Welcome to my weekly Diet Diary. At the beginning of the new year, I started a Low Carb, High Protien (LCHP) diet. It's the Atkins version but there are many others. I'm chronicling my journey here. I both want to share my experience and hear from you as well as have an enduring record for future reference. This is not an advocacy journal: there are many other ways to lose weight and many different experiences out there.
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Tonight's topic is
ketosis.
What is it?
Ketosis is a metabolic state in which the liver produces small organic molecules called ketone bodies at “sufficient” levels, which I’ll expand upon later.
Let's put it this way. There wouldn't be much point to having such (for some) a remarkably efficient mechanism for storing excess dietary calories as fat if there wasn't a way to use that fat when in a shortage of calories. Excluding Type 1 diabetics, the two situations that can trigger ketosis are starvation and a low carbohydrate diet. We'll focus on the latter and don't encourage the former.
In a typical Western diet, the body gets lots of carbohydrates at every meal. These carbohydrates are converted to blood glucose by the liver. The first choice for energy by the body's cells is blood glucose. A typical meal will exceed the amount of energy needed so the balance is converted to fat.
But there is always just a little bit of that fat burning going on. In between meals when the blood sugar lowers to a certain point, the body will burn more fat for energy. Or during and after exercise. But getting the balance of foods and timing and activity level just right so that you burn off everything you take in is difficult to do. So ultimately many of us start to accumulate fat.
Going on a low-carb diet forces the body to switch its main fuel from blood glucose to blood ketone bodies. Ketone bodies are produced by the liver from fatty-acids in the blood. The "switch" isn't really instantaneous. Having been running on carbohydrates for so long, your body doesn't have enough enzymes on hand to do this conversion on the scale that's needed to maintain your energy. It takes time, a few days to get to a working level and a few weeks to get to a full level.
The body doesn't just run on whatever fat happens to be in the bloodstream. The diet is helping to keep your blood sugar (and therefore insulin level) low. This means your fat stores go into lipolysis - releasing fat into the bloodstream instead of storing it. Since your liver is converting this fat into ketones which are now being consumed by your cells for energy (or excess amounts excreted in the urine) you are not really endangering yourself with high lipid levels. Instead you are losing weight.
For reference, I'm 5'9", male, and in my middle-late early 40s.
Week Summary
|
Total |
Week |
Start date |
12/31/2013 |
01/21/2014 |
Report date |
01/27/2013 |
01/27/2014 |
Days on Diet |
28 |
7 |
Start weight |
183 lbs. |
174 lbs. |
Current weight |
173 lbs. |
173 lbs. |
Weight Lost |
10 lbs. |
1 lbs. |
Pounds per day Lost |
0.35 |
0.14 |
Daily Activity
Date |
Weight |
Exercise |
Blood Ketones (mmol/L) |
Blood Glucose (mg/dL) |
01/21/2014 |
174 |
30 min stair climber |
... |
... |
01/23/2014 |
174 |
30 min swim |
... |
... |
01/25/2014 |
173 |
30 min Stair Climber |
1.7 |
85 |
01/26/2014 |
... |
... |
3.3 |
84 |
01/27/2014 |
173 |
30 min swim |
... |
... |
Note: I don't have a scale at home so I only have data for days I go to the gym which has a scale.
Analysis
I'm past worrying about the ongoing plateau. I only lost one pound this week. But I have new data to focus on! I started using my blood glucose / blood ketone level meter. And by everything I've read up on, my readings put me in the sweet spot for ketosis. Plus, four weeks in I pretty much have to be there. The weight loss will come. Another thing that needs emphasis is that even if I think the loss is slow, I've not had one weigh-in that was higher than the last. That's a big change to other campaigns I've engaged in.