Diaries of a Recovering Keto-Holic
I’ll never forget taking my first course with Charles Poliquin. It was February 2018… I had been following his work since 2016 and training at a “Poliquin” gym since 2014. I had read it in his articles numerous times before, but now I finally got to hear him say it in person. “As a male, You don’t deserve to eat Carbohydrates until you’re 10% Body Fat.”
At this point I had already drank the Koolaid, he probably could have said that drinking the blood of a cow would make you 3% leaner and I would have believed him and then done it! Don’t worry… I didn’t drink any blood, but what I did do was religiously follow every single thing I learned in that 2 day course to a tee for the following 5 months. The result? I got in the best shape I had ever been… I was jacked and tanned… lean and strong.
So what’s the problem? It didn’t last… I couldn’t maintain it… and worst of all I became absolutely carb-phobic! The next 4 years was a perpetual state of yo-yo dieting. I’m 6’2 and at my leanest I was 183lbs and 7.6% body fat… at my heaviest I was 218lbs and probably 20% body fat (I hated myself too much to actually get pinched). I had a horrible relationship with food and a borderline eating disorder.
Charles was a genius, and his methods absolutely worked… but I also think he loved to talk in extremes for shock value. What he said was “No Carbs until you’re 10% body fat”… 4 years late what I think he meant by this was: The leaner that you are, the better your body will be able to metabolize carbs… and you should use CARB CONTROL, as a tool to get leaner.
In 2021 (While Yo-Yo dieting), I read “Carnivore Code” by Paul Saladino and went on to eat a fully nose to tail carnivore diet for 30 days. It consisted of nothing but meat, organ meats, and salt. Because I still hadn’t freed myself from the Low Carb mindset, I expected I would get absolutely shredded. The reality was my body composition barely changed, I had horrible diarrhea, and my lifts were absolutely brutal.
The most positive thing that did happen though is I believe I actually “reset” my taste buds in some way. Before the 30 days I always had a massive sweet tooth… I actually could never understand someone saying a dessert or food was “too sweet” because there was no such thing! I’ll never forget eating a massive bowl of fruit with honey all over it as my “cheat meal” after the 30 days and it tasting just as satisfying as a chocolate cake!
Fast forward to April 2022, I’m about 213lbs still very much carb-phobic. My girlfriend shows me Paul Saladino’s Instagram account and says: “YO, He’s looking JAAAAAAAAAcked!” She was right, he looked in phenomenal shape and to my surprise was also posting about eating close to 250g of carbs a day from fruit and honey! Quite a shift from eating completely nose to tail.
I then listened to a couple of podcasts of his explaining his paradigm shift and how he was a nose to tail carnivore (which in nature is a ketogenic diet) for close to 2 years. He then noticed that he just wasn’t feeling that great (low libido, muscle cramps, not sleeping well, Testosterone came back low on a blood test), and since adding high quality carbs back into his diet everything improved. His hypothesis was that he actually made himself physiologically insulin resistant through longterm ketosis. This got me thinking that maybe I might have done something similar to myself…
Fast forward to May 2022, I’ve been eating only animal products (muscle meat, organ meats, dairy), fruit, and honey for 3 weeks. I’m 202lbs and feeling really good. It’s also my first week at PHP for my summer internship and Ben Prentiss measures me at 17% Body Fat. My first reaction was Oh my God I wonder what the hell I was back in April!!
What happened over the next 3 months was Ben opening my eyes to the fact that not only had I possibly developed physiological insulin resistance by avoiding carbs for so long, but I had essentially been wasting years of hard training by my dietary choices. I introduced rice, potatoes, and oats into my diet… had carbs at every single meal… and actually had dark chocolate most nights, sushi every weekend, and gluten free sourdough pizza every Sunday! The result? On July 17th, Ben measured me at 192.4lbs and 12% body fat!
Since then I’ve continued to average about 400g of carbohydrates a day from White Rice, Sweet Potato, Fruit, Honey, and Oatmeal. Keep in mind I am also consuming a minimum of 200g of protein daily, walking lots, and training 5-6 days a week. My weight has stayed in and around 193lbs - 198lbs and more importantly I have a MUCH better relationship with food.
This works for me… and the point of this article is not to tell you that this is the only way to do it, the point is that I’ve been in this industry for the last 8 years and I’m just figuring out now what I believe to be the most optimal diet for me! If you haven’t figured it out for you yet.. keep at it!
I still manipulate carbs with my clients and if I had to get very lean very fast.. say for a photoshoot or something I would definitely cut carbs to do so. I also definitely believe that some individuals can genetically tolerate carbs better than others… but in the words of one of my mentors Ben Prentiss… “Nobody ever got fat from eating a sweet potato!”.
Live Virtuously.
AB
