Ketosis – 101: What is Ketosis?

Dietary Ketosis is the metabolic state where the body uses ketones for energy instead of glucose.  More simply put, it’s when your body burns fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.  Your body begins to use ketones as fuel when glycogen is no longer present in the blood or liver.  The body is burning off fat.  What is more interesting is that by burning fat for fuel, ketosis, is powering the brain.

We will go into more detail in another post about Ketosis.  Ketosis is not simple, it is a complex metabolic process that involves a lot of science.  It is the body’s fascinating way of turning fat into ketones and ketones into a substrate for the Krebs Cycle (how we generate energy to stay alive).  Humans can live off body fat.

Power of ketones:

• Increase glutathione: Glutatione is one of the more powerful and brain protective antioxidants.
• Promote the productuion of mitochondria.  Also see our post on The Wahls Protocol. Terry Wahls talks about how she used a modified ketogenic diet to heal herself after a MS diagnosis.
• Ketogenic diets have been show to reduce seizures in epileptic patients

To get you body in a dietary ketogenic state, the carbohydrate fast would need to be anywhere from 24-72 hours and could take weeks.  When you first enter ketosis you can feel sick, commonly referred to as Keto Flu.  Everyone’s carbohydrate threshold is different, some people have to consume under 20g of carbohydrates to enter a ketogenic state where an athlete could eat over 100g of carbs and still be in ketosis.

Reminder: Ketosis stresses the Adrenals because of gloconeogenesis (the metabolic process in the liver where the body produces glucose from non-carbohydrate sources).  This process involves cortisol which is produced in the adrenals.  Another reason a low-carb diet might bee too stressful on the body if you are suffering from adrenal fatigue.  If you experience hair loss, dry eyes, cold hands, you probably should not be in a ketogenic state.  Add carbohydrates.  Everyone has a different carbohydrate threshold.

This is just a quick overview.  We will get more into Dietary Ketosis in another post.