The interest from endurance athletes in the so-called ketogenic diet continues to grow. With experts like Dr. Tim Noakes, MD (ultra-runner and acclaimed author of The Lore of Running and Waterlogged) and six-time Ironman champion Dave Scott endorsing the protocol that is high-fat, low-carb and moderate protein, how does one get started or at least find out about how to get started?

Here are a few items that can both offer guidance and info.

A copy of the Art and Science of Low-Carb Performance, by Dr. Jeff Volek, PhD and Dr. Steven Phinney, MD, is a good place to start, so that you can get a feel for if it’s something you want to commit to or not. The book includes a concise scientific explanation of what the ketogenic diet is, how it works and how to do it, by two of the leading researchers in the field. For those who want a triathlon-centered introduction to the diet, the best place right now is likely a visit to the Dave Scott Experience, where an education and orientation to ketosis is central to the camp.

If you decide to go for it, you would be wise to be safe about getting on board with strict ketosis. Two experts in the field of hormone regulation, diet and metabolism are both clinical MDs: Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Kirk Parsley. Both have said that while the ketogenic diet can work wonders for some, we are all wired differently and for some it can send biomarkers sideways (as Parsley once told me, “I’ve seen some shit shows.”)

So the smart, safe route is to get a look under the hood before and during the transition to a keto lifestyle. Checking with your doctor is probably the best place to start. Also, Inside Tracker and WellnessFX both have cutting edge blood test analysis services with an array of products and price tags. Certain packages come with medical consultations as well. The thing to do is to get a blood panel done at the beginning and then check again two months or down the line to see where you fit in—someone who does great by the ketogenic diet or someone who is a shit show.

Precision Xtra Ketone Meter. A critical mistake for endurance athletes embarking on a ketogenic diet is the failure to detect and chart whether or not ketosis is being achieved. There are number of blood glucose and ketone meters on the market, but currently the Abbott Precision Xtra seems to be the favorite. Of the two principle ketone bodies, betahydroxybuterate and acetoacetate, betahydroxybuterate is the one that you want to keep an eye on as it is more stable and will give you an accurate picture of your ketone levels. This is the ketone body that the Xtra measures. Urine strips, while cheaper and not requiring a drop of blood, measure acetoacetate, which will not give you an accurate portrait of you level of nutritional ketosis.

Now onto supplements, if you so desire. While you don’t need supplements to adopt a ketogenic diet, there are two key problems that supplements can help navigate. One is the infrastructure problem.  The modern food processing system is obsessed high-fructose corn syrup and hidden sugar. If you get caught out in the world without a tupperware container of a ketogenic meal or snack, there’s virtually nothing in the 7-11 that isn’t going to be high in sugar. Having a meal replacement (like the new EAS product described below) or a bar (like a Quest Nutrition bar mentioned below) is a good backup.

Let’s start with EAS’s new ketogenic version of Myoplex. I should first mention that as I’ve learned over the past year, the prospects for supplements in regards to the ketogenic diet have been coming to a boil. Let me point out again you don’t need them to go ketogenic, they might simply help. Seeing EAS get into it suggests they’re intending to lead the field. I recently wrote a story for Outside Magazine on how nutritional ketosis has gone well beyond being a tool for burning body fat or as a metabolic weapon for endurance athletes and into the realms of preventing chronic diseases like cancer. On the athletic performance side, the story included data from American 100-mile ultra-run record holder, Zach Bitter, how had been keto-adapted for more than six months when he participated in one of Jeff Volek’s studies. As Bitterrecorded on his blog, being adapted to ketones through diet allowed him to draw 98% of his fuel from fat stores at 75% VO2max  and 76% of his energy from fat while at 84% VO2max. The value for an ultra-runner is pretty clear: in races as many as 24 hours or more, the more that stored body fat can be used as fuel, the more muscle and liver glycogen can be spared. Another effect of being keto adapted and being in a state of ketosis is that it is also protein sparing. In fact, a well-formulated ketogenic diet, as Jeff Volek puts it, is not heavy on protein. Rather, it is moderate to light on protein so as to keep insulin levels low (in other words, eat a massive dinner of meat and you’ll kick yourself out of ketosis).

Read up on Volek’s ketone-adaptation research here.

CLICK HERE to read the full article from LAVA Magazine