Hi, Coach Jason here! This is content from my upcoming book and audiobook series. The deadline for printing is July 21, 2023. please join me in editing the final work over the next 100 days and subscribe or follow me on social media for more updates along the way.

Introduction

For years I had this dream of becoming a published author. I imagined that one day I would meet someone in passing who would casually ask what I did for a living to which I would reply “I’m a health coach” and then I would hand this person a card directing him or her to a website where they would be able to purchase my books, audio programs and other coaching materials along with all the free content like videos, articles and podcasts I had created over the years.Today that dream is a reality! In 2018 I published my first book Live Like an Athlete and made it available on Amazon. When I received the first print edition in the mail I was excited to hold this tangible proof in my hands. The years of struggle and sacrifice that led to permanently losing 65 pounds of unhealthy bodyfat suddenly all seemed worthwhile because now I had created something that would help others to experience similar results faster and with much less effort than I endured. 

In the years since then, I’ve learned so much more about nutrition and discovered a vast array of new exercise techniques and key supplementation strategies that contribute to a lifestyle of fitness and overall vitality that I’ve decided to compile an entire series of Audiobooks, E books and print versions of my “Complete Guide” series. This is the first one in the series.  The takeaway is this: Never give up, no matter how hard it gets. The idea of helping others was a huge motivator for me to achieve my own weight loss goals in the first place. If you’re struggling to stay on track, keep looking ahead to a time when others will benefit from what you have learned. This just may be the extra edge you need to stay consistent. With that, I present The Complete Guide to Low-Carb and Ketogenic Diets.

The Science of Low Carb / Ketogenic Diets

Diet trends come and go, but the one that has stood the test of time in some form or another is the Low Carbohydrate Diet. The Low Carbohydrate (or low carb) way of eating has actually been around for thousands of years! What other diet can make that claim? Scientists believe our ancestors ate a diet that consisted primarily of meat, fish, eggs, fowl and some nuts and seeds. Fruit and tubers were hard to come by (except seasonally) and most modern vegetables didn’t even exist for the majority of human history. Our troubles really began when we learned how to domesticate animals and started cultivating plants for food. This crisis further escalated in modern times thanks to industrialization and later with mass processing and distribution of high carb, low nutrient foods.

Low-carb diets have been gaining popularity recently due to the simple fact that they work! The reasons for this are fairly simple. For starters, most of the foods people tend to overeat often contain large amounts of carbohydrates, (mainly from highly refined ingredients such as sugar and flour). Due to their sheer volume in the food supply, these are the most likely sources of calories to be eaten in excess and therefore stored as bodyfat. Secondly, carbohydrates suppress the burning of fat (our body’s natural fuel source) because excess glucose is toxic to humans it must be burned first when it is present in the bloodstream. Only when glucose has been used as energy or stored for later can the body return to its default fat-burning state.

The body maintains a very small and very tightly controlled amount of glucose at all times and anything over about a teaspoon has to be burned immediately or shuttled into storage before it starts causing damage. In order to dispose of the extra glucose (or blood sugar) insulin is dispatched. When insulin is elevated, fat burning screeches to a halt. In short bursts insulin is not problematic. In fact, we would die without it. It’s only when insulin levels are chronically elevated that it becomes a problem. In fact, chronically elevated insulin (or hyperinsulinemia as the condition is known) is the root cause of metabolic disorders we’re experiencing as a society.

How Did We Get Here?

If there is a “ground zero” for the obesity epidemic and all of the accompanying metabolic disorders, it would be the release of the original USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1980. Prior to this time, it was pretty much common knowledge to limit carbohydrates when attempting to lose bodyfat. Bodybuilders in the 1960’s and 1970’s even used a low-carb / ketogenic dietary approach when getting lean for competitions. These original “biohackers” provide a real-world case study substantiating the use of a very low-carbohydrate approach to lose bodyfat while controlling appetite and maintaining energy levels.

The sordid history of the political corruption and corporate greed that led to the creation of the Guidelines has been the subject of entire books and documentary films. I’ll go over it in the rest of this chapter to provide an understanding of how we got so off-track in the first place. Hopefully, this will help us understand how get back to a state of health and demonstrate how simple, intuitive and effective the solution really is. The beginning of the story that led to this once strong nation becoming what is now the fattest and unhealthiest in the world today, and in human history, is as serious as a heart attack (literally)!