The Ketogenic Diet and Why I Changed Course

First off, what is a ketogenic diet and why has it become a trend in today’s society? A ketogenic diet is classified simply as a very low-carb, high-fat diet.

Within the framework of this diet:

• fat calories make up about 75% of your daily caloric intake
• protein takes up around 20%
• the remaining 5% comes from carbohydrates (less than 50 grams daily)

Those carbohydrates are primarily from vegetable and fruit sources. Popular protein and healthy fat options include seafood, meat & poultry, eggs, avocados, nuts and oils (coconut and olive).

The goal of a ketogenic diet is to force the body into a fat-burning state. In other words, the body will utilize fat as fuel instead of carbohydrates. Most people today have a diet plentiful in carbohydrates such as white flour, potatoes, rice, bread, wheat and much more. Carbohydrates are converted into glucose by the body, spiking insulin levels. If the body contains excess glucose, it will utilize that as fuel instead of fat, making it more difficult to cut down on body fat.

There is plenty of research and literature that shows a low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diet has a great deal of benefits. This diet has evidence showing that it may improve cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. A ketogenic diet can also help reduce your appetite, boost weight loss, and lower triglycerides.

From a personal standpoint, I have been interested in a healthy lifestyle ever since I was a little kid. After high school, I went on to study exercise science and personal training. I wanted to live a healthy lifestyle and help others do the same. From age 18-26, I followed a traditional healthy diet, consisting of healthy protein and carbohydrate sources to make up the bulk of my daily caloric intake, sprinkling in healthy fats to make up the rest. If you are familiar with counting calories, you would classify my diet as 40% protein, 40% carbs, and 20% fats.

From a physique standpoint, I was able to put on muscle mass, increase the amount of weight I can lift and achieve goals I set for myself body image wise. The downside to this diet was the quality of life I was living. Aside from the physique benefits, there were a lot of downsides. I felt very lethargic throughout my day, had a hard time sleeping, felt bloated daily and just never completely felt at 100% in terms of my overall daily performance. After reading through a lot of research, I came across the ketogenic diet around the same time it had become a top trend.

After more thorough research on the keto diet and the studies surrounding it, I took the leap to give it a go. It has been approximately six months now on the ketogenic diet and I have never felt better! The benefits of this diet are even better than I anticipated. My energy levels are through the roof, my sleep is much sounder, my focus is more precise, and I have not been sick since. The physical benefits are just as amazing. My body fat has dropped a great deal without losing any strength or endurance, and my skin has also cleared up which is a benefit I did not anticipate.

Disclaimer: I take 250mg of InnoSlim® daily in combination with the ketogenic diet. InnoSlim® is an all-natural, stimulant-free supplement that has been proven to aid in forcing the body into ketosis, utilizing fat as fuel. InnoSlim® has also shown to help decrease glucose absorption, regulate blood sugar levels and regulate appetite.

Kill Fat Boy: The InnoSlim® Way

I always wanted to work in a career within the pharmaceutical or nutraceutical industry that would allow me to make a difference in the world in helping others improve health. Through my job search, I came across an advertisement for what seemed to be some kind of ingredient supplier for sports performance products (The beginning of my time with NuLiv Science).

The company had a young scrappy team of researchers who were working towards commercializing their compounds into the sports nutrition sector. I was fascinated with the thought of becoming a part of the supplement world that I was already such a huge fan, so I applied. I was hired on as a 3rd choice sales rep with no real expectations.

That was nearly six years ago.

When I first began in my sales representative role, I was overwhelmed with the amount of product training and physiological/biological education that was involved to truly understand how these plant compounds worked on a cellular level. Even though I was learning a lot about how these incredible ingredients worked, I had a difficult time articulating the story to clients. A year had quickly passed by and I still did not attain much luck marketing and selling the ingredients.

This situation marked a point in my life where I perceived all aspects of my life were in a downward spiral. As a small team, we rolled on into the next trade show, SupplySide West, but I was not going in with my head held high. I was truly at one of my lowest points. I was in the worst shape of my life at merely 24 years of age -- brokenhearted and depressed coming out of a long term relationship. To top it off, I was in Las Vegas, NV for the trade show with only $40 to get me through the weekend.

This was the beginning of what I termed, KillFatBoy.

KillFatBoy was a major turning point in my life. Hopefully a point we will all experience at some time. It was the final motivation to make a change for the better, for my health and wellness.

I began to exercise a lot more and, on a whim, decided to train for the Los Angeles Marathon.

I felt I was finally on my way to reaching my goals, but then I hit a plateau. I was exercising regularly, trying to eat “clean” but could not lose more than 17lbs (from 285lbs). Still holding onto my job at NuLiv Science by a string I decided to take a look at some of the ingredients within our company's portfolio.

I had taken ActiGin® and knew it gave me more stamina to power me through workouts, but thought “Perhaps this InnoSlim® could really work!”. After all, we had at the time conducted twice as many studies compared to our other ingredients. After a few weeks of taking InnoSlim®, I saw my weight begin to decrease.

Soon after these improvements, I began taking InnoSlim® at higher dosages than our original recommended value. In the beginning, we only recommended 50 mg per day. After taking 1 full gram per day I began to notice my appetite would disappear completely. At this point, I dialed back the amount of InnoSlim® each day until I found the sweet spot at a half gram a day (500 mg).

Within months I had blown past my old weight loss record and past my plateau. In a five-month span before InnoSlim®, I was only able to lose around 17lbs (from 285lbs to 260-255lbs on a light day). Once I added InnoSlim® into my supplementing it seemed to reprogram the way my body reacted to the food I ate. It powered me to train harder and melt away stubborn fat. With the help of InnoSlim® I dropped from 255 to 212lbs. In nearly the same amount of time, InnoSlim® helped support me to lose 43lbs where I was only able to lose 17 pounds before.

Keeping the weight off has been somewhat easy, now that my body has now found its normal state. Five years later, I still take InnoSlim® to regulate the nutrients I consume. My weight is about the same now, but with a lower body fat percentage. I still try to keep a low-carb diet, especially because InnoSlim® helps to optimize the carbs I eat.

Today, NuLiv Science sells InnoSlim® all over the world. I have seen it help a wide range of people from teenage girls and boy losing their childhood chubbiness, to CEO’s of Multi-Million dollar supplement brands drop pants sizes in a matter of months. I used to think KillFatBoy was about destroying who I was, but it ultimately became finding who I am.