Hi,

I am following a strict Targeted Ketogenic Diet. I'm in week 2. For the first week I did a standard diet with under 20 g of carbs and a ratio of fat/protein of 1.3 to 1.5. I started today my pre and post workout carbs with dextrose and I made a very surprising discovery. Here's what my carb intake looks.

8 PM: 40 g dextrose + 5 g creatine + 30 g Whey Protein (15 minutes later) + 300 MG ALA

8:30 PM to 10:00 PM WEIGHT TRAINING

10:30 PM: 25 g dextrose + 5 g creatine + Biotin 500 mcg + Zinc 50 mg + 2 x Potassium 100g + 30 g Whey Protein +5 g L-Glutamine


NOW HERE'S THE CATCH: 11 PM KETOSTIX TEST : PURPLE POSITIVE!!!

How can I still be in Ketosis after ingesting 65 g of pure dextrose? This is nonsense. The only factor I could attribute this to is the intake of 500 mg of ALA which is an excess glucose disposal agent.

Any ideas? Should I increase my carbs?

Thanks,

Louis

There's a bit of a time lag involved. What were the sticks like in the morning?

The stick was dark purple in the morning.

My diet that day was:

Meal 1 Cal Prot Fat Carbs
Bacon 25 g = 2 slices 125,0 6,4 11,0 0,0
Mozzarella cheese 50 g 178,2 12,0 13,9 1,3

Meal 2
Chicken = 170 g 186,0 33,0 5,1 0,0
Ceasar salad dressing 60 ml 174,0 0,6 18,0 2,4
Romaine Lettuce (2 cups) 0 0 0 0

Meal 3
Hungarian Salami 100 g 341,0 21,0 28,0 2,0

Meal 4
sliced chicken breast 50 g 59,0 11,0 1,0 1,5

Meals 5 ( Pre and Post Workout shakes)

2 Protein Shakes 32g 228,0 42,0 3,0 8,0

Meal 6
Hungarian Salami 110 g 375,1 23,1 30,8 2,2
cheddar cheese 100 g 397,0 25,0 33,3 1,3

Total calories: 2063
Total Protein: 174
Total Fat: 144
Total carbs: 19

Took a total of 65 g of dextrose with my pre and post workout shakes (theses carbs do not count) and stayed in ketosis all day. 3 ketostix tests were performed and all came up dark purple.


In the past week, the only time I noticed the sticks had faded was after having the following carbs throughout the day: 2 or 3 glasses of Crystal light, 600 ml bottle of Diet Pepsi and having 2 tablespoons of peanut butter straight from the jar.

I have since then eliminated all carbs containing aspartame since I find they interfere with my state of ketosis.




Louis

I didnt beleive it til i tried it and yes ALA is that powerful.

Also i did this diet 5 times now and what i have noticed is that the body gets back into ketosis real fast after each time.

During the week i usually take 3g of ALA spread into 3 meals, with vitamine C-E and Selenium and Omega 3-6-9.

This does the trick, on the weekends i still use the ALA and you can really feel your muscles pumped up after a meal.

I really think that ALA is big and most of the people i have talked to that have used it where quick amazed too.

What is this ALA? I've heard of it but not payed any attention to it. Can you tell me more about how you've found it helpful to ketogenic dieting?

Thanks,
Meg

ALA=Alpha Lipoic Acid
It's a glucose disposal agent and is helpful during the carb-up days. I usually take about 300mg a half-hour before each carb-up meal and before the first few low-carb meals after the carb-up. It helps shuttle the carbs to your muscles rather than your fat stores. It also helps me get back into ketosis faster.
I've found it helps reduce some of the bloat that I previously experienced during my carb days. I believe it helps with with preventing spillover, but that may just be me. The only side effect I've noticed is it makes me extremely thirsty, which isn't a bad thing because it forces me to drink more water. The added water makes me gain a little more "scale weight" but since it's water, I lose it as soon as I return to low-carb eating.

As to your initial question on the possibilities...remember, when you spike insulin with dextose or anything else, it will ultimately result in a crash as well. It is possible that you did spike your insulin enough to get out of ketosis and then was able to crash right back in towards the end of the workout. I have been studying about how to control this for a while and may have some more info on this phenomena in a few weeks. Either that, OR it was too much dextrose and your body made the switch back over to glycogen and was dumping all of the leftover ketones. It's hard to tell with ketostix. A reading the next morning should clue you in as to which one it was.

Sporto