#we need a new thread atp.

[amaranthineghost]

˗ˏˋ꒰ 🐟 ꒱ my american lover ( logan sargeant. )

logan sargeant x aussie!reader

in which a series of instagram posts causes the internet to think you're oscar's girlfriend

authors note: motivation these days is like trying to find water in a desert TvT doesn't help that this deleted the first time i tried to post it

ynusername

liked by oscarpiastri and 4,028 others

ynusername life lately

view all 302 comments

user HELP THE OSCAR PICTURE?

user this was not on my 2024 bingo card

⤷ user it was not on mine either what 😭😭😭

user since when does yn know about oscar piastri?

⤷ user and since when was he in her likes???

oscarpiastri where did you even get that photo 🥲

⤷ ynusername mumma piastri has a soft spot for me 😊

⤷ oscarpiastri ah

user omg she knows oscar's mom too

user is this a soft launch???

⤷ user using oscar's photos from when he was a kid? i sure hope not 😭

⤷ user okay yeah, that'd be a little bit awkward, but why else would she post a picture of him in her photo dump

user twitter is gonna go crazy

⤷ user i can already see the threads

user does no one know that they're friends?

⤷ user i thought this was common knowledge atp because he has appeared in her previous posts...

⤷ user right, there's photos of them as kids karting together

user ynscar 🙏

⤷ user i found my people

user the ynscar rumors starting up again is wild

⤷ user well they never denied anything

⤷ user ...

⤷ user are you on something?

ynusername

liked by lilymhe and 1,937 others

ynusername what a view (the city, not oscar)

view all 103 comments

user stop, she's so pretty...and he's there

lilymhe we need to hang out and take pictures! the boys will find something to entertain themselves 😘

⤷ ynusername asap! 🙏🏻 they see each other every day, whats another?

⤷ lilymhe exactly! 😊

⤷ alex_albon what am i being signed up for?

user oh my god, lily and yn planning a hangout with their boyfriends? so its confirmed?

⤷ user AND THEY SEE EACH OTHER EVERY DAY??? GOTTA BE!!!

oscarpiastri is this just your new thing to post random photos of me?

⤷ ynusername yeah pretty much

⤷ oscarpiastri great thanks

⤷ ynusername anytime 🙂‍↕️

user of all the photos of oscar she could've chosen, she used this one

⤷ oscarpiastri right

⤷ user OMG OSCAR ILY!!!

user am i the only one who doesn't believe the ynscar rumors?

⤷ user you aren't because it just doesn't make sense

⤷ user right like just because she started putting memes of him in her posts doesn't mean they are outright dating

logansargeant the view looks great!

⤷ ynusername its so gorjos! (you're not talking about oscar, right?)

⤷ logansargeant gorgeous, babe, and no, of course not (yeah, i might be)

⤷ ynusername (oscar isn't the view here!)

⤷ logansargeant (says who) (and why are we talking in parentheses)

⤷ ynusername (i don't know) (why are you talking in parentheses?)

⤷ logansargeant (i don't know, that's why i asked you)

⤷ ynusername (well i don't know either)

⤷ logansargeant (you've said)

⤷ user (what's going on?) (why did he call her babe???)

⤷ user (why are logan and yn talking?) (not on my 2024 bingo card)

⤷ user (well they both know oscar)

⤷ user (but he called her babe??)

user help all the replies to their comments being in parentheses as well 😭😭😭

user am i the only one who prefers yngan to ynscar

⤷ user nope!

⤷ user i love them so much, but it's probably unlikely and we don't see much interaction from them

ynusername

liked by oscarpiastri and 3,408 others

ynusername pov you're max verstappen at miami and you look in your mirrors

view all 231 comments

user oh my god

user im speechless

user the soft launch with the meme of oscar was not on my list of things happening this season 😭

bsfusername you know you're never beating the rumors

⤷ ynusername sadly 😓😓😓

⤷ bsfusername okay but when was this tho

⤷ ynusername wdym 😋

⤷ bsfusername don't gaslight me

⤷ ynusername what's gaslighting???

⤷ bsfusername bitch.

⤷ user rumors? such as the ynscar rumors?

user logan in the likes?

⤷ user hes BEEN in the likes for a hot sc, you just couldn't see him lurking

oscarpiastri you're not coming to the next race

⤷ ynusername WHY NOT??? IM YOUR BIGGEST SUPPORT 🙏🏻

⤷ oscarpiastri support your boyfriend

❤️ by author + logansargeant

⤷ ynusername SHHHH!!!

user wait so oscar isn't her boyfriend?

user anyone see logan in the likes???

⤷ user gotta support the homie's girlfriend

⤷ user gotta

⤷ user they aren't dating 😭

user okay, but do we know FOR SURE oscar and yn are dating? they just seem like really close friends...?

⤷ user SOMEONE GETS IT

user real ones know that oscar and yn are childhood friends

ynusername has posted a story!

[caption: guys look at my uber driver 😢]

view all story replies

user PLEASE RESPOND TO THE RUMORS

user 1. you're dating oscar a. true b. false

user he doesn't even have the steering wheel 😭

ynusername 🤫

user oh my god im gonna faint, tell oscar and logan i love them

oscarpiastri you had the wheel

ynusername stupid, american cars amiright 🤣

oscarpiastri sure

ynusername okay no need for the attitude mr. im a formula 1 driver and am too cool for my BEST FRIEND IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

oscarpiastri go bother your BOYFRIEND

ynusername okay

ynusername ...

ynusername you're supposed to feel bad

oscarpiastri 😐😑😐

ynusername

liked logansargeant and 7,078 others

ynusername my american boy <3

view all 227 comments

user the random middle of the day hard launch

⤷ user but im not complaining

logansargeant my kangaroo <3

⤷ ynusername EXCUSE ME???

⤷ logansargeant 😊

⤷ ynusername okay american eagle

oscarpiastri finally putting an end to the rumours i see

⤷ ynusername well you weren't going to do it so someone had to

⤷ oscarpiastri i thought it was common knowledge that i had a girlfriend that wasn't you

⤷ ynusername osc...im gonna hold your hand when i tell you this

⤷ oscarpiastri dont touch me

user the sass from oscar 😭😭

⤷ user i know right😭🫣

logansargeant

liked by ynusername and 143,203 others

logansargeant i love my aussie side

view all 1,047 comments

user ON MY CELLULAR DEVICE???

oscarpiastri i thought i was your aussie side mate

⤷ logansargeant oh no, you are dw

⤷ ynusername probably why he put a picture of oscar in the hard launch

⤷ logansargeant you put one in the soft launch

⤷ ynusername fair point

user i was not expecting this (i was indeed expecting it)

—

taglist (found here): @slut4lrh @kaa12 @taylorslovesswifties13 @sbella13 @nhlfs @beskardroids @hiireadstuff @sapphiccloud @lorenica @delululeclerc @c-losur3 @namgification @casperlikej @darleneslane @soamericn @decafmickey @tellybearryyyy @geniusalpaca @mel164 @littlegrapejuice @rylieverstappen-sargent @ahnneyong @ln4smiamitrophy @jiggly-puff-12 @jamieebuolos @ireadthensuetheauthors @jaasworld

proofread by @foreveralbon <333

[sterredem]

Red

F1 grid x singer!driver!reader

Face claim Taylor Swift

Warning hate(?), long, not proofread, spelling mistakes

Summary Y/n had a past in music. But it isn’t a past anymore…

Part 2

A/N it’s pretty long and there will be a part 2… I’m also in love with it so I hope y’all like it. Part 2 will be out soon.

Instagram

Liked by Charles_Leclerc and 1.262.324 others

Yourusername Another great result. P3! We are very happy with this result and we will all try and keep this up for the upcoming races. See you next China.

View all 286.735 comments

Charles_Leclerc Great job Y/n!

ScuderiaFerrarie Have a nice break y/n!

User1 P3 LETS GOOOO

User2 This is why she is my fav driver

User3 How can one be so gorgeous

User4 it’s amazing to see how accepting the grid has been with a girl on the grid

User5 yeah it’s great to see!

User6 The aesthetic is just amazing

User7 it’s amazing to see how much she has grown over the past few years. Not only in the literal sense but also mentally and in her driving

User8 ❤️♥️

User9 She and Lewis always slay with their outfits

User10 FR! It’s like their runway show atp

User11 We love to see it!

User12 🏎️🏎️

User13 do you need a dog? I can bark

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Instagram

12.735 likes

Kymillam STREET STYLE

Y/n y/l/n has arrived at the paddock in China, and as always shows of her great sense of style. #f1 #Y/nY/l/n #FormulaOne

View all 48 comments

User1 Looking good as always

User2 the bad being the most expensive part of the outfit is so funny for no reason😭

User3 🔥🔥🔥

User4 she always looks so good

User5 if only het driving was as good as her sense of style

User6 so true. Because her sense of style could never be as good as her driving

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Twitter

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Instagram

Liked by TaylorLauntner and 1.635.735 others

Yourusername P1! Another great result this week. I’ll remember this weekend all too well. Onto Miami➡️

View all 273.836 comments

LewisHamilton Well done!

Fernandoalo_Oficial bravooooo👏🙌

alex_albon congrats!!!!👏💪

Charles_Leclerc

Scuderiaferrari Bravo y/n!! Very proud❤️

OllieBearman Congrats❤️

User1 LETS GOOOO!

User2 Bravooo

User3 P1! LFGGOOOOO

User4 amazing race!!

User5 wait… all too well?? As in the song that she released before she same to f1???

User6 WHAT?!?! Explain??

User5 I’ll make a twitter thread!!

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Twitter

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Instagram

Liked by PhoebeBridgers and 1.827.826 others

Yourusername Not the best results but hit some good points. But in the mean time I had some fun time at the beach. Also congrats to Lando for p1. Onto Imola

View all 375.626 comments

PhoebeBridgers I would say it is nothing new for you

User6 ?!?!?!?⁉️⁉️⁉️

User7 still a great job Y/n!!

User8 gorgeous

User9 new music when??

User10 The livery was a great disappointment

User11 Y/N WORLD DOMINATION!!

User12 do you remember it all too well?!

User13 ♥️♥️❤️❤️

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Instagram

Liked by EdSheeran and 1.726.836 others

Yourusername a great result for the team had some good points with P3. Congrats to Charles with P1! Al so I think I lost my scarf anyone see it?

View all 276.826 comments

EdSheeran I have no idea where the scarf could be. But I feel like everything has changed

User1 SCARF?? AS IN ALL TOO WELL??

User2 P3 and p1 LETS GOOO

User3 The random photos😂 I’m crying

User4 MY FAV DRIVER FOR A REASON!!

User5 how can a person be so perfect?

User6 Ferrari world domination!

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instagram

Liked by OliviaRodrigo and 3.762.635 others

Yourusername Suprise! My brand new (and first) album RED is out now!! This is a secret I have been keeping for quite a while and I am very happy to share it with you all! This is a project that is very close to me, and I have worked on this album for 3 years. A few songs may sound familiar to you but I promise, it will be beter. Also thank you very much to all the people that have helped me make this all possible. More surprises coming your way soon!❤️

View all 853.736 comments

Charles_Leclerc very proud of you Y/n!

Landonorris I will hear this so many times that I will get sick of it

LewisHamilton Amazing album Y/n!

Maxverstappen1 P and Kelly won’t stop playing it. Very proud of you

Scuderiaferrari Aleays knew you loved red❤️

OscarPiastri Alreafy my favourite album

Logansargeant Album of the year

OliviaRodrigo SO PROUD!!!

PhoebeBridgers AHHH! FINALLY OUT!!

EdSheeran Amazing!

User1 WHAT?!?!

User2 SO THAT WAS ALL THE SHADY COMMENTS ANS CAPTIONS!!

User3 the last time is a banger argue with the wall

User4 All too well TEN MINITE VERSION?!?!

User5 Message in a bottle is the best EVER

User6 Ronan😭 I’m crying😭😭

User7 this is the most confusing album ever. One second I’m jumping and screen ing and the other one I’m crying on the ground

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Instagram

Liked by SadieSink and 4.826.826 others

Yourusername coming soon…

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Instagram

Liked by SabrinaCarpenter and 5.836.625 others

Yourusername The first poster…

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Instagram

Liked by DylanOBrien and 8.826.826 others

Yourusername All Too Well the short film out now! This is one of the things that I have always dreamed of making and now it is here! Thank you so much @DylanOBrien and @Sadiesink for helping me achieve this and playing in this film. I hope you all love it as much as I do… more coming soon…

View all 565.625 comments

DylanOBrien Thank you for this amazing opportunity!

SafieSink it was amazing working with you!

Charles_Leclerc a real piece of art

LewisHamilton One of the best works I have seen. Great job to you all

User8 SADIE AND DYLAN?? THE DUO WE DIDNT KNOW WE NEEDED

User9 Watching the bts and then realising that the scene in the kitchen was improvised and was t supposed to be bearded is just insane. Great job to the actors and Y/n for the acting and directing

User10 The acting in this is just incredible

User12 wait what do you meen more coming soon????

User13 AAAAHHH ALL MY FAVS IN ONE VIDEO!!

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Instagram

Liked by BonIver and 9.625.836 others

Yourusername Coming soon…

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[pansy-picnics]

@okayishalchemist i’m not gonna reblog again bc i’m already embarrassed about making that whole thread on someones art post + it’s not really related to that discussion LOLLL but YES YOU GET IT!!!! rapunzel was NOT responsible for varian the way some ppl seem to think she was….temporary queen doesn’t mean you need to drop EVERYTHING to help one little white boy especially when the entire kingdom is simultaneously in danger….and obviously this isn’t meant to be accusatory and i know i’m literally the only one making it a gender thing, but it just kind of annoys me sometimes because when it comes to the general audience who don’t look much deeper into the situation they ALWAYS side with varian, and act like rapunzel is this horrible person for not helping him….when like lbr if the genders were swapped and this was a man who was asked to help a little girl ppl would NOT CARE!!!! they’d be sympathizing with them if anything!!! like “ohh he’s so sad he couldn’t help that kid :(“ even if his ass did NOTHING. but whatever. that’s for another day and i think i might get bashed for that one so i’ll just leave that there.

idk. it just mildly annoys me sometimes because it feels like people just subconsciously expect female characters to drop everything to help others and be like this unconditional motherly figure. but like rapunzel knew varian for what….3 months??? she met up with him maybe 4 times on screen and maybe like 5 altogether since she knew ruddiger’s name??? i’m all for varian and rapunzel being siblings but she is NOT his mom and i feel like a lot of the argument just boils down to everyone expecting her to be. like sure you can say rapunzel should have done more but like really what ELSE was she supposed to do??? she looked for him and couldn’t find him. she felt totally helpless in the situation, and she probably was trying to ignore it bc she trusted that her parents would solve the issue instead. this situation was the first time rapunzel was really faced with the weight of her new position and the fact that she’d feel overwhelmed and revert to inaction feels completely reasonable to me, and in the beginning of the series she trusted her parents unconditionally and gothel always did everything for her so she probably just assumed that her parents would help where she was unable to. i mean it makes sense right??? why wouldn’t they?????

we saw so much of the conflict from varian’s perspective and it seems like a lot of people just took that 100% seriously despite the fact that he’s a teenage boy who’s dad just basically died LMAO. like obviously his feelings are valid but he is not in the best place to be coming up with logical explanations right now.

ofc this is purely targeted at the people who do look at it from a character perspective rather than a writing perspective and STILL come to the conclusion that rapunzel’s in the wrong because on a writing standpoint i understand just being upset about how it was portrayed. but i feel like some people are just trying to find reasons to hate rapunzel atp and it’s stupid

[hecatombi]

Here's my wishlist of threads and interactions! Just things I hope to eventually get, if you want to thread any of this with me sometime feel free to always slip into my dms about it! I will on and off write / add to this.

I hope these don't really feel super samey, but i apologize if they do!! ALSO, more AU's are always on the table, you can ask more detail about au ideas i have in mind. trust me, i go to INSANE depths for my wishlists. but. i do want to keep this list as general and accessible as possible in case any one of youse want to pick one to play around with.

GENERAL;

good omens or OFMD muses would be cool to interact with!!

More super hero muses interacting with my more powerful guys.

Miraculous ladybug portrals of any kind for randy / rex would be fun!!

RANDY:

MORE RC9GN MUSES!!!!!!! OF COURSE...

Action threads with any of my muses would be pretty fire actually but i'd love it with randy particularly

MORE NORISU NINE MEMBERS!! I would love to establish who becomes linked to a kaiju and who could take on more roles as a ninja! so far, the only established new member has been hachi of @standbowed!! i need 7 more, though. and 8 more spirits to go with every ninja!! dm me if interested :D

travelling through the remaining 8 lands of ninja legend would be sooo fucked but so fun.. twirls hair.... who wants an Adventure long termmmm...

identity reveal. superhero shenanigans. PLAY VIDEO GAMES WITH MA BOY! just hang out with him, it'd be nice.

CHAI:

chai and vash .. i do personally ship them but i'd never force another vash to ship it with me. even them interacting would be so fun though!!

chai moving to somewhere safer or people joining his resistance is always a fun time

honestly i just really want a ship with chai in general. who wants to smoochie the default mii

i have so many ideas for him living with others, trying to find work elsewhere, his status as a brand ambassador to the megacorp that vandelay is,

HACKING HIM. HE CAN BE HACKED. HOW FUCKED IT WOULD BE TO EXPLORE THIS!! YET HOW FUN

If your muse is a musician, specdifically a famous one, oh my god let chai fanboy over them!!!!!!!!

i have a million more ideas but i'll refrain from putting them LOL so many ideas.

VASH:

A non freaky interaction with knives who don't ship plan.tcest would be nice :'D younger vash interactions, dream interactions, fucked up pre death interactions.... anything. would be interesting to explore since we saw so little of them.

bUT ALSO anyone from trigun!! I don't really ship vash super easily personally, but there's like 5 versions of him imuse. i don't really do vashwood personally but i can see why it would appeal to some.

i think vash deserves to not be feared so a thread where he gets appreciation for something he did would be nice. since he gets it so little

someone he could confide in and help heal with given how much he bottles up ..

getting comfortable enough with a muse that he can show off his uncanny true plantlike form!!!! which is SO RARE for him!!!!!!

interactions with other powerful protagonists or people who challenge his morality strongly would be so epic to interact with. it would be so cool.

JOSEPH:

any interactions with fellow jjba muses! especially caesar, lisa lisa, suzi q, jonathan, dio, johnny, gyro!

would love a thread where he does magician stuff since he's canonically into street magic

any thread where he gets to pull a your next line is and stun your guy. idc the context i just think it'd be REALLY funny

oldseph threads would also be really fun to have if i can get enough peeps interested........

him learning how to make bubbles from caesar or like caesar if caesars dead atp. :D

TEACHING HAMON TO OTHER MUSES!!!!!!!!! ASK WHAT THIS WOULD ENTAIL IF YOU DONT KNOW

GARY:

Tbh more of him dancing and goofing off would be really fun

Adopting more kids always. he's such a good dad!!!!

Maybe someone who breaks his isolation sooner than Avocato did in season1 before everythang went to shit..?

i'd generally like to rewrite season 3 and beyond. like i love final space but i dont like the direction it went all that much personally.. <:/

help him get more comfortable with a new look, as i hc him to be more transfeminine nowadays! would be nice helping him get comfortable in his own skin.

ASH:

MORE SLASHERS. this is my only real note for now

well that and maybe more. like. medieval interactions.... since mine's a knight and all given AOD.

AIDEN:

HACKING INTO SOME BIG PLACE FOR A SECRET MISSION WOO YEA WOOWOO YEAH FIXER MOMENTS

be on a fixer mission with aiden. you can be co worker,hostage, or even his torturer. i dont care as long as its cool.

meeting more watchdogs muses in general though there.. doesnt seem to be many of those aside from myself

if anyone wants to deal with his edgy fuck ass be prepared for him to be relatively standoffish / prickly, but he can warm up to you if he has to be your work partner.

BEE:

she needs to make herself some PROPER FRANDS.

Intergalactic jobs on your muses planet!! that would be so fun!! Like imagine she gets a temp job working for your muse....

Terrible room mate anyone? :) give her more roomies cause i doubt there's another puppycat active atm..

bee also flexing her insane robot powers could be epic. rare, but epic. i dont know if she entirely processes how unusual that is though.. huh!

REX:

escaping providence would be nice.

thread where he's deprogrammed from the culty weird propaganda of providence

doing normal kjid things like hanging out at th epark, learning memes, playing video games, going to school stuff -- this is allt hings he's never been allowed to do!!

Drawing your muse and entering them into his JOURNALS... ohh the importance of those can NOT be understated.

curing your muse from turning into an EVO!

[shatlass]

long unstructured uncle jack rant under the cut!! obvious warnings apply

tldr; i'm just really sick of him as a character and i don't see how they could make any of this feel worthwhile from a comedy or serious character development angle (especially what we saw in frank vs russia). it's unfunny, it's lazy, it's thoughtless, it's tactless

idk I'm just kind of sick of Uncle Jack and atp I don't have any faith in sunny as a whole to deal with him in a way that's thoughtful or respectful.

It was one thing when it was all coy “Is he really a paedo or is he just a bit weird?” but outright requesting suggestive images of children??? I’m sorry but what is funny about that? and besides how insensitive and genuinely unfunny he’s been all season, the ice cream truck?? it’s not even so overdone it circles back to funny, cos the whole thing feels so phoned-in. It's the kind of joke we all made in primary school without even the slightest subversion or switcheroo or anything new or interesting or clever. In the same episode, it’s implied that he roofied Charlie as a child. What the fuck.

I never found him particularly funny, but I get how it could be in the same way “the implication” can be funny. But, like the implication, you lose any and all potential for humour when you stop leaving any room for interpretation or plausible deniability. The joke can't be the guy's a paedophile. That's not a joke. And once you take away that plausible deniability, it makes the character unenjoyable. I feel the same way about Dennis and Dee in TUFTG, for example.

Best case scenario, the reason we're seeing him so much is to lead into Charlie confronting his trauma head-on (which he has already been doing ftr) and finding a way to sever ties completely. But even in that scenario, we shouldn't need to see that Jack has a whole operation going on, and have that played (unsuccessfully) for cheap laughs. It is possible for Charlie to deal with Jack in a way that's cathartic or shows development or closes an arc or whatever without spoonfeeding the audience this disgusting shit.

Also, I think we don't need to see Jack outside of Charlie. His character is only important in relation to Charlie. We only care about him in relation to Charlie. and we know what he's done to Charlie (at least it's heavily heavily implied) and its impact. What is the point of showing us MORE of that shit? It provides no additional context. Just feels super lazy and cheap. Literally its only purpose is "haha paedophile funny durrr".

I'm super concerned the whole storyline will end in “Charlie really didn't get abused -- he was telling us the truth the whole time!” as some godawful attempt at subversion since there's been no attempt to subvert expectations re Jack thus far. And how could anyone involved in the writing think jokes like this (executed in the way they are) are acceptable if they're not planning on going somewhere with them?? It feels like it's going somewhere. idk i hope this isn't what's happening but it's what i'm sensing

Also, as a lot of people have said already, there's a common thread between late-seasons Sunny's poor handling of sexual assault jokes and sexual assault/abuse in general :/ Obviously, this can't be placed on one person (especially since we know how involved RCG are in each step of the process), but I think it's interesting to note.

[intoxicatingintimacyy]

Hi all! I’m on the hunt for some new partners (not replacing anyone of course) that are interested in angsty, romantic and, of course, dramatic plots. In said plots I’d prefer to play the F in M/F pairings, it’s just what I’m most comfortable with : ). Aside from that though, I am 24 which means all of my partners NEED to be 18+, there is no wiggle room on this. Please don't lie and say you're of age if you're not, it's dangerous. Also, another lil request if possible: I just moved to the central time zone and would love some partners over here or who are at least awake during these hours, not a requirement tho!

We can discuss rules, limits and triggers privately if we decide to move forward, however there is one rule I’ll let you know of now since it puts some people off. I don’t double. I will gladly play multiple side characters, however I will not do one pairing in exchange for another (you playing my love interest and us doing a separate plot where I play yours). I find it hard to focus and they never end up fair in my experience. I hope that makes sense lol.

Right now I’m specifically on the hunt for three fandoms/pairings: Criminal Minds, Stranger Things & Teen Wolf.

In CM I’d be looking for someone to play Spencer Reid opposite of my character, Olivia Chandler. Olivia is a Gale Weathers type if you know Scream at all, but FAR less of a bitch. I think there’s a lot of longevity for this pair as Olivia is afraid of commitment whereas I see Spencer just hesitant when it comes to romance at all, especially if we set this after Maeve. There’s a lot to her backstory that I think could make for an interesting twist a little further along, but we could do different cases and such and it would be fun! As all of my characters do, Olivia has her own backstory written up and available upon request.

While I haven’t watched S4 of ST yet (atp I’m just waiting for S5 to rewatch all of it lol), I know most of what happens, but this plot would take place more of s2-s3 and maybe in an AU space s4. I’d be playing an original character, Nancy and Mike’s troubled cousin from New York, and would want to pair her alongside Billy Hargrove. I think they’re ‘fuck this small town’ attitudes would work well along with other things.

As for Teen Wolf, I’d love for someone to play Derek Hale against my canon-divergent version of Paige Krasikeva. For those who don’t remember, Paige was teenage Derek’s girlfriend who was scratched by an alpha and Derek had to kill himself. In my version, Derek thinks he killed her but Peter brought her back to life and sent her off with her parents who moved. Now she’s back in season 3A as an adult music teacher at the high school with no memories of Derek or werewolves.

If any of this sounds interesting, let me know or add me on discord toxicdeliquency#7795 I’m also willing to roleplay on tumble if someone is willing to teach me 👀. I have a multimuse blog but don’t really understand how people do threads haha just let me know and I’ll give it a try!

[salt-volk]

i think bonsigh pretty much already said this in replies recently but i really think tensions on/around the site are at a breaking point where lots of folks are (understandably) angry, tired, lashing out or giving up and atp staff /need/ to just lay it all out there. make a comprehensive news post or thread addressing questions/concerns/suggested changes and just straight up say 'we intend to do this to fix/change this' or 'we're not fixing/changing this'. split the 'upcoming' to-do list [1/2]

[2/2] into things they're working on that they foresee coming out within the next year & things that will likely take longer than that. be straightforward & clear & realistic in ways even the mythical roadmap probably won't address so there's absolutely no question as to what still needs to be suggested or discussed & what doesn't, if folks should stay to push for change or go because that change isn't coming, etc. this is absolutely wishful thinking, but damn, something's really gotta give here

[Referring to Bonsigh’s responses on this post]

[See bonsigh's related post about this here]

[lopez-richter-fangirl]

I literally saw the exact same twitter thread that anon mentioned and I was gonna ask if we know anything about Lauren dating any women... not trying to assume her sexuality in any way but personally for me it's sort of like richpez in that I feel like enough hints have been dropped where I just accept that L+J are dating n alSO I feel like atp more ppl in starkid statistically should just be queer BUT I ALSO FEEL LIKE I'M PROJECTING ugh

Okay yes going back to the experience anon shared, I honestly do think if this is anything it would be a new thing for her and that’s a lot of why I don’t think it would be a big part of her identity because it’s a long time after she started dating Joey so like, ofc HE is all that really matters to her. And I do get that thing about it being like richpez because yeah in the last couple years post engagement it definitely felt like there was an assumption we knew and with this there’s a sort of assumption that it doesn’t need to be talked about, we just don’t know exactly what “it” is and that’s totally fine 😂

[littlebiggains]

Results of my pushup experiment. 400 reps a day for a month.

I’m done with the 400-pushups-a-day affair. What an ordeal. Over the course of 31 days I squeezed out exactly 12,431 reps of pushups. I tried using different variants to cheer myself up, hoping this might distract me from how excruciating an experience I was putting my body through. Overall, was it worth it? Um, no.

I never expected much real benefit from this anyway so I can’t say I’m disappointed. From the very beginning I considered this to be an experiment whose aim was to prove (or disprove) the hypothesis whereby high-rep pushups over an extended period of time are senseless. I’m still in two minds about whether the experiment has fully born out the hypothesis. What I can say for certain, though, is that the ‘investment' dwarfed the returns. Look at this picture:

The difference that immediately jumps out at you is that I've got tanned. Yes, it’s summertime. What you can’t see though is the toll those 12K pushups have taken on me - I’ve seriously aggravated my elbow tendonitis and developed wrist pain as a bonus.

On the positive note, I’ve got slightly leaner and a wee bit more vascular. But was that the pushups? I’m not sure. It may as well be the lighting in the ‘after’ picture or a slightly different pose that’s making those veins pop out a little more. You can’t re-create the exact same pose after a month.

Still, I do look a tad smaller now, which is interesting because I haven’t lost any weight. I did get a little stronger though, and that is what's got me intrigued. After all, hundreds of pushups on top of my normal routine (and I do a lot of volume training) should have absolutely fried my chest! And yet, I’ve actually been able to add a bit of weight to some exercises I do for chest and crank up the volume.

Counterintuitive as it appeared, I carried out an investigation. I am about to share my conclusions so those of you who cannot be bothered with pseudo-scientific gibberish, it’s fine to drop off now, I won’t be offended. Others, read on…

This will be about muscle mitochondria, their role in providing energy to the muscle and stimulating hypertrophy (ie, growth).

What’s a mitochondrion? Wikipedia says it’s a "double membrane-bound organelle found in all eukaryotic organisms”. Yea, whatever. It’s enough to know that mitochondria are tiny power-generators which use the oxidative energy system (ie, respiration) to produce energy that’s then delivered into the contractile muscle threads (called myofibrils) to enable contraction. You will find them floating in the sarcoplasm surrounding those myofibrils.

In order to adapt to a training regimen, the body needs to produce more power, ie, more mitochondria. Whilst the body is perfectly capable of creating new mitochondria, early studies seemed to argue that resistance training had no stimulating impact on that process. Unlike cardio which - so the argument went - naturally 'forces’ the muscle to create more mitochondria in order to get more power from oxidation, on which it solely relies, to allow us to withstand hours on the treadmill. In other words, cardio is able to utilise the mitochondria’s power-generating abilities much more efficiently than weight training, and thus stimulate the creation of new ones.

At least that’s what they used to say until more recent studies showed up. This is where it gets interesting. Apparently, regular high-rep light-weight resistance training (approx. 30% or your 1 rep max for as many reps as possible) triggers various kinds of adaptation processes that alter the composition of sarcoplasmic mitochondria, effectively leading to oxidation-generated ATP being recruited by fast-twitch muscle activation (as when lifting weights) and not just by slow-twitch activation (as when doing cardio). It also - just like cardio - promotes the production of more mitochondria.

Effectively, high-volume training with light to moderate resistance will lead to an increased engagement of the oxidative energy system in delivering energy to the myofibrils when you lift weights, not just when you run an ultra marathon… You will be tapping into more energy sources during weight training, including those which are normally reserved for cardio.

This would explain why my strength gains. But why have I not put on additional muscle size from doing all those pushups?

Well, as you may know there are two types of hypertrophy. In order to build size over a relatively short period of time you're shooting for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which is basically size gains caused by increased protein synthesis in the sarcoplasm. You can easily pump up the sarcoplasm by doing high-rep exercises with moderate or light weights (often referred to as metabolic stress) which, when performed repeatedly will cause your cells to stock up on glycogen and create more organelles (like the mitochondria) in the sarcoplasm, all of which will lead to the muscle cells growing in size.

Sounds good but, unfortunately, most of it is hogwash. The extent to which sarcoplasmic hypertrophy contributes to the overall muscle size is biblically overestimated. The idea that you can build huge muscle by going light for high reps is attractive enough to gain traction - I get that. But science has no mercy. Research proves that not only is the size of the sarcoplasm barely affected by resistance training but also it amounts to no more than 20% of muscle size. You'd have to double or triple its volume to see any difference on the outside. Good luck with that.

The real size is in the myofibrils and those need mechanical damage for protein synthesis to kick in and actually build new muscle cells. That means you need to lift heavy to grow and there's simply no way around it.

Sarcoplasmic protein synthesis, however, does have its merits. It functions as an excellent power generator for myofibrillic hypertrophy and, as such, it does ultimately lead to muscle growth, although not directly. If you do pushups in addition to heavy resistance training, as opposed to just pushups, you should see extra gains eventually. That’s because you will be getting stronger. You will be recruiting more ATP to fuel the myofibrillic hypertrophy, of which size gains are a side effect. Don’t expect anything noticeable in a month though, it’s just not enough time. Strength gains are a different matter. You will notice these quite quickly. When you do, add weight to the bar. Otherwise there’ll be no gains, only your workouts will feel less taxing.

OK, so how do we explain those ‘body transformations’ from hundreds of pushups a day over a few weeks, as seen online? Well, most of them are fake. Those that aren’t are actually quite easily accounted for. The gains are optical. If you add an extra 3 or 4 hundred pushups to your daily routine you are going to be burning off a lot more calories than usual. After a month you are inevitably going to look more shredded, having gotten rid of the flabby layer that covered your muscles and veins. Notice that in their ‘after’ photos those guys don’t look bigger - they look more athletic.

So, are high-rep pushups worth doing in addition to your normal workouts? As I said at the beginning, I don’t think so. They are really taxing on your tendons and wrists and that does impact your weight training in a bad way. And the benefits? Well, an extra vein coming into view or an extra few pounds on your bench press are achievable via other, less torturous methods, I’m sure.  

What I do think is worth doing, however, is a variant of this where you perform fewer reps but do it consistently (as opposed to periodically). Rather than do crazy numbers of reps every day for a month, I’ll just do a quick set of, say, a hundred every day before bedtime. Just enough to stimulate the mitochondria to convey energy into the contractile muscle threads during my day workouts. Consistent provision of stimuli should, in theory, ‘teach’ the mitochondria to behave in a certain way and allow me to tap into the benefits of daily pushups without incurring the risks of overdoing it. I guess time will tell if this is a good approach.

[rickhorrow]

15 to watch 72417

As NFL rookies and some position players prepare to report to training camp this week, one of the league’s marquee veterans has announced a hefty new sponsorship deal. According to the Allentown Morning Call, Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack has signed a sponsorship deal with Mack Trucks that will see him promote the company’s "'next-generation highway model' that will be unleashed September 13.” Mack said that the idea "started when he got a text" from the Warriors’ Draymond Green, who "suggested that Mack try to partner with Mack Trucks." Mack said that he then "reached out to his representatives to try to get something together." As luck would have it, Mack "reached out to the company about the same time that they were thinking about reaching out to him." Lagardère Sports President of Team Sports Joel Segal, who reps Mack, said, "It was really a cold call. But it couldn't have gone better." Mack counts Nike and New Era among his other endorsements. Another Segal client, Cowboys defensive end Taco Charlton, recently signed a deal with Texas-based fast food chain Taco Bueno. Another NFL season and rookie class, another grand stage for creative, lucrative sponsorship deals. Let the games begin.

The Jake Peavy Foundation has partnered with leading education technology company EverFi in a program designed to empower young people with the essential skills needed to make sound financial decisions. Former MLB pitcher and Cy Young winner Peavy, who aspires to return to MLB, has partnered with EverFi on a financial education program that will impact students in his home state of Alabama and in numerous cities in which he played. Peavy developed his own financial acumen the hard way. In 2015, the two-time World Series champion was swindled out of more than $15 million in a Ponzi-like investment scheme brought to him by a shady advisor. Now, he's passionate about helping students build their financial futures through the Jake Peavy Foundation Focus Forward program, a financial education course powered by EverFi. "Financial literacy became part of my story," Peavy told MLB.com. "As you get older in life, you want to recognize the platform you've been given…financial literacy is something I'm passionate about and truly believe makes a difference in these young peoples' lives." Yet another example of an exemplary partnership between a sports standout, education, and communities.

Golf’s third Major is in the books, amidst news that U.K. broadcaster Sky Sports has lost the rights to show the PGA Championship, just days after launching a new dedicated golf channel. The PGA takes place at North Carolina’s Quail Hollow next month, but will not be covered by Sky Sports for the first time in a decade. The PGA of America, which runs the tournament, confirmed that its Sky Sports deal would not be renewed because a different media model is being pursued, although a replacement broadcaster has not yet been named. The move has led to suggestions that the PGA of America will seek to engage a different consumer demographic by offering live coverage on social media platforms instead. The announcement comes in the same week that Sky Sports branded itself as the home of televised golf in the UK, having last year acquired the exclusive live rights to all four major championships. The 2017 US PGA Championship will be the 99th edition of the golfing showpiece, and gets underway on August 10. Ironically, almost 24 year old Jordan Spieth, winner of the Open Championship just concluded in the U.K., is a savvy social media user who fits the target digital-age demographic to a tee. His victory, of course, was showcased on Sky Sports

The NBA will no longer have “home” and “away” uniforms with Nike coming onboard as the official jersey provider this coming season. According to Reuters, home teams will now have the option of picking between “four primary uniforms to be worn at all home games” while visiting teams will have a set of contrasting uniforms to choose from. Instead of “home” and “away,” Nike has coined the terms “Association” and “Icon” uniforms. “Association” unis will be white and “Icon” threads will use the team’s primary color. Some key changes from the adidas uniforms also include a stitched logo, bigger armholes, and a tweaked color shape. The only team that will have a jersey without the Nike logo will be the Charlotte Hornets, who will wear jerseys bearing the Jordan Jumpman logo instead. Nike’s “on-court NBA collection also includes new tights and socks.” NBA players are clearly the fashion icons of the sports world – check out Russell Westbrook on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated “Fashion 50” issue. So look for NBA players having some input on which of the new Nike unis they will actually wear week to week.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are looking to sell the naming rights to the field at Dodgers Stadium. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the team is seeking $12 million per year from the right bidder to effectively change the stadium field’s name to “X Corp. Field at Dodger Stadium,” not straying too far from the current name. The naming rights have been on the market since early spring. Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten confidently noted that he is “not concerned about the risk of sullying the name of an iconic stadium” by selling the naming rights. The team currently has in-stadium naming rights deals with BMW for the stadium suites, Ketel One for the baseline club, and Coca-Cola for the right-field pavilion. Kasten also claimed the Dodger Stadium name is not for sale. “That has never been for sale,” said Kasten. “It never will be for sale.” Icons deserve to remain icons, which is why you’ll never see a corporate name in front of Dodger Stadium, Lambeau Field, Fenway Park, and the other true monuments to sport. They are truly priceless.

Amazon is continuing its push into sports by setting its sights on winning the broadcast rights to the ATP Masters series. According to the London Daily Mail, Amazon has “big plans” for the live steaming of sports, including tennis. The current broadcast rights for the ATP Masters series are owned by Sky, but expire in 2018. Winning the bid for this event is just one step in a broader plan for Amazon to develop a full portfolio of live streamed events. Amazon firmly believes that it “has the financial resources to challenge any sports rights of interest.” Amazon representatives were noted to have been in London at Wimbledon to start making connections in the tennis realm before placing a bid on rights to major tournaments just below the Grand Slam level. The company plans on using its Amazon Prime subscription platform to stream events. The tennis news follow on Amazon’s announcement in April that is paying $50 million to stream Thursday night NFL games. What could be next: an esports tie-up for the online marketplace giant, which would seem to be an organic extension of the Amazon brand in sports.

In other tennis news, the USTA has announced that total player compensation for this year's U.S. Open will top $50 million "for the first time," with a record $3.7 million going to "each of the singles champions." The total purse will be $50.4 million, a nearly 9% "increase from last year." Singles runners-up will get $1.825 million, up from $1.75 million in 2016. Both men's and women's doubles champions will earn $675,000, the "highest in U.S. Open history." And a player who loses in the first round "will make $50,000, an increase of $6,700." For comparative purposes, Open Championship winner Jordan Spieth pocketed $1,845,000 for winning the 146th edition of the Open at Royal Birkdale on Sunday, out of a record $10,250,000 purse for that event. While Speith seems to be doing okay at this golf thing – he just won his third major before turning 24, after all – maybe he should take a crack at tennis, where the “real” money is.

MLS continues its push to find the right expansion cities, and the competition is heating up. According to the Charlotte Observer, MLS officials recently visited Charlotte, North Carolina, where they had a “very positive and productive” experience. About 200-250 people attended a rally following the officials’ visit, as the city hopes to land an expansion team that would begin playing in 2020. The team would play in a brand new, $175 million facility, though controversy remains surrounding the “public funding portion of the proposed 20,000-seat stadium.” There were no discussions regarding financing during the visit in Charlotte; instead, the focus was placed on business and community leaders with a stadium site visit included in the agenda. MLS President & Deputy Commissioner Mark Abbott “outlined the four criteria MLS evaluates for potential expansion markets: the ownership group, the stadium plan, community support and how the market can help the MLS grow.” San Diego, Miami, and other prospective MLS markets, take note.

The WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx have officially submitted a bid to land the hosting rights for the 2018 All-Star Game. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the team wants to host the event at the Target Center, which will be fully renovated in a matter of months. The team is noted to be in the “middle of a historic run,” having played in two of the last five WNBA Finals and winning two of those. Coupled with the team’s stellar annual attendance and a soon-to-be-renovated Target Center, that makes the Minnesota franchise a likely winner for the event. Lynx Owner Glen Taylor spoke highly of the possibility to host the game. “Right now is the right time for us to do it,” said Taylor. “This is a team that is winning, with the great players we have. We have a new practice facility and the Target Center. Just everything. There is a lot to show off.” The WNBA ASG at Seattle’s Key Arena drew 15,221 fans this weekend, and proved a great opportunity to show off the city, the franchise, and its fans. While Minneapolis will get plenty of exposure as Super Bowl host, the WNBA midsummer celebration would give it another season in the sun.

The Golden State Warriors announced their new ticket structure for Chase Center when it opens in 2019, calling it a “membership” program. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the new program will “require season-ticket buyers to pay a one-time fee that will enable them to buy their seats for 30 years.” What really makes this proposition interesting is that the Warriors have promised all fans that they will be reimbursed in full after 30 years. This “membership” program comes as the newest evolution in Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs), a trend that has been sweeping through new stadiums for all sports. The initial 30-year payment will be enabled to be paid in full or through financing payment programs. The memberships can be sold, but only through a marketplace run by the team. Warriors President and COO Rick Welts said that “half of the expected 11,000 to 12,000 season-ticket memberships would be priced under $15,000.” The other half “could sell at a much higher cost.” The new program could also allow naming rights partner Chase to get in on the financing action as a preferred financial services partner – one way to chip away at the $1 billion Chase paid for the privilege of putting its name on the building.

Major League Lacrosse is ready to expand. That is what Chesapeake Bayhawks Owner Brendan Kelly believes, at least. According to the Annapolis Capital Gazette, team owners are expecting the league’s new commissioner to push for expansion upon taking office. Finding new media partners is also an expectation that owners have of the soon-to-be-named commissioner. Currently, all MLL games are broadcast by the Lax Sports Network, “which holds exclusive rights.” Lacrosse, considered to be a niche sport by many, is largely fragmented, as explained by Kelly: “The MLL and NLL are doing their things. We should all be working together as a unit to grow the game.” Kelly and the Bayhawks are pioneering a revolution in the league; one example of that is the team’s plan to build a lacrosse-specific venue for home games. Expansion might also help reduce the amount of parity in the league, since seven of nine teams finished with an 8-6 record last season.

NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo wants to own the Houston Rockets. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the legendary big man is trying to get a group together that would ultimately vie to purchase the franchise he played for in his glory days. Mutombo retired back in 2009 after playing his final five years in the NBA in Houston for the Rockets. “I’m working on it,” said Mutombo. “I’m talking to a lot of people already. We’ll see. I’m just talking to people who can cut the check and they can make me be part of it.” Two years ago, Mutombo missed an opportunity to be part of a group that purchased the Atlanta Hawks, the team he played for from 1996-2001. He still has a home in Houston, so the move of taking over control would not cause him to drastically uproot his life and move. The Rockets’ sale is speculated to reach the $2 billion price tag the Clippers commanded three years ago. So while Mutombo is saying the right things and displaying the same leadership traits as he did on the court, he’d better be courting some deep-pocketed partners. And fast – other suitors are circling.

Global telecommunications company AT&T has elected to renew its partnership with MLS and U.S. Soccer. According to SportsBusiness Journal, the company has had a longstanding relationship with both entities for the past eight years, so this comes as an extension to those deals. Now, as part of its agreement with MLS, AT&T “will become presenting sponsor of the final day of the regular season, known as Decision Day.” AT&T will now also sponsor the up-and-coming league’s “Goal of the Week” voting platforms and an online video series on the league’s website. In signing again with U.S. Soccer, AT&T is locked in through at least the 2018 Russia World Cup for men and the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. Financial terms to the deals have not yet been disclosed. The agreement "puts to rest any doubts about AT&T's plans to continue marketing around domestic soccer." Soccer continues to be the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. outside of esports, so it’s hardly surprising that the American telecom giant continues to hitch its considerable wagon to the Beautiful Game.

The International Champions Cup has become a marquee event across the United States as the sports’ popularity continues to grow. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, big time European clubs are seizing the opportunity to grow their brand across the Atlantic thanks to “the most prominent preseason tournament in the world.” Rivalry matchups such as Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona and Manchester United vs. Manchester City have been drawing big crowds to NFL stadiums across the U.S. Though some players and managers in the past have “complained about the long travel distances, the heat and other hurdles” of the trips to the U.S., they also “know it’s an opportunity to build their individual brands.” The games, even the big rivalry contests, definitely lack the intensity that they carry in Europe and often feature reserve players, but players have recognized this special opportunity to show off their talents in front of a new crowd. As the NFL establishes more regular-season beachheads in London, Mexico City, and elsewhere, it’s only logical that its European marquee equivalent would be operating from the same playbook here.

The Montreal Canadiens are making a move to help better the environment…much to the chagrin of their fan base. According to the Montreal Gazette, the NHL franchise notified its fan that this season’s tickets will only be available “in mobile format,” with season-ticket holders set to “receive the tickets electronically on their smartphones.” If someone wants printed paper tickets, it will cost an extra $150 per seat, plus taxes. News of this decision, delivered via email, caused a bit of a stir among the fan base, prompting many to call “the new fees a cash grab.” In the letter to season-ticket holders, team management “cites security, ease of use and environmental sustainability as reasons for the change.” Another team considering this move is the Toronto Maple Leafs, though they have not made this big jump yet. Get used to it, sports fans – electronic tickets are the format of the future, for all of the reasons cited above. Reading between the lines, it’s likely that the portion of the fan base complaining skews older, as younger fans are almost entirely comfortable with an all-electronic universe. We’ll continue to see paper tickets for a while – mostly offered as memorabilia, which comes with a cost.

[fishermariawo]

The Definitive Guide to Keto

I use my Los Angeles surroundings as a barometer for changes in the mainstream approach to health, and it holds up quite well. Silicon Valley can claim to be the cradle of technology, but L.A. is definitely the cradle of diet and fitness trends; and the latest is most definitely keto. At the local cafe where every species of Malibu fitness enthusiast gathers to gossip and fuel up, I’m seeing fewer gels and energy bars, and way more butter coffees and discarded packets of the new powdered ketone supplement products.

Sure enough, keto is entering into mainstream health consciousness everywhere. Google searches for “ketogenic diet” are at an all-time high. The stream of keto-related email queries and comments I receive has seen a major uptick. And early this year, a major publisher approached me with a keto book proposal, which I accepted. I dove headlong into a total immersion/participatory journalism experience where I walked my talk, and pricked my finger for blood tests enough times to get a little scar tissue going, for the past several months. The book is called The Keto Reset Diet and it’s coming out October 3rd. This is a comprehensive presentation to educate you on the science and benefits of ketone burning and to give you step-by-step guidance to go keto the right away, avoiding the common setbacks that happen when many adopt an ill-advised approach to something as delicate and rigorous as nutritional ketosis. You can pre-order a copy from major retailers right now. We are also filming a comprehensive online multimedia educational course to give you a guided immersion experience that will be available in 2018.

Meanwhile, it’s definitely time to do a Definitive Guide….

To understand ketogenic diets, you must understand the conditions that promote ketosis. And to do that, you must understand how our bodies beta-oxidize fatty acids for energy.

Fatty acids are broken down into acetyl-CoA.

Acetyl-CoA combines with oxaloacetate.

The acetyl-CoA/oxaloacetate duo starts the Krebs cycle.

The Krebs cycle produces ATP, the body’s energy currency.

Congratulations. You’ve just turned fat into energy.

Where does ketosis come in?

If the supply of acetyl-CoA exceeds the supply of oxaloacetate, the liver converts any excess acetyl-CoA into ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are an “alternative” energy source for the brain and body. 

Both carbohydrates and protein provide oxaloacetate to the liver, so both carbohydrates and protein can prevent ketone production or knock you out of ketosis. Carbohydrates also elevate insulin, which blocks the release of body fat and reduces the amount of fatty acids making their way to the liver for conversion into ketones. A ketogenic diet, then, is one that limits carbohydrate and, to a lesser extent, protein.

Ketosis occurs in certain instances without any dietary change at all:

Extreme physical exertion that depletes liver glycogen (total around 100 grams) and depletes around half of stored muscle glycogen (total around 400-500 grams)

Fasting for significant time period (at least 24 hours for most people)

Starvation or significant restriction in total calories for a signification time period

In all of these conditions, there’s a common ketogenic thread: liberation of body fat in excess of that which we can beta-oxidize. Any fat that isn’t beta-oxidized for energy will convert to ketones.

In one sense, ketosis is a stop-gap solution for situations where you’re burning huge amounts of body fat, like during a famine. Why would I want to mimic abject starvation if there’s all this food around?

Grocery stores are an evolutionary aberration. The constant drip of glucose into our blood is a modern luxury. For most of human history, if we wanted carbs, we had to climb a tree and extricate a bee’s nest, spend hours digging tubers, or wait around for the wild fruit to ripen. We are adapted to periods of low food availability, and, especially, low glucose availability.

Plus, humans are remarkably good at slipping into ketosis. Whereas for most other animals ketosis is difficult to achieve, a human will be mildly ketotic just waking up from a full night’s sleep. Heck, breastfed babies spend much of their time in ketosis despite drinking nutritionally balanced breastmilk. We’re clearly meant to produce and utilize ketones from time to time, and it’s safe to assume that mimicking this ancestral milieu provides adaptive benefits.

Let’s go over some of the major ones.

Adaptive Benefits of Ketosis Treatment for Major Disease States

The ketogenic diet first emerged as a tool for clinicians to treat their patients with epilepsy. It was—and remains—the only thing with the consistent ability to prevent seizures. Whether it’s Thai kids with intractable epilepsy, Scandinavian kids with therapy-resistant epilepsy, or adults with refractory epilepsy, ketogenic diets just work.

Ketosis improves epilepsy via several mechanisms.

It increases conversion of glutamate into glutamine into GABA, reducing neuronal excitability.

It increases antioxidant status in the neuronal mitochondria, improving their function.

It reduces free radical formation in neurons, a likely cause of seizures.

These effects on neuronal function and health, along with the ability of aging or degenerating brains to accept and utilize ketone bodies, also have implications for other brain conditions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, and many psychiatric disorders.

Ketogenic diets aren’t just beneficial for brain disorders, though.

A Spanish ketogenic diet (keto with wine, basically) cured people of the metabolic syndrome and improved health markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Over 92% of subjects improved their liver health; 21% resolved it entirely.

In cancer patients, a keto diet preserves lean mass and causes fat loss. Many researchers are exploring the use of ketogenic diets in preventing and treating cancer, although results are very preliminary.

Cognitive Function

Since ketosis can help with major brain disorders, many have wondered whether it can improve cognitive function in otherwise healthy people. Unfortunately, researchers haven’t studied the nootropic effects of ketogenic diets in healthy people—yet. They have looked at people with “milder” cognitive deficits, though, finding some promising effects.

In mild cognitive decline, a ketogenic diet improves memory.

In type 1 diabetics who experience reduced cognitive function when their blood sugar is low, increasing ketone production via medium chain triglycerides (found in coconut oil) restores it.

In adults with bad memory, adding ketones improves cognition. The higher the serum ketones, the better the scores.

In older adults, a very low-carb diet improves memory. Again, higher ketones predicts bigger improvements.

Anecdotes abound of people with intact cognitive function going on ketogenic diets and experiencing huge benefits to their mental performance. I’ve been experimenting with more protracted ketosis for some time now, and I can add my hat to the pile. What could be going on?

It may clear up brain fog, that enemy of clear thinking, by clearing ammonia from the brain and upregulating conversion of glutamate into GABA.

It definitely increases brain energy production by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain. More mitochondria, more energy production.

It tends to produce a sense of euphoria. If you can parlay that into productivity instead of getting caught up in the sensation, your mental output will increase. A cup of strong coffee helps here.

Physical Performance

Being keto-adapted has several advantages for anyone interested in physical performance.

It increases energy efficiency. At any given intensity, a keto-adapted athlete burns more fat and less glycogen than a sugar-burning athlete. Long-term elite keto athletes can burn up to 2.3 times more fat at peak oxidation and 59% more fat overall than non-keto athletes, and they do it at higher intensities. They remain in the predominantly fat-burning zone at 70% of VO2max, whereas non-keto athletes switch over from predominantly fat burning to a spike in sugar-burning at 54.9% VO2max.

It spares glycogen. Glycogen is high-octane fuel for intense efforts. We store it in the muscles and liver, but only about 2400 calories-worth—enough for a couple hours of intense activity at most. Once it’s gone, we have to carb up to replenish it. Keto-adaptation allows us to do more work using fat and ketones for fuel, thereby saving glycogen for when we really need it. Since even the leanest among us carry tens of thousands of calories of body fat, our energy stores become virtually limitless on a ketogenic diet.

It builds mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells, transforming incoming nutrients into ATP. The more mitochondria we have, the more energy we can utilize and extract from the food we eat—and the more performance we can wring out of our bodies. Ketosis places new demands on our mitochondria, who adapt to the new energy environment by increasing in number.

Fat Loss

Although keto is not a classical weight loss diet, it can certainly help a person lose body fat. After all, to generate ketones without eating ketogenic precursors, you have to liberate stored body fat.

But that’s not the main mechanism for ketogenic fat loss. Ketosis isn’t “magic”—it doesn’t melt body fat away. Instead, it works for many of the same reasons a standard low-carb Primal way of eating works: by reducing insulin, increasing mobilization of stored body fat, and decreasing appetite.

Ketosis suppressing appetite may be the most important feature. The overriding drive to eat more food is the biggest impediment to weight loss, and it’s the reason why most diets fail. When people attempt to eat less food despite wanting more, they butt up against their own physiology. Few win that battle.

Ketogenic dieting avoids this issue altogether, suppressing the increase in hunger hormones that normally occurs after weight loss.

Ketogenic diets are especially effective for massive weight loss. If you have a ton of weight to lose, aiming for ketosis could help you lose body fat. Again, not because of any inherent fat-burning quality of the ketones, but because in order to make ketones you must liberate stored body fat.

Many diets work in the short-term and fail in the long run. Weight loss isn’t worth anything if you can’t keep it off. Ketogenic diets appear to be good for long-term maintenance of weight loss, at least compared to low-fat diets.

How to Do It Right

I’ll have more details in The Keto Reset Diet book, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do keto. What’s wrong or right is contextual, of course. It depends on several factors.

If you’re part of a small group that uses keto to keep seizures at bay, or treat serious neurological diseases, you’ll want to diligently maintain high blood ketone levels. That means sticking to very-low-carb (5-10% of calories) and low/moderate protein (10-15% of calories). But even then, modified ketogenic diets with slightly higher carbs and relaxed protein intakes are also effective against epilepsy.

If you’re doing keto for general health or weight loss, you can handle more protein and still remain in ketosis. Protein will help stave off the muscle loss, and, because calories are reduced, you can handle a bit more protein without interfering with ketosis. An older ketogenic diet study in obese subjects shows that 50% protein diets are highly ketogenic as long as calories are kept low. And in another study, subjects eating a weight-maintaining ketogenic diet ate up to 129 grams of protein without leaving ketosis (129 grams is fairly high).

If you’re trying to lose weight, artificially boosting ketones won’t accelerate the process. Higher ketones do not enhance fat loss, but they may indicate it’s taking place.

How to Make Keto Work

Ketogenic dieting is a big jump for some people. You’re literally switching over to a new metabolic substrate. That can take some getting used to. Make sure you are well-prepared with a Primal-aligned eating pattern in place for ideally several months before you ponder a journey into nutritional ketosis.

Make a minimum commitment to six weeks of nutritional ketosis. The first three weeks will be the most difficult as you transition to new fuel sources, but then you can expect breakthroughs. Some serious athletes may experience a temporary performance dip in the early weeks, but then will come back strong after 4 weeks and beyond. Once you get to the six-week mark, the metabolic machinery is in place, and it’s hard to reverse the adaptation. Extra mitochondria don’t just disappear.

Get plenty of electrolytes. You’ll want lots of sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Try 4.5 grams sodium (about 2 teaspoons of fine salt or a little under 3 teaspoons of kosher salt), 300-400 mg magnesium, and 1-2 grams of potassium each day on top of your normal food. Going keto really flushes out water weight, and tons of electrolytes leave with it.

Eat fat, but don’t be crazy about it. Just because a ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet doesn’t mean you should eat ungodly amounts of fat. Being ketogenic is more about not eating carbohydrates than it is eating as much fat as you possibly can.

Eating extra fat in the first 4-7 days can accelerate keto-adaptation by increasing AMPK signaling. Dial it down after.

Lift heavy things. A common criticism of ketogenic diets is that they cause loss of lean mass. This isn’t totally unfounded. If your ketogenic diet reduces appetite so much that you undereat, you might lose muscle. If you’re on a super-low-protein ketogenic diet, you might lose muscle. Lifting weights prevents these issues by sending an anabolic signal to your muscles and allowing the consumption of more protein without hampering ketosis. 

Do lots of low level aerobic activity. Walk, hike, jog, cycle, row. Keep things in the aerobic HR zone (under 180 minus age in heart beats per minute), and you’ll increase your utilization of body fat, which will speed up ketone production and adaptation.

Eat vegetables. The vast majority of vegetables are keto-friendly. Not only do they provide important micronutrients and phytonutrients, they provide negligible amounts of carbohydrates.

Eat berries. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all quite low in glycemic load and extremely high in phytonutrients. While eating a flat of strawberries isn’t very ketogenic, a large bowlful won’t knock you out.

Eat fiber. Many people on ketogenic diets tend to ignore or malign fiber. That’s a mistake. First, fiber doesn’t digest into glucose. It doesn’t “count.” Second, fiber feeds your gut biome, providing fermentable substrate for your gut bacteria to turn into beneficial short chain fatty acids and to provide support to your immune system.

How to Know if You’re Ketogenic

You can test your blood, urine, or breath ketones. There are drawbacks to each, and unless you have a medical condition necessitating a specific level of ketones, obsessive testing may be unnecessary/unwise/expensive. Forget the inexpensive urine strips, as they measure only what you excrete, not what you are making and burning.

Once you’re keto-adapted and naturally good at burning fat, the ketone measuring devices might not put up impressive numbers. That’s because, after weeks in ketosis, you have built enough metabolic machinery in your muscles that they run extremely well on free fatty acids and don’t require much additional fuel from glucose or ketones. You’re still making ketones, since your brain can’t run on fatty acids and needs them to offset the glucose that isn’t coming, but your muscles no longer require them. Many people who have been in long term ketosis can get by quite nicely on 20-30 net grams of carbs a day and might only show .4 or .7 millimolar ketones on a blood test, but they have plenty of energy from burning free fatty acids and maintain muscle mass on relatively fewer calories than when they were dependent on carbs. Few people understand this, but it’s a major benefit of keto-adaptation. You might even say that ketogenic diets are ultimately about becoming free fatty acid-adapted.

Instead of objective numbers, I prefer to go by symptoms and signs. Since you’re trying to divine what works best for you, relying on the subjective signs and symptoms you experience is perfectly legitimate. These include:

Reduced urge to snack: Being ketone-adapted means you’re less reliant on outside calories.

Steady energy: When I’m feeling full of relaxed energy, calm but not sleepy, I know I’m in ketosis.

You may have heard talk about the dreaded ketone breath, caused by the presence of the metabolite acetone (the breakdown product of the ketone bodies acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). A sweet and fruity odor to your exhalations is a reliable indicator that you are in a state of ketosis, but it’s also a likely indicator that you are not yet super efficient at burning ketones. Don’t worry, that will come in short order.

So, are carbs out forever? What if you want to incorporate carbs for high intensity performance while maintaining the benefits of ketosis?

First of all, it may not make much of a difference if you’re just strength training. A series of recent studies looked at the effects of introducing carbs into a ketogenic diet in resistance trained adults, finding little to no benefit.

Carbs likely will help certain populations, namely CrossFitters, sprinters, and anyone else engaged in intense glycolytic work. But even then, being keto-adapted reduces the amount of glycogen you’ll use for a given intensity —so err on the side of fewer carbs and eat only as many as you actually earn.

There are two basic ways to construct a ketogenic diet that includes carbs: with one big weekly carb load (the classic CKD) or multiple smaller carb loads adjacent to training sessions (often called the targeted ketogenic diet, or TKD).

On a CKD, you spend the majority of the week and your workouts in ketosis and devote a day or a pair of days to eat lots of carbs. You might be ketogenic Monday through Friday, exercising all the while and capping the work week off with a really intense glycogen-depleting training session, then go..

[cristinajourdanqp]

The Definitive Guide to Keto

I use my Los Angeles surroundings as a barometer for changes in the mainstream approach to health, and it holds up quite well. Silicon Valley can claim to be the cradle of technology, but L.A. is definitely the cradle of diet and fitness trends; and the latest is most definitely keto. At the local cafe where every species of Malibu fitness enthusiast gathers to gossip and fuel up, I’m seeing fewer gels and energy bars, and way more butter coffees and discarded packets of the new powdered ketone supplement products.

Sure enough, keto is entering into mainstream health consciousness everywhere. Google searches for “ketogenic diet” are at an all-time high. The stream of keto-related email queries and comments I receive has seen a major uptick. And early this year, a major publisher approached me with a keto book proposal, which I accepted. I dove headlong into a total immersion/participatory journalism experience where I walked my talk, and pricked my finger for blood tests enough times to get a little scar tissue going, for the past several months. The book is called The Keto Reset Diet and it’s coming out October 3rd. This is a comprehensive presentation to educate you on the science and benefits of ketone burning and to give you step-by-step guidance to go keto the right away, avoiding the common setbacks that happen when many adopt an ill-advised approach to something as delicate and rigorous as nutritional ketosis. You can pre-order a copy from major retailers right now. We are also filming a comprehensive online multimedia educational course to give you a guided immersion experience that will be available in 2018.

Meanwhile, it’s definitely time to do a Definitive Guide….

To understand ketogenic diets, you must understand the conditions that promote ketosis. And to do that, you must understand how our bodies beta-oxidize fatty acids for energy.

Fatty acids are broken down into acetyl-CoA.

Acetyl-CoA combines with oxaloacetate.

The acetyl-CoA/oxaloacetate duo starts the Krebs cycle.

The Krebs cycle produces ATP, the body’s energy currency.

Congratulations. You’ve just turned fat into energy.

Where does ketosis come in?

If the supply of acetyl-CoA exceeds the supply of oxaloacetate, the liver converts any excess acetyl-CoA into ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are an “alternative” energy source for the brain and body. 

Both carbohydrates and protein provide oxaloacetate to the liver, so both carbohydrates and protein can prevent ketone production or knock you out of ketosis. Carbohydrates also elevate insulin, which blocks the release of body fat and reduces the amount of fatty acids making their way to the liver for conversion into ketones. A ketogenic diet, then, is one that limits carbohydrate and, to a lesser extent, protein.

Ketosis occurs in certain instances without any dietary change at all:

Extreme physical exertion that depletes liver glycogen (total around 100 grams) and depletes around half of stored muscle glycogen (total around 400-500 grams)

Fasting for significant time period (at least 24 hours for most people)

Starvation or significant restriction in total calories for a signification time period

In all of these conditions, there’s a common ketogenic thread: liberation of body fat in excess of that which we can beta-oxidize. Any fat that isn’t beta-oxidized for energy will convert to ketones.

In one sense, ketosis is a stop-gap solution for situations where you’re burning huge amounts of body fat, like during a famine. Why would I want to mimic abject starvation if there’s all this food around?

Grocery stores are an evolutionary aberration. The constant drip of glucose into our blood is a modern luxury. For most of human history, if we wanted carbs, we had to climb a tree and extricate a bee’s nest, spend hours digging tubers, or wait around for the wild fruit to ripen. We are adapted to periods of low food availability, and, especially, low glucose availability.

Plus, humans are remarkably good at slipping into ketosis. Whereas for most other animals ketosis is difficult to achieve, a human will be mildly ketotic just waking up from a full night’s sleep. Heck, breastfed babies spend much of their time in ketosis despite drinking nutritionally balanced breastmilk. We’re clearly meant to produce and utilize ketones from time to time, and it’s safe to assume that mimicking this ancestral milieu provides adaptive benefits.

Let’s go over some of the major ones.

Adaptive Benefits of Ketosis Treatment for Major Disease States

The ketogenic diet first emerged as a tool for clinicians to treat their patients with epilepsy. It was—and remains—the only thing with the consistent ability to prevent seizures. Whether it’s Thai kids with intractable epilepsy, Scandinavian kids with therapy-resistant epilepsy, or adults with refractory epilepsy, ketogenic diets just work.

Ketosis improves epilepsy via several mechanisms.

It increases conversion of glutamate into glutamine into GABA, reducing neuronal excitability.

It increases antioxidant status in the neuronal mitochondria, improving their function.

It reduces free radical formation in neurons, a likely cause of seizures.

These effects on neuronal function and health, along with the ability of aging or degenerating brains to accept and utilize ketone bodies, also have implications for other brain conditions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, and many psychiatric disorders.

Ketogenic diets aren’t just beneficial for brain disorders, though.

A Spanish ketogenic diet (keto with wine, basically) cured people of the metabolic syndrome and improved health markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Over 92% of subjects improved their liver health; 21% resolved it entirely.

In cancer patients, a keto diet preserves lean mass and causes fat loss. Many researchers are exploring the use of ketogenic diets in preventing and treating cancer, although results are very preliminary.

Cognitive Function

Since ketosis can help with major brain disorders, many have wondered whether it can improve cognitive function in otherwise healthy people. Unfortunately, researchers haven’t studied the nootropic effects of ketogenic diets in healthy people—yet. They have looked at people with “milder” cognitive deficits, though, finding some promising effects.

In mild cognitive decline, a ketogenic diet improves memory.

In type 1 diabetics who experience reduced cognitive function when their blood sugar is low, increasing ketone production via medium chain triglycerides (found in coconut oil) restores it.

In adults with bad memory, adding ketones improves cognition. The higher the serum ketones, the better the scores.

In older adults, a very low-carb diet improves memory. Again, higher ketones predicts bigger improvements.

Anecdotes abound of people with intact cognitive function going on ketogenic diets and experiencing huge benefits to their mental performance. I’ve been experimenting with more protracted ketosis for some time now, and I can add my hat to the pile. What could be going on?

It may clear up brain fog, that enemy of clear thinking, by clearing ammonia from the brain and upregulating conversion of glutamate into GABA.

It definitely increases brain energy production by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain. More mitochondria, more energy production.

It tends to produce a sense of euphoria. If you can parlay that into productivity instead of getting caught up in the sensation, your mental output will increase. A cup of strong coffee helps here.

Physical Performance

Being keto-adapted has several advantages for anyone interested in physical performance.

It increases energy efficiency. At any given intensity, a keto-adapted athlete burns more fat and less glycogen than a sugar-burning athlete. Long-term elite keto athletes can burn up to 2.3 times more fat at peak oxidation and 59% more fat overall than non-keto athletes, and they do it at higher intensities. They remain in the predominantly fat-burning zone at 70% of VO2max, whereas non-keto athletes switch over from predominantly fat burning to a spike in sugar-burning at 54.9% VO2max.

It spares glycogen. Glycogen is high-octane fuel for intense efforts. We store it in the muscles and liver, but only about 2400 calories-worth—enough for a couple hours of intense activity at most. Once it’s gone, we have to carb up to replenish it. Keto-adaptation allows us to do more work using fat and ketones for fuel, thereby saving glycogen for when we really need it. Since even the leanest among us carry tens of thousands of calories of body fat, our energy stores become virtually limitless on a ketogenic diet.

It builds mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells, transforming incoming nutrients into ATP. The more mitochondria we have, the more energy we can utilize and extract from the food we eat—and the more performance we can wring out of our bodies. Ketosis places new demands on our mitochondria, who adapt to the new energy environment by increasing in number.

Fat Loss

Although keto is not a classical weight loss diet, it can certainly help a person lose body fat. After all, to generate ketones without eating ketogenic precursors, you have to liberate stored body fat.

But that’s not the main mechanism for ketogenic fat loss. Ketosis isn’t “magic”—it doesn’t melt body fat away. Instead, it works for many of the same reasons a standard low-carb Primal way of eating works: by reducing insulin, increasing mobilization of stored body fat, and decreasing appetite.

Ketosis suppressing appetite may be the most important feature. The overriding drive to eat more food is the biggest impediment to weight loss, and it’s the reason why most diets fail. When people attempt to eat less food despite wanting more, they butt up against their own physiology. Few win that battle.

Ketogenic dieting avoids this issue altogether, suppressing the increase in hunger hormones that normally occurs after weight loss.

Ketogenic diets are especially effective for massive weight loss. If you have a ton of weight to lose, aiming for ketosis could help you lose body fat. Again, not because of any inherent fat-burning quality of the ketones, but because in order to make ketones you must liberate stored body fat.

Many diets work in the short-term and fail in the long run. Weight loss isn’t worth anything if you can’t keep it off. Ketogenic diets appear to be good for long-term maintenance of weight loss, at least compared to low-fat diets.

How to Do It Right

I’ll have more details in The Keto Reset Diet book, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do keto. What’s wrong or right is contextual, of course. It depends on several factors.

If you’re part of a small group that uses keto to keep seizures at bay, or treat serious neurological diseases, you’ll want to diligently maintain high blood ketone levels. That means sticking to very-low-carb (5-10% of calories) and low/moderate protein (10-15% of calories). But even then, modified ketogenic diets with slightly higher carbs and relaxed protein intakes are also effective against epilepsy.

If you’re doing keto for general health or weight loss, you can handle more protein and still remain in ketosis. Protein will help stave off the muscle loss, and, because calories are reduced, you can handle a bit more protein without interfering with ketosis. An older ketogenic diet study in obese subjects shows that 50% protein diets are highly ketogenic as long as calories are kept low. And in another study, subjects eating a weight-maintaining ketogenic diet ate up to 129 grams of protein without leaving ketosis (129 grams is fairly high).

If you’re trying to lose weight, artificially boosting ketones won’t accelerate the process. Higher ketones do not enhance fat loss, but they may indicate it’s taking place.

How to Make Keto Work

Ketogenic dieting is a big jump for some people. You’re literally switching over to a new metabolic substrate. That can take some getting used to. Make sure you are well-prepared with a Primal-aligned eating pattern in place for ideally several months before you ponder a journey into nutritional ketosis.

Make a minimum commitment to six weeks of nutritional ketosis. The first three weeks will be the most difficult as you transition to new fuel sources, but then you can expect breakthroughs. Some serious athletes may experience a temporary performance dip in the early weeks, but then will come back strong after 4 weeks and beyond. Once you get to the six-week mark, the metabolic machinery is in place, and it’s hard to reverse the adaptation. Extra mitochondria don’t just disappear.

Get plenty of electrolytes. You’ll want lots of sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Try 4.5 grams sodium (about 2 teaspoons of fine salt or a little under 3 teaspoons of kosher salt), 300-400 mg magnesium, and 1-2 grams of potassium each day on top of your normal food. Going keto really flushes out water weight, and tons of electrolytes leave with it.

Eat fat, but don’t be crazy about it. Just because a ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet doesn’t mean you should eat ungodly amounts of fat. Being ketogenic is more about not eating carbohydrates than it is eating as much fat as you possibly can.

Eating extra fat in the first 4-7 days can accelerate keto-adaptation by increasing AMPK signaling. Dial it down after.

Lift heavy things. A common criticism of ketogenic diets is that they cause loss of lean mass. This isn’t totally unfounded. If your ketogenic diet reduces appetite so much that you undereat, you might lose muscle. If you’re on a super-low-protein ketogenic diet, you might lose muscle. Lifting weights prevents these issues by sending an anabolic signal to your muscles and allowing the consumption of more protein without hampering ketosis. 

Do lots of low level aerobic activity. Walk, hike, jog, cycle, row. Keep things in the aerobic HR zone (under 180 minus age in heart beats per minute), and you’ll increase your utilization of body fat, which will speed up ketone production and adaptation.

Eat vegetables. The vast majority of vegetables are keto-friendly. Not only do they provide important micronutrients and phytonutrients, they provide negligible amounts of carbohydrates.

Eat berries. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all quite low in glycemic load and extremely high in phytonutrients. While eating a flat of strawberries isn’t very ketogenic, a large bowlful won’t knock you out.

Eat fiber. Many people on ketogenic diets tend to ignore or malign fiber. That’s a mistake. First, fiber doesn’t digest into glucose. It doesn’t “count.” Second, fiber feeds your gut biome, providing fermentable substrate for your gut bacteria to turn into beneficial short chain fatty acids and to provide support to your immune system.

How to Know if You’re Ketogenic

You can test your blood, urine, or breath ketones. There are drawbacks to each, and unless you have a medical condition necessitating a specific level of ketones, obsessive testing may be unnecessary/unwise/expensive. Forget the inexpensive urine strips, as they measure only what you excrete, not what you are making and burning.

Once you’re keto-adapted and naturally good at burning fat, the ketone measuring devices might not put up impressive numbers. That’s because, after weeks in ketosis, you have built enough metabolic machinery in your muscles that they run extremely well on free fatty acids and don’t require much additional fuel from glucose or ketones. You’re still making ketones, since your brain can’t run on fatty acids and needs them to offset the glucose that isn’t coming, but your muscles no longer require them. Many people who have been in long term ketosis can get by quite nicely on 20-30 net grams of carbs a day and might only show .4 or .7 millimolar ketones on a blood test, but they have plenty of energy from burning free fatty acids and maintain muscle mass on relatively fewer calories than when they were dependent on carbs. Few people understand this, but it’s a major benefit of keto-adaptation. You might even say that ketogenic diets are ultimately about becoming free fatty acid-adapted.

Instead of objective numbers, I prefer to go by symptoms and signs. Since you’re trying to divine what works best for you, relying on the subjective signs and symptoms you experience is perfectly legitimate. These include:

Reduced urge to snack: Being ketone-adapted means you’re less reliant on outside calories.

Steady energy: When I’m feeling full of relaxed energy, calm but not sleepy, I know I’m in ketosis.

You may have heard talk about the dreaded ketone breath, caused by the presence of the metabolite acetone (the breakdown product of the ketone bodies acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). A sweet and fruity odor to your exhalations is a reliable indicator that you are in a state of ketosis, but it’s also a likely indicator that you are not yet super efficient at burning ketones. Don’t worry, that will come in short order.

So, are carbs out forever? What if you want to incorporate carbs for high intensity performance while maintaining the benefits of ketosis?

First of all, it may not make much of a difference if you’re just strength training. A series of recent studies looked at the effects of introducing carbs into a ketogenic diet in resistance trained adults, finding little to no benefit.

Carbs likely will help certain populations, namely CrossFitters, sprinters, and anyone else engaged in intense glycolytic work. But even then, being keto-adapted reduces the amount of glycogen you’ll use for a given intensity —so err on the side of fewer carbs and eat only as many as you actually earn.

There are two basic ways to construct a ketogenic diet that includes carbs: with one big weekly carb load (the classic CKD) or multiple smaller carb loads adjacent to training sessions (often called the targeted ketogenic diet, or TKD).

On a CKD, you spend the majority of the week and your workouts in ketosis and devote a day or a pair of days to eat lots of carbs. You might be ketogenic Monday through Friday, exercising all the while and capping the work week off with a really intense glycogen-depleting training session, then go..

[watsonrodriquezie]

The Definitive Guide to Keto

I use my Los Angeles surroundings as a barometer for changes in the mainstream approach to health, and it holds up quite well. Silicon Valley can claim to be the cradle of technology, but L.A. is definitely the cradle of diet and fitness trends; and the latest is most definitely keto. At the local cafe where every species of Malibu fitness enthusiast gathers to gossip and fuel up, I’m seeing fewer gels and energy bars, and way more butter coffees and discarded packets of the new powdered ketone supplement products.

Sure enough, keto is entering into mainstream health consciousness everywhere. Google searches for “ketogenic diet” are at an all-time high. The stream of keto-related email queries and comments I receive has seen a major uptick. And early this year, a major publisher approached me with a keto book proposal, which I accepted. I dove headlong into a total immersion/participatory journalism experience where I walked my talk, and pricked my finger for blood tests enough times to get a little scar tissue going, for the past several months. The book is called The Keto Reset Diet and it’s coming out October 3rd. This is a comprehensive presentation to educate you on the science and benefits of ketone burning and to give you step-by-step guidance to go keto the right away, avoiding the common setbacks that happen when many adopt an ill-advised approach to something as delicate and rigorous as nutritional ketosis. You can pre-order a copy from major retailers right now. We are also filming a comprehensive online multimedia educational course to give you a guided immersion experience that will be available in 2018.

Meanwhile, it’s definitely time to do a Definitive Guide….

To understand ketogenic diets, you must understand the conditions that promote ketosis. And to do that, you must understand how our bodies beta-oxidize fatty acids for energy.

Fatty acids are broken down into acetyl-CoA.

Acetyl-CoA combines with oxaloacetate.

The acetyl-CoA/oxaloacetate duo starts the Krebs cycle.

The Krebs cycle produces ATP, the body’s energy currency.

Congratulations. You’ve just turned fat into energy.

Where does ketosis come in?

If the supply of acetyl-CoA exceeds the supply of oxaloacetate, the liver converts any excess acetyl-CoA into ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are an “alternative” energy source for the brain and body. 

Both carbohydrates and protein provide oxaloacetate to the liver, so both carbohydrates and protein can prevent ketone production or knock you out of ketosis. Carbohydrates also elevate insulin, which blocks the release of body fat and reduces the amount of fatty acids making their way to the liver for conversion into ketones. A ketogenic diet, then, is one that limits carbohydrate and, to a lesser extent, protein.

Ketosis occurs in certain instances without any dietary change at all:

Extreme physical exertion that depletes liver glycogen (total around 100 grams) and depletes around half of stored muscle glycogen (total around 400-500 grams)

Fasting for significant time period (at least 24 hours for most people)

Starvation or significant restriction in total calories for a signification time period

In all of these conditions, there’s a common ketogenic thread: liberation of body fat in excess of that which we can beta-oxidize. Any fat that isn’t beta-oxidized for energy will convert to ketones.

In one sense, ketosis is a stop-gap solution for situations where you’re burning huge amounts of body fat, like during a famine. Why would I want to mimic abject starvation if there’s all this food around?

Grocery stores are an evolutionary aberration. The constant drip of glucose into our blood is a modern luxury. For most of human history, if we wanted carbs, we had to climb a tree and extricate a bee’s nest, spend hours digging tubers, or wait around for the wild fruit to ripen. We are adapted to periods of low food availability, and, especially, low glucose availability.

Plus, humans are remarkably good at slipping into ketosis. Whereas for most other animals ketosis is difficult to achieve, a human will be mildly ketotic just waking up from a full night’s sleep. Heck, breastfed babies spend much of their time in ketosis despite drinking nutritionally balanced breastmilk. We’re clearly meant to produce and utilize ketones from time to time, and it’s safe to assume that mimicking this ancestral milieu provides adaptive benefits.

Let’s go over some of the major ones.

Adaptive Benefits of Ketosis Treatment for Major Disease States

The ketogenic diet first emerged as a tool for clinicians to treat their patients with epilepsy. It was—and remains—the only thing with the consistent ability to prevent seizures. Whether it’s Thai kids with intractable epilepsy, Scandinavian kids with therapy-resistant epilepsy, or adults with refractory epilepsy, ketogenic diets just work.

Ketosis improves epilepsy via several mechanisms.

It increases conversion of glutamate into glutamine into GABA, reducing neuronal excitability.

It increases antioxidant status in the neuronal mitochondria, improving their function.

It reduces free radical formation in neurons, a likely cause of seizures.

These effects on neuronal function and health, along with the ability of aging or degenerating brains to accept and utilize ketone bodies, also have implications for other brain conditions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, and many psychiatric disorders.

Ketogenic diets aren’t just beneficial for brain disorders, though.

A Spanish ketogenic diet (keto with wine, basically) cured people of the metabolic syndrome and improved health markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Over 92% of subjects improved their liver health; 21% resolved it entirely.

In cancer patients, a keto diet preserves lean mass and causes fat loss. Many researchers are exploring the use of ketogenic diets in preventing and treating cancer, although results are very preliminary.

Cognitive Function

Since ketosis can help with major brain disorders, many have wondered whether it can improve cognitive function in otherwise healthy people. Unfortunately, researchers haven’t studied the nootropic effects of ketogenic diets in healthy people—yet. They have looked at people with “milder” cognitive deficits, though, finding some promising effects.

In mild cognitive decline, a ketogenic diet improves memory.

In type 1 diabetics who experience reduced cognitive function when their blood sugar is low, increasing ketone production via medium chain triglycerides (found in coconut oil) restores it.

In adults with bad memory, adding ketones improves cognition. The higher the serum ketones, the better the scores.

In older adults, a very low-carb diet improves memory. Again, higher ketones predicts bigger improvements.

Anecdotes abound of people with intact cognitive function going on ketogenic diets and experiencing huge benefits to their mental performance. I’ve been experimenting with more protracted ketosis for some time now, and I can add my hat to the pile. What could be going on?

It may clear up brain fog, that enemy of clear thinking, by clearing ammonia from the brain and upregulating conversion of glutamate into GABA.

It definitely increases brain energy production by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain. More mitochondria, more energy production.

It tends to produce a sense of euphoria. If you can parlay that into productivity instead of getting caught up in the sensation, your mental output will increase. A cup of strong coffee helps here.

Physical Performance

Being keto-adapted has several advantages for anyone interested in physical performance.

It increases energy efficiency. At any given intensity, a keto-adapted athlete burns more fat and less glycogen than a sugar-burning athlete. Long-term elite keto athletes can burn up to 2.3 times more fat at peak oxidation and 59% more fat overall than non-keto athletes, and they do it at higher intensities. They remain in the predominantly fat-burning zone at 70% of VO2max, whereas non-keto athletes switch over from predominantly fat burning to a spike in sugar-burning at 54.9% VO2max.

It spares glycogen. Glycogen is high-octane fuel for intense efforts. We store it in the muscles and liver, but only about 2400 calories-worth—enough for a couple hours of intense activity at most. Once it’s gone, we have to carb up to replenish it. Keto-adaptation allows us to do more work using fat and ketones for fuel, thereby saving glycogen for when we really need it. Since even the leanest among us carry tens of thousands of calories of body fat, our energy stores become virtually limitless on a ketogenic diet.

It builds mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells, transforming incoming nutrients into ATP. The more mitochondria we have, the more energy we can utilize and extract from the food we eat—and the more performance we can wring out of our bodies. Ketosis places new demands on our mitochondria, who adapt to the new energy environment by increasing in number.

Fat Loss

Although keto is not a classical weight loss diet, it can certainly help a person lose body fat. After all, to generate ketones without eating ketogenic precursors, you have to liberate stored body fat.

But that’s not the main mechanism for ketogenic fat loss. Ketosis isn’t “magic”—it doesn’t melt body fat away. Instead, it works for many of the same reasons a standard low-carb Primal way of eating works: by reducing insulin, increasing mobilization of stored body fat, and decreasing appetite.

Ketosis suppressing appetite may be the most important feature. The overriding drive to eat more food is the biggest impediment to weight loss, and it’s the reason why most diets fail. When people attempt to eat less food despite wanting more, they butt up against their own physiology. Few win that battle.

Ketogenic dieting avoids this issue altogether, suppressing the increase in hunger hormones that normally occurs after weight loss.

Ketogenic diets are especially effective for massive weight loss. If you have a ton of weight to lose, aiming for ketosis could help you lose body fat. Again, not because of any inherent fat-burning quality of the ketones, but because in order to make ketones you must liberate stored body fat.

Many diets work in the short-term and fail in the long run. Weight loss isn’t worth anything if you can’t keep it off. Ketogenic diets appear to be good for long-term maintenance of weight loss, at least compared to low-fat diets.

How to Do It Right

I’ll have more details in The Keto Reset Diet book, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do keto. What’s wrong or right is contextual, of course. It depends on several factors.

If you’re part of a small group that uses keto to keep seizures at bay, or treat serious neurological diseases, you’ll want to diligently maintain high blood ketone levels. That means sticking to very-low-carb (5-10% of calories) and low/moderate protein (10-15% of calories). But even then, modified ketogenic diets with slightly higher carbs and relaxed protein intakes are also effective against epilepsy.

If you’re doing keto for general health or weight loss, you can handle more protein and still remain in ketosis. Protein will help stave off the muscle loss, and, because calories are reduced, you can handle a bit more protein without interfering with ketosis. An older ketogenic diet study in obese subjects shows that 50% protein diets are highly ketogenic as long as calories are kept low. And in another study, subjects eating a weight-maintaining ketogenic diet ate up to 129 grams of protein without leaving ketosis (129 grams is fairly high).

If you’re trying to lose weight, artificially boosting ketones won’t accelerate the process. Higher ketones do not enhance fat loss, but they may indicate it’s taking place.

How to Make Keto Work

Ketogenic dieting is a big jump for some people. You’re literally switching over to a new metabolic substrate. That can take some getting used to. Make sure you are well-prepared with a Primal-aligned eating pattern in place for ideally several months before you ponder a journey into nutritional ketosis.

Make a minimum commitment to six weeks of nutritional ketosis. The first three weeks will be the most difficult as you transition to new fuel sources, but then you can expect breakthroughs. Some serious athletes may experience a temporary performance dip in the early weeks, but then will come back strong after 4 weeks and beyond. Once you get to the six-week mark, the metabolic machinery is in place, and it’s hard to reverse the adaptation. Extra mitochondria don’t just disappear.

Get plenty of electrolytes. You’ll want lots of sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Try 4.5 grams sodium (about 2 teaspoons of fine salt or a little under 3 teaspoons of kosher salt), 300-400 mg magnesium, and 1-2 grams of potassium each day on top of your normal food. Going keto really flushes out water weight, and tons of electrolytes leave with it.

Eat fat, but don’t be crazy about it. Just because a ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet doesn’t mean you should eat ungodly amounts of fat. Being ketogenic is more about not eating carbohydrates than it is eating as much fat as you possibly can.

Eating extra fat in the first 4-7 days can accelerate keto-adaptation by increasing AMPK signaling. Dial it down after.

Lift heavy things. A common criticism of ketogenic diets is that they cause loss of lean mass. This isn’t totally unfounded. If your ketogenic diet reduces appetite so much that you undereat, you might lose muscle. If you’re on a super-low-protein ketogenic diet, you might lose muscle. Lifting weights prevents these issues by sending an anabolic signal to your muscles and allowing the consumption of more protein without hampering ketosis. 

Do lots of low level aerobic activity. Walk, hike, jog, cycle, row. Keep things in the aerobic HR zone (under 180 minus age in heart beats per minute), and you’ll increase your utilization of body fat, which will speed up ketone production and adaptation.

Eat vegetables. The vast majority of vegetables are keto-friendly. Not only do they provide important micronutrients and phytonutrients, they provide negligible amounts of carbohydrates.

Eat berries. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all quite low in glycemic load and extremely high in phytonutrients. While eating a flat of strawberries isn’t very ketogenic, a large bowlful won’t knock you out.

Eat fiber. Many people on ketogenic diets tend to ignore or malign fiber. That’s a mistake. First, fiber doesn’t digest into glucose. It doesn’t “count.” Second, fiber feeds your gut biome, providing fermentable substrate for your gut bacteria to turn into beneficial short chain fatty acids and to provide support to your immune system.

How to Know if You’re Ketogenic

You can test your blood, urine, or breath ketones. There are drawbacks to each, and unless you have a medical condition necessitating a specific level of ketones, obsessive testing may be unnecessary/unwise/expensive. Forget the inexpensive urine strips, as they measure only what you excrete, not what you are making and burning.

Once you’re keto-adapted and naturally good at burning fat, the ketone measuring devices might not put up impressive numbers. That’s because, after weeks in ketosis, you have built enough metabolic machinery in your muscles that they run extremely well on free fatty acids and don’t require much additional fuel from glucose or ketones. You’re still making ketones, since your brain can’t run on fatty acids and needs them to offset the glucose that isn’t coming, but your muscles no longer require them. Many people who have been in long term ketosis can get by quite nicely on 20-30 net grams of carbs a day and might only show .4 or .7 millimolar ketones on a blood test, but they have plenty of energy from burning free fatty acids and maintain muscle mass on relatively fewer calories than when they were dependent on carbs. Few people understand this, but it’s a major benefit of keto-adaptation. You might even say that ketogenic diets are ultimately about becoming free fatty acid-adapted.

Instead of objective numbers, I prefer to go by symptoms and signs. Since you’re trying to divine what works best for you, relying on the subjective signs and symptoms you experience is perfectly legitimate. These include:

Reduced urge to snack: Being ketone-adapted means you’re less reliant on outside calories.

Steady energy: When I’m feeling full of relaxed energy, calm but not sleepy, I know I’m in ketosis.

You may have heard talk about the dreaded ketone breath, caused by the presence of the metabolite acetone (the breakdown product of the ketone bodies acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). A sweet and fruity odor to your exhalations is a reliable indicator that you are in a state of ketosis, but it’s also a likely indicator that you are not yet super efficient at burning ketones. Don’t worry, that will come in short order.

So, are carbs out forever? What if you want to incorporate carbs for high intensity performance while maintaining the benefits of ketosis?

First of all, it may not make much of a difference if you’re just strength training. A series of recent studies looked at the effects of introducing carbs into a ketogenic diet in resistance trained adults, finding little to no benefit.

Carbs likely will help certain populations, namely CrossFitters, sprinters, and anyone else engaged in intense glycolytic work. But even then, being keto-adapted reduces the amount of glycogen you’ll use for a given intensity —so err on the side of fewer carbs and eat only as many as you actually earn.

There are two basic ways to construct a ketogenic diet that includes carbs: with one big weekly carb load (the classic CKD) or multiple smaller carb loads adjacent to training sessions (often called the targeted ketogenic diet, or TKD).

On a CKD, you spend the majority of the week and your workouts in ketosis and devote a day or a pair of days to eat lots of carbs. You might be ketogenic Monday through Friday, exercising all the while and capping the work week off with a really intense glycogen-depleting training session, then go..

[milenasanchezmk]

The Definitive Guide to Keto

I use my Los Angeles surroundings as a barometer for changes in the mainstream approach to health, and it holds up quite well. Silicon Valley can claim to be the cradle of technology, but L.A. is definitely the cradle of diet and fitness trends; and the latest is most definitely keto. At the local cafe where every species of Malibu fitness enthusiast gathers to gossip and fuel up, I’m seeing fewer gels and energy bars, and way more butter coffees and discarded packets of the new powdered ketone supplement products.

Sure enough, keto is entering into mainstream health consciousness everywhere. Google searches for “ketogenic diet” are at an all-time high. The stream of keto-related email queries and comments I receive has seen a major uptick. And early this year, a major publisher approached me with a keto book proposal, which I accepted. I dove headlong into a total immersion/participatory journalism experience where I walked my talk, and pricked my finger for blood tests enough times to get a little scar tissue going, for the past several months. The book is called The Keto Reset Diet and it’s coming out October 3rd. This is a comprehensive presentation to educate you on the science and benefits of ketone burning and to give you step-by-step guidance to go keto the right away, avoiding the common setbacks that happen when many adopt an ill-advised approach to something as delicate and rigorous as nutritional ketosis. You can pre-order a copy from major retailers right now. We are also filming a comprehensive online multimedia educational course to give you a guided immersion experience that will be available in 2018.

Meanwhile, it’s definitely time to do a Definitive Guide….

To understand ketogenic diets, you must understand the conditions that promote ketosis. And to do that, you must understand how our bodies beta-oxidize fatty acids for energy.

Fatty acids are broken down into acetyl-CoA.

Acetyl-CoA combines with oxaloacetate.

The acetyl-CoA/oxaloacetate duo starts the Krebs cycle.

The Krebs cycle produces ATP, the body’s energy currency.

Congratulations. You’ve just turned fat into energy.

Where does ketosis come in?

If the supply of acetyl-CoA exceeds the supply of oxaloacetate, the liver converts any excess acetyl-CoA into ketone bodies. These ketone bodies are an “alternative” energy source for the brain and body. 

Both carbohydrates and protein provide oxaloacetate to the liver, so both carbohydrates and protein can prevent ketone production or knock you out of ketosis. Carbohydrates also elevate insulin, which blocks the release of body fat and reduces the amount of fatty acids making their way to the liver for conversion into ketones. A ketogenic diet, then, is one that limits carbohydrate and, to a lesser extent, protein.

Ketosis occurs in certain instances without any dietary change at all:

Extreme physical exertion that depletes liver glycogen (total around 100 grams) and depletes around half of stored muscle glycogen (total around 400-500 grams)

Fasting for significant time period (at least 24 hours for most people)

Starvation or significant restriction in total calories for a signification time period

In all of these conditions, there’s a common ketogenic thread: liberation of body fat in excess of that which we can beta-oxidize. Any fat that isn’t beta-oxidized for energy will convert to ketones.

In one sense, ketosis is a stop-gap solution for situations where you’re burning huge amounts of body fat, like during a famine. Why would I want to mimic abject starvation if there’s all this food around?

Grocery stores are an evolutionary aberration. The constant drip of glucose into our blood is a modern luxury. For most of human history, if we wanted carbs, we had to climb a tree and extricate a bee’s nest, spend hours digging tubers, or wait around for the wild fruit to ripen. We are adapted to periods of low food availability, and, especially, low glucose availability.

Plus, humans are remarkably good at slipping into ketosis. Whereas for most other animals ketosis is difficult to achieve, a human will be mildly ketotic just waking up from a full night’s sleep. Heck, breastfed babies spend much of their time in ketosis despite drinking nutritionally balanced breastmilk. We’re clearly meant to produce and utilize ketones from time to time, and it’s safe to assume that mimicking this ancestral milieu provides adaptive benefits.

Let’s go over some of the major ones.

Adaptive Benefits of Ketosis Treatment for Major Disease States

The ketogenic diet first emerged as a tool for clinicians to treat their patients with epilepsy. It was—and remains—the only thing with the consistent ability to prevent seizures. Whether it’s Thai kids with intractable epilepsy, Scandinavian kids with therapy-resistant epilepsy, or adults with refractory epilepsy, ketogenic diets just work.

Ketosis improves epilepsy via several mechanisms.

It increases conversion of glutamate into glutamine into GABA, reducing neuronal excitability.

It increases antioxidant status in the neuronal mitochondria, improving their function.

It reduces free radical formation in neurons, a likely cause of seizures.

These effects on neuronal function and health, along with the ability of aging or degenerating brains to accept and utilize ketone bodies, also have implications for other brain conditions, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, bipolar disorder, and many psychiatric disorders.

Ketogenic diets aren’t just beneficial for brain disorders, though.

A Spanish ketogenic diet (keto with wine, basically) cured people of the metabolic syndrome and improved health markers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Over 92% of subjects improved their liver health; 21% resolved it entirely.

In cancer patients, a keto diet preserves lean mass and causes fat loss. Many researchers are exploring the use of ketogenic diets in preventing and treating cancer, although results are very preliminary.

Cognitive Function

Since ketosis can help with major brain disorders, many have wondered whether it can improve cognitive function in otherwise healthy people. Unfortunately, researchers haven’t studied the nootropic effects of ketogenic diets in healthy people—yet. They have looked at people with “milder” cognitive deficits, though, finding some promising effects.

In mild cognitive decline, a ketogenic diet improves memory.

In type 1 diabetics who experience reduced cognitive function when their blood sugar is low, increasing ketone production via medium chain triglycerides (found in coconut oil) restores it.

In adults with bad memory, adding ketones improves cognition. The higher the serum ketones, the better the scores.

In older adults, a very low-carb diet improves memory. Again, higher ketones predicts bigger improvements.

Anecdotes abound of people with intact cognitive function going on ketogenic diets and experiencing huge benefits to their mental performance. I’ve been experimenting with more protracted ketosis for some time now, and I can add my hat to the pile. What could be going on?

It may clear up brain fog, that enemy of clear thinking, by clearing ammonia from the brain and upregulating conversion of glutamate into GABA.

It definitely increases brain energy production by increasing mitochondrial biogenesis in the brain. More mitochondria, more energy production.

It tends to produce a sense of euphoria. If you can parlay that into productivity instead of getting caught up in the sensation, your mental output will increase. A cup of strong coffee helps here.

Physical Performance

Being keto-adapted has several advantages for anyone interested in physical performance.

It increases energy efficiency. At any given intensity, a keto-adapted athlete burns more fat and less glycogen than a sugar-burning athlete. Long-term elite keto athletes can burn up to 2.3 times more fat at peak oxidation and 59% more fat overall than non-keto athletes, and they do it at higher intensities. They remain in the predominantly fat-burning zone at 70% of VO2max, whereas non-keto athletes switch over from predominantly fat burning to a spike in sugar-burning at 54.9% VO2max.

It spares glycogen. Glycogen is high-octane fuel for intense efforts. We store it in the muscles and liver, but only about 2400 calories-worth—enough for a couple hours of intense activity at most. Once it’s gone, we have to carb up to replenish it. Keto-adaptation allows us to do more work using fat and ketones for fuel, thereby saving glycogen for when we really need it. Since even the leanest among us carry tens of thousands of calories of body fat, our energy stores become virtually limitless on a ketogenic diet.

It builds mitochondria. Mitochondria are the power plants of our cells, transforming incoming nutrients into ATP. The more mitochondria we have, the more energy we can utilize and extract from the food we eat—and the more performance we can wring out of our bodies. Ketosis places new demands on our mitochondria, who adapt to the new energy environment by increasing in number.

Fat Loss

Although keto is not a classical weight loss diet, it can certainly help a person lose body fat. After all, to generate ketones without eating ketogenic precursors, you have to liberate stored body fat.

But that’s not the main mechanism for ketogenic fat loss. Ketosis isn’t “magic”—it doesn’t melt body fat away. Instead, it works for many of the same reasons a standard low-carb Primal way of eating works: by reducing insulin, increasing mobilization of stored body fat, and decreasing appetite.

Ketosis suppressing appetite may be the most important feature. The overriding drive to eat more food is the biggest impediment to weight loss, and it’s the reason why most diets fail. When people attempt to eat less food despite wanting more, they butt up against their own physiology. Few win that battle.

Ketogenic dieting avoids this issue altogether, suppressing the increase in hunger hormones that normally occurs after weight loss.

Ketogenic diets are especially effective for massive weight loss. If you have a ton of weight to lose, aiming for ketosis could help you lose body fat. Again, not because of any inherent fat-burning quality of the ketones, but because in order to make ketones you must liberate stored body fat.

Many diets work in the short-term and fail in the long run. Weight loss isn’t worth anything if you can’t keep it off. Ketogenic diets appear to be good for long-term maintenance of weight loss, at least compared to low-fat diets.

How to Do It Right

I’ll have more details in The Keto Reset Diet book, but there are right ways and wrong ways to do keto. What’s wrong or right is contextual, of course. It depends on several factors.

If you’re part of a small group that uses keto to keep seizures at bay, or treat serious neurological diseases, you’ll want to diligently maintain high blood ketone levels. That means sticking to very-low-carb (5-10% of calories) and low/moderate protein (10-15% of calories). But even then, modified ketogenic diets with slightly higher carbs and relaxed protein intakes are also effective against epilepsy.

If you’re doing keto for general health or weight loss, you can handle more protein and still remain in ketosis. Protein will help stave off the muscle loss, and, because calories are reduced, you can handle a bit more protein without interfering with ketosis. An older ketogenic diet study in obese subjects shows that 50% protein diets are highly ketogenic as long as calories are kept low. And in another study, subjects eating a weight-maintaining ketogenic diet ate up to 129 grams of protein without leaving ketosis (129 grams is fairly high).

If you’re trying to lose weight, artificially boosting ketones won’t accelerate the process. Higher ketones do not enhance fat loss, but they may indicate it’s taking place.

How to Make Keto Work

Ketogenic dieting is a big jump for some people. You’re literally switching over to a new metabolic substrate. That can take some getting used to. Make sure you are well-prepared with a Primal-aligned eating pattern in place for ideally several months before you ponder a journey into nutritional ketosis.

Make a minimum commitment to six weeks of nutritional ketosis. The first three weeks will be the most difficult as you transition to new fuel sources, but then you can expect breakthroughs. Some serious athletes may experience a temporary performance dip in the early weeks, but then will come back strong after 4 weeks and beyond. Once you get to the six-week mark, the metabolic machinery is in place, and it’s hard to reverse the adaptation. Extra mitochondria don’t just disappear.

Get plenty of electrolytes. You’ll want lots of sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Try 4.5 grams sodium (about 2 teaspoons of fine salt or a little under 3 teaspoons of kosher salt), 300-400 mg magnesium, and 1-2 grams of potassium each day on top of your normal food. Going keto really flushes out water weight, and tons of electrolytes leave with it.

Eat fat, but don’t be crazy about it. Just because a ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet doesn’t mean you should eat ungodly amounts of fat. Being ketogenic is more about not eating carbohydrates than it is eating as much fat as you possibly can.

Eating extra fat in the first 4-7 days can accelerate keto-adaptation by increasing AMPK signaling. Dial it down after.

Lift heavy things. A common criticism of ketogenic diets is that they cause loss of lean mass. This isn’t totally unfounded. If your ketogenic diet reduces appetite so much that you undereat, you might lose muscle. If you’re on a super-low-protein ketogenic diet, you might lose muscle. Lifting weights prevents these issues by sending an anabolic signal to your muscles and allowing the consumption of more protein without hampering ketosis. 

Do lots of low level aerobic activity. Walk, hike, jog, cycle, row. Keep things in the aerobic HR zone (under 180 minus age in heart beats per minute), and you’ll increase your utilization of body fat, which will speed up ketone production and adaptation.

Eat vegetables. The vast majority of vegetables are keto-friendly. Not only do they provide important micronutrients and phytonutrients, they provide negligible amounts of carbohydrates.

Eat berries. Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries are all quite low in glycemic load and extremely high in phytonutrients. While eating a flat of strawberries isn’t very ketogenic, a large bowlful won’t knock you out.

Eat fiber. Many people on ketogenic diets tend to ignore or malign fiber. That’s a mistake. First, fiber doesn’t digest into glucose. It doesn’t “count.” Second, fiber feeds your gut biome, providing fermentable substrate for your gut bacteria to turn into beneficial short chain fatty acids and to provide support to your immune system.

How to Know if You’re Ketogenic

You can test your blood, urine, or breath ketones. There are drawbacks to each, and unless you have a medical condition necessitating a specific level of ketones, obsessive testing may be unnecessary/unwise/expensive. Forget the inexpensive urine strips, as they measure only what you excrete, not what you are making and burning.

Once you’re keto-adapted and naturally good at burning fat, the ketone measuring devices might not put up impressive numbers. That’s because, after weeks in ketosis, you have built enough metabolic machinery in your muscles that they run extremely well on free fatty acids and don’t require much additional fuel from glucose or ketones. You’re still making ketones, since your brain can’t run on fatty acids and needs them to offset the glucose that isn’t coming, but your muscles no longer require them. Many people who have been in long term ketosis can get by quite nicely on 20-30 net grams of carbs a day and might only show .4 or .7 millimolar ketones on a blood test, but they have plenty of energy from burning free fatty acids and maintain muscle mass on relatively fewer calories than when they were dependent on carbs. Few people understand this, but it’s a major benefit of keto-adaptation. You might even say that ketogenic diets are ultimately about becoming free fatty acid-adapted.

Instead of objective numbers, I prefer to go by symptoms and signs. Since you’re trying to divine what works best for you, relying on the subjective signs and symptoms you experience is perfectly legitimate. These include:

Reduced urge to snack: Being ketone-adapted means you’re less reliant on outside calories.

Steady energy: When I’m feeling full of relaxed energy, calm but not sleepy, I know I’m in ketosis.

You may have heard talk about the dreaded ketone breath, caused by the presence of the metabolite acetone (the breakdown product of the ketone bodies acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). A sweet and fruity odor to your exhalations is a reliable indicator that you are in a state of ketosis, but it’s also a likely indicator that you are not yet super efficient at burning ketones. Don’t worry, that will come in short order.

So, are carbs out forever? What if you want to incorporate carbs for high intensity performance while maintaining the benefits of ketosis?

First of all, it may not make much of a difference if you’re just strength training. A series of recent studies looked at the effects of introducing carbs into a ketogenic diet in resistance trained adults, finding little to no benefit.

Carbs likely will help certain populations, namely CrossFitters, sprinters, and anyone else engaged in intense glycolytic work. But even then, being keto-adapted reduces the amount of glycogen you’ll use for a given intensity —so err on the side of fewer carbs and eat only as many as you actually earn.

There are two basic ways to construct a ketogenic diet that includes carbs: with one big weekly carb load (the classic CKD) or multiple smaller carb loads adjacent to training sessions (often called the targeted ketogenic diet, or TKD).

On a CKD, you spend the majority of the week and your workouts in ketosis and devote a day or a pair of days to eat lots of carbs. You might be ketogenic Monday through Friday, exercising all the while and capping the work week off with a really intense glycogen-depleting training session, then go..