What is Ketosis? Is it Dangerous?

What is this “ketosis” that you talk about from time to time?

You may see that term on the website, or read about it in various other low-carb plans, and you may even have friends that tell you its going to kill you unless you eat a loaf of bread, pronto! Well, to put it nicely – these people have no idea what the hell they’re talking about. We’re going to break it all down so you’ll know all about this mystical “ketosis” and put the detractors to rest.

Simply put – Ketosis is the internal metabolic process that burns your excess body fat and uses it for fuel.

That’s right, I bet you didn’t know that those “love handles” we’re actually a super fuel. Shh. Don’t let the grain-lovers at Kashi know, they’ll be putting it in a granola bar before you know it.

Our bodies need glucose to operate, but they don’t care where it comes from – in if we aren’t eating any (like good low-carbers, Aboriginal Tribes, or millions of generations of our Paleolithic descendants), then it needs to come from somewhere. This is were Ketosis comes in – the body can make its own glucose from fat sources (dietary, or in this case body fat).

Basically, It is the (desirable) state your body goes into when you keep your carbohydrate intake low. Since the body doesn’t have any readily available glucose in the bloodstream (aka via dietary sugar), its forced to look elsewhere to get its energy from. It may sound bad, but this is actually quite a good thing (especially if you’ve got a few pounds to lose). The system has to “shift gears” so to say and become an efficient fat-burning machine instead of an inefficient sugar-burning one.

Think about our fat for a minute – in a perfect world – what is the point of it anyways?

Its SUPPOSED to be used kind of like a battery to power the rest of the body, but with modern high-carb diets, no ketosis happens, and that fat can’t be accessed and burned like it was meant to be. To use a well-worn analogy, It would be like constantly charging a battery that you can’t use, since you don’t have the right adapter. Doesn’t really make much sense, now does it?

That’s where ketosis comes in – its the exact opposite of the “fat storing” process.

As always, a little quote from Dr. Michael R. Eades on the matter is always good:

“Fat is the perfect fuel. Part of it provides energy to the liver so that the liver can convert protein to glucose. The unusable part of the fat then converts to ketones, which reduce the need for glucose and sparing the muscle in the process.”

These ‘Ketones’ are the actual fuel that goes to the muscles and the brain (they are by-products of broken down fat cells). In fact its been said that the heart (a muscle) actually prefers ketones to any other fuel and operates more efficiently on it.

Ok, but is it dangerous?

Don’t let anyone tell you that its dangerous – people (and occasionally physicians) get it confused with ketoacidosis. Ketoacidosis is actually an complication of untreated type 1 diabetes, NOT a side-effect of low-carb eating.

I hope that answers most common questions about Ketosis without breaking out the medical jargon (which just confuses people at times – and would have made this post 5x longer). There is a reason I didn’t call the post “A Definitive Guide to Ketosis“.

If I left anything that you’d like clarification on please let me know in the comments, and I’ll update as necessary!

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