I’m looking for a low carb diet while doing the Spartacus 1.0 workout. Any suggestions?
Check out the Deep Water program and diet.
I’ll check it out. Thanks
I had a look at this and it is a pretty blunt introduction to low carb dieting, IMO! Anderson states he is consuming 700g PRO! I’ve floated the idea of low carb dieters using boatloads of protein to generate glycogen without carbs, Anderson has taken this to another level. Good shout. Thanks for flagging this up. Anderson is an interesting character!
I thought the purpose of low carb diets in the first place was to REDUCE blood glucose concentrations? Why would you consume excess protein to try and maintain blood glucose? It seems as though you would want to hover right around a ketogenic state to start calling on fat stores for energy most of the day, and then have a moderate amount of carbs for immediate energy timed to fuel workouts.
I mean I get the thermogenic benefit, but once it’s converted, glucose is glucose right? Seems like it kind of defeats the purpose.
Yes, this sparked some debate in an earlier thread. I think the purpose in these circumstances is to generate and, importantly, sustain, reduced, but stable, blood glucose levels. All the while, you should still be able to maintain decent levels of ketosis.
I haven’t experimented with this in any meaningful way. However, I did some blood glucose measurements. This showed at circa 40 hours fasted: 3.7mmol. Post-workout, I consumed a very large zero carb meal of steak and eggs. Two hours post prandial I tested at 5.1mmol. The next day (8 hours later) and it was still at 5.1mmol before dropping down again as I fasted through the day.
Thanks for going into more detail.
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like a viable option to me because the elevated BG from the protein will keep you far from ketosis.
I would be interested in seeing a case study on this with real world experience.
Glad you appreciated it. I’ve been a fan of Andersen since his IFSA days, and his book on training and diet really struck a chord with me.
Actually that’s not quite right. An absence of energy will cause ketosis, even if you’re ingesting some carbs. However, in the simplest terms, an absence of carbs will result in ketosis regardless of the remaining nutritional intake (PRO and FAT).
Proof: I have personally experimented with protein sparing modified fasts - ingesting around 225-250 PRO a day (and little else) and blood tested ketones at 0.9mmol. To contradict the keto police, excessive protein does not in fact turn into chocolate cake.
Edit…I misspoke…He was talking about carbs, not protein. Edited post…
Still though, it doesn’t make sense me why the liver would make ketones when there is an abundance of glucose in the blood stream already?
To add to this thought, wouldn’t you be playing a dangerous game to elevate BG levels with extreme excess of protein intake, and still have high levels of ketones in the blood? That’s the textbook definition of ketoacidosis isn’t it?
With due respect, I’m convinced that n=1 can hardly “prove” anything.
No worries. I did mean I had tested it on myself and hence that was the proof. I wasn’t trying to pass this off as some metabolic ward study!
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Well, it wouldn’t if there is an “abundance”. But that’s the point. Remember, even folks who claim they are strict keto, and keep their protein intake at a modest level, will still experience an element of gluconeogenesis because everytime you ingest protein some of it will be converted to glucose. That’s because the brain still uses glucose - even when in a ‘ketogenic’ state.
Realistically, no. The “high levels” you refer to would need to be far higher than that achieved through diet. Further, studies have shown individuals following prolonged fasting who were then introduced to glucose did not lapse into ketoacidosis as expected (I’ll need to dig these out).
From personal experience, I’ve found modest fasting and/or ketogenic/protein-sparing dieting tends to produce equally modest BG and keto levels. For example, last night, while fasting, I tested BG at 4.5mmol; and ketones at 1.1mmol. I intend to consume one large zero carb meal tonight (circa 250-275 PRO; 75 FAT). I’ll test before and post-prandial and see what it yields.
Yeah this makes sense. I was really getting the confusion from the standpoint of context based on this particular statement …
I would consider this to constitute an extreme abundance of BG through gluconeogenesis, but I could be wrong.
Apparently he consumes this throughout the day, i.e. frequent meals.
The most protein I’ve done in one sitting (and then tested) is about 200g. That generated a post prandial reading of 5.1mmol, which is absurdly low if you consider that up to 5.4mmol is considered normal in a fasted state and up to 7.8mmol post prandial!