THE ORIGINAL MAYO CLINIC DIET: KETO (1921)

ME
I’ve lost 50 lbs utilizing the ketogenic diet and interments fasting. I’ve had several people ask me what the keto diet is. It’s not very easy to answer in a few minutes, but I’m going to summarize below. I’ll also provide the resources that got me started. I had 111 days between jobs and found/researched the keto diet in the few days after being laid off. I started the ketosis diet by the end of Jan 2019, and by the beginning of July 2019, I had lost a significant portion of my 50 lbs loss.

HOW TO GET TO THIS BOLG
Now when people ask me about keto, I suggest they google: keto frericks or keto troy. By googling: “keto” “frericks” they come here to get a fairly complete explanation of how I lost my weight on the keto diet. Most importantly though, they will get get the same information I had when I decided to start keto. Please bookmark this page and suggest that anyone that asks you about keto simply google: keto frericks or keto troy. My intent is for this to be the best starting point there is.

KETO IS NOT
The “diet” is very different than what you are used to on many levels. You’re not counting calories. You’re not told what to eat and what not to eat. Anything labeled “keto friendly” that you’re thinking about buying, is most likely not keto friendly. What does “keto friendly” mean anyway? The keto diet is not a low carb diet. It’s not a high protein diet. It’s not Atkins, Paleo, etc. It is about eating “correctly” such that your body is burning fats rather than burning carbohydrates.

KETO HISTORY
I want to provide a very quick introduction to the Keto diet. This is a diet I’ve nicknamed “The original Mayo Clinic Diet”, because it is. It was “invented” by Dr. Russell Wilder, MD, of the Mayo Clinic as a treatment for epilepsy. It was successful because the brain also is powered by glucose or ketones. Switching the fuel made a difference in many epileptic’s lives. Research continues for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients with very promising results thus far. In recent years, popularity has grown due to the rapid weight loss potential and low recidivism.

POLITICAL
I found one source that quoted a scientific paper that lumped keto into the bucket of low carb diets (like Atkins), and went on to say that keto diets have the same success as low fat diets… without even realizing that keto was not mentioned in the study cited. It was obvious the blogger did not really know what keto was.

This is the type of misinformation one needs to get past to be confident in moving forward with a significant life change. Some other things include…

• politicians telling you what to eat… fat is demonized, food pyramid, a proton plate/myplate, etc
• some people just like to spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) without even having experienced keto.

DIGESTION
The body is fueled primarily by one of two fuels… either by ketones or glucose. The definition of  being in ketosis is that your body is being fueled by ketones. If you’re not in ketosis, your body, like a significant portion of the population, is being fed by glucose.

CARBS
If you eat more than a very small amount of carbohydrates (carbs), you convert those carbs to glucose for your body to burn. If your body does not have enough carbohydrates to burn, your body (liver) converts fat to ketones for your body to burn. This is generally true once your body has learned to convert fat to ketones.

TRAIN YOUR BODY
For the first few weeks of a very low carb and high fat (and moderate protein) diet, your body needs to adapt from all it’s known since before you started to consume carbs (ie, the point you were weened from your mother’s breast milk). Note, your body does not need you to eat carbs to exist… there’s no such thing as “essential carbohydrates”.

SPRINGBOARD INTO KETOSIS
This blog is meant as a springboard for you to jump into a life change. Here are links of what I’ve found to be the best keto resources on the web.

• How to do a Keto Diet: The Complete Guide
• Beginner’s Guide to Ketosis
• Thomas DeLauer
• Dr. Boz [Annette Bosworth, MD]
• Starting a keto diet (general youtube search)

VOCABULARY

• FAT Adapted – your body is readily able to convert fat to ketones. Expect to be very low carb for almost two months.
• Keto Flu – anything you can blame on the keto diet where you don’t feel so hot.
• Ketosis – fueling the body by fat that converts to ketones in the blood.
• MACROs – Ratio of net carbs to protein to fat. For example, each meal may be 5g carb, 25g protein, and 70g fat.
• MCT Oil – Medium Chain Triglyceride Oil. A fat that is easily converted to ketones.
• Net Carbs – Total grams of carbohydrates less the total grams of fiber. Fiber is a “good” carb. 

Have you found an awesome keto resource? Please add a comment. I’m especially interested in what you find!