Ketosis

Jamie had to go in for a physical the other day. It’s required once a year for his job. When they tested his urine sample for whatever, they were shocked to see his ketone levels WAY above any they’d seen before. They started asking if he was starving himself and told him he needed to eat. He told them he was eating, but not much. I’m not sure how much of the hcg thing he explained. They said even the firemen they see who come in and are fasting or on low-carb diets don’t have ketone levels as high as his. They were concerned. He called me, freaked out.

So I said for him to let me look this up before he goes running to McDonald’s for a Big Mac. I know I’d seen something about ketosis in one of the hcg forums, so I know it was connected.

Ketosis simply means the body is using fat for energy.

Ketone bodies are the product created from the process of the liver breaking down the fat cells.

In researching, I came across this blog by a doctor specializing this. He writes for us laymen to understand. http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/ketones-and-ketosis/metabolism-and-ketosis/

I will paraphrase:

When we eat sugar or starches, our bodies turn that to glucose for nourishment. Any glucose consumed in excess of what the body needs for use at that time gets stored as fat. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is higher in glucose forming foods than the body needs. When the body is getting glucose from our foods, then it doesn’t need to release fat cells to create ketones.

When our bodies do NOT get sugars or starches, our bodies can get a little glucose from our fat reserves, but the majority has to come from protein (i.e. muscle). At first, the body doesn’t know if the starvation is going to be for a day or a week, or more, so it pillages the muscle for sugar. This results in about a third of a pound of muscle a day, which isn’t that much over the first day, but would be significant if allowed to continue for long. Fortunately, our body has a way of reducing our glucose dependency so that the protein can be spared as long as possible. Yay!

Ketones! As the body begins to breakdown fat, it produces ketones as a byproduct. Ketones are dissolved into the blood and are a source of energy for the muscles, brain, heart, and many other tissues. Ketones are actually the PREFERRED fuel of the heart, making it operate at about 28% greater efficiency. And excess ketones are discarded though the urine or the breath, so they don’t get re-stored as fat like glucose!

“If, instead of starving, you’re following a low-carb diet, it gets even better. The protein you eat is converted to glucose instead of the protein in your muscles. If you keep the carbs low enough so that the liver still has to make some sugar, then you will be in fat-burning mode while maintaining your muscle mass, the best of all worlds. How low is low enough? Well, when the ketosis process is humming along nicely and the brain and other tissues have converted to ketones for fuel, the requirement for glucose drops to about 120-130 gm per day. If you keep your carbs below that at, say, 60 grams per day, you’re liver will have to produce at least 60-70 grams of glucose to make up the deficit, so you will generate ketones that entire time.”



All of this makes sense as to why Jamie’s ketone levels were so high. The hcg releases fat at such a rate that his levels were much higher than those of the fasting (starving) firemen. This also explains the reason for the two “fat-loading” days. It prevents the body from using the muscles as its source of glucose that first day or two after switching to the 500-calorie diet. Also explains why the specific combinations of foods and in what quantity, so the tissues that do need glucose have just enough, leaving the rest to ketones. And it makes sense that even a little cheating or more calories can result in a gain.

So, ketosis is the GOAL!

I was super-excited about his levels being so high. It means the hcg is working! Jamie, not so much. He was hoping this would mean he’d be forced to end the diet!