Science Behind Ketogenic Dieting
JisatsuHoshi
Posts: 421 Member
Science behind Ketogenic Dieting
Source: (http://markmaunder.com/2012/07/22/the-basic-ketogenic-diet)
When you eat carbs your blood glucose level is raised and your pancreas secretes insulin. This insulin puts your muscle and fat cells into “storage mode”. Your fat cells store away the glucose as triglycerides. Insulin also prevents your fat cells from breaking down those triglycerides back into fatty acids and releasing them into your blood stream for use as energy. This is important: Insulin both causes fat absorption and prevents fat from being used as energy.
If you were to eat sugary snacks throughout the day you are keeping your insulin level high which constantly keeps your fat cells in a state of absorption and prevents the release of fat and its use as energy.
Eating fat and protein does very little to raise your insulin level.
So the bottom line here is, if you want your body to burn fat –meaning if you want your fat cells to break down triglycerides into fatty acids, release them into your blood stream and actually use them as energy – you need to keep your insulin level as low and absolutely avoid spikes in insulin.
A note on calories: Counting calories or increasing exercise output, according to the research of Taubes and many others, is a bad way to try to lose weight because what usually happens is instead of your body burning fat to make up for the deficit in calories, it simply decreases the amount of energy it expends. So you end up lethargic and still fat.
There is a lot more to this, but the science above is the rationale behind all Low GI, Low Carb and Ketogenic diets. It is why you lose weight on these diets while consuming the same number of calories.
Low Carb and Low GI diets work because they cut out carbs that cause spikes in insulin, which you now know will cause fat absorption and prevent fat burn.
The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.
Source: (http://markmaunder.com/2012/07/22/the-basic-ketogenic-diet)
When you eat carbs your blood glucose level is raised and your pancreas secretes insulin. This insulin puts your muscle and fat cells into “storage mode”. Your fat cells store away the glucose as triglycerides. Insulin also prevents your fat cells from breaking down those triglycerides back into fatty acids and releasing them into your blood stream for use as energy. This is important: Insulin both causes fat absorption and prevents fat from being used as energy.
If you were to eat sugary snacks throughout the day you are keeping your insulin level high which constantly keeps your fat cells in a state of absorption and prevents the release of fat and its use as energy.
Eating fat and protein does very little to raise your insulin level.
So the bottom line here is, if you want your body to burn fat –meaning if you want your fat cells to break down triglycerides into fatty acids, release them into your blood stream and actually use them as energy – you need to keep your insulin level as low and absolutely avoid spikes in insulin.
A note on calories: Counting calories or increasing exercise output, according to the research of Taubes and many others, is a bad way to try to lose weight because what usually happens is instead of your body burning fat to make up for the deficit in calories, it simply decreases the amount of energy it expends. So you end up lethargic and still fat.
There is a lot more to this, but the science above is the rationale behind all Low GI, Low Carb and Ketogenic diets. It is why you lose weight on these diets while consuming the same number of calories.
Low Carb and Low GI diets work because they cut out carbs that cause spikes in insulin, which you now know will cause fat absorption and prevent fat burn.
The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.
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Excellent summary. Knowing that there are so many shades of LCHF/Paleo and having read "Art and Science", "Rosedale" and all them, I will add that introducing a higher fat to protein ratio 85/15/5 can tip the scales (so to speak) in my favor as I seem to be quite carb intolerant. This helps me with two amazing benefits, having a higher blood ketone count (>1.0) because i'm *not* consuming extra protein which unfortunately burns as sugar, and keeping me satiated and enthusiastic about staying with this lifestyle. In my many past dives into low-carb, the extra protein and lack of enough fat (it seems) was the culprit in my cyclical breakouts. For others who are not as carb intolerant, a higher carb% may be ok.
For those who are fat-hesitant, there are some great studies cited in the "Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living" regarding the relationship between cholesterol and other markers to increasing fat% in the diet. %30-%60 can be risky, but once over %70 or so and up, the numbers improve dramatically due to the body entering a consistent ketogenic state. This is key. This is not the kind of eating plan that can be followed intermittently as the benefits can usually only be fully realized with consistent ketogenisis. And they are huge benefits.
The two personal measuring sticks I see are
a) Am I craving? (thus causing me to eat inappropriate types of food, or much more than I need) I may not be eating enough fat%
b) Is my insulin spiking, thereby causing me to store fat? (I can tell with a blood ketone monitor) I must have had too many carbs
If either of the above is true, I need to tweak something as i'm headed in the wrong direction.
There is so much more to it but those two seem to be the clinchers.0 -
oops, I of course meant 80/15/5 in my Fat/Protein/Carb ratio above. :-)0
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The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.
A couple of other notes on the high fat / moderate protein aspects of keto. Protein should be kept between 0.7-0.9 grams per pound of body weight. This allows the body to maintain muscle mass. You don't want too much protein, as dietary protein does prompt some insulin release (finney and volek, "Art and Science of Low Carb Living"), and excess protein may convert to glucose in the body.
So with carbs low, and protein kept moderate, the rest is fat!0 -
That should be 0.7-0.9 grams of protein per pound of LEAN body mass not total body weight.The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.
A couple of other notes on the high fat / moderate protein aspects of keto. Protein should be kept between 0.7-0.9 grams per pound of body weight. This allows the body to maintain muscle mass. You don't want too much protein, as dietary protein does prompt some insulin release (finney and volek, "Art and Science of Low Carb Living"), and excess protein may convert to glucose in the body.
So with carbs low, and protein kept moderate, the rest is fat!0 -
That should be 0.7-0.9 grams of protein per pound of LEAN body mass not total body weight.The Ketogenic diet takes this one step further. It keeps your insulin level low which puts your body into fat-release-fat-burn mode, but also significantly increases the fat content in your diet and teaches your body to use fat as energy. Your body (your liver in particular) will enter a state of Ketosis and will break down fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which will be used as energy.
A couple of other notes on the high fat / moderate protein aspects of keto. Protein should be kept between 0.7-0.9 grams per pound of body weight. This allows the body to maintain muscle mass. You don't want too much protein, as dietary protein does prompt some insulin release (finney and volek, "Art and Science of Low Carb Living"), and excess protein may convert to glucose in the body.
So with carbs low, and protein kept moderate, the rest is fat!
Grrrr... You're absolutely right. This is actually straight out of Art and Science of LC Living. (Actual wording: "0.7 to 0.9 per pound reference weight"). McDonald is also really sloppy with not specifying that it's LBM. Thank you for catching this!
I wonder how many people have set their target to 140 g protein when it should be 90 g protein!0 -
Honestly at the end of the day, difference between 90-120g of protein is not going to spike your insulin up to a level where you aren't in keto.
I keep my protein at 120-130g a day (128 LBM) to be on the safe side. Don't want muscle loss.0 -
Honestly at the end of the day, difference between 90-120g of protein is not going to spike your insulin up to a level where you aren't in keto.
I keep my protein at 120-130g a day (128 LBM) to be on the safe side. Don't want muscle loss.0 -
Yes, a little extra is always good. For me, xtra protein does seem to make a big difference regarding cravings. Not as much as carbs of course. In reference to how much protein per lb of body weight...we are looking to eat enough protein for our "ideal weight" i.e. to get enough amino acids and tissue building material for organs and muscles. So if this research is correct, we are apparantly supposed to be able to eat the same amount of protein daily throughout our entire weight loss effort as it will not need to change (exceptions for increased excercise or weight lifting etc). What we are shooting for is to eat just enough protein for the body to maintain tissues. Too much xtra will not be needed for those tissues and therefore will end up being converted into sugar (i.e. same as carbs), reducing our blood ketones and cramping our craving-free state.0
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I agree. However, in my case it's the difference between as low as 84g of protein vs. as much as 203g. Plus, keeping my protein within optimal range is very important for controlling my diabetes.Honestly at the end of the day, difference between 90-120g of protein is not going to spike your insulin up to a level where you aren't in keto.
I keep my protein at 120-130g a day (128 LBM) to be on the safe side. Don't want muscle loss.0 -
It seems like the Keto "rules" might be different for those doing keto for purpose of gaining muscle mass vs those doing it for weight loss and something like diabetes control.
For those on the weight loss plan, there's a higher priority of fat over protein. Those that do keto for weight loss, might be sedentary, and therefore the high protein would impact them differently than those doing a lot of lifting. I could also see why those doing a lot of lifting would emphasize the importance of protein.
It looks like both groups are active in this board, so understanding what someone is following and what their goals are is probably important. Neither group is wrong - just have different goals that they are working toward.0 -
It seems like the Keto "rules" might be different for those doing keto for purpose of gaining muscle mass vs those doing it for weight loss and something like diabetes control.
For those on the weight loss plan, there's a higher priority of fat over protein. Those that do keto for weight loss, might be sedentary, and therefore the high protein would impact them differently than those doing a lot of lifting. I could also see why those doing a lot of lifting would emphasize the importance of protein.
It looks like both groups are active in this board, so understanding what someone is following and what their goals are is probably important. Neither group is wrong - just have different goals that they are working toward.
True that!
Thanks for input everyone!0
