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The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner Paperback – January 1, 1998
Lyle McDonald (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
- Print length323 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMorris Publishing
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1998
- ISBN-100967145600
- ISBN-13978-0967145600
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Editorial Reviews
From the Author
This book is fairly technical and readers who are frightened off by such detail may find the book difficult reading. However, the majority of feedback I have received indicates that even individuals with non-science backgrounds have had little trouble with the technical sections. As well, I did my best to include enough basic physiology information to make the more technical sections easier to understand. The few very technical sections are set apart as 'Technical Notes' and are not critical to an understanding of the physiology of the diet.
From the Back Cover
By Lyle McDonald
The Ketogenic Diet: A Complete Guide for the Dieter and Practitioner is the first book to objectively examine the ketogenic diet. This book serves as a reference for the dieter who has questions regarding the physiology, adaptations, and effects of a ketogenic diet. The contents are fully referenced for health professionals such as dietitians, physicians, personal trainers and nutritionists. Anyone interested in the ketogenic diet will find this book a valuable resource.
Topics include:
Human fuel utilization and changes that occur during a ketogenic diet.
Adaptations during the development of ketosis, including a detailed discussion of protein sparing.
The impact of the ketogenic diet on body composition in terms of weight, water and fat loss.
An examination of the potential metabolic effects of ketosis including in the kidney and liver, brain function, and cholesterol levels.
Guidelines for optimization of a ketogenic diet for various goals such as fat loss, bodybuilding, and endurance athletes.
Basic exercise physiology concepts for aerobic exercise, interval training and weight training. The impact of exercise on fat loss is also addressed.
Two modified ketogenic diets, which integrate carbohydrates while allowing the adaptations to ketosis to occur.
Sample exercise routines for beginning, intermediate and advanced exercisers, as well as guidelines for pre-contest preparation for bodybuilders.
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Morris Publishing; 1st edition (January 1, 1998)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 323 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0967145600
- ISBN-13 : 978-0967145600
- Item Weight : 1.65 pounds
- Best Sellers Rank: #493,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #467 in Ketogenic Diet (Books)
- #595 in Low Carb Diets (Books)
- #1,087 in Low Carbohydrate Diets
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

I began my foray into the fitness and health field in 1985 when I got into cycling, swimming and triathlon. I would get involved in gymnastics my senior year of high school and this led me to UCLA to pursue a degree in Kinesiology (exercise physiology). During that time I became interested in the science of sports performance including nutrition, training, and supplementation. I was really trying to fix myself.
During that time I got involved in the growing sport of inline skating (rollerblading) and raced for many years. Cycling and weight training were always part of my training and have been going on decades now. While I was never accomplished in the weight room (I did one powerlifting meet in my 20's and have some Olympic Lifting Experience) I always loved the iron.
In my 20's, I got involved with Dan Duchaine's Bodyopus diet, a cyclical ketogenic diet surrounded by controversy. The Internet was growing and I had been a part of it since 1993 and I started doing more and more writing, culminating eventually in my first book The Ketogenic Diet, A Complete Guide. This was and will always be the textbook on the topic of low-carbohydrate diets and it can be found in libraries and universities in addition to the thousands of copies sold over the years.
Over the next 10+ years, I would dedicate myself to solving various problems related to diet and fat loss, along with athletic performance. My Guide to Flexible Dieting was the first book to discuss the topic of flexible dieting (from which If It Fits Your Macros, a current bandwagon derives).
My Rapid Fat Loss Handbook provides a scientific approach to crash dieting, ensuring maximal nutrition, minimal to no muscle loss and the ability to sustain the loss.
I've also written books aimed at the more advanced dieter. My Ultimate Diet 2.0 allows already lean dieters to reach the extremes of human leanness while gaining muscle. My Stubborn Fat Solution tackles the issue of stubborn abdominal and hip/thigh fat. That was a 10 year project.
I've also written about topics related to sports nutrition. My Protein Book is a complete work on the topic of protein nutrition for athletes. I also wrote a weird little drug booklet titled Bromocriptine that really dealt with bodyweight regulation.
For over 20 years I've dedicated every waking moment to the fitness, health and human performance field. I've been involved in most sports with my most recent adventure being 5.5 years spent in Salt Lake City Utah attempting to make the US Olympic Ice Speed Skating team/Olympic trials.
I've trained powerlifters, Olympic lifters and endurance athletes, prepped bodybuilders for shows along with helping thousands find TRUE solutions to losing fat and improving performance.
At the end of the day I believe in science, research and evidence and I am known for being able to take complex scientific information and making it understandable to those without a background. I don't discount experience but anecdote and individual reports tend to carry little weight.
My journey continues and I have more projects in the wings. The fitness and health field choose me when I was about 16 and that's almost all I've done or known for 25 years. My books are the fruit of that dedication and I hope you enjoy them.
Customer reviews
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The "true scientist" tag is important, for at least four reasons:
(1) This book contains no hype, pep talks, or unduly biased recommendations. It's also not a feel-good "collaborative" book that works with the reader to set goals; it assumes that readers will set, or have already set, QUANTITATIVE goals.
(2) It expects readers to comprehend, and think in terms of, QUANTITATIVE concepts like grams/%/calories of macronutrients, lbs/% of LBM, etc.
(3) It contains no recipes, convenience tips, or lifestyle advice, unless absolutely vital to the program (as with timing of workouts/carb-up in the CKD).
(4) Its text is concise, scientific, and QUANTITATIVE, and therefore rather dry.
If you're looking for an easy-to-read diet book that could potentially sell millions of copies in the aisles of grocery stores, look elsewhere. If you want a thorough volume with exact, QUANTITATIVE factual data, as well as honest discussion of the current state of knowledge regarding various aspects of the diet, this is the book for you.
Did I mention "quantitative"?
This is a very complete book on the subject. It explains the physiology around a ketogenic diet. It's well researched and full of references. It leans toward athletes but anyone could learn a lot from it.
This book does not tell you how to follow a Ketogenic diet. For that purpose I would recommend "Protein Power".
I've read literally tens of books on low-carb diets. This one is the only one that really explains what happens in your body. I highly recommend this book for anyone that want to know more on how a low-carb diet works.
Also contains a pretty good how-to section on the nuts and bolts of training while in ketosis.
McDonald begins with a history of ketogenic diets and then goes into a detailed explanation of how various nutrients (both macro and micro) affect your body. After this explanation he presents three versions of the ketogenic diet, with two of the diets aimed at athletic individuals who are looking to maintain their exercise performance while on one of these programs. Each diet is accompanied by detail information about how to implement the diet.
As I have said, the material in this book is incredibly detailed and completed, but what really makes this book worth 5 stars is that the information is presented in a non-biased way. According to the introduction, McDonald wrote this book to clear confusion about ketogenic diets, not to champion them. Much of the material is accompanied by research references and McDonald clearly states where research is lacking or where he is offering his own opinion.
Overall, "The Ketogenic Diet" will make an excellent addition to any dieter's collection of reading. Also, if you are considering a ketogenic diet this will gives you an unbiased view of how they really work.
Would recommend to anyone seriously interested in a Keto diet. Also covers variants (CKD/TKD).
Top reviews from other countries

Maybe not the best for who wants to study ketogenesis for epilepsy, but the only one that gives a complete scenario, with a lot of informations.
