Frequently Asked Questions

Check out our new 3-part video series with Dr. Stephen Phinney! Dr. Phinney explains the science and research behind nutritional ketosis as well as the 5 common mistakes people make on ketogenic/low carb diets—and how to fix them.

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Emerging Applications of the Ketogenic Diet by Dr. Dominic D'Agostino

Ketogenic Diet & Longevity

Eric M. Verdin, M.D. is the fifth president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and is a professor of Medicine at UCSF. Dr. Verdin's laboratory focuses on the role of epigenetic regulators in the aging process, the role of metabolism and diet in aging and on the chronic diseases of aging, including Alzheimer’s, proteins that play a central role in linking caloric restriction to increased healthspan, and more recently a topic near and dear to many of you, ketogenesis. He's held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the NIH and the Picower Institute for Medical Research.

KETO DIET: A LEGIT LIFESTYLE CHOICE

Keto is a lifestyle change. Many who follow the Keto diet adopt a ketogenic lifestyle and intend to adopt long-term habits of reducing the consumption of carbohydrates and sugar. As the ketogenic diet spreads, this is what you need to know about the keto lifestyle, and how GloNua can make you better.

UNDERSTANDING THE KETO DIET

Ketogenic diets goal is to put your body into ketosis — a condition in which your body burns down fat instead of carbohydrates for fuel. The diet is mostly fat (actually 75% of your daily calories), with moderate protein intake (20%) and very little carbohydrate (<5%).  Without access to glucose from carbohydrates, your body does not have any ups and downs that lead to energy crashes, hunger pangs, and cravings.  Instead, the liver must convert fatty acids from your diet into ketones for the body and brain to use as fuel. This stabilizes blood sugar. Your body also loses excess weight — fast. But that does not mean it’s unhealthy or unsustainable —as long as it's done properly.

DON’T CALL THE KETO DIET “ATKINS.”

First, do not confuse the ketogenic diet for Atkins diet. While Atkins' diet is affluent in proteins, a keto diet contains protein in moderation. On a keto diet, huge amounts of protein can be converted to glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis, which moves you out of ketosis. That’s why fatty cuts of meat are still a better option to, say, chicken breast, which contains excess protein and low in fat. Furthermore, vast amounts of protein also tax the liver, thus results in inflammation. On the contrary, a ketogenic diet is anti-inflammatory; burning fat for fuel creates far less inflammation than burning sugar does. Ketones themselves turn off inflammatory pathways. Because of this, ketogenic diets may, in fact, help prevent chronic diseases that are caused by inflammation. (Fun fact: The ketogenic diet is used to keep epileptic patients from having seizures.)

To go keto the GBNutracise way, focus on good fats and quality vegetables then add these six key steps:

·         Power through “GloNua” for the first two weeks.

·         Skip the carb refeed day.

·         Track your ketones.

·         Watch for hidden carbs.

·         Don’t go too high on protein.

·         Take time to move from research to practice.

Main takeaway: If you are looking for a way to shed pounds, garner mental clarity, reduce inflammation (and your risk for disease), and feel your absolute best, consider going GloNua - the bulletproof way.

GOOD REASONS TO USE EXERCISE SUPPLEMENTS

It does not matter how much experience you have in the gym or how long you've been working out, there are times when you're going to face some hurdles. This might be a good time to consider looking into exercise supplements that could help you overcome them.

Have you ever had days where you get to the gym, start to workout and then after two exercises you crash entirely? This can be very discouraging. The first thing that you should look at is whether or not your program is put together correctly. If you're training too frequently and with too much volume, the chances are that you're overtraining. To avoid this, you should try to use supplements, they can go a long way to give you extra endurance, energy, and strength.

Having muscle soreness days after a good workout is an unusual experience, but if the soreness is bad enough that you are skipping workouts, there are some measures that you can take to shorten the amount of time that you're sore. The first one is to make sure that you stretch at least 10 or 15 minutes at the end of your workout and do some light cardiovascular. If this is not working, then you might need to consider something else. GloNua is a supplement that speeds up the recovery process so that you can be consistent with your workout.

It is not uncommon to be fatigued at the end of a workday. You might just want to go home and snooze, but you've to get to the gym to workout. If you skip a workout because you're too tired, there is no reason to beat yourself up about it, but if it starts to happen a lot then maybe you want to use a supllement to give you the extra boost that you might need to get your workout going. Try to cut out all other caffeine use during the day so that when you use it before your workout, it will have a better overall effect.

Finally, don't just give up on a workout program simply because you run into a problem. What you should do is to find out what the problem is and work to fix it. Exercise supplements can be a huge help to get this done. A great supplement for all of the above, even though we’re biased, is definitely GloNua. There’s no one else on the market that does what we do, as good as we do. Especially as clean and healthy as us! Try it yourself and see.

TAKE YOUR TRAINING TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH KETOSIS

If you’ve been working out while eating keto or any other variation on a high-fat, low-carb diet, there is good news for you. Recent research shows that you not only don’t need carbs for athletic performance, but you can also gain an advantage if you cut them out. Let’s outline how ketosis can kick your athletic performance to the next gear.

WHY YOU DON’T NEED CARBOHYDRATES TO TRAIN HARD

A recent study out of UConn found that low-carb endurance athletes performed exceptionally well as high-carb endurance athletes, if not better. Before now, most studies have inferred that you top out at around 10% of energy recruited from fat and for the rest, you depend mostly on glycogen (a form of sugar stored in your liver and muscles).  This is the main reason why high-carb diets have been the norm for athletes for so many years. With a low-carb diet, your glycogen stores will empty quickly, there is tendency you'll run out of fuel, and most importantly, you start breaking down your muscles for energy.

The results were impressive. The ketogenic runners showed extraordinarily high rates of fat oxidation. In other words, the low-carb athletes were fat-burning machines. They recruited enormous amounts of energy from fat during the 3-hour run and showed no more fatigue than the high-carb runners did.

The takeaway from all these is that a ketogenic diet can help you:

·         Maintain muscle tissue

·         Tremendously increase the fat you burn

·         Exercise like a boss without metabolic downsides.

In fact, according to the experiment, many of the high-carb ultra-marathoners used for the study changed to a low-carb diet after observing how well the ketogenic participants performed.

It is important to remember that a ketogenic diet can help you:

·         Grease the fat you burn

·         Keep your muscle tissue

·         Continue to practice as a boss without any disadvantages of metabolism, even at an elite level.

OTHER BENEFITS OF LOW-CARB TRAINING

•         Fat and cholesterol support the level of testosterone, which causes you to burn more fat. Simple carbohydrates, in particular, lower your testosterone, making you store more fat.

•         Your energy reservoirs are deeper if you’re running on fat. The average person can contain about 500 grams of glycogen at a time, but as we all know, fat stores are more.

There is the tendency to hold less water weight on a low-carb diet. You’ll be faster and lighter on your feet, without that bloating. This can make a huge difference if you’re a competitive athlete. You’ll also look leaner. That’s what’s important.

WILL I LOSE MUSCLE ON A KETOGENIC DIET?

The ability to gain muscle at the same time as losing fat is very controversial among those who are in the fitness industry; however, this seems to be the desired goal for anyone looking to optimize their body composition. Among the challenges we face is that to shed body fat; we have to reduce the intake of calories, and often we lose muscle mass. On the other hand, to build muscle mass, we tend to gain body fat. These changes in body composition may arise for a variety of different reasons.

In any case, it’s clear that a properly implemented ketogenic diet has a protein sparing effect. This tends to allow one dieting to retain more muscle mass than if he/she hadn’t been ketogenic. This means that we can shed off lower abdominal fat and at the same time keep our prized muscles that have taken a lot of hard work.

HOW CAN I LOSE FAT WHILE STILL MAINTAINING MUSCLE?

Typical ketogenic diets comprise only 15-25% protein, yet according to research, being in a state of ketosis can preserve muscle mass even during a caloric deficit. Dr. Layman conducted a study comparing a moderate fat, high protein, and low carbohydrate diet to a moderate fat, moderate protein, and high carbohydrate, in conjunction with resistance training. This data suggests that increasing protein intake during a caloric deficit, can help mitigate some of the muscle wasting that often accompanies dieting.

MUSCLE MAINTENANCE METHODS OF KETONES

Listed below are three fundamental mechanisms that contribute to the preservation of muscle.

KETONES CAN SPARE MUSCLE

We know that the primary source of fuel during a ketogenic diet comes from ketones and fat. The liver produces ketone bodies in the deficiency of excess glucose (during starvation, fasting, or ketogenic dieting).

PROTEIN INTAKE

Our bodies are very susceptible to the types of macronutrients we eat. To achieve a state of ketosis, one must be cognizant of the macronutrient composition of his/her diet.

ADRENERGIC STIMULATION

We know that a ketogenic diet usually causes a decreased blood sugar. When blood glucose lowers, our bodies transmit a potent counter regulatory stimulus to the adrenal gland to release epinephrine

Lastly, Ketogenic diet remains the best to maintain or grow muscles. Substantial protein and zero carb is the best combination of muscles growth.

ADDING SUPPLEMENTS WHILE EXERCISING

If you’ve ever done any intensive exercising, then you’ll know that there will be a time when it takes a toll on the body, and you begin to feel worse and worse. This is especially true if you have to do the program daily and you don't give your body the time to recover. You’ll start to notice that you don't have the energy to continue and you might even get more injuries, on a regular basis.

This damage to your body can lead to the feeling that you are wasting your time and you’ll end up with less motivation to finish the program. If you’re thinking about starting an intensive exercise of any kind, you should read on for some tips on how to get through the program without suffering from loss of energy, or in worse cases, an injury.

REST DAYS

If your program has rest days, then you need to stick to them. People, who think that if they skip their rest days, they will lose more weight, are usually the ones who don't lose the weight because they get a bad injury halfway through the program and then they’ve reverted to old eating habits. Therefore, you must have days off and stick to the regime that you have.

SUPPLEMENTS

If you realise that you’re feeling a little bit drained and you don't have the energy to do the program, you might need to incorporate exercise supplements. They can give you the boost that you need because sometimes, extreme weight loss and exercise can result in you being deficient in something that you need to have energy.

INCREASE INTENSITY

If you get to that point where you’re taking the supplements and are taking the breaks, but then when you start exercising again, you find it too easy and you don't see further weight loss, then it is time to increase the intensity of the program because you have reached your peak.

Finally, GloNua is one of the best exercise supplements. They’ve established themselves as a leader in the industry, with their facility being FDA registered and GMP certified.

AEROBIC EXERCISE WITH A KETOGENIC DIET

Many people enjoy doing an exercise that is performed by a combination of body movements; such as the cyclical ketogenic diet with aerobic exercise. This is often challenging because it requires a lot of energy to perform. This type of exercise is not recommended for individuals who are on a controlled calorie diet particularly when their energy is also affected. When you exercise aerobically, you must have enough energy to accomplish it, but how will you able to do that if you're just consuming a limited amount of food? Once an individual is on a diet, he or she can only do limited activities. Furthermore, it can even cause tiredness. This does not happen when you're on a ketogenic diet.

It doesn't mean that when you're already on a diet, you'll also become healthy. This is the most affected part in your life because you're not consuming enough food to give your body the nutrients it deserves, and needs. Furthermore, you may become slimmer, but your health will be in great danger. The only thing that you can do is to invest in dietary supplements that aside from losing weight it will also provide your body with the nutrients that it requires.

Aerobic exercise with a ketogenic diet remains an ideal combination to go for since most of us wish to have a physically fit and healthy body. With these two factors, having the body that you want is achievable, and at the same time, you'll still have enough energy to exercise. Diet will be useless if you do not exercise. Imagine yourself losing weight but not having a firm and fit body. This is what will most likely happen to you if you lack regular exercise but are on a diet. You may reduce weight, but your body will not be in perfect shape.

In case you haven't got any idea of what to purchase, GloNua is the best choice out there. With the combination of aerobic exercise and GoKeto, you can be assured that you’ll not just be satisfied with the result, but you’ll also be proud of it.

KETOSIS AIDS WEIGHT LOSS THROUGH SUPPRESSED APPETITE

Ketosis is what happens when your body changes to burning fat, instead of sugar for energy. This happens only if you do not eat carbohydrates or when you insist on using a particular type of oil. Many people tend to know about ketosis as they seek a weight loss strategy. This can be an important part of many people who have tried almost any other diet but have not seen the results they expect. But when people experience it and pay attention to the benefits of ketosis, the game automatically changes.

WHY IS CALORIE COUNTING SO INEFFECTIVE

One of the reasons why old calorie-restricted diets tend to fail is as a result of their capacity to make you hungry and cravings for food. Reducing calorie intake to lose excess weight alters the hormone that is responsible for hunger, so after you deprive yourself enough food to lose weight, your brain and gut uses your hormones against you.

SCIENCE BEHIND USING KETOSIS TO SUPPRESS APPETITE

When you start consuming more fat and reduce all those unhealthy carbohydrates (sugar, bread, etc.), there will be a reduction in blood sugar swing that affects most people on any regular diet. These alterations cause intense hunger that prevents you from seeking for an extra carbohydrate after a meal (never feel satisfied). But that's not the big news for most of us.

What happens is that ketones suppress appetite in a variety of more significant and subtle ways because ketones can control satiety hormones and hunger. Researchers have identified that ketones impact cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone which makes you feel full, and ghrelin, the “hunger hormone.”

HOW MUCH KETOSIS IS ENOUGH?

A recent study carried out in January 2015 was published in Obesity Reviews suggests that a blood ketone level of 0.5 mM was sufficient to suppress appetite in participants on a variety of diets, significantly. Typically, circulating levels of ketones range at ~0.1 mM (in average person), especially after an overnight fast.

Considering your metabolism, taking some GloNua in the morning (without other foods) will increase blood ketone levels which suppress appetite.

HOW TO INCREASE FAT BURNING DURING KETOSIS

Ketosis is also known as a process for the production of energy by producing ketones when there is not enough carbohydrate available in your diet. In other words, a low-carb diet is referred to as ketogenic because it forces the body to use fat for energy. There are certain methods for increasing fat-burning, through nutrition and exercise. How many carbs should you consume per day? When is the appropriate time to do so? What categories of carbs are the best? And what natural supplements inhibit muscle loss caused by extreme ketogenic diets?

STEP 1

Depending on your metabolism, you might consider taking in 30 to 50g of carbohydrates per day. Usually, this carb-depletion phase lasts five days and is followed by two days of carb-loading. For instance, 100 to 200g of carbs per day for two days. This carb-cycling technique helps to stop dieting plateaus in which the body halts burning fat in response to what it regards as starvation.

STEP 2

Heap your carbohydrates around your workouts. Carbs are required for two reasons: muscle energy and recovery. One proper technique is to take in half of your carbs before your workout and the other half afterward. Either way, taking in your carbs in the morning will enable the body to switch into ketosis during the day, thereby burning more fat.

STEP 3

Narrow resistance training workouts to 60 minutes for effective control cortisol levels. The stress hormone cortisol, which is part of the fight-or-flight response, slows down fat-burning and metabolizes muscle tissue. Sometimes, training harder is not the right path. It's better to train optimally.

STEP 4

Ensure you take 30 to 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio immediately following your resistance training workout. Super cardio is recommended because it burns body fat almost exclusively, sparing precious muscle tissue. High-intensity should be treated more like a resistance training workout regarding pre- and post-workout nutrition.

STEP 5

Take branch chain amino acids to keep the body burning fat, rather than muscle. These special amino acids act as anabolic triggers for muscle-building.

STEP 6

Replace some of the calories cut by avoiding carbohydrates with GloNua or MCT'S. These are saturated fats mostly from coconuts that can be used by the body as a source of energy, and they are thermogenic, meaning they increase fat-burning. Try taking 3-5g; Before and after workouts and every two or three hours throughout the day.