Amy Berger, Tuit Nutrition, has an excellent 3-part blog series about the many aspects of being in ketosis vs. being fat adapted. Good and provocative read, here's part 1:

http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2016/0...-a-ketard1.html

Really enjoy her blog!!

These are great! Thanks Rob

There's an ongoing thread in our Tips & Stalls forum .. TuitNutrition, Amy Berger, on The Truth about Weight Loss. Ms. Berger is a registered member here, and pops in every now and then to post a message in that thread

When I see traffic coming to my blog from the forum, I like to see which link was posted. Always appreciate people sharing my work!

Actually, I'm kind of running out of steam. I have a couple of ideas left, and I need to get back to the series I was doing on cancer, but other than that, I dunno... Anyone have anything specific they're curious about or would want to see me write about?

I like your comments, especially around the silliness of focusing on blood ketones.

Here is a link to the original P&V paper: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ozbkbj6j3...sponse.pdf?dl=0

Note table 2. The EBD (carb adapted) population generates ketones during exercise because they burn fat while exercising. That might seem like a no brainer, i.e. exercising burns fat, but some would purport that the body will fully burn through it's stored supply of carbs before touching the fat. Not so.

Anyway, good luck. I think it would help if fewer people looked at the P&V cartoon of fat burning vs. ketones and instead read the original paper.

PS - That might be something to write about, i.e. what people say about ketones vs. what's actually in the literature.

Hi Amy, here's a thread that I'd love to unravel, but my drug-addled brain is not up to it at the present. While researching the anti-depressant that I've been on for 35 years, I found lots of lovely bits of information (after that long, I thought some info on it might be nice ). This drug (tricyclic) is considered to be one of the most "fattening". Most users seem to believe that it increases your appetite for "junk food", and fattens this way.

I've noticed over the months of my blood-glucose monitoring that my BG was much more volatile than one would expect from my weight (normal), general health (good), and level of exercise (fairly high). For instance, on a SAD (standard american diet) I regularly got readings up in the mid 200's. Usually they would rapidly fall. Come to find out that one of the side effects is "impairment of glucose homeostasis", or "increased hyperglycemia", along with an increased risk of diabetes?!!

What seems logical is that the high glucose levels are related to weight gain, and that is why a low carb diet works well for me--my blood sugar levels are much more stable despite the drug. How exactly is the drug causing hyperglycemia, and thus weight gain? Is the weight gain related to increased insulin production? Does a volatile blood sugar cause cravings for junky food? Lots of drugs apparently cause hypergycemia, some much more so than others. With so many people on one or another of these drugs, it would be nice to know what they are doing to our metabolisms!

I got one for you. Ratio of blood ketones, blood glucose, insulin. In the fasted state, not post-prandial bolus. Here's my idea. As insulin goes up, blood ketones go down, but BG goes up. BG and insulin track each other in this relationship, while blood ketones do the opposite. Maybe that's how it goes, maybe not, but it's a topic of interest to me. There's already some data to support the idea, for example diabetes type 2 where there's concurrent hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia, but near-zero blood ketones, all in the fasted state of course. On the opposite end, we can get relatively high blood ketones, relatively low BG and relatively low insulin, in the fasted state again. In both of these instances, these relationships track with dietary carb intake. An extension of the idea is that any one of these values can't be used to determine metabolic status, we must use all three to get a clear picture.

Here's the question that still bothers me after five years, and apparently it bothers you too! (June 2015, Keto vs. Carbs )



Why are the blood levels still high? Could you explain PIR in your usual delightful style?
Or since this is all about me , why do I have an HbA1c of 5.8 or 9, and FBG in the 90s-100s, when my fasting insulin is almost nonexistent (1.5-3.5), NMR IR score also too low to be counted? Trigs around 30 and HDL over 100 for five years, so these high BG numbers are not a one time thing. Pre-LC always had normal glucose, 70-80s. Thank you for any light you can shed on PIR, and ps, your new Twitter photo is lovely, it should be on your website too.
and pps: and do please finish the cancer series

I'd add to what Janet said--and is that even a problem? One reason the body might not react to lower a fasting blood glucose of 90-100 is that it might not really pose a threat. (Realizing here that these might be sucky blood glucose numbers in a scenario with a much higher glucose flux as well as much higher insulin levels). There's a big difference between the body having to work hard to get fasting blood glucose down to 100 mg/dl, and it working hard to keep blood glucose from going much below that.

If I understand correctly, BG also fluctuates in response to demand. The Diabetes Warrior guy (I forget his name) did an experiment with a continuous glucose meter a while ago. His BG rose when he went for a walk. So, instead of thinking that the brain uses it up so we expect BG to drop, we should be thinking the brain uses it up so BG should go up to compensate. So, what's going on that demands BG go up or stay up?

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.
Really not sure I have the knowledge to answer or write about any of the questions you've raised, but it's good to know the kinds of things people are wondering about. Wish I knew more about PIR, myself.

Janet: regarding the BG & A1c: have you ever had your cortisol levels tested?

Cortisol not tested within recent memory, e.g. Low Carb. But I am chill, long retired, basically fit and healthy.
Maybe as a weight-reduced person, I am "super-sensitive" to insulin now, not insulin resistant at all, or whatever other new theory is on the horizon. Best just stop testing BG, that will fix it

Janet, you sound exactly like my sister! She is 61, very healthy and fit, has been obsessed with her BG numbers for over 5 years now. Diet is low-carb and very healthy in every way. Her last A1c came in at 5.5 at the doctor's, but then she tested it at home not long after and got 5.9. She constantly frets about high fasting BG numbers. I keep telling her to quit testing and quit obsessing about it so much! She has never been over 170 pounds, and around 150 for most of her adult life, after low-carb she has mainly been in the 130's (at 5'8"). At some point you just have to accept that you are doing the best you can! and nobody has all the answers.