KETODIETING FOR WEIGHT LOSS IS SOLELY BASED ON KETOSIS.

Introduction.

Long before the advent of technology, man's skills for survival had been purely instinct. Hunting for whatever animals they could find, munching on fruits or plants found around them. Food scarcity was what should I say, the order of the day.
Time passed most times with little or no consumption of food and the body solely thrived on energy gotten from the breakdown of stored fats(mostly found in muscle mass). Of course, constant lack of energy led to more dependency on these stored fat for energy production and more dependency on stored fat led ultimately to weight loss.

Energy gotten from fat ?

The human body is programmed such that the sole source of energy is glucose.
But during periods of extreme starvation and glucose deficiency, we fall back to what I like to call a reservoir.
For sustenance the bodies stored fat(triacylglycerides) is subdued to break down in order to generate energy. Not directly ATP as needed but these fats are broken down to ketone bodies which in turn diffuses into the mitochondra of tissue cells and is converted to ATP.

Ketogenesis: The bodies reservoir in terms of energy deficiency.

Ultimately, we know what happens when glucose is deficient either due to starvation or hormonal imbalance such as insulin deficiency as seen in cases of diabetes mellitus.
The triacylglyrides(Acetyl CO-A) stored as end products of fatty acid breakdown is what is converted to ketone bodies.

• Acetone
• Acetoacetate
• Beta hydroxybutyrate.
  Produced in small quantities, the acetone is formed from the condensation of acetoacetate and acetoacetate can also be decarboxylated to give the Betahydroxybutyrate.
  The body since in a glucose deficient state can use fat readily available as a source of energy but this would be insufficient because majority of the body's energy is solely transported to the brain.
  And fatty acids are bound to albumin in the plasma therefore cannot cross the blood brain barrier.
  
  
  The energy produced form ketone bodies during ketosis(a glucose deficient state in which the body falls back to energy sources from ketone bodies production) is proves that life can still continue without a constant carbohydrate source.
  At least that is how our ancestors survived.
  
  

Ketodieting is a form of inducing ketosis.

By all means extreme starvation due to long fasting periods, excessive excerising and glucose deficiency due to hormone deficiency leaves the body no choice but to provide for itself(ketosis). A change in diet, specifically, a ketodiet. One which contains high amount of fat and a reduced proportion of carbohydrate and protein would also force the body into ketosis and ultimately weight loss since the major source of excessive stored body fat is stored glucose. This way, you are giving the body little glucose to store up and more fat to digest and metabolize.
The total absence of carbs in diet or proteins in diet is not a keto diet. This would only lead to imbalance in nutrients and probably do more harm than good. A keto diet is essentially rich in fats but also contains a certain proportion of proteins and carbs. This is to ensure the body gets it's adequate supply of nutrients for other functions(for example, proteins are essentially important in maintaining muscle mass).


High protein intake during ketodieting is more like a waste of time because after glucose being the major fuel source and being supplied sufficiently in carbs, amino acids gotten from proteins can serve ultimately as a source of fuel. In fact, in glucose absence the body automatically turns to amino acids breakdown for sources of energy.
The likes of Leucine, Isoleucine, Threonine, Serine, Glycine, and Alanine give pyruvate when catabolised. The pyruvate is used as a substrate in Gluconeogenesis.
There should therefore be a balance in the keto diet. One in which a proportion of 2000 calories intake per day, 70%-80% should be fats and the protein and carbs proportion should be in a range of 15%-30% proteins and carbs of 5%-10%. As the essence of the diet is to force your body into ketosis(giving you energy solely by breaking down fat).

Is the increase in fat consumption not the cause of weight gain ?

Sadly, when it comes to food and staying healthy, there have been lots of fads concerning what to eat and what to avoid.
I remember a neighbor of mine telling her friend that she should cut out chicken and beef from her diet because it makes her fat and that the yolk of an egg is the nutritious part. The white was just plain with no added benefit.
This is in-fact just one of the very few food fads I've come across. the egg white contains 4g of protein and about 17% calories. The fat and cholesterol is in the yolk. I mean even in secondary schools our basic protein food test made use of egg whites. The yolk also contains protein but not up to the white. So when we talk of a fat rich diet, I do not mean munching cookies all day long and filling up with butter. Instead saturated fat sources and most importantly omega 3 fatty acid sources are your good to go list.

• Fish
• Tallow
• Lard
• Olive oil and Avocado oil replaces our locally made groundnut oil that is rich in cholesterol.
• nuts and seeds like cashews, hazel nuts, pecans.etc.
• full fat plain youghurts.
• water(dehydration often comes with ketosis, so you will need to constantly replenish your body water levels).
  
  

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summary

Maintaining balance in food nutrients is one fact that cannot be overemphasized in ket dieting, although rich in fat carbs and proteins should not be cut out completely because they are still needed for health.

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References

^{ketosis
Insight to gluconeogenesis
Ketodieting and ketogenesis}

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