11: Why I Stopped Keto (After Three Years)

Michael Kummer: You're listening to the Primal Shift Podcast. I'm your host Michael Kummer, and my goal is to help you achieve optimal health by bridging the gap between ancestral living and the demands of modern society. Get ready to unlock the transformative power of nature as the ultimate biohack, revolutionizing your health and reconnecting you with your primal self.

All right, welcome back to another episode of the Primal Shift podcast. In today's episode we're gonna talk about something potentially controversial depending on if you're in a low carb or high carb camp. I'm gonna tell you why after three years of doing keto I introduced more carbs into my diet again.

So several years ago I transitioned from a paleo to a ketogenic diet because I thought all carbs were evil. And so I cut everything out and maintained a fairly strict ketogenic diet for about three years. And by fairly strict, I mean I ate somewhere between 0 to 15 grams of carbs per day while working out, doing CrossFit and, you know, doing all the things that I do on a daily basis.

But then I changed course a little bit. And in this episode specifically, I'm gonna tell you a couple of things. Obviously, I'll tell you why I started eating more carbs again, but I'll also share a little bit of insight around the decision making process. So you can maybe take some of that information and fine tune your own lifestyle, regardless if you're on the low carb or the high carb camp.

I think there is room for both really, and there is no right or wrong. It really depends on You, your circumstances and what might be the best diet or the best micronutrient composition for optimal performance and optimal health. So, I'll talk about what is the default state of humans, so what are humans doing metabolically when they are born, when they are babies.

I'm gonna talk about the pros and cons of a low carb ketogenic diet. I'll talk about what triggered me to include more carbs in my diet. Obviously, that's the core of the episode here. I think, and I'll tell you why I think that keto is a great tool, but not necessarily a lifestyle requirement for everyone.

I'm gonna share with you how my performance and my biomarkers have changed. So anything from my lipid panel to my body fat, between doing keto and introducing more carbs. I think that should be fairly interesting because there are a couple of things that are I think, to be expected, or that I expected, but others that I certainly did not.

I'm gonna talk about some of the common pitfalls when consuming carbohydrates that I've, uh, come across, and I'll share with you tips on how you can leverage low carb eating to improve your health and well being, and last but not least, some of the mistakes to avoid on a low carb diet. So, it's a fairly packed episode, I'm gonna try to keep it as concise as possible, but it might be worthwhile to grab a pen and paper, or, you know, hit the rewind button.

and, um, listen to certain things again. But let's start with what is the default metabolic state. So when humans are born, they are usually in a light, breastfed babies at least that is, they are usually in a light state of ketosis. Even though, and that is surprising, they are certainly not on a ketogenic diet.

Because whenever I've, I've heard some nutritionists say, well, but you know, babies are not in keto, they're not on a keto diet because, you know, breast milk obviously contains sugar in the form of lactose, for example. And in fact, breast milk consists of 40 percent of carbohydrates. So that's certainly not a ketogenic food by definition, but despite that.

Breast fat babies are usually in a mild state of ketosis, so they burn fat for energy, but they evidently also use the sugar, the carbohydrates in breast milk, so they are effectively dual fueling. And that is an interesting Concept, because on the one hand, carbohydrates are not essential. We don't need to consume carbohydrates because the body can make glucose from non carbohydrate sources in a process called gluconeogenesis.

I talked about that in the nutrition episode. But still, nature decided that carbs for newborns are evidently beneficial because otherwise breast milk, human breast milk, would not contain sugar. Right? So, and I think the reason for that is because the energy demands of the growing infant are so big that the baby simply burns through all of that energy, especially through the sugar, so quickly that it then taps into fat as a source of energy, hence the baby is in ketosis.

So it's dual fueling, as I mentioned, and if you just think about it, the, the incredible energy demands of a newborn, especially the, the growing brain, at that stage, the brain consumes about 60 percent of the energy, while being only 13 percent of the mass of the body mass, that's incredible, so the brain sucks up a lot of energy, including ketones from fat, as well as glucose from the milk sugar, right?

And that should give us, you know, some sort of, clue that maybe carbohydrates aren't necessarily evil, however, we should also take into consideration that as we grow older, our energy demands likely change depending on your lifestyle. Obviously, you know, I'm 41 now, I'm not growing anymore, so without physical activity involved, my energy demands are likely significantly lower in comparison.

Um, you know, based on body size, uh, than a newborn, and so, there might be something to be said about, well, we might require less energy to sustain optimal health as we get older. So, you know, but still, you know, there are, there are certainly pros and cons of following a ketogenic diet, which is the reason why I've I've done it for several years and I've done fairly well on it, to be quite honest.

And one of the major advantages, as far as I'm concerned, of a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet is that it improves your metabolic flexibility, meaning that it teaches your body to efficiently switch back and forth between burning fat and burning carbs as a source of energy depending on what's available.

And that's not only, you know, academically important, it has practical implications. Because whenever I don't consume food in between meals, or overnight, or when I'm traveling, or whatever the case might be where I don't have access to food, my body can burn fat for energy. and I don't feel like I'm falling apart.

Most people who are very much glucose driven, who, whose metabolism is incapable of burning fat for energy, they usually fall apart fairly quickly if they don't eat, if they have to skip a meal. And that's obviously not a sign of metabolic health. And so, going on a ketogenic diet, you teach your body to burn fat for energy, that can be fat from your own body, or it can be fat from dietary sources.

Either way, you'll be fine. And that leads us to another. Significant advantage of a ketogenic diet in this cognitive performance, the brain does very, very well using ketones as a source of energy. And so anyone who has ever had elevated ketone levels in the bloodstream can tell you the mental clarity that you feel when, when having ketones available as a source of fuel.

And that could be because ketones from, endogenous ketones from a ketogenic lifestyle, or even exogenous ketones in the form of supplements, you'll feel sharper and better mentally just because of the availability of those ketones. So that's one of the main benefits as far as I'm concerned. You also have very sustained energy levels.

Because think about it, if your body has always access to a source of energy from body fat, even in the absence of food, then you can maintain very stable energy levels. And that's at least true as long as you maintain a fairly low intensity energy consumption, if you will. So in other words, if, if your energy demands are relatively stable, your supply will be relatively stable and everything is good and you maintain stable levels.

However, if you start doing like high intensity type of workouts or very long endurance workouts where you deplete certain energy stores and you need then glucose for a quick, as a quick source of energy, then you might get into trouble if you're just burning fat for energy. and if there is no glucose available.

So that's maybe one of the downsides that we'll talk about here in a bit. The other thing, the other advantage of a ketogenic diet is it is arguably the best diet to lose weight. Because as I've mentioned, you teach your body to burn fat for energy. In the absence of food or in between meals, that means body fat.

Usually when you're on a keto diet, even if you consume a lot of calories, you will burn body fat when there is no food available and in between meals. And I've noticed that I've gotten relatively shredded on a keto diet. Especially when combined with regular exercise. So a great way to lose weight and to burn body fat in a healthy way that doesn't require a caloric restriction.

A keto diet very often also removes whole categories of unhealthy foods, especially processed carbohydrates. Now, of course, you can do dirty keto, we'll talk about that in a bit, but generally speaking, by going on a keto diet, especially in the beginning, before you figured out all of those, you know, keto supplements and keto snacks you can buy, if you just do it based on whole food sources, you remove a whole chunk of unhealthy foods from your diet, which will likely benefit your health overall.

And it's very satiating. I mean, if you eat only protein and fat, especially high quality fats, you're not hungry in between meals. You feel full, you feel satisfied, and it just feels very good. And you're not, you know, eating a lot of meals. Typically, if you're on a, on a keto diet, a well designed keto diet, you eat maybe once or twice a day, and you feel great with it.

The downsides, the longer you stay on keto, the more you figure out, you know, all of those little shortcuts and, you know, like keto friendly foods like protein bars and snacks and all those things that have likely also processed ingredients, maybe not processed carbohydrates, but processed plant, plant ingredients like nut butters and nut flours, etc.

And that can very quickly then deteriorate your health, your gut health in particular. That's one of the reasons why I moved away from, you know, the modern keto diet. because it included a lot of ingredients that my digestive system didn't agree with. It can also impact your electrolyte levels, especially in the beginning.

If you remove carbohydrates quickly, then your electrolyte balance is likely going to be off and you have to supplement or consume more, you don't have to supplement, but you have to consume more salt. So sodium in particular is what you'll feel quickly, also magnesium and some of the other. minerals, but sodium in particular, and that means, you know, you have to eat more salt, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but if you don't, you likely feel, you know, funny in your head, lower energy levels, fatigued, crampy, and all of those things that come with, you know, that are typically considered a keto flu.

It might also be, you know, a social problem depending on how you eat and, you know, if you go out to a lot of, you know, dinners for work or whatever and you're the one eating differently and not having the dessert and not having the pasta and not having the bread, you know, it might be a social problem.

None that you cannot overcome. I mean, we've done that and, and I thrive in those. You know, I thrive being different and, you know, show others the way I try to, you know, lead the way for others to follow me, but it might be an issue for some. Physical performance could also be impacted depending on the type of exercise that you do.

You know, if you're a crossfitter maybe and you're, you know, want to go to the games and you have several workouts a day, not having any carbs is probably gonna backfire. You know, it's, you need. fuel to refuel your glycogen levels to replenish your glycogen levels in between workouts and so a keto diet for a CrossFit athlete is likely not gonna be good.

You can lift weights very well. I've done a lot of weight lifting and heavy lifting at least for, you know, heavy for me on a ketogenic diet without any issues. I've done, you know, short high intensity workouts without a problem, but anything longer and you might hit a wall. It can negatively impact hormone levels, you know, especially in, in women.

You know, be it thyroids, be it, you know, at the end of the day, keto can be a stressor depending on how you do it and depending on your lifestyle and how much demands you have on your, you know, on, on energy sources. It can be a stressor and that can negatively impact hormones. It can also negatively impact sleep.

If you run out of glycogen halfway into the night. You know, maybe because you've worked out intensively before going to bed, and then you go to bed, and your body tries to make glucose from non carbohydrate sources, but it cannot make it quickly enough, you know, your cortisol levels might spike, you wake up in the middle of the night, and you feel wide awake.

I've had that several times, especially on days when I did CrossFit, and so that's one of the downsides. But despite all of that, let's talk about what triggered me to include more carbs in my diet, and the number one reason was really, My exercise regimen, which was very much glucose depleting. So it was high intensity type of workouts, especially in the morning.

I typically work out fasted. That's what I prefer in the morning. And so, you know, if you're on a keto diet, you know, your glucose level, glycogen levels overnight, you know, might be what they are. Maybe they are. Usually they should be fairly restocked, you know, in the morning since your body had all night to make glucose from non carbohydrate sources.

But then, you know, you, I go CrossFit in the morning and I empty my glycogen stores to varying degrees, you know, my liver glycogen and my muscle glycogen and then I'm, my stores are empty, you know, and then I continue with my day and you need glucose, certain tissues, even the brain in, in some, you know, cases need glucose to function optimally and if the glucose is not available because you depleted all of your stores and gluconeogenesis hasn't been quick enough, And then maybe, you know, you have to do in something else that relies on glucose and you don't have, you know, those, those stores available, you might, you know, hit a wall.

It's not severe, but I can tell, or I could tell that I, my energy levels were slightly lower post workout and that impacted my productivity for the rest of the day. So that was, you know, one thing. The other thing was then obviously with, you know, all the different. With stress in general, you know, stress is also something that increases your energy demands and increases your micronutrient demands as we've discussed in a previous episode.

And so, for me, keto or not having carbohydrates, in some cases, has, you know, had become a stressor, especially sometimes I noticed overnight when I ran out of glycogen stores depending on my workout regimen. and my workout timing that I ran out of, you know, glucose and my cortisol levels would go up and my sleep was impacted.

So from that perspective, I considered keto a, a stressor that, you know, I needed or I wanted to mitigate. Also being in keto all the time, I don't think mimics ancestral behavior because they were, depending on the region where our ancestors lived, of course, and maybe, you know, then, you know, thinking forward, my genetic makeup based on my ancestry, I think it's feasible to assume that our ancestors, again, depending on where they lived, had access to carbohydrates during certain times of the year.

And, you know, during maybe certain times of the day, you know, maybe they found, you know, wild bees and, and ate the honey, like we've seen with the Hadza or, you know, whatever sweet fruits, you know, if they were more in, you know, like warmer regions, et cetera. So being in keto all of the time. for the rest of your life, I don't think, depending on, you know, your individual genetic makeup, might not be consistent with your DNA.

And so, for me, I think, you know, my ancestry is, uh, you know, from the, you know, Italian region, kind of the warmer regions of Europe, and I like to think that there might be a case to be made for consuming certain carbohydrates, at least, you know, during certain times of the year. And then the sleep disturbances, I've noticed, I've mentioned that already.

That was, you know, I've noticed that and I can tell when I have more carbs, I do sleep better. You know, that's just what it is. That's, you know, regardless of how much I liked keto, I've noticed a difference and I'd rather sleep better than not. And if that means consuming a few more carbs, then that's fine with me.

Funny enough though, When a few days ago, my wife asked me, so what is the next episode about? I'm like, well, it's about why I stopped keto. And she's like, but you're still doing keto. And I'm like, no, I'm not. I'm eating carbs. And she said, well, but not every day. And I thought about that for a moment. And then coincidentally, someone asked me, what do you eat every day?

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to take a picture of every single meal that I have. And yes, there are days where I don't consume carbs and I feel great with it. And that's especially on days when I. When I don't work out and when I don't deplete my glycogen store. So I guess now my, my current diet, which is very much based on animal foods with, you know, seasonal, you know, fruits and all of those things that are generally considered to be part of an animal based diet.

I have days where I don't consume. a lot of carbs or no carbs at all and that's fine. I go based on how I feel and if I feel like I need carbs and sometimes that's triggered by stress. You know, stress naturally increases your body's energy demands or at least your brain thinks we need to consume energy to deal with the stress which in the past was usually something life threatening.

These days it's, for me, it's, it's likely a stupid comment I get on social media or on YouTube, you know, that's for me a stress inducing event and I feel like I need carbs, you know, to kind of prepare for a fight that's not gonna happen and usually I'm aware of that and say, no, okay, this is just my body making me think that I need carbs, but I abstain and then a few minutes later I am fine.

But, you know, so that's why I stopped keto. Now, that doesn't mean, you know, everyone should, if you're on a ketogenic diet right now, that you should stop doing that. You know, keto is an excellent tool as far as I'm concerned. If you're on a standard American diet, if you're on any diet that doesn't mimic ancestral eating habits, if you're not on an animal based diet, a carnivore diet, a You know, or something that mimics good dietary habits, a keto diet is a great start, as far as I'm concerned, because it improves metabolic flexibility.

That's one of the key things for optimal metabolic health, as far as I'm concerned. Your body needs to be able to switch back and forth between different types of fuel, depending on availability, without you falling apart, if one source of fuel is not available temporarily. So, that's, you know, Great. A keto diet, in particular a carnivore diet, which is a type of ketogenic diet, it's a zero carb ketogenic diet, is excellent for weight loss.

I've talked about this in my IBS video and I'm probably going to talk about this in an upcoming episode about how I cured irritable bowel syndrome by simply removing everything but meat from my diet. And it wasn't necessarily the macronutrient composition of that diet that fixed my gut, but the, the avoidance of anything that could potentially irritate my gut.

And that's usually, those irritants are usually found in the plant world, you know? And so by removing all of that, you can fix your gut within a couple of weeks, maybe a couple of months, depending on the severity of your issues. To lose weight, keto is the way to go. Carnivore, maybe even better. And I have a separate article about what's the best diet for weight loss.

There's a lot of Links that I'm going to include in the show notes that talk about, you know, not the pros and cons of keto, side effects, benefits, you know, all of those things. I'm going to link them down below so I don't have to talk about them here in too much detail on the episode. So, now let's talk about how has my physical performance and metabolic health changed since Introducing carbohydrates into my diet and so going back to 2016, I think I've done regular blood work and especially since 2019, I think approximately every three to six months.

So I have a lot of test results that cover the years where I did keto as well as then later on in 2022, I think when I started introducing or late 2021 when I started introducing carbohydrates again. And so let's look at some of those health markers and my workout performance. Let's start with workout performance because it's easier and we can, you know, move on then to the more interesting things.

From a physical performance, I've, I've noticed that it has improved. I'm doing better at CrossFit with more carbohydrates in general. However, I should say that I still work out fasted and with residual ketones. in my bloodstream. So in the morning when I get up, you know, I typically have, we have dinner around between 5 and 7 I want to say, and I work out usually at 8.

30, sometimes at 7. 30, sometimes at noon, but usually in the morning, and at that point I'm in a mild, I'm in mild ketosis, maybe just below what's considered nutritional ketosis, so I'm maybe, you know, 0. 3 to 0. 5 mmol per liters, or, you know, 3 to 5 aces if you do a breath ketone test. So I'm definitely burning some fat for energy, and I'm working out fasted, and I'm doing really well.

And the reason, and usually the types of crossfit workouts, they don't last longer than an hour, they are typically, you know, like, high intensity, short, weightlifting. I'm not going for, you know, a run marathon or anything. So fairly short, high intensity stuff, and I have enough liver and muscle glycogen, as well as the ketones, to carry me through those workouts and to perform fairly well.

But then in the late afternoon, I have carbohydrates, so I don't force my body to replenish all of those depleted stores by converting protein and amino acids and fatty acids into glucose. I consume certain carbohydrates on most days, so I'm recovered. And I think that has made a significant impact on my workout performance.

Not that I'm a competitive athlete, but it still feels good to perform well and to not be, you know, then wasted for the rest of the week. So that's from a physical performance perspective. Mentally, I can tell that if I consume carbs early in the morning, My mental performance goes down the drain and it sets the tone for the rest of the day.

In other words, I never, or not, not, never is not true, but I very rarely consume carbohydrates before noon. If I do, I get those, you know, fluctuation in energy as my, you know, blood glucose goes up and then it goes down and I just don't like that. I want to be mentally sharp. For most of the day, when I have to get work done, when I have to record episodes, and so no carbohydrates in the morning, typically then, with dinner, or in the late afternoon, I introduce carbohydrates, because if I then have a slump at around, I don't know, 8pm or whatever, I don't care because I'm going to bed anyway, and I, if I feel like I wanna go to bed, I'm fine with that, you know, that's kind of the point.

So let's talk about some of the metabolic health. Metrics. And I wrote a couple of key metrics down here that might be interesting to you. Fasting insulin is the one, or the first one. Fasting insulin is one of the most important biomarkers because it tells you how sensitive your cells are to the hormone insulin.

You know, how effective If your body can remove glucose from your bloodstream and shuttle it into cells where it can be used for energy and how much insulin your pancreas has to release. And so for most, for many, many years, my fasting insulin levels were below the low threshold. They were at 1. 8 mmol per liter, I think is the unit.

So 2 up was, or 2 was like the minimum. So I was considered to be low on insulin and You know, if you go to a regular doctor, they would probably say, Oh, you know, there's something wrong with you. But I talked actually to a couple of metabolic scientists and they said, what that means is that you're incredibly sensitive to insulin and you're incredibly, that, that's good from a metabolic health perspective.

Now, since introducing more carbohydrates, My fasting insulin has actually gone up to 2. 2, which is still very much on the lower end, but it's higher than on a ketogenic diet. So I'm not too concerned about that, but it simply shows that by eating more carbs, you know, your insulin is likely gonna go up a little bit.

As long as it stays around too, not a problem whatsoever, as far as I'm concerned. My hemoglobin A1c, the 90 day average blood sugar metric, used to be, well actually went up from 5. 1 to 5. 3. And I actually had a spike somewhere in between there to 5. 5. And that was in the very beginning when I introduced carbohydrates, because I think I went slightly overboard.

I'm like, Oh, now I can have 150 to 200 grams of carbs. And I realized I'm not using all that energy. I don't need that much energy. So my body was actually, I think, having. Retained higher glucose levels than was necessary. And so that has come down to 5. 3 again, which I think is perfectly normal. And it's 0.

2 above, you know, my, almost zero carb days when I was doing keto. So I think that's still, you know, it's a wash at the end of the day as far as I'm concerned. My thyroid hormone levels normalized and this is a tricky one because they were on the lower end during keto and so I thought, well, maybe, you know, keto is not conducive to optimal thyroid health.

But again, when talking to metabolic experts and scientists, I said, Well, you know, it's like with insulin, you know, maybe your body requires less of the thyroid hormones to do its job, much like it requires less insulin to do its job. So I'm not saying that my low thyroid levels were concerning, but they are now within what's considered a normal range.

So I would also say, you know, probably a wash if, if anything else. My average HDL, um, you know, the good cholesterol, went up from 47 to 49. So, you know, it actually increased a little bit, but honestly, you know, I had, during all the tests, while I was on keto, it was between 40 and 52. So the average just happens to be 47, based on the number of tests I did.

And then while, eating more carbs. I had levels between 47 to 55 and the average is 49. So, you know, and I had fewer tests while on carbs and more tests while on keto because I've been doing keto for three years and I've been only on carbs for maybe two years or so. So the average might be skewed a little bit.

I would say it's a wash. They're pretty much the same. My average triglycerides increased from 61 to 67. But again, if we look at the individual tests during keto that went, I had between 44 to 80. I don't know where that 80 came from. There was a, like an outlier. There was only one that was 80. Everything else was much lower and, but that increased the average.

And while on carbohydrates or more, eating more carbohydrates, the average is 67, but the individual tests were somewhere between 49 to 87. Again, 87 was an outlier. during the time when I consumed significantly more carbs. And so triglycerides are usually a sign or an indication of how much fat your body is storing from the carbs you're eating.

And I think I overdid it. So my body was actually in fat storing mode, hence the increased triglycerides during that one test. But again, you know, 61, 67, you know, with, you know, different, you know, labs and everything. It's probably a wash. My body fat, and that's where it gets interesting, I think, during keto hovered around 13 percent in 2019.

In 2022, it went down to 12%. I don't know what it was in between. I don't have the test results anymore. But then in the same, later that same year, in 2022, it went down to 10%. And in this year, in 2023, it went down to 9%. So even though I consumed more carbohydrates, My body fat percentage actually went down and I'm working out less now than I did in those years.

So that's interesting and I didn't expect that and I don't know exactly why that is. I can only assume that I might have been eating more calories on keto. then I needed, so my body didn't have to tap into all of those fat stores. It could also be, you know, water could be, you know, whenever you do those, you know, body fat tests, you know, intracellular water plays a role, water in your muscle tissue plays a role, so there might be, you know, some, something skewed maybe that, that, you know, I didn't take into consideration.

But overall, you know, I'm apparently leaner than I used to be in 2019. And I will, you know, I'm older, obviously, than I was in 2019, and I'm eating more carbs, so that's interesting. I do sleep better. You know, I always considered myself a morning person. I can't sleep longer than 5, 5. 30. I always told myself, you know, this morning, actually, I woke up at seven, which is like sleeping in crazy for me.

You know, I, I, that's, sleeping in seven is like I'm wasting half of my day already. And, but I do, and I can, and that's the most important thing. You know, I can, I don't wake up at five and I'm like wide awake with, you know, spiked cortisol and all. I can sleep longer. And I kinda like that. So let's talk about common pitfalls when consuming carbohydrates, just based on my own experience.

First is I alluded to that before. If you are fasting, and even if you're not, you know, technically doing intermittent fasting or anything, but when you break your fast, when you know, when you consume your first meal of the day, whenever that might be. Don't do it with carbs. If I do that, and my wife can tell you the same, and many people I talk to, it applies to a lot of people, it sets the tone for the rest of your day.

If you start with carbs, you keep craving carbs for the rest of your day, likely. And so, I try to avoid that as much as possible, unless it's maybe a Sunday. And, you know, my wife makes sourdough pancakes or whatever and we are like, you know, doing something that we don't usually do and I'm aware of the consequences and I'm accepting those consequences, but otherwise no carbs in the morning, fat and protein to retain stable energy levels, to retain mental clarity, to remain in ketosis and later in the day.

I consume carbohydrates. Now, obviously, if you go surfing for four hours in the morning, you might benefit from carbohydrates. But even, you know, for crossfit type of workouts, I see a lot of people, you know, in the gym at 830 and they, you know, eat banana or some, you know, gooey, whatever, carbohydrates.

because they think they may need that for their workout. You do not, you know. Your liver and your muscle tissue has plenty of glycogen to sustain you through a regular crossfit workout or high intensity workout, be it kickboxing or whatever it might be. Unless you're doing a competition where you have a workout in the morning, one at noon and one in the afternoon, you do not need to start with carbohydrates.

Not necessary. I would argue it's counterproductive to your performance. and to how you feel after the workout. So that's number one. Having carbs right after a workout. So, you know, not only is it, I think it's counterproductive to have carbs right before a workout, but then having your first meal after a workout full of carbohydrates is, is also counterproductive as far as muscle protein synthesis is concerned.

Science has shown that if you consume the roughly a one to one ratio of protein and fat after a workout. It increases muscle protein synthesis and it improves insulin sensitivity. And that's really one of the major factors of metabolic health. So no carbs right after a workout, wait a couple of hours.

and then have your carbohydrates. You'll do better from a longevity, from a metabolic perspective, and from a growing lean muscle tissue perspective. You don't need carbs right after a workout. Unless you have another workout within a couple of hours. Different story. I'm not talking about, you know, professional athletes.

I'm talking about regular chose like you and I. One thing that, well, having massive amounts of carbohydrates before bedtime. So if you kind of, you know, offload or wait with your carbohydrate intake until later in the day, one of the mistakes I've made is then eat a lot of carbs, especially close to bedtime.

Because what that does is, you know, sometimes, you know, we have, like, we go out and we might have, you know, curry, you know, or you know, once every. two months or so, my wife makes sourdough pizza. So pizza made from scratch using sourdough. So likely better than regular pizza, but still, you know, wheat at the end of the day and stuff that is not conducive to optimal health.

And when I eat, I eat typically a lot since I only have two meals a day. And so if I eat two pizza pies, you know, late in the evening, before bedtime, guess what that does? That causes a massive spike in blood sugar and likely not only one spike, but several spikes depending on, you know, how those grains are digested.

And that is just a recipe for poor sleep, you know, so don't do that, don't fill up with carbs before bedtime. And the type of carbs you consume is also important, you know, starchy ones are likely to cause much more Prolonged blood sugar spikes. If you consume raw milk, the amino acids in milk actually lower, in raw milk at least, lower your blood sugar response or change your blood sugar response.

So raw milk, raw honey, and maybe certain fruits are way better than processed carbohydrates. And then starches, for example, so I typically stick when I'm like, you know, I'm craving something, I feel like I need, I go out and have a glass of raw milk, you know, that takes care of it and it doesn't cause a terrible spike in blood sugar or, you know, if I have it, I typically make raw milk kefir and so that has even lower, uh, a lower glycemic index I still get some carbs, but they are fairly slow burning and don't cause a massive spike in blood sugar.

And if you really want to find out, you know, how your, how carbs are doing as far as blood sugar response is concerned, you know, wear a continuous glucose monitor. I have several articles I'm going to link down in the show notes that talk about CGMs. the benefits, the different types of CGMs that are on the market, the different, you know, apps you can use to interpret the results and to perform tests and experiments, all of that in the show notes, so check that out.

So now let's talk about tips on how to leverage low carb eating to improve your health and well being. So my recommendation is to adjust your carb intake to your energy needs, you know, don't consume carbs or extra carbs or excess carbs if you're not burning them, you know, so if you're not working out on a day, if you're physically, if you're in a, you know, sedative type of environment, if you don't, you know, do anything that might require, you know, fast burning.

energy, like glucose, don't consume it, you know, or limit your intake significantly to match your, your, your energy demands or your needs. Don't eat carbs first thing in the morning. I mentioned that don't eat carbs right after exercise. I mentioned that to exercise or walk. after consuming carbs. I've done certain experiments using or wearing a CGM that if you consume carbohydrates and you immediately go for a 30 minute walk, it can be a casual walk.

You don't have to like, you know, run or almost run or be, you know, a fast paced kind of walk. It doesn't have to be a brisk walk. I mean, the more energy you expend in terms of physical activity, the more it will blunt your blood sugar spike. So, but just going for a casual walk with the dog after consuming carbs helps improve your blood sugar response and means your body likely requires less insulin, which, you know, saves the pancreas and keeps your insulin sensitivity intact.

So, that's one great way of dealing with it. Stick with carbs from clean sources, obviously, you know, raw milk, raw honey, you know, fruits, etc. Not processed carbs, bad idea. We're a CGM, so you can kind of find out how certain types of carbs work for you. Some people do very well with bananas, some people do very poorly with bananas.

It depends on your individual physiology to kind of find out. What works best for you in terms of mistakes to avoid on a low carb diet if that's the way you want to go You know, number one is not consuming enough electrolytes You know If you're on low carb on keto diet on a carnivore diet you likely will have to increase your salt intake now There are some people that say I'm doing fairly well without eating any salt whatsoever.

It might just be an adjustment period but I've noticed personally I do very well on a higher salt or sodium intake. So we typically, you know, we leverage electrolyte supplements like the one from Element. I'm going to link it down below as well. It tastes very good, it's very clean, and it provides the right amount, the right ratios of sodium, magnesium, and potassium.

And with that I do incredibly well. Physically, mentally, and everything in between. Stay away from processed, keto friendly, you know, products like, you know, nut butters and all of those things that either ruin your gut or are, you know, just by the fact they are processed they are likely not good for you and have a negative impact on your health that can derail some of those efforts.

or some of the benefits that you get from a low carb ketogenic diet. Eating the wrong types of fat and protein, you know, you don't want to do a keto on a, on a vegan diet with, you know, plant based sources of fat. That's just a recipe for poor health. If you do keto, you know, leverage animal, high quality animal proteins and high quality animal based fats.

You know, eating, you know, bacon fried in, in canola oil. And, you know, and, and, and low quality eggs. I mean, it's, it's keto friendly, but it's probably not the type of keto diet you want to do. You know, stick with clean ingredients. That's one of the reasons why I followed a paleo ketogenic diet. But even that can be improved.

I would actually do a, an animal based, I would call it an animal based ketogenic diet with high quality types of fat and protein from animal based sources. And listen to your body. You know, or not listening to your body is one of the key mistakes. You know, if you feel like on certain days, especially if you're a woman and you're, you know, you know, close to it, depending on the, you know, when you are in your, in your, in your natural cycle, in a menstrual cycle, there are certain days where if your body, you know, tells you I'm going to prepare for pregnancy, whether or not that pregnancy is actually coming and I have higher energy demands.