A friend referred this video to me a few days ago by Jim McCarter, a geneticist who has been self-experimenting with ketosis for about a year now.  He, too, has found it to be very beneficial for his overall health, and with his exercise routine.  Unfortunately the video doesn’t show all of his slides, but it is less than 10 minutes and he speaks in a way that is easy to understand.  I encourage anyone reading this to also watch his video.

A point I think he makes particularly well is the need to moderate protein input when trying to stay in ketosis.  Too much protein results in our liver converting the extra protein into glucose through a process called gluconeogenesis.  Of the struggles I’ve had with staying in ketosis, I think consuming too much protein is one of the more common ones.

We have been conditioned to eat meat that is low in fat, yet most of that meat is high in protein.  Think chicken, turkey, lean cuts of beef, etc.  When eating in a restaurant or even trying to buy meat in a grocery store, the focus is always on low fat.  My husband and I try to counteract all of the protein by cooking the meat in grass fed butter or olive oil, but on an average day we still take in more protein than we need to.  Even the Quest bars we enjoy are really high in protein, and not very high in fat.

We have come to rely more on the snack bars made with SuperStarch from the folks at Generation UCAN and less on low carb bars that are high in protein.  UCAN just released a cinnamon swirl snack bar with SuperStarch that will be arriving on my doorstep in a few days.  It reportedly has no chocolate coating that would melt, a challenge we had with taking the chocolate peanut butter snacks on a long ride – they turn into a gooey mess.

I hope you enjoy the video, and if you are trying ketosis, hang in there!  Like anything new, there can be some rough patches but if you are willing to push through those, you, too, may have your eyes opened to a whole new way of living – with sustained energy and less reliance on food.