Meet Saahil: The One and Only Chief Avocado Monster!
It took me (Lotte) quite some time to get this interview on the blog and I am so happy it is one of the first articles of 2020! By now you have probably seen, read and heard about Saahil on Myndfuel a few times already. However, we have not taken the time yet to introduce him properly to our community. Which has been a pity, since he has an amazing story about his health journey so far which I always wanted to share with you. Today is that day!
Let us go a bit back in time: in 2018, keto connected us in an unforgettable way. We met in the first place for a keto cook-off and already from that day the spark and chemistry were there. So may I present to you, my partner in crime, awesome Head of Customer Success, gym enthusiast, and creator of the most delicious keto recipes on our blog and Instagram :)
Saahil, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
Yes, definitely. My name is Saahil Karkera. I was born and raised in Mumbai. In 2011 I moved to Amsterdam to study Business Management and landed myself in the startup scene in 2014 and I am loving my professional journey so far! I love working in a fast-paced, multicultural environment, helping build an amazing tech product in whatever capacity possible.
For a day-time job, I work at one of the coolest Hospitality Tech startup called Oaky, where I head their customer success team. Besides helping customers become super successful with the product, I am also keenly interested in Management & Organisational Behaviour. I love helping peers, colleagues, friends uncover ways to become a better version of themselves, in any manner or aspect possible. As a part-time gig, I am a content contributor and recipe creator at Myndfuel.
And, besides these things, I am someone who has been in an ongoing pursuit over the last few years to make myself physically, mentally and spiritually a better human being every single day.
Wow amazing story. So why keto and when did you first come across keto?
Okay hang in here, it is a bit of a long story to this short question. But it will all make sense in the end.
When I was working in event management in Mumbai (2003-2011), I led a pretty unhealthy lifestyle - a lot of restaurant food (almost every day), constant snacking, more than a few drinks probably once every week, if not twice. Loads of stress and sleepless nights; and when I did have some spare time, a bit of exercising (more like once a month). So you can imagine, after all these years I weighed close to triple digits and needless to say I was not very happy about the lifestyle choices I was making!
In 2010, my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer, and then in 2012 my late grandmother. This prognosis was a shocker as they both led a pretty active lifestyle and ate super healthy, did not consume alcohol nor smoked a cigarette ever in their life. In early 2011, my father had a heart attack and had to undergo an open-heart surgery, which he survived. And during this period, I also learned that my uncle, both grandparents on my paternal side suffered from high blood pressure and cardiac issues. Mind blow, and borderline paranoia setting in right about at this time …
So when I landed in Amsterdam in late 2011, I decided that I am going to do everything I can to turn around my health condition. I started running 5k twice a week and ate “healthy” and started tracking macros. I saw pretty solid results in the first year or so, lost a good amount of weight (73kgs from 94kgs) and was looking physically healthier. After the first year, progress plateaued a bit. So mid-2013 I decided to hit the gym and train with weights. I started off with Starting Strength 5x5, then followed by Stronglifts 5x5, then Jim Stoppan’s shortcut to size and a million other programs to get fit. The goal in my head was simple: get healthy, get strong, get big! So, hello protein shakes and 5 meals a day! I was growing strong alright, 110kgs raw squats and 130kg deadlift at a body weight of 81kgs. For the ones who don't understand these numbers, squatting and deadlifting at least 1.5x your own bodyweight is considered a measure of strength. But, I was getting bigger too, I also noticed I was not only gaining some muscles but also some wintertime survival fluff a.k.a fat. So at this time, I was weighing in around 85kgs.
So in June 2017, I was looking for a magic 30-day diet like everyone else to help me get ripped for the summer. This is when I first came across two principles that are now the core-pillars of my health 1) Intermittent Fasting and 2) the ketogenic diet. Intermittent fasting sounded pretty straight forward to implement. The ketogenic diet, on the other hand, sounded, like someone saying crack is healthy for you! I simply could not wrap my head around how eating high amounts of healthy fats can actually be beneficial? I mean we have always been told fats are unhealthy and we should not consume a lot of it.
SoI spent until mid-july consuming scientific literature, success stories from people who had tried it, videos and everything Google could throw at me so I could better understand the ketogenic diet. What got me hooked on, was to learn about the positive benefits that keto has on cholesterol and cancer! This was the silver bullet I was looking for, a diet that could not only get me leaner on the outside but also healthier on the inside! So I decided to give keto a try from 1 August 2017 for a two month period!
Yes, so true! You are really showing here that keto is so much more than improved fitness goals and fat loss. Love it. So what all has changed in your life and health since you have been on keto?
A revelation! Since Aug 2017, I have learned so much about my own body, the bullshit the food and fitness industry leads us to believe. To name a few, I have experienced that you don't need 6 meals a day to fuel your body, you don't need 3 grams of proteins/kg of body weight to build muscles(so no more protein shakes), you won't gain fats if you ate high-fat diet and that sugar is practically hidden in almost every packaged food ingredient you can buy!
Being in full ketosis makes me feel almost superhuman! I have much needed mental clarity, especially working at an early-stage startup means there are a million things to keep an eye on and be on top of, so now my work days feel like a breeze! In the gym, I have lost a bit of strength as you don’t rely on carbs (glucose) to push you through workouts, but in return, I have been able to build lean muscle mass like never before and stay lean year round! Since fats keep you satiated for longer, I also able to go longer between meals and don’t feel the need to constantly snack!
On the lighter side of life, thanks to keto I also met my part in crime Lotte who is also a sports enthusiast, a registered keto dietitian and an avid cook with an amazing sense of humor and a passion to help people adopt a better eating lifestyle. So keto has also bought love, a ton of fun into my life and a sense of mission to my life.
Losing fat- and weight while building lean body mass!
Keto truly connects! So among all these positive changes, what is your absolute favourite thing about doing keto?
This is a tough one, I cannot point out a single favourite thing! There are several aspects of keto that I love, to name a few:
I always struggled with a post-lunch dip scenario, or constant hunger pangs after eating one of those aforementioned small meals, but no more! Eating good quality fats and moderate amounts of proteins keep me satiated for long hours.
Doing extended fasts (24hrs or more) is effortless. I am not going to go full in-depth about why you should but you should be fasting regularly. Your body’s fat is a virtual fuel source, and once you are fat-adapted (burning fats as a source of energy) your body can easily tap into this resource for its energy!
Building lean muscle mass almost effortlessly! The high-fat ketogenic diet has muscle-sparing effects, meaning that keto spares proteins for muscle maintenance, but also significantly increases muscle protein synthesis which helps build lean muscles. Thanks to this, you don’t need to consume copious amounts of proteins to build muscles. The fitness industry pushes the propaganda that you need to be consuming upwards of 3 grams of proteins per kilogram of body weight (so for an 80kg person = 240+ grams of protein). Tons of research has shown that on a low carb diet like keto you can effectively build muscles (if you train few times a week) with less than half this amount (so for an 80kg person = 96 grams - 125 grams of protein).
Trying to make non-keto dishes keto. I am a food connoisseur and i love cooking, so when I see people talking about keto and referring to it as only meat and cheese diet, in my head I am giving them a good whooping! So, what I do I take my favorite carb dish and try to make it keto! By the way, if you find a good recipe to make a keto croissant, send it my way.
Helping others adopt a keto lifestyle. I don’t want to call myself a veteran or an expert in this field, but I guess two years of doing keto counts for something. I really want to help anyone who is looking to make a positive change in their lives, adopt a keto lifestyle on in general just healthier eating habits.
Such enthusiasm! I am sure you will inspire many others to follow. To get a bit more in-detailed, how does your current keto lifestyle look like? Do you follow a specific approach?
Only very recently I have started doing a Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD). So on my workout days, I consume small amounts of quick carbohydrates 15 minutes to one hour before my workouts. For the rest of the week, its normal keto marcos, with 16-8 fasting and one 24 hour fast in the week.
You mention normal keto macros. What are your macros like? Do you count calories?
Mostly throughout the year, I do 2400 calories Carbs 4% Proteins 20% Fats 76%. However, three to four months leading up to summer i drop down the calories to 2200-2100 and prioritize proteins first and then fit the macros around that. Having said that pre-summer & summer macros look something Carbs 4% Proteins 26% Fats 70%.
But a few pieces of advice here:
1. Don't just copy over these macros. Try keto, see how your body responds to it first, get fat adapted then start seeing what macros gives you the best results, everybody’s metabolism is different.
I used to calorie and macro count for the first 3-6 months of starting keto to really understand what eating high fat mean and what i should be consuming every day to get and stay in keto. Usually, by this time your body is used to burning fats as a source of energy. So, accidentally on one day if you happened to consume a bit more carbs, yes you will probably go out of keto, but you also get back into it quickly. After close to three years of doing keto, I understand the building blocks and principles of the diet and don't see myself tacking things to the tee.
2. Don’t reduce your calorie intake for the sake of a quick win (fat/weight loss), in the long term you will gain all the lost weight/fat once you go back to eating normal calories. It’s just simply how are bodies are designed to operate.
Those are great tips! Do you maybe also have some tips on Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent Fasting (IF) is something I feel everyone should do irrespective of doing keto or not. IF already gives you a ton of benefits simply by changing your eating pattern, with the keyword here being pattern. No wonder its the most Googled diet keyword for 2019! IF literally prescribes that one should have an eating window and a fasting window; it does not prescribe any particular diet! So you should not see fasting as a safety net for your bad eating habits. Getting your basics in place (cutting our sugar and unhealthy crabs) in a combination of fasting will see you reaping tons of health benefits and slimming that waist down in no time! Read more on how to get started here.
On a short side note, if you fast long enough, your body’s natural tendency is to enter ketosis anyway! So technically, everyone who eats an early dinner and skips breakfast is perhaps in ketosis at some point in this non-eating/fasting window. Bet you did not think about that!
Fasting might sound difficult, but if you think about it our primal ancestors did not eat 6 meals a day, they probably went days between meals and still lived to hunt/gather another day. Our bodies have mechanisms (ketosis) that can help us fast for extended durations without any side effects or loss of performance. In summer 2018 I attempted a 72 hour fast, with a full-body training on day 2 and a 130km cycle ride on day 3. To my surprise, I wasn't a tad bit hungry or exhausted! With keto and IF I am only beginning to understand what my body is really capable of.
I use IF as an extra tool in my keto journey, so I use quite a few fasting techniques. Every day I do a 16-8 fast(two meals in the eating window), one full 24-hour water fast 1 day/week and once every three months a 48/72 hour fast! And occasionally a one-meal-a-day (OMAD) too.
Yes to Intermittent Fasting! And we want more… could you also share your approach on workouts and exercise? Feels like you know all the insights about this.
I love strength training, full-body workouts(3/week) and usually do cycles of 12-16 weeks of both and then usually throw in a 4 week HIIT kettlebell and bodyweight routine somewhere in between.
I prefer sprints to steady-state cardio, I am not an endurance runner. I only do an occasional 5k run to give Lotte some company on her runs or the mandatory company run once every year.
Keto is indeed great for both endurance and strength! Okay ad difficult one…
Name your top 10 favourite keto foods / recipes?
This is indeed a tough one, it is like naming your favourite child I think ;) But here it goes:
Green avocado smoothie
Butter Chicken
Pork Belly Ramen
Keto Coffee
Hmmm getting hungry here! Now after sharing all this in-depth information, practical tips, and insights, do you maybe have any tips for someone who wants to start keto based on your own experience?
The longer you are on keto the more health benefits you will see, so if you are getting into it as a quick fix lose weight thing, don’t! Because you will be going off it before you even see any health improvements.
Know your “why i am doing keto”. This will serve as a guiding beacon each time you will be tempted by a loaf of bread or a sugary treat. And tempted you will be throughout your keto journey and this is when you go to your why you're doing keto.
Plan! Stop being a lazy bum and plan your meals. This is the most popular excuse for eating non-keto while doing keto. Usually, on a Sunday I get my groceries for the entire week and meal prep all my lunches. This way I know I have at least one keto meal ready per day and a fridge stocked with keto ingredients with which I can whip up a quick simple and easy keto meal on demand.
If your friends are planning a dinner out, be a total jerk and pick a restaurant that has at least 1 keto dish for you! And if they still choose a non-keto restaurant, defriend them immediately! (JK)
Resist. Like I said above you will be tempted every single day to eat carbs and sugar, that is unfortunately how our current society is! You are surrounded by tasty sugary carby temptations everywhere. I am not saying it is not ok to eat a small piece of cake your colleague baked for her birthday, but if you know you have 4 birthdays in a week, resist the temptation, don’t eat those cakes and don’t give a damn about what people tell you, it’s your health, not theirs you should be worried about. When you experience difficulties with cutting out sugar, you should definitely read the how-to beginner’s guide I wrote!
Move on! Okay, you failed at all the above. It’s ok you are human, don't beat yourself up! Get back on track and try not making the same mistake again! :)
Those are truly realistic tips! Keto is indeed a lifestyle and most of us live a busy life, so these are very convenient and practical. So last but not least: what exactly do you do at Myndfuel?
So far at Myndfuel I have been combining my passion for cooking, fitness, photography, writing, operations and strategizing to create content such as the amazing recipes and meal planner the Keto Kickstart participants receive in their meal plans or the blogs and a few written articles. In the latter half of 2019, I also helped Lotte with setting up the Keto Kickstart program.
In 2020, I will be focusing more on creating written and video content around new recipes, fitness, and spirituality.