Started a Controlled Carb Diet

Diet and Nutrition
1

I started a controlled-carb diet on Monday 1/25/10 to lose body fat and improve insulin resistance, with the idea to transition into the AD diet once I’ve become fully fat-adapted and have reduced BF. My ultimate goal is a total recomp. and to do this right, I want to get BF down to around 10% before starting a bulk (as Pauli has suggested). I have not done a carb-load yet and am planning right now to wait until after next Friday to do so (so 25 days before the first load).

Generally I feel great, have had few cravings and have not been above 20 g / day of carbs yet. Strength and endurance are good. Had my first crappy workout after starting this past Wednesday.

I’ve read the orginal AD book and also thru the previous threads, but now have some questions because I’m confused about some things, mainly ketosis. Up until reading the interview with Dr. D that DH posted here Forums - T Nation - The World's Trusted Community for Elite Fitness , I thought ketosis was a good thing.

  1. KetoStix have been purple since day 3 (I’m 18 days into the diet). Is this a problem?

  2. How long does it generally take to become adapted into an efficient fat burner (i.e., so ketones are not strongly detectable in urine)?

  3. If being in ketosis for this long is a problem, what would I need to do to correct it at this point?

  4. Can restricting net carbs to say, below 10 / day, actually prolong becoming fat adapted (I mean do you have to have some carbs each day)?

  5. If the main goal right now is to lose weight and my strength and endurance are not suffering, how long can I reasonably continue w/o a carb-load?

  6. Finally, once I get the carb loading that works for me dialed in, will that actually help me to lose fat, or could that be done by prolonging the first carb load for several weeks?

I haven’t been able to dial in or even track the ratio of fat to protein, but do watch carbs like a hawk. Generally my meals consist of eggs and bacon or sausage in the morning, a chef, cobb or caesar salad for lunch and a steak, burger, chicken breast or 1/2 a rotisserie chicken plus some vegetables such as sauteed mushrooms, broccoli or asparagus for the evening meal. Small snacks of cheese and cold-cuts (like salami) if I get hungry in-between.

I appreciate any feedback, but some from the vets would be great.

Thanks!