Ketosis, a Natural Human State
Throughout the evolution of man, the state of nutritional ketosis has been a natural state. In the past, food was not always readily available the way it is today. The body would naturally flux into a state of ketosis when food was scarce. The body didn’t shut down when food was scarce, this would have resulted in the end of the human race. When food was unavailable the body naturally shifted to burning stored fat as fuel and making ketones to feed the brain and keep the mind sharp. This natural adaptation allowed for the energy and brain function needed to find more food.
Nutritional ketosis puts the body in a physiological state that mimics how the body functions during a fast.
These days there is a lot of talk about being “ketogenic” or following a “ketogenic diet”. There is nothing wrong with this, as mentioned above, being in a state of ketosis is a natural human state. Forcing or encouraging a state of ketosis in a world full of available food has been done both therapeutically and as a weight loss tool for hundreds of years.
Here are just a few examples of a ketogenic diet being used throughout history:
- A man named William Banting released a weight loss pamphlet in Britain in the late 1800s explaining how to cut carbs and sugar to successfully lose weight. Many people today still refer to a ketogenic diet as the Banting Diet. To this day, this is what a ketogenic diet is commonly referred to in South Africa.
- In the 1920s the Mayo Clinic promoted a ketogenic diet, a diet of carbohydrate restriction, as an anti-seizure diet. It was also common in regular medical practice to use carbohydrate restriction as a way to manage diabetes. Both of these strategies mostly disappeared when pharmaceutical drugs (anti-seizure medication, injectable insulin) where created for these conditions.
- Recently, the most famous historical example of a ketogenic diet being used successfully for weight loss was/is the Atkins’ diet which was introduced in 1972.
Feasting and Fasting
Humans did not evolve eating all hours of the day. There was always a balance between feasting and fasting. We aren’t designed to eat all the time. We are supposed to eat and fast. Important body maintenance and repair only happens in a fasted state, a time when we aren’t actively eating or digesting. When the body is unable to perform routine repair, dysfunction can happen.
Some of the important things that happen in the body when we stop constantly eating and improve our ratio of feasted time to fasted time:
- Blood sugar goes down, insulin goes down and the pancreas gets a rest
- Human growth hormone increases which helps with fat burning and muscle growth
- Cellular repair happens (autophagy), metabolic waste is removed
- Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) increases, helps with brain function
A State of Ketosis
In an interview Dom D’Agostino, a prominent ketogenic scientist and researcher, mentioned that being in ketosis all the time and never being in ketosis are both unnatural states. A healthy body should naturally flux in and out of ketosis. This would be a state of metabolic flexibility, burning sugar and then easily transitioning to burning fat. Bottom line, it’s not natural for a healthy body to be in a prolonged state of ketosis nor is it natural for a healthy body to never be in a state of ketosis.
The term to take note of is ‘healthy body’.
This does not mean that you can’t live in a constant state of ketosis, you can. Ketosis has been shown to have a therapeutic effect on the body and, because of this, be used to manage many different disease states. If you suffer with certain conditions, such as uncontrolled epilepsy, neurodegenerative disease, cancer or even metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes then maintaining a state of ketosis can be very beneficial.
In most people, what long-term ketosis isn’t necessary for is weight loss. If I just lost you, please go back and read my post, Low Carb or Keto.
This is not to say that nutritional ketosis can’t be helpful for a healthy body, it can. Nutritional ketosis can be used to help facilitate weight loss and may in fact be a great tool to help avoid/prevent certain conditions or diseases that appear to genetically run through families.
Family Health History
Family history can be an important clue about your genetic makeup. In the past it was believed that your genes were your genes, it was the life you were dealt and there was nothing you could do. Today, there is a lot exciting information coming out about epigenetics.
Epigenetics: the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression
rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.
So, your genes are your genes BUT modifying or controlling how those genes express (turn on or off) appears to be an area that we might have some control over. Lifestyle is a huge factor. Don’t do things that are known to cause your body to get sick (turn on bad or mutated genes) – smoking is a good example. The other side of that coin would be to do things that hopefully help your body stay strong and well (keep bad genes tucked away and help the good, healthy genes express). Some things that appear to help your body stay well: restful sleep, low stress, nutrient dense real food, low toxic exposure, exercise, fasting and ketones.
Dom D’Agostino explained that new research (currently only in rat studies) is showing ketone bodies as a beneficial part of positive gene expression.
O.k., so ketosis has historically been used as a health tool for certain conditions and as a tool for weight loss. It’s now looking like ketosis or ketone bodies may be part of the recipe for healthy aging as well.
Weight Loss, A Body in Balalnce
There are many ways to lose weight. You CAN eat low-fat food, cut calories and successfully lose weight. I would argue that maintaining that type of weight loss is difficult because you’re fighting mother nature. Your body will be hungry and ignoring that primal signal is very difficult. You can read more about my thoughts on this in my post, Healthy Weight Loss with a Low-Carb Lifestyle.
I like the idea of weight loss as a natural side effect of a body in balance. I’m a nutritionist, my life and work is about helping you get healthy so you naturally lose excess weight and age well. I want you to do this all while enjoying food! I LOVE food. I LOVE to eat. I have never been good at dieting. Fortunately, for most of my life this was not an issue. However, once I turned 45 my body became less obedient. I actually had to start ‘dieting’. That didn’t really work for me. Dieting, restricting calories always resulted in some kind of food binge (and usually involved ice cream). 1 step forward, 2 steps back.
I tried increasing my exercise. Guess what happened, I got hungrier so I ate more. Not surprising, remember that old saying, ‘working up an appetite’. Nope, cutting calories, increasing exercise did not work for me. I had to figure out how I could eat, feel full and not grow to twice my normal size. Fortunately, I was in nutrition school at this point and I was studying macronutrients and body physiology. Things started to make sense!
This stuff is REALLY EXCITING to me. I feel like I have a giant gift that I want to share. It’s all about communication. You and your body want the same thing – optimal function!!! Weight loss is a piece of this. Optimal function can’t happen if you aren’t at an ideal weight. Your body wants you at an ideal weight. It’s true!!! It all comes down to you and your body speaking the same language.
Food, The Real Body Language
Once I had an understanding about metabolic hormones and how those hormones were controlled by the different macronutrients in our food: carbs, fats and protein I realized that I could talk to my body. Hormones tell the body what to do. I needed to tell my body which hormones I wanted talking.
This began my love of a low-carb lifestyle. Eat less sugary carbs and eat more proteins and fats, YUM! This macronutrient recipe turns off hunger AND turns on fat burning. I could eat and eat well, stay strong and burn fat helping to expose lean muscle. No starving, no deprivation and no growing wider ; )
What’s the difference? Why would eating less carbs and more protein and fat make any difference? It all comes down to those metabolic hormones that tell your body what to do. My favorite of these hormones, insulin. Insulin is a storage hormone. When insulin is high your body is in storage mode. You store fat. Keeping insulin low allows your body to stop storing and start burning. Sugar raises insulin levels, carbs are sugars.
Insulin & Body Fat
Here’s my spiel on insulin and the inability to burn fat. Think of insulin as a wall. When insulin is high, the wall is up. On one side of the wall is sugar, the other side, stored body fat. When the insulin wall is up the body can only see and access the sugar side of the wall. The body, your body, has no idea there is any stored fuel, can’t see it, can’t access it. You could be obese and have lots of excess energy (fat) ready to be used but your body only sees the sugar and it burns through that sugar really fast. As soon as the sugar (fuel) is gone your body goes into panic mode – NEED MORE FUEL NOW! This is when you start feeling ‘hangry’. You can’t focus, all you can think about is where you’re going to get food (fuel). Remember, your bodies #1 priority is keeping you alive and food keeps you alive.
Your body is also incredibly smart, it knows what it needs, fast fuel. It knows what fast fuel is, sugar. So when your body hits panic mode, lack of available fuel, you will more than likely start thinking about sugary, carby food. That’s not because you don’t have willpower, that’s because that’s exactly what your body needs. Mother nature is powerful.
So here you are, an over weight sugar burner dealing with the ‘hangries’ every couple of hours. That’s right, every couple of hours – this would be the blood sugar rollercoaster. Sugar is a fleeting fuel. You have plenty of energy stored up but your body thinks you are emaciated and going to die. Why wouldn’t it, it has no idea there’s stored fuel, you know, because the insulin wall.
Every time you eat the carby, sugary foods, you may feel better in the short-term but you’re just keeping the insulin wall up and adding to your fat stores. Vicious cycle. If you want to get off this rollercoaster you have to help your body bring the insulin wall down and re-learn how to efficiently use body fat for fuel.
Stop burning sugar and start burning fat. To learn more about insulin and body fat please read Low Carb or Keto.
Advantages of Being a Fat Burner
Want to be a fat burner? Talk to your body through your food. Change up those macronutrients, eat more fat, more protein and less carbs (sugar). A diet full of low-sugar, nutrient dense food results in a gentle rise in blood sugar, followed by a gentle rise of insulin. No rollercoaster of super high and way too low – resulting in symptoms associated with reactive hypoglycemia like the hangries and binge eating.
The gentle, normal rise and fall of blood sugar allows your insulin to start to come down. The insulin wall begins to retract. All of a sudden your body can use the sugar but also see all the stored fat. AHHHHHH! All that stored energy is an amazing, exciting wonderland. Your body is so distracted by this windfall; it doesn’t pester you for food, no need, it has just found tons of fuel. You will notice this as a lack of appetite. That’s right. You just won’t feel hungry. Every client gets nervous and tells me they just don’t feel like eating. I tell them, roll with it. Enjoy it while it lasts. Your appetite will come back; you will get hungry but it won’t be like sugar hungry.
You will no longer be on the blood sugar rollercoaster, your body will have access to stored fat, fat is not a fleeting fuel like sugar, fat is a sustainable, slow burning fuel. Ultimately, you’ll eat less often and less over all.
No hangries. See what just happened? You actually end up eating less calories but don’t suffer with feelings of hunger or deprivation. It’s a win-win!! You aren’t fighting with your body; you’re working in concert. It tells you when it needs, food and you feed it nutritious, satiating fats and proteins with some colorful non-starchy vegetables thrown in for fun. Blood sugar stays stable, insulin remains at a normal, healthy level and your body starts to burn body fat as it’s primary and preferred fuel source.
Low-carb hunger comes on like a yellow light. You get a warning you’re going to need food. This is different than sugar hungry which is an immediate switch to NOW, NOW, NOW. With the low-carb warning of hunger you have time to think about what you will eat. You don’t just start flailing and shoving whatever you can find in your mouth. You have time to make good food choices. This may not seem like that big a deal but it is. This is the difference between binge eating and feeling horrible or staying the healthy course. This is how you make a lifestyle change.
Control your cravings, don’t let them control you. This has a lot to do with having the time to actually choose food. The longer you can stay away from high sugar foods the easier it is. Sugar is addictive, you need to break the addiction. There are plenty of low-carb, keto treats that you can use as transition foods to get you off sugar. Check out my dessert fluff recipe or my Fudgy Avocado Brownies.
Increased Energy is another benefit of being a fat burner. As I’ve mentioned, fat is a sustainable, slow-burning fuel. Your energy doesn’t bottom out the way it does as a sugar burner on the blood sugar rollercoaster. You’ll find that you don’t suffer from that afternoon slump. People often experience a surge in energy on a low-carb or keto diet.
Maintaining or even gaining lean muscle is important as we age. Muscle is the organ of longevity. You don’t want to just age; you want to age well. Aging well means you enjoy excellent brain function and mobility. Ketones protect the brain and protein is the key to preserving or even gaining lean muscle. When you cut carbs you create a void in your diet, you fill that void with protein and fat. Too often as people age they eat less and less protein. That is NOT good. If you find that you avoid protein because it doesn’t sit well in your stomach, it’s most likely because you have low levels of stomach acid. This is easily fixed and should be. A proper level of stomach acid is important for breaking down protein but it’s also key to keeping pathogenic bacteria out of the gut and allowing your body to absorb vitamin B12.
If you’re ready to dive in and get started converting your body from burning sugar to burning fat please download my free guide, How to Low-Carb for Life. Enter you name and email below and watch your email for the free guide.
I don’t believe that weight loss through calorie restriction on a high-carb, low-fat diet is sustainable. Yes, some are successful but most aren’t. You can read more about my feelings regarding low calorie dieting in my article Healthy Weight Loss with a Low-Carb Lifestyle.
In order to make lasting change you need to change your life, not just what you eat. You need to change how you eat. You need to learn how to communicate properly with your body. I believe a low-carb or ketogenic diet/lifestyle does just that.
Goals
My personal goal is to age really well. I want to be the old lady that still gets around when I’m in my 90’s and I certainly want to be referred to as ‘sharp as a tack’ ; ) To do this, I live a low carb lifestyle that fluxes in and out of ketosis. I do try to keep my carbs low enough to allow my body to use ketones as part of my fuel supply. Why? Several reasons:
- I feel better when I have detectable ketones in my blood (yes, I measure blood ketone levels from time to time. You can learn more about my testing kit here.). I feel like I think more clearly and have a more positive outlook in general.
- Cancer and Alzheimer’s run in my family. I am actively trying to avoid both of those conditions.
Beyond my personal health goals, I have a professional goal. As a functional nutritionist, my goal is to take as many people as I can into healthy aging with me. That means you! I want everyone to understand how to take control of their health. I want you to feel good in your body. We all deserve to age well. We’ve worked hard raising families, having careers or both. It’s time to enjoy the rewards of life, it’s time to focus on you. Let’s show the world how great it is to be older, wiser AND healthy.
Be well,
References & Resources
- Benefits of Fasting
- Peak Human Podcast with Dom D’Agostino
- Book, The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living
- Book: The Obesity Code
I’m Amy a board certified holistic nutritionist, certified functional nutritionist and lifestyle practitioner and certified Life Coach. I help women in midlife understand the changing needs of their body so that they can stop dieting and lose weight permanently. At 56 I live what I teach. Don’t believe the story that your best years are behind you. They are not. Your best years are just starting!