Keto Diet Part One

There are an enormous number of diet plans of various types.

• Some of these were developed fairly recently, and some came from ancient times.

• The high protein, low carb diets are one of the older ones.

• This BLOG will discuss one of the more popular high protein, low carb diets, the Keto Diet.

• I’m only going to discuss some of the information that promoters use to entice people into using this diet.

  • I don’t really need to discuss any other aspect of it as the promoters do a pretty good job of shooting it down all by themselves.

  • This discussion also applies to all low carb, high protein diets.

• Addressing the information used by the promoters will take a fair amount of discussion. Therefore, to keep this BLOG within a reasonable length, I am going to split it into five parts.

• I would also recommend reading these Keto BLOGs in order as it may be somewhat confusing otherwise.

Before we address the keto Diet directly, let’s discuss some aspects of high protein diets in general.

• Your body cannot utilize fats directly as an energy source.

  • It must first convert them into aldehydes and ketones.

  • Ketosis is a physiological state that your body goes into when it is forced to use fat as an energy source.

• Depending on the composition of your diet, your body may go into ketosis frequently.

  • This is more likely to happen with athletes or people who work very hard.

  • Whenever your body runs out of glucose, it starts into ketosis to provide energy for muscles and other tissues.

  • Most people don’t stay in this state very long before they end up eating some carbohydrates which will cause their body to revert back to a carbohydrate metabolism.

  • In all of the low carb diets, you do not consume enough carbohydrates to allow your body to return to a carbohydrate metabolism, thereby forcing your body to remain in a ketotic state.

• I’ll have a lot more to say about this as we go through the promoters' information.

So, let’s get into the keto Diet promoters' claims.

Promoter Claim: “The main benefit of ketosis is that it increases the body's ability to utilize fats for fuel, which gets very lazy on a high-carbohydrate diet.”

Here’s the Reality: 

• Your body is designed to use fats as an energy source when there is an inadequate supply of glucose.

  • If it rarely has to utilize this energy pathway, the molecules that it needs to carryout ketosis are at a minimum as the body does not store things that it doesn't need.

  • As you force it to use this pathway, your body builds up the needed molecules which "increases its ability to utilize fats."

  • This is just something that it does automatically as different energy sources are utilized.

• If you eat enough sugar that this pathway is rarely utilized, your body won’t be very efficient in getting into ketosis.

  • So, this is not really a benefit, as your body will adjust its ability to perform ketosis based on your diet.

• What they want you to believe is that by forcing your body into ketosis, it will make it burn fat for energy, thereby reducing your fat stores.

• The fact is,

  • unless you eat fewer calories than your body needs for its basic metabolic functions,

    • it will not use your fat stores,

    • you will not lose weight.

• Regardless of whatever diet you are on, if you eat fewer calories than your body needs, it will use some of your fat stores to make up the difference.

Promoter Claim: “Ketosis has a protein-sparing effect. Once in ketosis, the body actually prefers ketones to glucose. Since the body has copious quantities of fat from your diet, there is no need for it to utilize protein to generate glucose.”

Here’s the Reality: 

• When your body has insufficient glucose for its energy needs under any circumstances, it starts utilizing its fat stores (or dietary fat) for required energy.

• The exception is the brain.

  • Although it can utilize ketones for energy, it does not function well on them.

  • For example,

    • diabetics can have low blood sugar for a variety of reasons but usually because they have given themselves too much insulin.

    • The presence of the insulin keeps driving their blood sugar lower as it causes muscles, fat and the liver to continue to absorb glucose. 

    • When their blood sugar gets too low, they experience a variety of symptoms including -

      • disorientation,

      • dizziness,

      • nausea,

      • etc.

      • if it gets low enough, they will become comatose.

• What happens to a non-diabetics?

  • When you eat carbohydrates, they cause your blood sugar to increase.

  • Once it reaches a threshold value,

    • the pancreas starts producing insulin.

    • This insulin enables the liver, muscles, and adipose tissue to absorb the excess glucose.

  • As the blood sugar comes down to the threshold level,

    • insulin production ceases to prevent the blood sugar level from getting too low.

    • As the blood sugar continues to drop due to consumption by tissues that don't need insulin to absorb glucose such as nervous tissue, 

      • the liver starts releasing its glucose stores.

      • When these stores run out,

        • it starts manufacturing glucose from protein sources such as dietary intake or protein stores (your muscles) 

        • it continues to do so until glucose intake is adequate for your brain's needs.

• If someone using a Keto Diet (or any other diet) does not have enough protein intake,

  • when their liver runs out of glucose,

    • their body will breakdown some of its muscle to obtain the required protein to manufacturer glucose by a process called gluconeogenesis.

• If you check your blood sugar while on a Keto Diet, you will find that it is in the normal range.

• Protein-sparing only occurs if your body has-

  • sufficient protein intake,

  • or

  • adequate glucose intake

  • with sufficient liver glucose stores

  • so the liver doesn't have to produce glucose.

• Since the keto Diet has an abundance of protein,

  • it doesn’t need to use muscle protein to make glucose.

  • This is the muscle sparing aspect of the keto diet.

• Your body never prefers ketones to glucose,

  • it is designed to function more efficiently on glucose.

  • Anyone who has trained intensely enough to burn up the glycogen (glucose) stores in their muscles will attest,

    • your energy level goes down considerably when you run out of glucose.

      • As you keep training-when you are using ketones for energy:

        • your energy,

        • strength,

        • endurance go down.

        • Recovery times go up

• If your muscles and other tissues that can use ketones run out of their glucose stores,

  • your body will start to use dietary or stored fat to supply the needed energy.

  • Your muscles, and other tissues that can utilize ketones for energy,

    • cannot use the glucose manufactured by the liver.

    • They can only use glucose if there is insulin present.

    • Since your blood glucose levels are insufficient to trigger insulin production,

      • muscles and these other tissues cannot use the glucose.

      • It’s reserved for those tissues that do not require insulin to absorb glucose such as nerve tissue.

• Unless you eat fewer protein and fat calories than your body requires for its energy needs,

  • it will not touch your fat stores as it doesn’t need to.

  • It can obtain adequate energy for your metabolism through your dietary intake.

• The only way that you are going to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than your body needs so that it will be forced to use your fat stores to make up the difference.

I don’t know where they came up with the idea that if you eat lots of fat, your liver doesn’t have the need to make glucose from protein.

• If you never eat any carbohydrates,

  • when your liver runs out of glucose stores,

    • it will have to make glucose from protein in order for your brain to have an adequate supply.

    • It cannot make glucose from fat.

    • The fat will be converted to aldehydes and ketones which the muscles and other tissues will use.

  • Your brain must have glucose to function,

    • the liver has to make the glucose,

      • it uses protein, not fat, to make it.

• If you eat an excess of any energy source, i.e. carbohydrates, fats, and protein, your body will turn it into fat for energy storage.

We’ll stop at this point and pick up the discussion in part 2. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comment section below. You can also email me at drmeline@ss-health.com. See you in the next BLOG.