Dr. Berg Table of Contents
I want to give you an overview of healthy keto (Keto Diet) and intermittent fasting from A to Z.
We’re going to take a look at all of the things that happen, and all of the barriers that you might run in to on this diet plan.
A typical person has breakfast, lunch, and dinner—don’t forget about the snacks.
The average person also deals with:
• Belly fat
• Fatigue
• Memory problems
• Lack of focus
• Cravings
• High blood pressure
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Diabetes .
The common denominator of all these issues is high levels of insulin.
You may have insulin resistance, which is causing high levels of insulin. We have to fix the insulin problem, and the way to help do it is through the ketogenic diet.
Keto is going to lower your carb intake and help reduce insulin. Intermittent fasting works because you’re going to eat less frequently. Every time you eat, you trigger insulin.
In between day 1 and day 3, you may go through the transition period, also known as keto-adaptation.
You may experience symptoms such as:
• Low blood sugar
• Lightheadedness
• Fatigue
• Constipation
• Hunger
• Cravings
• Headaches
You have to realize it's temporary, and if you give up right here, you're going to lose the benefits of all the great things down the road.
- Other effects from the keto-adaptation phase can be easily remedied by adding more minerals (potassium, sea salt) and B-vitamins (nutritional yeast).
- *If you cheat on this program, the next day you may experience more hunger and cravings—just get back on the wagon.
- *When you start going to 2 meals and then 1 meal, some people really stuff themselves, and overload the digestive system, and they end up with right shoulder pain and bloating.
- *Add lemon juice and apple cider vinegar to your liquid to help prevent the buildup of uric acid (gout, kidney stones) for those who are susceptible.
- * It’s not true that your thyroid needs carbs. In fact, your body will be more efficient on this plan, and the need for thyroid hormones will be less—this is normal.
- *Your cholesterol may go up temporarily because your fat cells release it—this is what we want. Just stick with it, and things will come down eventually.
- *Lastly, when you eventually get into autophagy (cellular recycling), your cognitive function, memory, skin, weight, and heart will all greatly benefit.
Let’s take a look at all the things that happen and all the barriers that you might run into .
I mainly created this for new people just so they could see everything together .
The average Keto Diet and health problems
I know it looks complex but let’s just kinda go through it .
Okay .
So , here you are , you’re having breakfast , lunch , and dinner .
Don’t forget about the snack , snack , snacks .
Right ?
That’s an average person .
You’re just pretty much grazing the whole day .
You got belly fat , fatigue , memory problems , lack of focus , your craving , high blood pressure , anxiety , depression , and diabetes .
But other than that , you’re doing pretty good .
Insulin and insulin resistance
So what is the common denominator of all these high levels of insulin ?
Okay .
You have insulin resistance , which is causing high levels of insulin .
That’s what’s creating all these symptoms .
So these symptoms are the tip of the iceberg .
This is the iceberg .
Okay ?
So we have to fix this .
Keto Diet (Ketogenic Diet)
The way we do it is through keto because keto’s gonna lower the carb and it’s going to reduce the insulin.
Alright .
Intermittent fasting
Intimate fasting works because you’re going to eat less frequent , not the amount but less frequent because every time you eat , you trigger insulin .
So the combination works really good to lower insulin .
Okay .
So you’re gonna start it .
Keto Diet adaptation
So now between day 1 day 3 you may go through a little transition period which you’re gonna feel some , symptoms of low blood sugar and that would be light headedness , hunger , and cravings , maybe a headache .
You have to realize it’s temporary and if you give up right here , you’re gonna lose the benefits of all the great things down the road .
So just realize it’s gonna happen and just hang in there but you can actually increase potassium and b vitamins to make it even smoother .
I recommend electrolyte powder and nutritional yeast tablets .
Okay .
So for this , we’re gonna do 3 meals only , no snacks because we’re transitioning from sugar to fat .
So when you make the transition , you’re gonna make new cellular machines that run on fat and not sugar anymore .
Okay ?
That’s keto adaptation .
Now , the way to do that is you’re gonna go from one meal to the next .
You’re gonna have to add some fat to satisfy you so you’re not hungry .
So the fat is the thing that you need to adjust so you have just the right amount .
So it’s not too much where you’re feeling bloated and right shoulder pain and a headache .
And you have just enough to go from this meal to this meal when you’re satisfied .
Okay ?
So you’re gonna play around with that and adjust that .
I’m talking like brie cheese , nuts .
Pecans are good .
Walnuts are good .
Eggs are good .
Avocado is good .
Any of those fats are really healthy .
And if you were to do a hamburger , for example , which has twice as much fat as protein versus a steak which has twice as much protein versus fat , you’d be better off with the hamburger because the fat helps you go from one meal to the next .
Alright ?
So make sure you have enough greens whether it’s salad or vegetables because we wanna start increasing potassium .
Very important .
You need 47 100 milligrams of potassium .
That’s between 7 10 cups of salad .
That’s a nutrient dense food to allow the hunger to go away because your body is finally gonna be satisfied , of the nutrients .
Okay ?
So you’re not eating these empty calories .
So but primarily you’re gonna get a lot of potassium to really help reverse this insulin resistance problem .
Now you may , experience constipation for example in which you might need to even add more potassium or it could be the vegetables that you’re consuming you’re not used to like kale for example .
If Having too much kale that can bind you up .
If that’s the case switch the vegetable .
But let’s say you have keto fatigue and you’re tired That usually means low salt .
So add some more sea salt .
And by the way , when you’re doing a ketogenic diet you need about 1 teaspoon of sea salt every single day compared to over here you need about a fourth of a teaspoon .
Okay .
So we need more sea salt , not table salt , to actually prevent fatigue and help your body with the electrolyte sodium and chloride .
Alright .
So we’re gonna do this for a while .
We’re gonna get used to it .
How to start intermittent fasting
Now , we’re gonna slowly graduate to 2 meals per day .
The way we’re gonna do that is we’re gonna take our breakfast and we’re gonna start to push it forward .
In other words , when you wake up in the morning , ask yourself , am I hungry ?
No .
Good .
Go longer .
Keep going longer and longer and longer , because if you do this right , you wake up at night , you’ve been fasting all night , and now you’re not hungry in the morning , push it further and further and further until you’re at the lunch where you have no more breakfast and you’re at 2 meals per day .
So that’s how we wanna graduate slowly .
Alright ?
So don’t eat if you’re not hungry .
Now at this point , a lot of people have mentioned , oh my gosh .
I was losing weight on this and I stopped losing weight .
You know , what’s happening ?
Well , you don’t wanna go by your weight .
Why ?
Because a lot of people that do this , when you measure them , they are loaded with fat and they have low muscle density .
They don’t have a lot of muscles anymore .
They basically have atrophy .
And they think it’s just all fat , but it’s atrophy .
So you’re gonna start growing more muscle and all this protein is now retaining in the body .
It’s a little heavier .
And that’s why you’ll stop losing weight because muscle weighs more than fat .
Okay ?
The best indicator for success is your weight circumference .
Okay ?
So measure your waist , and that should be shrinking if you’re doing this correctly .
Alright ?
Uric acid
Now sometimes you might experience high levels of something called uric acid .
You might start noticing a gout symptom .
It might not happen .
But if it does , that is normal in this transition phase .
Or you might , if you’re susceptible to getting a kidney stone , you might notice a little pain in your lower back .
That’s because the higher levels of uric acid .
So you just wanna make sure that you’re consuming enough lemon juice or lemon in your water or actual lemons .
Okay ?
Lemon is a great thing to help flush that out , encounter the effects of stones , gout , and this acid .
Okay ?
So I recommend that .
And also apple cider vinegar will also help this as well .
Tablespoon in some water .
Drink it with your meals with a lemon and you’re good to go .
A few more things that could happen with Keto Diet
A couple of things will happen .
You might , consume food a little too much because you’re , like , going to 2 meals and you’re gonna you’re afraid .
You’re so used to so many meals .
You’re like , oh , my gosh .
Am I gonna be hungry ?
So you stuff yourself .
Right ?
Well , you just have to make sure that you learn from that and adjust the food because you you probably don’t need the stuff yourself .
And I know this is hard to believe .
You might actually cheat on this program somewhere .
And you might find that the next day , you’re , like , way more hungry than you were yesterday , and you’re craving carbs .
Okay ?
Because you just bumped yourself out of this whole ketosis .
Just stick with the program , get back on the wagon , and continue .
But if you consume the wrong foods here , your blood sugar will be off .
And the next day , you’re gonna notice like , wow .
Now I’m , like , really hungry .
That’s what that’s all about .
One thing to note is if you’re doing 2 meals , make sure you’re not doing low calories .
Make sure they’re nutrient dense .
A little bit more food so you’re actually satisfied .
And you’re gonna do 3 to 6 ounces of protein , unlimited vegetables , and the rest with fat .
Is keto bad for the thyroid?
Now right about here , your friend calls you and she says , oh , you’re doing that keto program ?
Did you realize that it destroys the thyroid ?
It’s gonna make your thyroid slow .
Right ?
Well , let me just explain the facts on that .
So number 1 , we’re not doing a low calorie diet .
We’re eating less , but we’re keeping our calories high .
The second thing you need to know is that as your body becomes more efficient , the fuel is a more efficient fuel , the need for thyroid hormones are less .
So you’re not gonna need as much thyroid hormones .
So if it goes down a little bit , this is completely normal .
You’re not losing your hair .
You’re not having other issues .
It’s totally fine , especially if it’s within the normal range .
But your thyroid , does not have to work as hard when you’re doing intermittent fasting in keto .
Alright ?
High cholesterol
Another thing is you might end up at the doctor to get your annual checkup and find that your cholesterol is high .
Before you freak out and start going on a statin drug , realize fat is composed of triglycerides and cholesterol .
So guess what ?
When you release the fat , your cholesterol has to come out .
It has to go through the blood .
It may increase temporarily .
But the problem is most of the cholesterol in your body is made by your own body .
Only 10% comes from the diet .
So if you eat more , it makes less .
If you eat less , it makes more .
Our body basically makes about 3000 milligrams of cholesterol every single day .
So it needs it for hormones .
It needs it for the vision , for the brain , for the , nervous system and act as a band aid to help heal any type of lesions on the arteries .
The real problem is this high insulin that creates inflammation and the destruction of your arteries .
So if your cholesterol’s a little high , this is a temporary thing .
It’s not an issue , and you wanna keep your vegetables very , very high .
Okay .
Autophagy
So from here to here , we’re between 18 to 23 hours of intermittent fasting .
Okay ?
This is where we get into some serious fat burning .
We get into something called autophagy .
Autophagy is a condition where your cells are recycling old and damaged parts .
It’s cleaning up bacteria , fungus , candida , and mold .
So it’s like a self cleaning action .
And your your skin’s gonna start looking better .
It’s gonna be neuroprotective of your brain .
You’re gonna actually have better memory , better mood , better cardiovascular function , and you’re gonna save a lot of money because you’re no longer consuming 3 meals a day or 6 meals a day .
You’re doing 2 or even 1 meal a day .
So you’ll save between $300 to $600 a month .
So you’re welcome .
So now you can see the big idea and the huge benefits that can occur .
These things may not even happen to you , but I want you just to realize if they do , there’s a solution .
You gotta keep pushing through it until you get over here .
