25 Adam's 90 Day Transformation

Adam Zickerman discusses his 90-day journey of religiously dedicating himself to following a ketogenic diet here in Episode 25 of the InForm Fitness Podcast.  Adam reveals the challenges of sticking to the ketogenic diet along with some misconceptions and the dramatic results.

Here is a link to the website Adam mentions in this episode:  http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/ketosis-advantaged-or-misunderstood-state-part-i

Don’t forget Adam's Zickerman’s book, Power of 10: The Once-a-Week Slow Motion Fitness Revolution.  You can buy it in Amazon by  clicking here: http://bit.ly/ThePowerofTen

To find an Inform Fitness location nearest you to give this workout a try, please visit www.InformFitness.com.  At the time of this recording we have locations in Manhattan, Port Washington, Denville, Burbank, Boulder, Leesburg and Reston.

If you'd like to ask Adam, Mike or Sheila a question or have a comment regarding the Power of 10. Send us an email or record a voice memo on your phone and send it to [email protected]. 

Join Inform Nation and call the show with a comment or question.  The number is 888-983-5020, Ext. 3. 

The transcript to the entire episode is below:

Adam: You know when you’re wearing clothes, my lean muscular build, it’s hard to know that I was getting a little bit of a spare tire underneath them, but I was getting a little bit of a spare tire, but besides that, there were two things. One, my chronic back problems which you covered last episode, and I wanted to do whatever I could to ameliorate these back issues. Consistent and safe back exercises are one of them, and the other thought I had was maybe my diet is affecting my back, because I was reading a lot about the typical American diet and it’s inflammatory. I’m thinking I might have an inflammation issue going, my back keeps going into spasm, it’s probably chronically inflamed. If I can not only exercise my back properly but maybe reduce my chronic inflammation, that might be my answer. 

Tim: InForm Nation, welcome to episode 25 of the InForm Fitness podcast. Twenty minutes with New York Times bestselling author, Adam Zickerman and friends. I’m Tim Edwards with the InBound Podcasting Network and a client of InForm Fitness. Joined as always by Sheila Melody, Mike Rogers, and of course Adam Zickerman. Okay team, at the time of this recording, spring has just sprung, summer is just a few months away, and I’m sure a good portion of InForm nation is already thinking about summer which means they’re thinking about slimming down a little or in some cases a lot, so dieting is on their minds. We’ve all heard of, and I’m sure participated, in at least a few nutrition plans, like the paleo diet, the Atkin’s diet, or the one that I really enjoyed a few years ago was the slow carb diet from Tim Ferris. Most recently I had tremendous success by just eating cleanly as you describe Adam in chapter three of your book, Power of Ten: The Slow Motion Fitness Revolution.

So Adam, you visited LA. just a few months ago when we recorded the Adam in LaLa Land episode and frankly, you looked extremely fit. So in the last episode, you mentioned that we’re going to talk about a diet that you’ve been on for the last X amount of days, and my question is why did you even consider going on a diet in the first place because you don’t look like you need to go on one.

Adam: I picked up a few lessons from my female friends and I know how to dress to hide it.

Tim: You wear Spanx, that’s what you’re telling me?

Mike: Spanx and New York black. Everyone in New York knows how to hide it.

Adam: Hide our emotions.

Tim: You don’t hide your emotions in New York, come on.

Adam: The people in L.A want to hide their emotions.

Tim: We’re the passive aggressive ones.

Sheila: Oh no, we want to talk about our emotions.

Tim: That’s down in the south where they’re passive aggressive, but anyway, we digress. You mentioned the diet, and here’s a guy, the guru, the InForm Fitness and you’re fit. So what prompted you to go on a diet?

Adam: I’m so glad you asked me that question, because you know the other question I get asked in a similar vein is why do you work out Adam, you look great. 

Sheila: You say because I never want to look like you.

Adam: That just reminded me of something Yogi Bear once said. Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore, it’s always too crowded. So listen, why did I go on this diet. Well first of all, diets are not always about weight loss, fat loss. Diets are about health, or they should be. Now I know that anyone who goes on a diet, their number one concern is I want to lose body fat, which is a noble goal because being overweight has health problems associated with it. Now I did want to lose a little weight first of all, because I always said that I hide it well half-jokingly, because the other half, I did need to lose a couple of pounds and it is true that when you’re wearing clothes, my lean muscular build, it’s hard to know that I was getting a little bit of a spare tire underneath them, but I was getting a little bit of a spare tire, but besides that, there were two things. One, my chronic back problems which you covered last episode, and I wanted to do whatever I could to ameliorate these back issues. Consistent and safe back exercises are one of them, and the other thought I had was maybe my diet is affecting my back, because I was reading a lot about the typical American diet and it’s inflammatory. I’m thinking I might have an inflammation issue going, my back keeps going into spasm, it’s probably chronically inflamed. If I can not only exercise my back properly but maybe reduce my chronic inflammation, that might be my answer. So for years, I’ve been reading about the ketogenic diet, and for years I was poo-pooing it.

Tim: Why?

Adam: Because I had a vast misunderstanding about what a ketogenic diet was. Basically using ketones for fuel. I’ll get into what a ketone is a little bit later, but my understanding of ketones was when your body is using ketones for fuel, or if you’re producing a lot of ketones, I always understood that to be very dangerous. In my mind without realizing it, I was really thinking about what they call ketoacidosis, which is much different than nutritional ketosis, using ketones for fuel from a nutritional point of view, as opposed to something very dangerous called ketoacidosis. That was where the confusion comes in. Whenever you talk to a doctor or a nutritionist and say I want to go into ketosis, they say it’s dangerous, and being in ketoacidosis is very dangerous but you cannot go into ketoacidosis just by eliminating carbohydrates or going to what they call nutritional ketosis. Ketoacidosis, let me explain what that it is. It usually afflicts people with Type I diabetes. Type I diabetics cannot produce insulin, and when you cannot produce insulin, when you eat carbohydrates, the sugar starts building up and building up, and what happens is the body can’t utilize that sugar, because the insulin is not there to use that sugar and bring it into the fat cells and the muscle cells, or bring it into any cell that needs that for energy. So the body, if it can’t get glucose for energy, it starts metabolizing fat for fuel. That’s where it’s going to get it’s energy from, and it starts going crazy producin...