Keto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet (40 page)

Encourage the production of ketones by paying attention to your hunger, eating enough food that you don’t feel the need to eat again in two hours, and being careful not to eat until you are so stuffed that it hurts. This doesn’t mean you obsess about calories; that would also be counterproductive. Just as you have to find your carb tolerance and protein threshold, experiment to find the amount of calories that makes you feel satisfied and lets you produce ketones at a beneficial level. You can do this!

Mindful eating is never a bad thing, and making sure you don’t lowball yourself or overdo it on the calories could help the ketones start pouring through your veins very quickly.

9. You’re eating food too often throughout the day.

We are living in an age when eating is not just about sustenance, it’s also about fellowship and enjoying life. That’s part of the reason there is a stigma attached to anyone who chooses not to eat with everyone else in a social gathering. There’s immense peer pressure at work, your church or synagogue, or even at home to put food in your mouth simply because it’s that time of day. But could eating too often hinder your ability to make ketones? You bet it could.

In chapter 11 we discussed the role of intermittent fasting in ketosis, and the two work in tandem—consume a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet with enough calories to completely satisfy your nutritional needs, and you should be able to very easily go twelve to twenty-four hours between meals without any problems at all. The proper composition of the core components of that meal (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) along with the extended period of spontaneous fasting will do so much to help your body get into ketosis. There’s no need to partake in another meal if you are still satisfied by your previous one.

When someone asks you why you’re not eating, you can respond, “I am eating . . . ketones!” The look on their face when you say this to them will be priceless.

10. Chronic stress and lack of sleep are raising your cortisol and blood sugar levels too high.

Chronic lack of sleep, leading to circadian rhythm imbalances and/or chronic levels of significant stress, can drive up cortisol levels in a way that can make getting into a state of ketosis essentially impossible.

– Nora Gedgaudas

Why are we so stressed all the time? Most of us don’t fully realize the intense negative impact that chronic stress has on virtually every part of our health. Furthermore, stress takes a toll on our bodies when it prevents us from getting the restful sleep we so desperately need. This double whammy of stress and sleep deprivation is a ruthless cycle that can wreak havoc on your ability to be in ketosis.

If you want to completely kill your ability to ever produce a therapeutic level of ketones, then keep on worrying and stressing out about everything so that you only sleep for a few hours each night. Over time, that will undercut any nutritional lifestyle change you have implemented, no matter how strict you have been. For the rest of us, let’s take a closer look at why being stressed out all the time is not such a good idea when you want to be in ketosis.

Stress increases levels of cortisol, a hormone that in turn raises your hunger and blood sugar levels as the body goes into self-preservation mode. This is one reason you can have problems losing weight no matter how strictly you adhere to a low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet. Go out in your backyard and play, take a yoga class, do some fun activity with your kids—anything you can do to reduce stress in your life. Once you take proactive steps to lower stress, you’ll find that your body is able to rest better at night. Take a chill pill, people!

Remember, stressed is just “desserts” spelled backwards—and it can have the same negative effect on your efforts to get into ketosis as the sugar contained in most desserts. Give your ketones a fighting chance and do something about what’s worrying you sooner rather than later.

These are just ten of the many reasons you may not be seeing adequate ketone levels on your ketogenic diet. Other intangible factors could be involved, such as a lack of support from your friends, family, and doctor; mental barriers, such as a lack of confidence in your ability to follow the diet or the belief that you need carbs in your diet for brain health, for example; the failure to plan your meals well; and more. But don’t worry about being perfect. Your goal is to continually pursue what it takes to get into ketosis. Be kind to yourself as you work through this process. You’ll get there with persistence.

It’s worth noting that substances like ketone salts, ketone esters, and various MCT oil products can be used to increase the level of ketones in the blood. However, there is still debate amongst the experts about whether increasing ketones through these means is as effective therapeutically as producing ketones through macronutrient manipulation alone. This question has yet to be answered by research. Until those studies happen, the best thing you can do is remain committed to your low-carb, moderate-protein, high-fat diet and, if you like, use these products as aids to help you reach your goal of higher ketone levels.

As you can see, there are so many elements involved in the process of making ketones. But not everyone is a fan of very low-carb, high-fat, ketogenic diets. In the next chapter, we’ll take on the ten biggest criticisms about this way of eating and explain why they are probably much ado about nothing.

I think the obvious temptations that are all around us are the biggest problem with maintaining adequate ketones. One slip with too much carbohydrate will interfere with ketosis, and it can take several days to get back into it. Old habits die hard.

– Dr. Mary Newport

Key Keto Clarity Concepts

• When you’re just not producing ketones, there is a reason.
  
• Assuming that eating low-carb is ketogenic is a very common error.
  
• You can’t know for sure you are in ketosis unless you are testing for it often.
  
• Urine ketone testing alone is unreliable and can be discouraging.
  
• Be patient; it takes as much as four to six weeks for full keto-adaptation to happen.
  
• Tinker around to determine your carb tolerance and protein threshold.
  
• Neglecting to eat enough dietary fat will result in poor ketone production.
  
• Medications can tax the liver and slow the creation of ketones.
  
• Consuming too few or too many calories can make ketosis difficult to attain.
  
• If you are having to eat frequently throughout the day, it’s hard to make ketones.
  
• Chronic stress and lack of sleep will undo the benefits of your low-carb, high-fat diet.
  
• There are many intangible factors that could hamstring your pursuit of ketosis.
  
• If you’re discouraged by your lack of ketones, use ketone-boosting products to help.
  

The major criticisms of a ketogenic diet are for the most part theoretical. We do not observe any of these commonly touted issues in our patients.

– Dr. David Perlmutter

You may have heard some of the lingering arguments opposing the use of ketosis and are concerned about whether or not they are true. In this chapter, we’ll take on—and take down—ten of the biggest criticisms of very low-carb, ketogenic diets.

1. There’s nothing special about ketosis; it simply reduces calories.