Looking at the date of my last post, I guess I let the summer get away from me. Hopefully you all are out enjoying the benefits of your OFM lifestyle in this great weather! This summer I did do a lot of driving and listened to several great podcasts on the ketogenic diet and OFM (often referred to in these as modified low carb or modified ketogenic diet). Tim Ferriss has done several great interviews on the subject with some of the top researchers in the field. You will also hear our friends Dr. Phinney and Dr. Volek's names come up often. Download these for your next road trip or long run and you will learn a lot more about this field than you will reading this blog!  Note: Most of these are really long. So you probably are not going to rip through them all in an afternoon....but if you drive from Florida to Nebraska alone they will be over before you arrive. 

This one is a few years old but pretty entertaining. Below are the topics covered at the times copied from Tim Fierriss' site:

• Peter Attia’s obsessions on performance [11:35]
• Is hemoglobin A1C a running 3-month average of your aggregate glucose level? [16:50]
• Managing metabolic syndrome [17:15]
• What are synthetic ketones and why might people care? [19:45]
• Peter Attia’s first experience consuming synthetic ketones [24:55]
• Potential benefits or advantages of consuming synthetic ketones [28:55]
• Exploring the difference between ketoacidosis and ketosis [31:10]
• A mnemonic for the difference between exogenous and endogenous [34:40]
• Interesting results derived from tests with metabolic chambers  [35:15]
• Thinking about the health complications related to blood bio-markers [41:45]
• The bio-effects of swimming from Catalina Island to Los Angeles (10 hours later) [51:05]
• Questioning fecal matter transplants [53:45]
• Challenges regarding daily cycles of testosterone and how this effects testing [46:35]
• The sloppy thinking around life extension [58:45]
• Perspectives of death avoidance, IGF-1 and growth hormone use [01:03:00]
• Heart-rate optimization for longevity [1:14:15]
• Exercise recommendations for extending life [1:21:15]
• Addressing challenges with cancer, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and neurodegenerative disease [1:44:45]
• Rapid Fire Questions: Meditation, the most enjoyable $100 spent in recent memory, the successful and the punchable [1:31:30]

I enjoyed this one a little more than the first as it was a little more focused. This was released as a double episode, so you just want the second one (#65). 

• What are the top 5 biological tests everyone should get? [4:53]
• Should you eat carbs following weight training to promote anabolism within the muscle? [12:00]
• What are the top 10 supplement recommendations? [15:11]
• Should the ketogenic diet be a short-term intervention or a long-term lifestyle? [20:48]
• Blood testing at home [28:45]
• Should you not drink alcohol? [32:40]
• The results of Peter’s insulin suppression test [38:45]
• How do you figure out if a ketogenic diet works for you? [47:30]
• What type of cardio is best for you? [50:54]
• When can we expect results from the energy balance consortium? [58:05]
• Testosterone replacement for men [1:00:00]
• How Peter maintains his productivity [1:06:22]

These two with Dr. D'Agostino get pretty deep into the science but I liked them a lot. In this one there is a lot of discussion of using this diet to fight cancer, which I think everyone should be interested in. And I was certainly interested in his diet while traveling (although I don't think I'll be carrying my own tuna with me). 

• How Dom D’Agostino responds when someone asks him, “what do you do?” [5:28]
• Describing the Institutional Review Board (IRB) [9:53]
• Research on advanced lifters in a state of ketosis [12:13]
• Thoughts on getting big (hypertrophy) and strong while in a state of ketosis [15:53]
• Defining ketones and ketosis [20:48]
• The implications of fasting, nutritional ketosis and/or exogenous ketones for preventing/mitigating the onset of neurodegenerative diseases [28:23]
• Defining cachexia, sarcopenia, anabolism, and catabolism [30:48]
• Thoughts on the use of anabolic agents in cancer patients [34:48]
• The advantage of SARMS instead of pre-existing low androgenic anabolic therapies [38:53]
• To what extent is it possible to mimic the benefits of pre-chemo therapy fasting with exogenous ketones? [43:23]
• How to accelerate the induction of ketone projection through use of exogenous ketones[49:18]
• Ketone esters [56:13]
• The benefits of eating exogenous ketones while in a carbohydrate attractive environment (for example, when traveling in Italy) [1:16:08]
• What a traveling ketogenic breakfast looks like [1:20:43]
• Reasons for using glutamine [1:25:08]
• Thoughts on being considered a “nutritionist” [1:32:18]
• The impact of Metformin on the survival rates of animals that have metastatic cancer [1:41:38]
• If Dom D’Agostino learned that he had advanced cancer, what tools would he use to fight it? [1:46:18]
• Thoughts on therapeutic fasting [2:03:03]
• Observations of people who experiment with fasting [2:08:23]
• Describing the risks and toxicities of consuming a cocktail of exogenous ketones [2:14:33]
• Unusual foods or beverages that spike ketone levels [2:22:45]
• Top resources for those seeking to learn about a ketogenic diet [2:41:33]
• Most gifted books [2:43:13]
• How to approach fighting Lyme Disease with the ketogenic diet [2:50:18]
• The effect of ketosis on mitochondria [2:53:18]
• Healing from use of antibiotics [2:55:53

I'll be honest, a few of these questions/answers I had to listen to a few times to understand but there are some great nuggets of info in here. And if you can't stand the sound of Tim's voice, this is just a solo talk by Dr. D'Agostino.  Cool info for runners on performance at altitude, some cholesterol talk like we have had one here, and great content on females and this diet. 

• Why is there so much resistance among dieticians and researchers toward ketosis despite evidence in its favor? [07:12]
• Can you gain muscle size and strength on a ketogenic diet? [15:20]
• How much protein should you take in with a ketogenic diet? [16:21]
• What is the impact of the ketogenic diet on Type 1 diabetes? [19:16]
• Is it better to analyze ketone production by breath or blood? [27:42]
• How does ketosis affect performance at altitude? [30:53]
• Are there any differences females need to be aware of when considering a ketogenic diet? [35:53]
• Can a female obtain a sub-10 percent body fat with a ketogenic diet? [40:43]
• How does ketosis affect the microbiota? [44:53]
• Is counting calories just as important as tracking fat intake and carb restriction if you want to avoid weight gain? [52:00]
• What are Dom’s nutritional tricks to surviving scientific conferences where the food is often less than healthy? [55:36]
• What stimulants aid in ketosis? [58:53]
• Can a vegetarian or vegan follow a ketogenic diet? [1:05:01]
• Should you be concerned if a ketogenic diet increases your LDL or LDL-P (bad cholesterol)? [1:08:55]
• Elevated triglycerides? A ketogenic diet isn’t for everyone. [1:14:17]
• Is it dangerous to use ketone salts? [1:15:29]
• What’s Dom’s advice for people suffering from fatty acid oxidation disorders? [1:24:39]
• Does Dom really support Kegenix? [1:29:40]
• What are Dom’s go-to products? [1:37:21]
• Are exogenous ketones only useful in a state of ketosis, or would they benefit someone who is not keto-adapted? [1:45:28]
• Can exogenous ketones combined with a low-carb diet (but not a ketogenic diet) still give some or all of the benefits of a strict ketogenic diet? [1:48:38]

When you are all done listening to all four of these, please leave a comment and it will motivate me to get another real blog written for you. I want to tell you about the 52 hour fast I embarked on after listening to these podcasts and how I recently failed to meet my own standards. 

When I started this blog I was fairly certain that no one would read it. And positive no one would take on this lifestyle based off of my blog.  Luckily I was wrong on both points, so I'll keep writing.  Before getting into performance stuff this week, a few notes on comments I have received from some of you.

If you are a female starting this lifestyle, I suggest you listen to one or both of these podcasts.  I'm not a female so you can find better info here:
 http://fitnessnerds.podbean.com//e/coachsteph/ 
http://www.trispecific.com/fb-73-low-carb-high-fat-for-women/

Patience is key.  Give this lifestyle one month and you should know by then if it is working for you or it is not. If your body composition and/or weight are improving in one month, keep at it.  It is not for everyone, but you have to give it time and it will suck for a while.  

Also, although I asked you to download myfitnesspal app, don't count calories.  The app is for tracking percentages of fat, protein, and carbs not calories in this case. If you try to start this lifestyle at the same time you are limiting calories, your life is really going to suck.

Now onto performance.  A few of you are getting into your third week on this plan and are starting to kick your training back up.  I'm only going to discuss endurance training here and some limited strength training based on my own experiences.  There are about 1,000 different opinions on this subject but I'm going to tell you what has worked for me and several others. I'll do this in question answer format to make it a little more simple.

Q: What do I eat before my workout?
A: I prefer to go into a long run with a fairly light stomach (I don't get hungry anymore, but this would be a hungry state prior to OFM).  So I try to eat dinner late afternoon the day before my run.  And I don't do a lot different at that meal.  If I am going really long, over 4 hours, I will up my carb intake very slightly at that meal. Maybe a MAX of 100g carbs the day before and all those carbs are covered in fat (butter, sour cream, etc).  I don't drink coffee either, unrelated to OFM, so I just have a few glasses of water before I start my run in the morning.

Q: What do I eat while I'm running?
A: So we started the run pretty well fasted. It makes me feel light and quick. Just before my run I'll have a VESPA JR (see below for discount code).  Then I will run the first two hours with just water and S! Caps. After 2 hours your fat burning fire is going full speed and you have a little more flex on what you eat. I'll hit a VESPA concentrate every 2.5 hours after the start.  Then I have best luck mixing in Generation UCAN (see resources page). UCAN is a super starch that provides you the benefits of carb energy without spiking your insulin. So you are getting the good without killing your fat burning fire.

Q: I can't survive on UCAN alone, what else can I eat?
A: After the first few hours, eat what you ate before on runs that you enjoyed. Don't be too concerned with carbs as they will be more additive than really hurt your fat burning once you have been running several hours. You are going to be eating A LOT less than you used to eating on your long runs, so you don't have to worry as much about getting an upset stomach. I do like cheese sticks, cashews, and bacon for some reason.  I'll even carry a few gels incase I really need a kick (after you are fully adapted, a gel will give you a serious jumpstart for a few minutes).

Q: I'm getting really dehydrated, what's going on?
A: Remember all that water you peed out the first week you were on the diet? Your body doesn't have that anymore to use as a buffer when you screw up your hydration strategy.  For me, this means drinking a lot more water than I was used to.  It also means taking a lot more S!Caps than I used to. Just really stay on top of your hydration and don't get behind if you can help it.  This is the one thing that put the hurting on me when I first started the diet. 

Q: So this is good for running slow, what about speed work or strength work?
A: Someone told me, "You will know this diet is working when you get done with your speed work and you feel like you want to do more." I thought, no sh*t...because I hate speed work and usually feel like crap after.  Although this is the slowest thing to come back after the transition, once fully adapted it improved at the same rate as my long slow runs. Same with strength training. I was CrossFitting when I started the diet, I ended up taking a few weeks off during my transition phase but then really enjoyed it after I was adapted and my energy levels were so much higher. 

Q: What do I eat post-workout?
A: You are going to find that the more/longer you run or workout the more your hunger is suppressed. In fact you almost feel more full even though you have burned a ton of calories.  So instead of killing that whole pizza and pitch of beer when you get done, you will probably just want to eat a regular OFM meal (be really strict on the carbs) or something a little smaller.  It usually takes me about 2-3 hours to feel like eating and then it doesn't take too much to fill me up. If you are looking to lose some weight this is a great time to do it since you are not hungry anyway.   

Hopefully this gets you down the road for a few runs. That first time that you run 4-6-8 hours on only water and salt AND you still have great energy you will be pretty excited.  It's a moment when you think, why have I not done this before!