Oh yea, when I started in 03 everyone was terrified of ketosis. That was the buzzword... "ketoacidosis" and such.

It's silly because number one, as was pointed out in this thread ketones are always present in the body, the presence of ketones is not an unnatural state. All it means is fat is being metabolized.... in fact, if no ketones were in the body that would be very unnatural. Ketone concentration naturally rises (during sleep, after exercise, after a high fat meal) and wains (after eating a "normal" carbohydrate meal) depending on how conducive to fat-burning the body presently is.

Saying ketosis (defined as having measurable ketones via urinalysis) = diabetic ketoacidosis or any such complication is like saying having sugar in your blood = dangerous diabetic hyperglycemia.

Second, it's silly because MOST low carb plans and followers are not even restricting carbohydrate extremely enough to be in measurable ketosis. I know I'm very rarely in ketosis. When being careful with my food choices I CAN enter ketosis easily, however, which I don't think is such a bad thing. I like my body being very good at burning fat, it's quite nicer than shaking with hypoglycemia and feeling like a lethargic pile of crud if food is delayed . A metabolism that doesn't dip down as often or easily makes for better weight control ("metabolic advantage").

One more thing. I want to thank the omnivore for mentioning that not all people do well on deep ketogenic diets. I am able to easily achieve ketosis however, everytime I try it I fail to thrive. This is not "induction flu" since even when carbs are already low, if I attempt to induce deep ketosis I feel horrible. It gets slightly better but I never feel optimal. I also agree with his theory (of some people being very poor about making sugar from protein). From my casual observations it appears sound; I notice I am able to eat a huge quantity of protein and only lose weight faster which doesn't make sense at all. This would make sense if it is assumed my body is not getting a lot of energy (sugar) from protein so I can seemingly eat lots of it and not see it as weight. Perhaps what's going on is it takes my body a lot of energy to make energy from protein, making it a very poor choice for fueling. Like blowing air into a balloon with a hole in it, all that effort and most of it is wasted, as much of the energy in protein is consumed by the methods to synthesize it into fuel.

Either way, I don't do deep ketosis YET I still am low carb. Low carb does not mean deep ketosis and it's time this myth be put to rest. A lot of people fail to thrive in deep ketosis for numerous reasons and they assume the answer is to join weight watchers... totally not true. Ketosis is, in my experience, is extreme (the methods to achieve it that is) and entirely optional. They say concentration of ketones positively correlates with more weight loss... well is this cause or effect? Is the increase concentration of ketones a CAUSE of weight loss or is it the RESULT of losing weight? I'm more likely to believe the latter.