and I'm generally a more pleasant guy to be around.
By cutting out the grazing, I inadvertently created a 12 hour window most days where I'm not eating, basically a 12-12 intermittent fast. So I decided to take advantage of that and begin doing my workouts fasted, before breakfast. In turn this made it easier for me to add in a day or two of 16-8 intermittent fasting when convenient. (Fasting isn't a goal for me, just something I know is beneficial, so when its easy, I do it, but I don't go out of my way.)
What I've noticed is my strength and endurance increasing. After going keto, my strength was sapped. I expected that, and was told it would return after adaptation. But adaptation wasn't supposed to take this long. My theory is that my excess protein was keeping my from fully adapting. In the past two weeks, I've knocked 4-5 minutes off some fitness routines, which is partly because I've been getting in better shape, but those are huge numbers, so I think better ketosis plays a roll (but that's not scientific).
The thing that really drove this home for me was lifting kegs at work. Pre-Keto I was deadlifting 295 lbs for reps, so lifting a beer keg wasn't a problem for me (they're awkward, which still makes them challenging). After starting keto, it was almost impossible for me. Eventually, it became doable, but not nearly as easily as pre-keto.
Within two days of cutting my protein, lifting kegs became simple again! If I eat too much protein one day, I notice it in how much harder it is to lift the kegs. Kegs are my new gauge. If I can easily lift one to stack it on another, then I'm doing things right. If not, I need to look at what I'm eating.
After starting keto, and having my strength sapped, I switched to a more fitness focused, body weight program, which has been really good. But since cutting my protein I find myself jonesing to pick up heavy stuff again. For years, I knew when to take a break by how I emotionally felt about lifting. If I consistently dreaded it, it was time to give my body a rest (I back this up with HRV monitoring which confirmed my mental state was in tune with my body). Conversely, within a week or two of laying off the weights, I always felt the urge to lift again, and I knew my body was ready to start again.
I decided to stay with the body weight only workouts until after my vacation in three weeks. I've got my next lifting cycle planned (based around Brian Carrolls fantastic book 10/20/Life), and ready to go. I'm going to keep up some of my fitness work on the side, since I felt like my endurance really suffered over the past few years out of neglect, and yoga for flexibility and state of mind, but my focus is going back to lifting.
Protein is an important part of the keto-lifestyle. You need it, but too much keeps you from really seeing the benefits. That's one of the key difference between scientific keto-diet and the paleo nonsense, eating a ton of protein triggers insulin spikes similar to eating carbs. You need protein, just not as much as you did.
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