You would need a graduate degree to get ahead in the research area. That is almost a locked in situation. When I was in college, I worked at a food science/nutrition research center. Sounded cool. But it was low down dirty crap work, for me that is. They used rats and primates as test subjects.

Readers can download the soft copy of the “Dietary Guidelines for Indians” free of cost for their own use and also for dissemination of information for the benefit of the society on non- profit basis. Readers are not supposed to either reproduce / copy / reprint the same for commercial purpose. If the information is used in some.

(Don't want to go into that.) All the research people there were grad students. LOL Some of these people experimented on themselves. You would see them with IV tubes attached to their arms and they carry this bag or pump or whatever heck devices on their waist. They were walking around like the Borgs!!

Graduated with a biology major, chem minor (did the whole pre-med thing). Been doing research in pharmacology, cell bio, and genetics for the past 2 years. Applying to IBS (interdisciplinary biological sciences) PhD programs. Pretty much you take classes in various departments like immunology, pharmacology, biochem, micro, endocrinology, and then decide in which labs you want to do your rotations.

I know U of Ky and UNC has such programs. All they really look for is a decent GRE score (they only look at verbal and quantitative -- 600-650 a section is good enough). You also need to have above a 3.0 gpa and sometimes they prefer research experience.

Then write your statement of purpose, get some good recommendations and you are good to go. I agree with K 100%. You must have a graduate degree to get anywhere. I also did sales, and it sucked the biggest cock. So research it is. Just curious who else here is majoring in a science? (or has already graduated with a major in a science) im only a second year bio major.

REN GIS - Geographic Information Systems: The best I could do after two degrees was GIS - Geographic Information Systems - which is disappointing. I would really like to do Biomedical Research but it is out of reach. GRE 550V, 750Q, Engineering 660.

Plus my engineering major was in the wrong place to be of value. You will probably be stuck in front of a computer doing computer aided design / production which someone with a high school degree could do just as well. That is life - live with it. But you come from a strong institution - you might make it. Biotechnology is where it is.

I hold BBH, BioTech Holders Shares to make up for my lack of achievement in Biotechnology. Wish you luck.

For reasons I’m still struggling to understand, the idea of “nutritional ketosis” (NK, to be distinguished from starvation ketosis, SK or diabetic ketoacidosis, DKA) is often discussed and debated in much the same way as religion or politics. Monacor Pa-900 Manual more. Perhaps this can be said of all nutrition, which is a shame. Nevertheless, in my continued defiance of such sensitive topics, I’d like to add another layer of complexity and nuance to this discussion. As I’ve written about before, I’ve spent much of the past two-and-half years in (and sometimes out of) NK. Will I stay in this state in perpetuity? I have no idea, but for those interested, in the video of I made the case why I find NK appealing for my objectives.

One of those objectives is balancing my physical performance (I am largely a sedentary individual, except for 3 activities: cycling, swimming, strength training with a bend towards ) objectives and my health objectives. The “rule of thumb” for NK is that caloric intake is determined as follows (this excludes a subset of ketogenic diets known as calorie-restricted KD which, as the name suggests, is specifically restricted in calories): • Carbohydrate (total, not “net”): less than 50 gm/day, but ideally closer to 30 gm/day • Protein: up to 1 to 1.5 gm/kg, but ideally below about 120 gm/day • Fat: to satiety Let me illustrate what this looks like for Joe (left), Jane (middle), and Jeff (right — an example of a calorie restricted KD), three hypothetical people in NK — but each with different caloric requirements. As a general rule, as caloric requirement increases the proportion of calories derived from carbohydrate and protein decreases (and the contribution of dietary fat increases), even while absolute intake of carbohydrate and protein increases.

Anyone who has bought a blood ketone meter knows how tough it can be to get “into” ketosis by carbohydrate restriction (since everyone asks, I use the Abbott Precision Xtra meter which uses two different strips: one for glucose and one for beta-hydroxybutyrate, or BHB). Most practitioners consider the minimum threshold of NK to be a fasting serum level of BHB above 0.5 mM. I’m a bit more stringent in my practice and like to see fasting BHB levels above 1 mM. To give you a sense of one person’s numbers (mine), over the past 6 months my mean (i.e., arithmetic average) morning fasting level has been 1.7 mM with a median value of 1.4 mM. The highest morning level during that period was 5.2 mM. (The highest morning level I have ever measured in myself is 5.7 mM.) But, it took me a long time to get it right, especially since at the outset of my foray into NK I was consuming between 4,000 and 4,400 kcal per day. (Today, my average daily caloric intake for weight stability is about 3,800 kcal per day, which has been validated by – I’ll discuss this in a later post since it’s a pretty cool technique.) And even today, I can still easily “fall out” of NK.

For example, on my daughter’s birthday last month she insisted I have some of her tikka masala (contains lots of sugar), naan bread, and mango ice cream. How could I say no to a birthday girl who insisted on going to the nicest Indian restaurant in San Diego for her 5 th birthday? As to be expected, the next day my BHB was 0.2 mM, and it took me 2 days to get back above 1 mM. Here’s a little secret I’m about to let everyone in on I like carbohydrates. I love sushi (though I now mostly eat sashimi). I love Indian and Thai food, though I prefer to make curry myself to keep sugar out.

I make (and eat) the best hummus this side of the Nile River. And, over the last couple of years I’ve figured out how and when I can eat them to meet the following conditions: • Stay in NK (except on a few occasions like my daughter’s birthday); • Increase my anaerobic performance; • Preserve most (but not all*) of the benefits I enjoyed when I was much more strict about my ketogenic diet (circa 2011).

How, you ask? By learning to calculate my glycogen deficit.

(*) For me, the leanest body composition I achieved as an adult was in strict NK with no attempts to do what I’m about to describe below. Since I’m not a model and nobody cares if my body fat is 7% or 10%, I’m happy to be a little less lean if it gives me the flexibility to increase performance and live a slightly more sane life. At least for now. PLEASE NOTE: I have never suggested, and can’t imagine I ever will suggest, that a KD is “best” or “right” for everyone.

What I describe below may seem extreme, both in the amount of work required and the actual application. I fully acknowledge that (1) this is a highly analytical approach to eating, and (2) that I’m a “freak” (my wife’s words, not mine). I certainly don’t do this often, unless a lot is on the line (e.g., a big ride), but I like having this technique in my armamentarium. If you’ve watched the video in the post I linked to above, then you’re familiar with RQ. Through years of metabolic testing I have a pretty good sense of my RQ at any moment in time – when I’m sleeping, when I’m sitting around (most of the time), when I’m riding my bike at 200 watts, when I’m riding my bike at 400 watts, when I’m lifting weights, etc. This allows me to calculate what proportion of my energy I derive from glycogen and what proportion I derive from fatty acid.

Consider the following example: If I ride my bike at an average of 185 watts (you’ll need a power meter to infer this) for, say, 2 hours, I know my average RQ is between 0.76 and 0.80 (I have not presented these results yet, but they are more accurate than what I presented in the video, which was based on a 30,000 liter calorimeter, which overestimated RQ relative to a mask under exercise conditions due to air mixing). This means I consumed, from both muscle and liver glycogen stores, between 20% and 33% of my energy needs from glycogen. The approximate formula is%CHO = 3.333*RQ – 2.333, which can easily be derived from the observation that%CHO utilized increases linearly from 0% at RQ 0.7 to 100% at RQ 1.0. Furthermore, I know my VO2 at 185 watts is 2.9 liters per min, which means (using the Weir formula which I presented previously) my energy requirement was about 14 kcal per minute, or 1,680 kcal over 2 hours. Hence, of these 1,680 kcal needed to pedal 185 watts for 120 minutes, 336 to 554 kcal came from glycogen.

In other words, I utilized between 84 and 138 gm of glycogen. (By comparison, 3 years ago, this effort in me would have taken place at a slightly higher VO2 – closer to 3.2 liters per min – and at a much higher RQ – between 0.90 and 0.95 – meaning the exact same work output would have required somewhere between 300 and 400 gm of glycogen! That’s a real state of metabolic inflexibility. Basically, I was entirely dependent on carbohydrates for energy.) Since the first metabolic priority for ingested carbohydrate is glycogen replenishment, I can, in this setting, consume probably somewhere between 60 and 120 gm of carbohydrate following this ride and stay in ketosis. Because those carbohydrates are prioritized to replenish my glycogen stores AND I am highly insulin sensitive.

Note the *AND* in this last sentence. (The especially astute reader will realize some of this glycogen debt will be replenished by protein and glycerol, the latter of which is liberated by lipolysis – see post on for a primer). Clearly I didn’t consume this amount of carbohydrate on my daughter’s birthday, so why was I out of ketosis the next day? Because my glycogen debt was not high. Of course, I knew this and didn’t really care. But, if I know my wife wants to go out for sushi one night, and I know she’s going to make me eat a California roll, I can “rig it” such that I show up to dinner with a glycogen debt appropriate enough to enjoy them without significantly interfering with my liver’s BHB production.

Extreme example Last week I did two tough bike rides on consecutive days. Each day we rode 110 miles under challenging conditions. Over 6,000 feet of climbing each day and very strong winds, which were either headwinds or cross-winds. On top of this, we rode pretty fast. For the purpose of illustration I recorded everything I did and ate on the second day, which I rode a bit easier than the first day.

The second ride took 6 hours and 5 minutes. My average normalized power output was 225 watts, and arithmetic average power output was 184 watts. Based on mechanical work output, this required about 5,000 kcal.

Factoring in the other 18 hours of that day, my total energy expenditure was about 6,800 kcal for the day, obviously not an average day. (A detailed explanation of where the extra 1,800 kcal were expended is beyond what I want to get into now, but it’s basically the energy required to keep me alive – transport ions, contract voluntary and involuntary muscles, etc.

— plus move me around, and digest food). So what did I eat that day? • Breakfast (pre-ride): 5 scrambled eggs, 2 sausage links, 3 pieces of bacon, coffee with cream. • In ride nutrition (I spread this out over 6 hours): 14 oz (not a typo) of salted cashews, 2 Quest bars, 1 peach, 1 apple, 6 bottles of Biosteel High Performance Sports Drink, water. (Since I know someone will ask, I did not consume super starch this day since I was craving cashews as my carbohydrate source and was craving more sodium, given the 90+ degree temperature.) • Late lunch/early dinner (post-ride): 2 oz ham, 3 oz pulled pork, large salad with oil and vinegar dressing, 2 slices of cheddar cheese, 6 mini hamburger patties, 2 tomatoes. What did this amount to? • Fat – 351 gm, or 3,160 kcal of fat • Protein – 245 gm, or 980 kcal of protein • Carbohydrate – 321 gm, or 1,284 kcal of carbohydrate (I used package information and Nutritionist Pro software to calculate this.) Hence, on this day I consumed about 5,400 kcal in total at the following ratio: • Fat – 58% • Protein – 18% • Carbohydrate – 24% By all conventional wisdom I should not have been in ketosis the next morning, right?

The following morning, my BHB level was 2.2 mM and blood glucose was 5.1 mM. Teaching point I can’t resist: Following 2 days of significant caloric deficit, about 3,000 kcal in total, I should have in theory lost about a pound (mostly fat, possibly some muscle) which would have been noticed on a scale. Instead, I gained 8 pounds over those 2 days! Sure it was mostly water retention, both from the glycogen (small) and the fluid accumulating in the interstitial space (“thirds space” fluid losses, large) due to a systemic inflammatory response. This happens under extreme conditions of exercise.

In fact, the harder I exercise, the more weight I gain, transiently. I am at my absolute lightest following 2 days of travel (i.e., rest). So before freaking out at the sight of the scale, keep in mind that most day-to-day weight movement in our bodies is indeed water movement into and out of the plasma and interstitial space, respectively. What’s my point?

Context matters! If I ate even one-quarter of that amount of carbohydrate and two-thirds of that protein on a normal day – say, 2.5 hours of riding or 1.5 hour of riding followed by 1 hour of swimming, or a day of travel with no exercise – I would have been out of ketosis for two days or more. (Of course, my appetite on those days would not have allowed me to eat 5,400 kcal without feeling sick, but I won’t get into that until a later post.) But on this day, with these glycogen demands, I was able to maintain the perks of ketosis AND glycolysis simultaneously. There are days, though, when I overshoot my glycogen need and end up with a low BHB and high fasting glucose the following morning. Conversely, there are days I underestimate my glycogen depletion and wake up with very high BHB levels and very low glucose levels (i.e., BHB levels higher than glucose levels, when both measured in mM).

Final thoughts I feel a bit like I’m in unchartered territory because the literature on nutritional ketosis hasn’t really (to my reading) explored this level of extreme activity. In future posts, I’ll write about other experiences and self-experiments, including my experience with exogenous (i.e., synthetic) ketones (which I did not use on this ride, but have experimented with on other rides – no, this is not “raspberry ketones” or other such gimmicks). Are carbohydrates necessary to produce 225 watts or more for hours on end? But, the key is knowing how much you need and when to take them.

A lower RQ at a given level of intensity means less demand on glycogen. In my experience, working with athletes and non-athletes, most tend to make two errors (for lack of a better word): • They over-estimate their carbohydrate requirement, and/or • They forget that no factor influences RQ – and therefore substrate requirement – more than dietary composition during lead up to event (or “life”, which is sort of the ultimate event). Know your engine, first. Then fuel it appropriately. Samantha August 26, 2013 From my own personal experience: I was training on the bike and running up to 28 hrs per week (given work schedules) and I was in NK for 4 weeks prior to my 24 hour mountain bike race at the end of July. After that race, I gained several lbs, but I knew it was glycogen/water retention. I continued to train and raced the following week, a short but very high intensity mtb race.

After that, I RESTED. I decided not to race due to life situations and I had been neglecting my own research so I got back to writing/etc., and I went to riding about 5-10 hours per week. I lost not only 5lbs, but I went down a size in clothing during this rest period!! I also went out of NK, but now I’m going back in it because I feel awful when I eat carbs and I have more energy for my workouts and my research when I’m in NK. Jim Hunt August 26, 2013 Thanks for the insight doctor. I went and had my blood test done recently, and my insulin level is at 14 (even though the optimal level said it should be at 3-9. My HbA1C level was 4.8, but the optimal range is 5.6.

Am I still in danger of getting diabetes? My doctor said to lower my carbohydrate intake and in take my vitamin D. I got a second opinion, and that doctor also said to lower carbohydrate intake and increase vitamin D. What do you think Dr. How can I get my insulin levels to an optimal level. Debra Carroll August 26, 2013 Peter, Great article and information that I will be referring to in attempts to fuel my cycling, especially on the high volume weekends.

You mentioned on thing that almost made me jump up and down.the weight “gain” after a hard weekend of training. I would love to have a clearer understanding of exactly what is happening in the inflammation you mention. With most of my heavy training on the weekends I have been aware for a long time that I could count on Monday being the heaviest day of the week and Friday being the lightest.

My thought has been this was inflammation was in the muscle tissue but I’m not sure if you are saying its in the gut. August 26, 2013 Hey Peter. Thanks for everything you do.

I’ve taken my max distance from 5 miles in April to 80 miles yesterday, along with 40 pounds lost since late June. Although you introduced the topic by discussing rather high Glycemic Index foods like sushi and sweets, I didn’t see much of a mention of this in the later parts of the post.

Would you mind discussing this more? I’m a bit of a burger fiend. I’ll admit, I do love my buns (as much as their high GI tells me no). Say I stopped for a burger in the middle of a long ride, would this impact ketone production, in comparison to something like nuts or super starch?

Jay Fox August 29, 2013 Interesting, I’ll have to find the time to read the full article. Just from skimming it, I see that the “high fat” diet was 60% fat (by calories), and 5% by cholesterol?? Is that a typo?

How much cholesterol is that, anyway? I’ve never seen cholesterol and calories mentioned together, probably because, even if it had the energy density of fat, there’s just not enough of it to matter. While I’d be interested in Dr. Attia’s take on this, you might want to see if the “other” high-fat Peter, over at the Hyperlipid blog, has had a chance to review this. I’m reading his blog from the oldest posts going forward, so I’m still a few years back, and this study appears to have been published only last year. So if he has reviewed it, I haven’t seen it yet. Rob Coberly September 6, 2013 That looks like careful work, demonstrating modulation of CMA by lipids in those models.

In that work, there is no examination of ketone body effects, of course-not what they were studying. We can’t know if the subject animals had significant levels of ketone bodies, but it seems very unlikely from what information is given about the diets used. But there is also good quality evidence that ketone body concentration positively affects CMA: Ketone bodies stimulate chaperone-mediated autophagy. Proteolytic and lipolytic responses to starvation.

One point I keep in mind is that nutritional ketosis promotes biochemical adaptations resembling what happens in calorie restriction or negative energy balance. The process changes many biochemical variables, so would likely affect the results in metabolic research.

And so far, only a small proportion of the research literature has explored the many questions of interest using models that specify CHO intake or quantify ketone levels. I’m watching literature on calorie restriction and the fasting state too, for clues.

Tom Ashbrook August 26, 2013 Well done Peter. I know you are busy but selfishly I, and assume thousands of others, miss the old days of weekly posts! You are on the cutting edge and I wish more people involved in sports performance would share your enthusiasm for what really matters given what we have (genetics, schedules, goals, etc.).

I see way too much one size fits all with kids in sports like swimming. It’s tough to tell a 13 year old swimmer about nutrition, lactate threshold training, REE, etc. When you conflict with the dogma that is out there. Strike that – it is impossible and it would have been for me too at that age. Especially from my dad. What I would not give to have this information many years ago! At least I got my soccer player son off of Gatorade and on to water and, begrudgingly, a dash of UCAN for those longer two-game days.

Thanks for your efforts. It is a somewhat subtle point about context but it makes all the difference. Jacob Jaglarski August 26, 2013 Very intriguing and insightful, Dr.

I wonder how this would translate over to muscle building in a ketogenic state, if one were to try and stay in ketosis for neurological issues. For instance, I largely follow the Body By Science protocol of exercise (with some variations) while wearing an elevation training mask and doing rest-pauses and what not – it’s highly intense, but brief. I’ve been more or less following a cyclical ketogenic diet, but I’m wondering if I can alter my feedings on this day to still register at the minimum of 0.5mM of ketones. I could probably still gain muscle, albeit slowly though. Attia, I would recommend you read this blog post: Ben Greenfield has referenced it a bit before his ketogenic Ironman experiment post.

Don’t get confused by the title, it’s actually displaying how and *why* one might want to fuel performance with fats instead of carbs. I think after I re-read your post a few times and digest it, I might go back and re-read this and get a better understanding for recycling D-Ribose and creating glycogen deficits so I can fuel performance better while still maintaining relatively strict ketosis. I assume ample consumption of Dave Asprey’s MCT and Brain Octane Oils would help, though, lol. Again, thanks for the great post. Ironically I was reading through your blog yesterday and was disappointed that you hadn’t blogged in awhile, but thought to myself that even though they don’t come one day after another, they’re the most quality blogs around – and that’s what matters. Keep em coming!

N August 26, 2013 Fascinating article. I have been experimenting with LCHF for the past month or so – eating carbs only in the form of veggies, protein. Todd Williams August 26, 2013 I recently tried NK and I love it. It’s been a couple of weeks and I feel great.

I’ve got two questions though: – If I end up eating too many carbs in one meal, is it even worse that I’m consuming so much fat with it? – I do CrossFit every morning, similar to your tire flipping, box jumps etc., but I don’t do any of the marathoning that you do. Do you think NK will sustain me for these short 15-minute high-intensity workouts or should I look to add a few carbs post workout? I’ve noticed a bit of a hit to my performance, but then I’ve only been in ketosis for 2 weeks.

Thanks Peter! Your work has truly changed my life. Bill August 26, 2013 Peter, at some point it would be wonderful to hear your views on protein, carbs and high-intensity strength training, which I know you also do. Both the NK’ers and simple LC’ers like me would likely benefit. Immediately after a very brief but intense 1x/week full-body strength workout (like today!) I’m pretty sure some high-quality protein is advisable, but not sure whether or not some extra carbs would help to replenish glycogen and facilitate muscle supercompensation.

Most bodybuilders seem to think so, but real evidence seems to be scarce. Alex F August 26, 2013 Thank you for this post. I’m a low-carber, medium-length endurance guy. I’ve had the hardest time working in carbs to refuel during and after exercise. It seems to quickly shift me right back into the carb-craving, blood sugar-swinging person I was a year ago (before adopting a paleo diet).

Then it will take days to break this cycle. I know I need extra carbohydrate to sustain my level of training, but I really wish I didn’t. I’m still learning how to work them in.

This is helpful. Ryan Adams Blackhole Rarest. Edel August 26, 2013 Hi Peter and thanks for your blog.

I am eating low GI with a view to possibly trying NK in an effort to see if it brings about a regular menstrual cycle, in addition to bother benefits (not sure what you make of the limited literature on ketogenic diets for PCOS). I’d like to know if you experienced drastic changes in bowel health when you changed the macronutrient composition of your diet drastically? I think my gut is shocked that it isn’t getting cereal grain fiver, but instead is getting fibre from vegetables and limited amounts of low GI grains. Jeff August 26, 2013 Hi Peter Very interesting, I’d like to see you power meter files. My own 3 week experiment was a bit of a bust, I was never able to get into NK, must have been the protein although my wife basicallly eating the same diet as me had no problem and she was doing no exercise. She was also able to easily track going into/out of NK after a night binging on popcorn at the movies with our kids, about 36 hours to return to NK and did it twice.

After 3 weeks of almost no carbs I lost no weight every morning 155 to 160 lbs. I seem to function best between 50 – 100g of carbs a day no matter how hard the training is. I think most cyclists overdue the carbs. Maybe when I have a whole month without racing I’ll try it again and measure all my protein. After going back on carbs (am I on the wagon or off the wagon) I did repeat as State Champion in the kilo individual pursuit.

Erika September 10, 2013 As a female athlete who’s been eating paleo for over a year, I find that it is actually pretty difficult to get enough calories to avoid hormonal issues, at least while training heavily and on the strict version of this diet. For me, I add fruit whenever I crave it, and even true starches when I feel particularly exhausted (and the few days before my biggest events). But personally, I eat to feel and perform well, not to hit specific target numbers, and your goals may be different.

August 26, 2013 Awesome insights, as always, Dr. I try to tell people that, on a biochemical level, the best (or “safest”, if you will) time to consume carbohydrates (especially higher GI/GL ones) is right after a hard workout. And no, walking around the neighborhood doesn’t count! This assumes they’re already mostly LC and fat-adapted, of course, but I suspect that even for the average SAD-eater out there, the post-workout window is still the safest time to eat carbohydrates, especially if they can manage to do something pretty intense first thing in the morning, fasted. You’re so right — so much of how much carbohydrate we can tolerate has to do with our glycogen stores: Already full? Empty or close to it? Completely different ballgame.

Anyway, I like to think of it this way: if you want to eat a couple of cookies (or insert one’s sugary vice of choice), you’ve got to *earn them* (via hard workout.) I’ve suspected the glycogen issue for a while, and you just confirmed something I’ve noticed in myself for many years that at first *seems* illogical, but completely rights itself when you understand human physiology: I’m often my leanest after a day or two of NO workouts. (And eating well, of course. I suspect the leanness wouldn’t be there if I skipped the gym and coupled it with a carbfest.) So yeah, it’s the temporary inflammation/edema caused by the hard workouts themselves. When the body gets some time to rest, it dumps the excess fluid. This also explains why I looked so PUFFY in the finish line pictures of the two marathons I completed in a former life. Well, that, a.