My new lifestyle: all about the ketogenic life
- Ann Gable
- Dec 6, 2016
- 3 min read
What is a Ketogenic Lifestyle in a nutshell?
The ketogenic lifestyle (notice I refuse to use the word "diet", Diet alludes to the concept that there is a beginning and end) is a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. It's a diet that causes ketones to be produced by the liver, shifting the body's metabolism away from glucose and towards fat utilization. The ketogenic diet is an effective weight loss tool and has been shown to improve several health conditions such Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, epilepsy and even cancer. Healthy cells can use ketones for energy, but cancer cells cannot and they literally starve to death.
Because Huntington's (a branch of Alzehimer's) Disease, Cancer, and Heart Disease all run in my family, I am without a doubt, that this will be the best lifestyle choices for me.
What are the stages of a Ketogenic Lifestyle?
There are three distinct phases that occur with when a well formulated ketogenic diet is implemented. I will explain these along with other habits I find helpful.
1. Endogenous Ketone Production The first phase is when you start showing elevated ketones in your bloodstream. This usually starts after 1-2 days of carbohydrate restriction (20g or less total carbs). You will see blood ketones go from 0.1 or trace to 0.2 or 0.3 or higher blood ketones. In this phase you may still struggle to have enough energy. Making sure you get electrolytes (salt, potassium and water) and adding extra fat (like fat bombs) can be helpful to fuel the body until your body can better utilize your own fat for fuel.
2. Becoming Fat Adapted This can take about 4-6 weeks (or even more for some people). This phase is where the body starts to utilize body fat for fuel. This is called Lipolysis. Stored body fat (adipose tissue) is triglycerides. Each triglyceride molecule is three free fatty acid (FFA) molecules connected with one glycerol molecule. It taps stored body fat to generate FFA to fuel muscle and other lean tissues as well as some glycerol (that it turns to glucose) to fuel parts of the brain that still need glucose. At this point you want to ditch the extra fat (fat bombs, etc) so your body uses more body fat for fuel (fat loss and shrink fat cell size).
3. Fully Keto Adapted Now you become a metabolic powerhouse. It can take anywhere form a two months to a few months (up to 6 or more in some cases). This is where there are some real changes at the cellular level. Mitochondria become more efficient, you can use FFA much better for fuel and much more. Insulin resistance is being reversed. Adipose tissue and fat cell size is reduced. This is where you really start feeling like a super hero with loads of energy, healing your body and other great benefits (moods, focus, memory, etc).
With these stages it becomes clear that in the first phase, you do need to add extra fat to the diet for fuel until the body adapts and can make it from your own fat cells. But once your body gets Fat Adapted, you can now use dietary fat or body fat equally. Using body fat for fuel (lipolysis) is what you want for weight loss (fat loss). So you don’t want to add lots of dietary fats if feel weight loss and healing is the goal or it will use those for fuel instead of body fat.
How to test for Ketones, and when?
There are 3 types of ketone bodies.
Acetone, Acetoacetate and Beta-Hydroxybutryate (BHB, though technically not really a ketone body)
The body (the liver) converts long and medium chain fatty acids into BHB and Acetoacetate. BHB and Acetoacetate live in reversible equilibrium (they can transform back and forth). Acetoacetate can also be turned into acetone. After converted to acetone, it can not be converted back. Acetone is typically excreted through the urine or breath.
When to test for Ketones
If your body has been in ketosis for a while, you will see a reduction in acetoacetate. Muscles begin to use acetoacetate and turn it into Beta-Hydroxybutryate for fuel, so less is present in urine as you get more keto-adapted. This is the flaw of the urine test. It only tests for acetoacetate so it will go down as your body gets more efficient at using ketones for fuel.
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