I will give you my non-medical, non-professional definition, as I understand it from my research. Being keto-adapted means adopting a diet that allows your body to burn fat for energy rather than glucose – and sticking to it! Referred to as a “ketogenic diet” it involves eating mostly high quality fats (think grass fed meat and butter, lots of coconut oil) with medium protein and very low carb intake on a daily basis. It’s important to keep in mind that simply following a ketogenic diet does not automatically make you keto-adapted. There are numerous foods labeled as “low carb” that can interfere with ketosis.

The goal is to keep your body in a state of nutritional ketosis. The reasons for doing so are compelling, in my opinion. First and foremost, scientific research has shown a direct link between carbs and dementia and I want nothing to do with dementia. But don’t take my word for it, read “Stop Alzheimer’s Now” by Dr. Bruce Fife available on Amazon and “Grain Brain” available on Amazon by Dr. David Perlmutter for the compelling evidence of how diet can either cause or prevent serious brain diseases.

A ketogenic diet is also better for your heart. Yes, eating good fats reduces the chance of heart disease. I start every morning with coffee blended with butter and MCT (medium chain triglyceride) oil, followed by eggs and bacon.

A ketogenic diet can also help prevent many neurogenerative diseases like Parkinsons, Diabetes, ALS, or lessen the symptoms of those already diagnosed.   Dr. Fife’s book goes in to great detail about those diseases and others and provides alarming research to back up his position. I am not going to argue with the research, even if it means limiting the foods I eat.

What the experts will tell you is that our bodies and brain run far more efficiently when burning fat rather than glucose. We were built to burn fat, not the processed foods (carbohydrates) that are now so prevalent in our diets.

I’ve been keto-adapted for about 7 weeks, and can tell you with certainty it takes more than just loosely following a ketogenic diet. Many foods can interfere with ketosis and each of us will be affected differently. I test my ketones daily using a blood testing meter. I am constantly trying to figure out which foods negatively affect my state of ketosis. But I’ll warn you it is not cheap to do daily blood tests. The testing sticks themselves are several dollars each.

My challenge, and a big reason why I started this blog, is to figure out how being keto adapted either positively or negatively impacts my cycling. My husband and I are training to ride some very steep climbs in France, and we are hoping to do a double century (200+ miles in one day) in September. So we are training hard and burning a lot of fat and calories.   Stay tuned for more on my keto-adapted journey!