Voices: Mark Sisson

This week: bestselling author of The Keto Reset Diet, founder of Primal Kitchen and Mark's Daily Apple, former world-class athlete, and the Godfather of modern-day primal diets, Mark Sisson:

"While I am obviously a big fan of the ketogenic diet, I only use it for short spans as a tool for fine-tuning my metabolism. Regardless of whatever way of eating you might choose, metabolic flexibility is actually what you want to achieve here. Metabolic flexibility is the holy grail of any diet: it reflects how easily (or not) are you able to transition from burning glucose and glycogen to burning your stored body fat, and keto is one of the best ways to teach your body this skill. 

Here are a few tips: Don’t let yourself go hungry. If you find yourself on the edge or about ready to bail, have a keto snack nearby to take the edge off (macadamia nuts, coconut butter, beef jerky or even some dark chocolate). There is nothing magical about regular meals; if you are not hungry, don’t eat. Try intermittent fasting, where you eat only two meals a day instead of three. That’s a great way to continue teaching your body to rely on its own body fat stores. Learn to know when you are actually hungry as opposed to when you feel like eating just because it’s a regular mealtime. Make sure you get enough sodium and other electrolytes (that will ease any “keto flu” feelings you might experience). Don’t train super hard in the gym during the first two weeks of keto; after you are adapted, hard training is fine. Make sure you get enough sleep (lack of sleep raises stress hormones that will derail your keto efforts). Once you do decide to go out of ketosis after a few weeks (if you do), don’t revert to high carb eating. Just reintroduce a few starchy carbs occasionally. That will preserve your newfound metabolic flexibility."

Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with TGG community, Mark!