KETODIETING FOR WEIGHT LOSS IS SOLELY BASED ON KETOSIS.
Introduction.
Time passed most times with little or no consumption of food and the body solely thrived on energy gotten from the breakdown of stored fats(mostly found in muscle mass). Of course, constant lack of energy led to more dependency on these stored fat for energy production and more dependency on stored fat led ultimately to weight loss.
Energy gotten from fat ?
The human body is programmed such that the sole source of energy is glucose.
But during periods of extreme starvation and glucose deficiency, we fall back to what I like to call a reservoir.
For sustenance the bodies stored fat(triacylglycerides) is subdued to break down in order to generate energy. Not directly ATP as needed but these fats are broken down to ketone bodies which in turn diffuses into the mitochondra of tissue cells and is converted to ATP.
Ketogenesis: The bodies reservoir in terms of energy deficiency.
Ultimately, we know what happens when glucose is deficient either due to starvation or hormonal imbalance such as insulin deficiency as seen in cases of diabetes mellitus.
The triacylglyrides(Acetyl CO-A) stored as end products of fatty acid breakdown is what is converted to ketone bodies.
- Acetone
- Acetoacetate
- Beta hydroxybutyrate.
Produced in small quantities, the acetone is formed from the condensation of acetoacetate and acetoacetate can also be decarboxylated to give the Betahydroxybutyrate.
The body since in a glucose deficient state can use fat readily available as a source of energy but this would be insufficient because majority of the body's energy is solely transported to the brain.
And fatty acids are bound to albumin in the plasma therefore cannot cross the blood brain barrier.
The energy produced form ketone bodies during ketosis(a glucose deficient state in which the body falls back to energy sources from ketone bodies production) is proves that life can still continue without a constant carbohydrate source.
At least that is how our ancestors survived.
Ketodieting is a form of inducing ketosis.
By all means extreme starvation due to long fasting periods, excessive excerising and glucose deficiency due to hormone deficiency leaves the body no choice but to provide for itself(ketosis). A change in diet, specifically, a ketodiet. One which contains high amount of fat and a reduced proportion of carbohydrate and protein would also force the body into ketosis and ultimately weight loss since the major source of excessive stored body fat is stored glucose. This way, you are giving the body little glucose to store up and more fat to digest and metabolize.
The total absence of carbs in diet or proteins in diet is not a keto diet. This would only lead to imbalance in nutrients and probably do more harm than good. A keto diet is essentially rich in fats but also contains a certain proportion of proteins and carbs. This is to ensure the body gets it's adequate supply of nutrients for other functions(for example, proteins are essentially important in maintaining muscle mass).
High protein intake during ketodieting is more like a waste of time because after glucose being the major fuel source and being supplied sufficiently in carbs, amino acids gotten from proteins can serve ultimately as a source of fuel. In fact, in glucose absence the body automatically turns to amino acids breakdown for sources of energy.
The likes of Leucine, Isoleucine, Threonine, Serine, Glycine, and Alanine give pyruvate when catabolised. The pyruvate is used as a substrate in Gluconeogenesis.
There should therefore be a balance in the keto diet. One in which a proportion of 2000 calories intake per day, 70%-80% should be fats and the protein and carbs proportion should be in a range of 15%-30% proteins and carbs of 5%-10%. As the essence of the diet is to force your body into ketosis(giving you energy solely by breaking down fat).
Is the increase in fat consumption not the cause of weight gain ?
Sadly, when it comes to food and staying healthy, there have been lots of fads concerning what to eat and what to avoid.
I remember a neighbor of mine telling her friend that she should cut out chicken and beef from her diet because it makes her fat and that the yolk of an egg is the nutritious part. The white was just plain with no added benefit.
This is in-fact just one of the very few food fads I've come across. the egg white contains 4g of protein and about 17% calories. The fat and cholesterol is in the yolk. I mean even in secondary schools our basic protein food test made use of egg whites. The yolk also contains protein but not up to the white. So when we talk of a fat rich diet, I do not mean munching cookies all day long and filling up with butter. Instead saturated fat sources and most importantly omega 3 fatty acid sources are your good to go list.
- Fish
- Tallow
- Lard
- Olive oil and Avocado oil replaces our locally made groundnut oil that is rich in cholesterol.
- nuts and seeds like cashews, hazel nuts, pecans.etc.
- full fat plain youghurts.
- water(dehydration often comes with ketosis, so you will need to constantly replenish your body water levels).
summary
Maintaining balance in food nutrients is one fact that cannot be overemphasized in ket dieting, although rich in fat carbs and proteins should not be cut out completely because they are still needed for health.
Steemstem is a group that encourages and rewards good and original blog contents in the science, stem, engineering, health and mathematical field. Feel free to join our discord group here
References
ketosis
Insight to gluconeogenesis
Ketodieting and ketogenesis
Does this means proteins are the only food stored as ketone bodies which can be used when glucose is not available?
Or other classes of food too are stored as ketone bodies?
However, I learnt something new today. Nice article.
#bigwaves
no.....I think u should go through the article again proteins are not stored as ketone bodies. ketone bodies are formed when fat is broken down
Ooh right!
Maybe I misinterpreted it. Thanks
no problem
Ketogenic amino acids like leucine can be converted to ketone bodies via the TCA cycle and majorly because they can be converted to acetyl coA
I think I have a question. If we were sort of become depleted of glucose, why the body choose to use fat instead of degrading muscle? I mean, when we run out of energy, the body metabolism would be slowed down and most of the physiological changes indicate that the body trying to conserve energy instead of using them. So why does it choose to use fat storage when it can degrade muscle in a process called gluconeogenesis since muscle is an expensive tissue (requiring a lot of energy to run)?
If we are deplted in glucose the body would use muscle proteins but nit for long because the proteins are also needed for other processes so it shifts to fat storage.
But in a keto diet which is rich in fat the glycolysis and gluconeogensis would be reduced because fat is abundant and it has to be utilized.
What the post is simply saying is that ketodiet lets your system run solely on ketosis doesnt mean that glycolysis and gluconeogenesis would not occur
@conficker, @giftessiet. The body does not degrade “muscle” or “muscle proteins (e.g actin & myosin)” in peroids of starvation. They degrade glycogen rapidly and as starvation is prolonged, the glycogen stores get depleted and the body has to utilize fats as an alternative. Proteins are rarely being used unless in very extreme cases. Ketogenesis is necessary cause it makes available ketone bodies which can be utilized by the brain and others
extra-hepatic tissues. The liver cannot even utilize these ketone bodies despite being the main producer of these bodies and this is because the liver cannot undergo ketolysis which is necessary for the utilization of ketone bodies.
Ketogenic foods works if one needs to cut off excess carbs. Good post. Try in again dear, you'll get them (steemstem) one day.
Your #bigwaves just arrived.
