How Ketosis Affects Weight Loss

Ketones Are Fat Deposits Used in Place of Glucose During Starvation Mode, Which Causes Weigh Loss

Oct 13, 2006 Tracy Rose

Ketosis is often seen as a medical advantage for losing weight, but it can also be dangerous.

What is Ketosis? It’s when your body has used up all of its glucose and switched modes to start burning fat.

Many of the current diet follow the trend of eating few to no carbs. They restrict refined carbs and enforce that we eat foods with a low GI. While this does have an immediate impact on your weight, following the Atkins Diet or the South Beach diet can cause long-term effects.

The reason for this is that when you are eating few to no carbs your body goes into “starvation” mode. When this happens, the body starts using fat deposits for energy because they isn’t enough glucose to run on. These fat fragments are called ketones. They are used as energy and expelled from the body. So it’s easy to see why you would be able to lose weight from fat loss during this process.

However, these ketones are highly acidic. Over time, ketosis can be dangerous because it takes the acid in your blood past a level your body can take. It isn’t healthy and it can damage your liver and kidneys.

For this reason, such “starvation” diets are not recommended for more than 14 days at a time. There are home urine tests available to see if your body is in a state of ketosis and you should see your doctor immediately if you think you have ketones in your urine.

So, what’s the best way to raise your metabolism and lose stubborn fat? Eating a sensible diet that includes unrefined carbs and getting regular exercise, particularly strength training.

The copyright of the article How Ketosis Affects Weight Loss in Weight Loss is owned by Tracy Rose. Permission to republish How Ketosis Affects Weight Loss in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Comments

May 3, 2008 2:56 AM
Guest :
Ketones can damage your liver and kidneys? Based on what research?

High protein/low carb diets can be bad for people who already have kidney disease, but healthy kidneys are perfectly able to deal with this.

Ketones levels are important to note in diabetics since it can indicate that they are not burning blood sugar, but that doesn't mean the same in a non-diabetic person.

Here is a quote from a real doctor:
"For most people, the ketones that form as a normal product of fat burning and weight loss are nothing to be concerned about because they are simply burned for energy by the body, and any excess are passed out of the body in the urine."
http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/articles/General_Diabetes_Health_Is sues/Getting_to_Know_Ketones/All
Oct 3, 2008 1:52 PM
Guest :
The buildup of ketones in your blood stream that causes elevated acidity is called ketosis-acidosis, as opposedto the system of fat conversion which is know as ketosis-lipolysis. It seems that lipolysis is the desired mechanism for weight loss, not the extreme buildup of acids that can cause serious damage. There are many good articles regarding both, and I encourage you to research the two before jumping to any hasty conclusions.
Jan 9, 2009 9:46 PM
Guest :
Ketoacidosis can be a problem because it lowers the pH of the blood systemically. Lower pH decreases the affinity of hemoglobin of the red blood cells for oxygen. Lower pH is good locally, where muscles produce lactic acid anaerobically, thus increasing the release of oxygen to those areas high in oxygen demand. However, a systemically low pH prevents the lungs from loading on their usual amount of oxygen in respiration. The result is hypoxia, which can cause cell death (necrosis), thus brain damage.
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