Ketosis and nutrient-intake

I don't agree that the body can't create glucose from fatty acids. Here's an article that explains it: http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/2012/01/we-really-can-make-glucose-from-fatty.html ...

As I've pointed out above, your research has led you to an incorrect conclusion. The only way the process of gluconeogenesis can do so is using the glyoxylate cycle. And that only happens if you're a plant. I'm pretty sure I'm NOT a plant, are you?

The link I provided above explains how humans create glucose from fatty acids, therefore I don't need to be a plant.

"What is most striking is that these textbooks do not even alert us to any controversy about this topic, let alone to the strong evidence supporting the opposing view. "

Again, I've addressed this already, but this again seems to contradict what you said before. If the body produces glucose when needed and does not have any carbohydrate to get it from then what you are saying is that it can only be created from protein and this would then suggest that a ketogenic diet would lead to more muscle loss than other diets since protein consumption is typically low too. Granted 20g is not much but that's not really the point I'm trying to make. I still don't see any evidence that glucose needs actually decrease once one becomes keto adapted. The body switches to burning more fat for fuel during aerobic exercise in everybody, but someone who hasn't adapted to this and has relied too heavily on fuelling exercise through glucose may suffer physically until they have adapted. This has no bearing on the body's need for glucose, just what it has become used to as a result of fuelling training and that is very different to burning fat as part of a weight loss plan.

I will take a look at the book you mention anyway. I'm always interested to learn more, but I think we are getting mixed up in different issues here. I have been talking in context of a weight loss plan and you are talking in terms of athletic performance which are 2 very different issues.

I'm really not sure what you're suggesting the difference between ketosis and burning fat for fuel is. Yes ketosis occurs when blood ketone levels are elevated, and ketone levels are elevated when the body is turning fat into ketones for use as fuel. If what you're saying about burning fat for fuel only happens once keto adapted, then anyone on a high carb diet wouldn't be able to burn off body fat and we know that isn't true so of course you don't have to be keto adapted in order to use fat stores for fuel.

Sure, anyone on any diet can burn fat ... HOWEVER, fat doesn't become the body's PREFERRED source (ie: what it uses FIRST) until keto-adapted.

For the vast-majority of people in the world right now (even many low-carbers), their PREFERRED source of fuel is glucose - because they're not keto-adapted. Simply getting into ketosis doesn't make you keto-adapted, it's a physiological / biochemical shift that comes AFTER a period of ketosis. Once keto-adapted, however, that's when the metabolism shifts to PREFER fatty-acids/lipids/ketones for fueling cellular respiration.

So yes, if you want the body to primarily use FAT for fuel instead of glucose, you need to be keto-adapted, NOT just in ketosis.

Fat is never the "preferred" source of fuel. When you eat a ketogenic diet, your body runs off dietary fat because it has no other option, not because it suddenly develops a preference for it.

Glucose is always the preferred energy source. There's a reason that fat burning and glucose burning occur simultaneously at all times during normal human metabolism. It's because the body runs most efficiently using glucose, and the fat oxidization process is also most efficient when it utilizes glucose during the process.

The whole "keto adapted" phrase is really just pseudoscientific junk. Saying your body suddenly prefers fat for fuel after you've cut out almost all of its glucose is like saying someone who loses their legs in a horrific accident prefers to use a wheelchair instead of walking. It makes no sense.

I mean let's use logic. Once you become "keto adapted" and fat supposedly becomes the preferred source of fuel, that means you can increase all the carbs you want, and the body will still burn fat first, as it "prefers it," right? Oh wait, no, it immediately goes back to burning glucose... Because glucose is what the human body prefers.

I really am getting a little tired of this debate as there doesn't seem to be much point to it other than you trying to prove me wrong and I'm afraid a lot of the discussion cannot be absolutely proven one way or the other so we may as well leave it as you interpret the evidence your way and I'll interpret it my way.

can anyone tell me if a keto diet would hurt running performance? i'm not running huge distances, about 3 miles per session a few times a week