I discovered low carb (ketogenic) dieting the hard way. It started about ten years ago, when I decided to get in the best shape of my life (in terms of body composition). I joined a well known amateur fitness competition, which involved sending “before and after” pictures. I trained hard and ate a low-fat diet–I never cheated. I thought this would turn me into a super-lean machine.

Well, I did lose fat, but there were problems:

• I did not get as lean as I thought I would–especially considering the discipline I had with my diet/exercise.
• I lost too much muscle mass.
• I was constantly fighting hunger.

Years before I had heard about a “high fat” diet, but I never paid much attention to it (sounded crazy to me). I was ready to give it a second look. I did some research and ran across some good articles. I read about the Body Opus diet, the Anabolic Diet, and a few others. These diets/books were more for bodybuilders (I roughly fit into this category, though I don’t compete). I also read a few websites written by those using the Adkins diet. I remember one guy who used to weigh 300 lb until he tried low carb approaches.

Now I’m a low-carb fan. I drop carbs whenever I want to get lean. Here are some of the benefits I’ve seen:

• I retain almost all of my muscle and strength, even on a calorie restricted diet.
• Hunger is not nearly as much of a problem.
• I’m not as tempted to cheat. This sounds crazy, but knowing that I can’t eat any carbs keeps me from eating junk–I know that eating too many carbs will break ketosis.*
• I get leaner, faster than with any other approach.

If you haven’t had results with other approaches, consider giving low carb a try (assuming you are healthy or have checked with your doctor). I’ll try to write a few more articles as I have time, but there’s no shortage of information out there.

*Ketosis is a state in which your body is primarily using fat (body fat and dietary fat) as fuel.