What happens to your body during ketosis?

What happens to your body during ketosis?  That’s exactly what we’re looking at right now and tracking.  So to be more specific then, what’s happening to my body during ketosis.  Just to catch everyone up on things, here’s where I’m at.  I have been on some form of slow-carb diet for years.  Not very disciplined mind you and the carbs I did eat were nutritious.  I stay really far away from overly processed foods and sugar, I time carbs around exercise so they get used for intended purposes and I do not consume alcohol.  Before ketosis, dinner looked something like big salad to start, fish or chicken, black beans, a little brown rice, avocado.  Rest of the time, low to no carbs, high protein, good fats.  Tracked nothing.  Minimal food during the day, big dinner at night.  Treats were whatever the hell I wanted because I know that 85% of the time, I’m good.  Really good.  15% of the time was dedicated to whatever.  Especially when you’re doing the intermittent fasting and timing cheats around post exercise intensity.

When you decide to eliminate all sugar and starch from the diet and your only source of carbohydrates comes from vegetables and some dairy, things change.  The goal? Get the body to use fat for fuel.

Inspired by listening to a Joe Rogan podcast with Mark Sission, I thought, let’s give this ketogenic diet another shot.  I did it once a few years back but quickly moved over to The Warrior Diet which is where I spend most my eating habits anyway.  Late February, I drop the starch, sugar, fruit in favor of more and better fats, lower the protein a bit and away we go.

Within a few days, them ketostix are looking good and I’m off and running.  However, the sticks soon return to normal.  Am I in ketosis?  Am I using fat for fuel?  Well, the good news is, without testing my blood, probably so.  The sticks measure excess ketones in the blood.  So if there isn’t a result on the stick and you’re not eating carbs, you’re body’s using the ketones and not pissing them out.

What happens to your body during ketosis?

Then I stumble onto supplemental ketones.  You can catch up on that story here.  And long story short, I’m test driving this stuff called Keto//OS from a company called Pruvit to see what kind of effect it has on body comp, brain function and performance.

I’ve been taking it for a week now.  Over the last week, I’ve noticed a few key things.  More long haul energy, caffeine cravings reduced, workouts are bitter-sweet.  Allow me to explain…

Long haul energy:  I can go longer without having to stop and eat.  But not in that, did a line of meth 9 hours ago kind of way.  More like I feel like I just ate a couple hours ago, even when it’s been like 6.  No real low blood sugar crash basically, just a hunger pang, and that means take a breather and eat a little something.

Caffeine cravings reduced:  Let me get one thing clear.  I F*%#ing LOVE coffee.  It’s part of my being.  That being said, Dave without his coffee is not a good Dave to be around.  Savvy?  Usually, I need to “recharge” the caffeine reserves between 2 and 3.  Since starting with Keto//OS, the urge for coffee isn’t kicking in and striking at full force until 4 or so.  And I see a direct correlation with supplementing with beta-hydroxybutyrate.  Plus the craving isn’t nearly as strong.  I’ve got more energy and it’s not coming from caffeine.

Workouts are bitter-sweet:  This may be the body adapting but it’s weird.  I’m still progressing through my training and workouts (see what I’m doing currently HERE) but tend to tire quicker, BUT can still keep going and improving.  It has to be a blood sugar thing, but that’s just my guess.  I also have more endurance in my training.  You know that moment when your brain tries to talk you out of continuing your workout?  That happens MUCH sooner, but once I get past that, I’m good to go.   This is huge for me because at Rich Man’s Gym, we train for strength of body, mind and spirit.  Push past perceived limits and then actual real ones it what this is all about.  Again, has to involve glucose somehow.  If there’s a doctor in the house who’d like to chime in, would you please leave a comment below?

BODY COMP MEASUREMENTS AFTER WEEK ONE:

Last week:  

• Scale Weight in pounds:  174.2
• Body Fat %  10.975
• Skin Pinch at belly button: 22mm

This week:

• Scale Weight in pounds:  174.8
• Body Fat % 10.9
• Skin Pinch at belly button: 21mm

Thoughts for now…

Let’s also look at a couple additional stats from last week.  Muscle mass was at 42% and water was at 58.1%.  This week we’re still at 42% for muscle and 58% for water.  Bone mass is at a constant 4.6.  I’ve lost a millimeter on my skin pinch.  To answer the question:  What happens to your body during ketosis?  Something’s happening that’s for sure, my body fat percentage has changed a bit and a slight reduction in belly fat while scale weight goes up almost a half a pound.  I’m wondering what would happen if I started measuring my macros more closely and limited the calories into a “fat loss” range?  While not the intended purpose of this experiment, I can certainly speculate about the potential of a calorically restricted ketogenic diet and supplementing with Keto//OS.  Perhaps that can be round two of this experiment… But I’ll leave that up to the audience?  See you next week!

What do you think so far?