Keto Diet: Will Cole's Guide To Ketogenic Success

Dr. Will Cole is a leading functional medicine expert who has created a plant-based version of the ketogenic diet, called the Ketotarian® diet. The Ketotarian® diet combines the sciences of ketogenic and vegetarian diets to optimise your cells, improve your gut health and overall health. The basic principles are simple: eat real food, keep your carbs low, keep your healthy fats high, eat when you're hungry and stop when you're satiated. Dr Cole's approach helps your body switch from burning sugar to burning fat. His book, 'Ketotarian: The (Mostly) Plant-Based Plan to Burn Fat, Boost Your Energy, Crush Your Cravings, and Calm Inflammation', includes more than 75 recipes that are vegetarian, vegan or pescatarian.

Ketotarian® diet: A plant-based version of the ketogenic diet, which helps the body transition from burning sugar to burning fat

Dr. Will Cole's Ketotarian® diet is a plant-based version of the ketogenic diet. It is a mostly plant-based plan to burn fat, boost energy, crush cravings, and calm inflammation.

The Ketotarian® diet is a healthier way to go keto. It is a functional medicine expert, Dr. Will Cole's, plant-based program that provides all the health and weight-loss benefits of keto diets. It is for vegetarians, vegans, and pescatarians. The program includes more than 75 recipes, meal plans, expert tips, and more.

The basic principles of the Ketotarian® diet are:

• Eat real food.
• Keep your carbs low.
• Keep your healthy fats high.
• If you eat a non-starchy vegetable, add some healthy fats.
• If you eat a healthy fat, add some non-starchy vegetables.
• Eat when you are hungry.
• Eat until you are satiated, then stop.

The Ketotarian® diet is about eliminating the dogma and shame around food to reclaim health. It is a way to transition the body from burning sugar to burning fat. It is a more effective and sustainable form of energy from healthy plant-based fats instead of quick-burning glucose from carbs and sugar.

The Ketotarian® diet is a combination of the sciences of ketogenic and vegetarian diets to optimize cells and improve gut health and overall health. It is a way to beat the conventional ketogenic diet for anti-inflammatory power and avoid the common mistakes that Dr. Cole sees well-intentioned vegans and vegetarians making.

Vegetarians and vegans: Dr. Will Cole's approach helps vegetarians and vegans avoid deficiencies of vital nutrients and dangerous levels of inflammation

Vegetarians and vegans: Dr Will Cole's approach helps them avoid deficiencies of vital nutrients and dangerous levels of inflammation

Dr Will Cole, a functional medicine expert, has created a plant-based program that provides all the health and weight-loss benefits of keto diets. His approach, called Ketotarian®, is a game-changer for anyone looking for a healthy way to lose weight, tame inflammation, and achieve peak physical and mental performance.

The Ketotarian® diet is a plant-based version of the ketogenic diet. It provides the body with a more effective and sustainable form of energy from healthy plant-based fats instead of quick-burning glucose from carbs and sugar. This approach is particularly beneficial for vegetarians and vegans, who often become "carbotarians", leading to severe deficiencies of vital nutrients and dangerous levels of inflammation over time.

Dr Cole's novel plant-forward approach helps the body switch from burning sugar to burning fat. The Ketotarian® meal plan, designed in collaboration with Tricia Williams, includes a wide variety of nutrient-rich vegetables, sustainable seafood, farm eggs, and good fats. This approach ensures that vegetarians and vegans can still obtain the necessary fat required for their bodies to enter ketosis, which is a state where the body burns fat instead of carbohydrates.

Ketotarian® provides a balanced and sustainable way of eating that is centred around finding what works for the individual. It offers a flexible and personalised approach, allowing people to experiment with plant-based keto meals and find their personal carb tolerance. This makes it a great option for vegetarians and vegans who want to avoid deficiencies and inflammation while still enjoying the benefits of a keto diet.

Intermittent fasting: Dr. Cole recommends intermittent fasting, which can be easy once the body is fat-adapted

Intermittent fasting is one of Dr. Will Cole's favourite tools to combat chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer, autoimmune conditions, and heart disease. In his functional medicine clinic, Dr. Cole often sees chronic inflammation as the underlying cause of many health problems.

Intermittent fasting is when you go without food for a period of time to lower inflammation and achieve health benefits. Once the fasting window is over, you break your fast and eat all your calories for the day before the next fasting window begins. Dr. Cole recommends gradually increasing the time between meals as your body adjusts.

Dr. Cole outlines several different fasting windows:

• The 8-6 Window Plan: Eat between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., fasting for the remaining 14 hours.
• The 12-6 Window Plan: Eat between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m., fasting for 18 hours.
• The Modified 2-Day Plan: Eat a clean diet for five days, restricting calories to 700 for the remaining two days.
• The Every Other Day Plan: Eat one day and fast the next.
• OMAD (One Meal a Day): Fast for 23 hours and eat one meal a day.

Dr. Cole stresses that intermittent fasting is not an excuse to eat unhealthily. It's important to eat clean, whole foods like healthy fats, clean meats, vegetables, and some fruit.

• Restored gut health: Fasting gives your gut a break from the traditional 3-meals-a-day-plus-snacking schedule, allowing it to return to its natural rhythm. It also lowers inflammation in gut problems like IBS and Crohn's disease.
• Boosted immune system: As the majority of the immune system is located in the gut, rehabbing gut health with fasting can boost immunity.
• Curbed cravings: Intermittent fasting decreases the hunger hormone, ghrelin, resulting in fewer cravings. It also switches your metabolism from burning sugar to burning fat, keeping you satiated longer.
• Improved brain function: Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve brain function and mood and may protect neurons from stress factors, potentially slowing down brain ageing.
• Recharged metabolism: Intermittent fasting resets your metabolism, allowing it to switch more efficiently between burning sugar and fat for fuel, restoring your energy and improving inflammation levels.
• Improved cellular health: Intermittent fasting enhances autophagy, a cellular recycling process that breaks down damaged cells and recycles them out of your system.
• Improved relationship with food: Intermittent fasting can help you become more intuitive about eating, taking back control of your hunger and becoming more mindful about how and when you eat.

However, Dr. Cole also notes that intermittent fasting might not be suitable for everyone. It may be triggering for those with a history of eating disorders or those with blood sugar problems. Women may also need to be more mindful, as they are usually more sensitive to fasting due to higher levels of kisspeptin, which can affect hormones and fertility. Super-active individuals should also be cautious, ensuring they consume enough calories to match their activity levels.

Dr. Cole's book, "Intuitive Fasting," offers a four-week flexible fasting plan, guiding readers through varying intermittent fasting windows, with each week tailored to focus on a different aspect of health.

Vegetables: The Ketotarian® diet focuses on eating a variety of vegetables and healthy fats instead of carbs for energy

Dr. Will Cole's Ketotarian® diet is a plant-based version of the ketogenic diet. It focuses on eating a variety of vegetables and healthy fats instead of carbs for energy. This diet is a lot less restrictive than the standard ketogenic approach.

The basic principles of the Ketotarian® diet are simple: eat real food, keep your carbs low, and your healthy fats high. If you eat a non-starchy vegetable, add some healthy fats, and if you eat a healthy fat, add some non-starchy vegetables. Eat when you are hungry, and eat until you are satiated, then stop.

The Ketotarian® diet is a more effective and sustainable form of energy. By eating healthy plant-based fats instead of quick-burning glucose from carbs and sugar, you can transition your body from a sugar burner to a fat burner and put your body into a state of ketosis.

The Ketotarian® diet is for anyone looking to enjoy the benefits of a ketogenic diet—restored energy, reduced inflammation, enhanced brain function, curbed cravings, weight loss, and balanced blood sugar—while still being plant-based. It is a game-changer for anyone looking for a healthy way to lose weight, tame inflammation, and achieve peak physical and mental performance.

The Ketotarian® diet is also about eliminating the dogma and shame around food in order to reclaim health.

Ketones: The body's ketone levels can be measured through blood, breath, or urine

Ketones are a by-product of fat metabolism. They can be used by the body and brain as a slow-burning, efficient source of fuel. The body can use ketones as an alternative to sugar, which burns quickly and requires frequent top-ups.

There are three ways to measure ketone levels in the body: through blood, breath, or urine. Blood testing is the current gold standard, similar to a blood sugar meter. Breath testing is an exciting new technology that involves breathing into a meter. Urine testing is fine for beginners but is not as accurate in the long term.

According to Dr. Will Cole, once you get the hang of a plant-based keto diet, most people won't need to test their ketone levels. Instead, you can rely on natural clues that indicate your body is in ketosis. For example, you may experience increased mental clarity and focus, more sustained energy throughout the day, and less hanger.

Frequently asked questions