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Is it really necessary to test Ketones if eating low carb?
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<blockquote data-quote="LittleGreyCat" data-source="post: 1623198" data-attributes="member: 6467"><p>My understanding is that there are parts of the brain which can never function without glucose because ketones will not pass the blood/brain barrier in certain areas. I think that blood cells also don't have the metabolic pathways to use ketones. So to survive you do need some glucose in your blood at all times. If it isn't available from carbohydrate then the body manufactures it from whatever is at hand using gluconeogenesis. Which is why [USER=113206]@NoCrbs4Me[/USER] still has blood glucose.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the body can metabolise ketones quite happily; some people claim that the brain works better when running on ketones which ties in with claims that going into ketosis makes you think more clearly and have more energy.</p><p></p><p>However having ketones in the blood does not necessarily mean that you are in nutritional ketosis. Everyone metabolises some ketones as a matter of course - ones your small glucose reserves run low then some fat is released to be used as additional fuel. This is what fat stores are for and anyone who loses weight (ignoring the first 4 pounds which are normally the glucose stores in the tissues) must be burning the fat for energy.</p><p></p><p>The big difference is how much fat you burn. You can burn fat when your main energy supply is glucose, as a "top up". However if you are in nutritional ketosis then nearly all your energy comes from fat although I think glucose is still used as a "top up".</p><p></p><p>It appears (if I understand this correctly) that there are two major metabolic pathways; glucose burning and fat burning. They don't seem to be both fully functioning at the same time. If you cut out all carbohydrates then it takes the body some time to adjust and ramp up the metabolic pathways for utilising fat. If you load in the carbohydrates again then the fat burning metabolic pathways ramp down into the background. So once you have switched to burning fat (fat adapted) it is good to stay that way by only eating a minimum of carbohydrates.</p><p></p><p>[Note that you would need to eat enough carbohydrate to provide your daily energy needs if you weren't to burn any fat (or protein). Roughly, each gram of carbs has 4 calories (some debate about this) so 60 grams of carbs should have 240 calories (really kcalories). If your daily need is 1600 calories then 60 grams of carbohydrate isn't going to provide it. Hmmm...another post, perhaps.]</p><p></p><p>I can see a kind of logic behind this metabolic strategy (which may, of course, be wrong).</p><p>Fat stores are precious. They aid survival in the hard times.</p><p>So a good strategy is whenever possible to use immediately available energy - carbohydrate - and store any spare as fat.</p><p>It is probably a bad strategy to start burning your fat stores when the going starts to get tough. Hold off for a while, there may be carbohydrates tomorrow, after all. Perhaps use a small amount just to tide you over but hang tough. Only after some serious hunger do you go mainstream on burning your fat reserves. Well, that is my theory.<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="LittleGreyCat, post: 1623198, member: 6467"] My understanding is that there are parts of the brain which can never function without glucose because ketones will not pass the blood/brain barrier in certain areas. I think that blood cells also don't have the metabolic pathways to use ketones. So to survive you do need some glucose in your blood at all times. If it isn't available from carbohydrate then the body manufactures it from whatever is at hand using gluconeogenesis. Which is why [USER=113206]@NoCrbs4Me[/USER] still has blood glucose. The rest of the body can metabolise ketones quite happily; some people claim that the brain works better when running on ketones which ties in with claims that going into ketosis makes you think more clearly and have more energy. However having ketones in the blood does not necessarily mean that you are in nutritional ketosis. Everyone metabolises some ketones as a matter of course - ones your small glucose reserves run low then some fat is released to be used as additional fuel. This is what fat stores are for and anyone who loses weight (ignoring the first 4 pounds which are normally the glucose stores in the tissues) must be burning the fat for energy. The big difference is how much fat you burn. You can burn fat when your main energy supply is glucose, as a "top up". However if you are in nutritional ketosis then nearly all your energy comes from fat although I think glucose is still used as a "top up". It appears (if I understand this correctly) that there are two major metabolic pathways; glucose burning and fat burning. They don't seem to be both fully functioning at the same time. If you cut out all carbohydrates then it takes the body some time to adjust and ramp up the metabolic pathways for utilising fat. If you load in the carbohydrates again then the fat burning metabolic pathways ramp down into the background. So once you have switched to burning fat (fat adapted) it is good to stay that way by only eating a minimum of carbohydrates. [Note that you would need to eat enough carbohydrate to provide your daily energy needs if you weren't to burn any fat (or protein). Roughly, each gram of carbs has 4 calories (some debate about this) so 60 grams of carbs should have 240 calories (really kcalories). If your daily need is 1600 calories then 60 grams of carbohydrate isn't going to provide it. Hmmm...another post, perhaps.] I can see a kind of logic behind this metabolic strategy (which may, of course, be wrong). Fat stores are precious. They aid survival in the hard times. So a good strategy is whenever possible to use immediately available energy - carbohydrate - and store any spare as fat. It is probably a bad strategy to start burning your fat stores when the going starts to get tough. Hold off for a while, there may be carbohydrates tomorrow, after all. Perhaps use a small amount just to tide you over but hang tough. Only after some serious hunger do you go mainstream on burning your fat reserves. Well, that is my theory.:) [/QUOTE]
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Is it really necessary to test Ketones if eating low carb?
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