What exactly is ketosis?

Emmy27 · January 20, 2005

Is that the right word for it even? I've read about people being excited about reaching it... trying to keep it.... their breath smelling because of it... it clearly relates to weight loss but I have no idea what the heck it is! LOL

HELP?

shellyj · January 20, 2005

it is when you are doing a carb restricting diet like Atkins or south beach.

ketosis is what you are trying to achieve with those diets. it makes you lose weight really quick.

you dont have to diet to lose with the band it is PURELY optional.

i do the atkins with the band have lost A LOT!

this is a link to the ONLY foods you can eat the first 2 weeks of atkins:

http://atkins.com/Archive/2001/12/15-464579.html

What is ketosis?

Ketosis is really a shortening of the term lipolysis/ketosis. Lipolysis simply means that you're burning your fat stores and using them as the source of fuel they were meant to be. The by-products of burning fat are ketones, so ketosis is a secondary process of lipolysis. When your body releases ketones in your urine, it is chemical proof that you.re consuming your own stored fat. And the more ketones you release, the more fat you have dissolved.

If you are restricting the amount of carbohydrates you eat, your body turns to fat as its alternative source of energy. In effect, lipolysis/ketosis has replaced the alternative of burning glucose for energy. Both are perfectly normal processes.

People (and even some ill-informed doctors) often confuse ketosis, which is a perfectly normal metabolic process, with ketoacidosis, which is a life-threatening condition. The latter is the consequence of insulin-deficient subjects having out-of-control blood sugar levels, a condition that can occur as well in alcoholics and people in a state of extreme starvation. Ketosis and ketoacidosis may sound vaguely alike, but the two conditions are virtually polar opposites and can always be distinguished from each other by the fact that the diabetic has been consuming excessive carbohydrates and has high blood sugar, in sharp contrast to the fortunate person who is doing Atkins.

Why does lipolysis/ketosis work?

One of insulin's jobs is to convert all your excess carbohydrate into stores of body fat. In a normally functioning body, fatty acids and ketones are readily converted from fat tissue to fuel. But in overweight people, high insulin levels prevent this from happening.

Most obese people become so adept at releasing insulin that their blood is never really free of it and they.re never able to use up their fat stores. By primarily burning fat instead of carbohydrates, lipolysis breaks the cycle of excess insulin and resultant stored fat. So by following a fat containing, controlled carbohydrate regimen, you bypass the process of converting large amounts of carbohydrate into glucose. When your carbohydrate intake drops low enough to induce fat burning, abnormal insulin levels return to normal.perhaps for the first time in years or decades.

DeLarla · January 20, 2005

I can't explain it in medical terms, but you know your body is burning fat when you are in ketosis. The Adkin's and other high-protein diets are always raving about ketosis. You can buy ketosis sticks at a Vitamin store to see if you are in the fat-burning stage. You just pee on the stick and match the color to a chart on the bottle to see if you are in "ketosis" or "maximum fat burning" mode.

shellyj · January 20, 2005

hey lisa i couldnt explain it either...i copy'd and pasted!

how are you doing? has your fill kicked in?

DeLarla · January 21, 2005

I got one of those slow-release fills. It works great at lunch, okay at dinner, but then goes away in the dirty night hours. I should get famous by discovering the correlation between dark and junk food. Maybe I should move to Alaska where it's always light. Why doesn't my fill work late at night?????

leatha_g · January 21, 2005

You're not alone Lisa, it's that way for most of us.

DeLarla · January 21, 2005

But WHY? I need LapBand PM.

Emmy27 · January 21, 2005

I have read (I am too new to have tried it myself) that if you drink a glass of ice Water it will help increase your restriction for an hour or so... usually enough to get past the evening hour where you want to snack.< /p>

HTH - hope it's not too redundent for you.

DeLarla · January 21, 2005

I should pound ice Water at night, but I have a lifetime history of insomnia. sleep is such a precious commodity that I hate doing anything to interrupt it, so I avoid drinking anything after work. Like this morning, hubby's alarm went off too loud at 3:15 a.m., and I wasn't able to go back to sleep. So I'm at work early, which is okay, but come the afternoon I can't cope. Maybe I'll just suck ice cubes?