From Di Pasquale himself
NM: That was the principle which Tim and TC used when putting together the Biotest line. Tell me, you were one of the first proponents of the high-fat/low-carb diet. What's the main difference between the Anabolic Diet that you developed and the presently popular Ketogenic Diet?
MD: When I wrote the Anabolic Diet, I wasn't trying to present an academic hypothesis. I wanted to write about something that would work. These days, there seems to be a lot of emphasis on ketosis, but it's all pretty useless. Staying in a ketogenic state basically means that you haven't adapted to the diet. If ketones are being excreted in the urine (which is how you determine ketosis) by using "keto-sticks," then you're not utilizing ketones for energy very efficiently. Someone who is optimally using fat for fuel should not have ketones in their urine.
NM: Whoa, let me back this up for a second. So what you're saying is, if one were efficiently using ketones for energy and lipolysis on a carb depleted diet...it shouldn't produce a state of ketosis?
MD: That's correct. If you've adapted fully to the diet.
NM: So it's not preferable to be in ketosis if the objective is fat loss?
MD: That's right. This is where I differ from everybody else and why the Anabolic Diet is so effective where others are not. Ketosis is very catabolic! First of all, the Anabolic Diet keeps you at 30 grams of carbs a day, five days a week. That keeps you out of ketosis, but the body begins to adapt to using fat for fuel. On the weekend, you can eat as many carbs as you like. That's the anabolic phase, but the body is still in a fatburning mode. Once there's a spillover of carb calories to fat storage, after no more than 48 hours, you go back to 30 carbohydrate grams a day. Basically, this is meant to be a diet that can be followed easily. Who wants to wake up at night to eat or spend each hour of the day watching exactly how many calories you eat? What's interesting is that I've found that triglyceride levels rise on the days when high carbs are ingested.