In this video, the presenter discusses their 30-day experiment where they ate bacon, butter, and eggs as part of a ketogenic diet. After previously consuming a junk food diet for 10 days, they noticed weight gain and inflammation. With the ketogenic diet, they aimed to lose weight, reduce inflammation, and improve their blood work. They explain the principles of a ketogenic diet, emphasizing the importance of low carbohydrate intake, moderate protein consumption, and eating fat to satiety. The presenter also addresses concerns about saturated fat and discusses their blood work results, showing improvements in insulin, blood fats, liver enzymes, and metabolic markers after the 30-day experiment.
Key Insights:
- The journalist conducted a 30-day experiment where he ate bacon, butter, and eggs to undo the damage caused by a 10-day junk food diet.
- A ketogenic diet, which involves low carbohydrate intake and moderate protein and high fat consumption, was used in the experiment.
- Intermittent fasting was combined with the ketogenic diet to enhance weight loss and metabolic improvements.
- Blood work showed that the journalist’s insulin levels, triglycerides, VLDL, HOMA IR, and liver enzymes were all negatively affected by the junk food diet but improved after the 30-day ketogenic diet.
- Eating clean keto, which includes a variety of foods such as leafy greens, steak, fish, chicken, and non-starchy vegetables, was recommended for optimal results.
- The journalist explained that saturated fat and red meat are not inherently bad but can be problematic when consumed alongside a high-carb diet and high insulin levels.
- Cholesterol levels were discussed, with the journalist emphasizing that the optimal range for most people is between 180 and 280.
- The journalist highlighted the adaptability of the body and its ability to bounce back when the right dietary choices are made.
Transcript
Hello Health Champions, today I’m going to talk about what happened to my weight, my body, and my blood work when I ate bacon, butter, and eggs for 30 days. And why would I do something like that? Because I needed to undo the damage from a 10-day experiment. Some of you may have seen the video where I ate junk food, namely the standard American diet, for 10 days. And in doing that, I went from 193 pounds (87.6 kilograms) at the beginning of the 10 days to 203 pounds (92.2 kilograms). So I needed to lose some weight.
So, I decided for 30 days I was going to do a ketogenic diet. Ketones are byproducts of fat, they are reserve fuel for the brain that the body develops when you go very low on carbohydrates. So, a ketogenic diet is about cutting down carbohydrates. In my case, 30 grams works pretty well. Some people might be able to do more or less, but it’s net carbs that I’m referring to. Which means you take the total carbs, subtract the fiber because fiber does not contribute to blood glucose or trigger insulin. Then you also eat a moderate amount of protein. You don’t want to overload on protein because that creates a lot of nitrogen waste. And the rest of it will come from fat. Relative to most diets and the mainstream view of things, this is going to be a very high-fat diet. But it doesn’t mean more fat is better.
And because my blood work showed a lot of inflammation after the 10 days, I didn’t just want to lose the weight, I also wanted to reduce inflammation and make sure I didn’t eat anything that I had food sensitivities to. The two most common food sensitivities are dairy and grain, especially wheat. Now I did eat butter, obviously, because I ate bacon, butter, and eggs mostly. But the dairy, the big problem with dairy is the protein. That’s what people are sensitive to. And butter only has trace amounts of protein, so the vast majority of people do fine on butter even if they are sensitive to dairy.
When you do a low-carb diet, you’re going to get even better results if you combine it with intermittent fasting. So, I ate OMAD (one meal a day) and TMAD (two meals a day) for the 30 days. I ate one meal a day for 80% of the days. Over this 30 days, I got anywhere from 16 to 24 hours of fasting, which means for that time period, I didn’t eat any food. And when you don’t eat food, that allows your insulin to drop and allows your body to burn fat because you’re not putting anything new in.
But even more important than just losing weight, we want to understand what’s happening in the body metabolically, inflammation-wise, and disease-wise. Are we moving toward degenerative disease? Because weight is not really that clear a marker. But with blood work, we can figure this out. So, I measured insulin a lot, and the optimal range is between two and five. Before the experiment, I was at 4.8, and after the 10 days, I was at 5.7. This was the first time I’ve ever been outside of that optimal range. And then after 30 days of eating mostly bacon, butter, and eggs, my insulin levels were back to where they should be.
Another important marker for metabolic resistance is triglycerides, which is how much fat is floating around in your body. A good range is between 50 and 90. Initially, my triglycerides were at 45, but after the 10 days of eating junk, they went up to 101. However, after the 30 days of a high-fat diet, my triglyceride levels were back down to 60. Similarly, VLDL (very low-density lipoproteins), which carry triglycerides, showed a similar pattern. It went from eight to 17 after 10 days but returned to 10 after 30 days.
When you want to measure insulin resistance, HOMA-IR is an excellent marker. It measures the ratio of glucose to insulin and indicates how hard the body is working to control blood sugar levels. A good number is between 0.5 and 1.5, with one being the ideal. Mine went from 1.0 to 1.3 after the 10 days, but after the 30 days of a high-fat diet, it was back down to 0.8.
Liver health is super important, and I measured AST, ALT, and LDH enzymes related to the liver. AST and ALT went up after the 10 days, but after the 30 days, they were back to normal range. LDH, which is not specific to the liver and is present in every tissue in the body, showed a significant increase after the 10 days but returned to the green zone after the 30 days.
In terms of weight, I went from 193 pounds to 203 pounds after the junk food diet, but after the 30 days of a high-fat diet, I was back down to 189 pounds. There’s still a few pounds to go, but you can see that there’s a dramatic difference.
Cholesterol is often a concern, and while the medical field believes lower is better, I believe the optimal range for most people is between 180 and 280. My cholesterol levels went from 225 to 222 to 220 during these 30 days.
I hope you take away from this the adaptability of our bodies and how they can bounce back if we do the right things. It’s important to understand the markers and principles of the ketogenic diet to achieve optimal health.
