Am I Fat Adapted? How to tell?

(Jim) #1

Today is the end of four weeks on keto. During which I’ve been very strict (with the exception of last night; more on that later). I’ve never really felt any differently on keto. It had me worried I wasn’t getting there so I bought a blood monitor and have been keeping careful track. I’m often very high (over 5.0).

When I read articles about fat adaptation they all say you’ll know when you’re there because you don’t feel hungry between meals (I never really did), you don’t feel a lack of energy (I never did), better sleep (I never had sleep issues). So all the “signs” are tough to read for me.

Last night I went out to dinner and had a pint of IPA. I tested my ketones before and they were at 3.6. My total net carb consumption yesterday was over 40g. My ketones this morning we’re at 1.3. Low, but still in ketosis. By this afternoon, I was back to 4.1.

Do you think I’m already fat adapted after four weeks? I know it’s possible. Any suggestions on how I might know for sure? I might start to slowly up my carbs to see what it does to my ketone levels. I have a friend that says he’s fat adapted and eats 50g of carbs each day with no ill effects. I should also add that weight loss is not a big concern for me.

How can you tell when your body becomes fully fat adapted?
(Little Miss Scare-All) #2

Hard to say. Some people go into fat adaptation and their blood ketones drop and hover around .5 because their bodies are effeciently using them up for functions.

Ive also read people on here who are fat adapted and their ketones are 1.5 - 3 routinely. Personally, I can’t tell for myself. I generally always feel like @ss no matter what I do, that its hard to differentiate.

(Alec) #3

Note that being in ketosis and being fat adapted are 2 different things. You can be in ketosis very quickly on keto ie within days, and you are clearly there.

However, being fat adapted takes much longer as it involves building a whole set of biological machinery. And fat adaptation is not a switch (on/off), it is a scale, and as you build your machinery as you ask your body to live on fat, you become increasingly fat adapted.

I have seen estimates of time to get fully fat adapted of 6-12 months. But I think it fair to say you can consider yourself reasonably fat adapted after 4-8 weeks on keto.

How do you know you are “fat adapted”? My method is simply: can you do a 36 hour fast reasonably easily (ie without feeling really hungry). If you can, you are reasonably fat adapted ie your body is quite capable of utilising your body fat.

(Jim) #4

I don’t know about 36 hours. But I didn’t eat between 6:00 last night and 2:00 this afternoon and wasn’t really starving. I was hungry and ready to eat but it wasn’t terrible.

(Scott) #5

My test for fat adapted was running. I had no energy and needed walk breaks until I was at the three month mark. Suddenly I had all the energy I needed.

(Alec) #6

I think your running standard of fat adaption is higher than a non-exercise 36hr fast. I think this fits well with the idea of slowly developing fat adaptation and it being a continuum that develops over many months.

(Alec) #7

Jim
I think this indicates you are not quite yet fat adapted by my standard. But you are on the way. Don’t forget this is a process and a journey, and you shouldn’t be too impatient, especially if you don’t have an underlying health condition like T2D to deal with. This is not a race, and we all go at our own pace.

Trust me when I tell you that when you do a 36 hr fast and you do it easy you will understand what it means to be fat adapted. It is a wonderful feeling of euphoria.

Take care and KCKO.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #8

Glucose and ketones in your blood are available fuel. The amount does not tell you how much you’re actually using. Acetone in your breath is the exhaust gas of fat burning. If you want to measure fat burning, measure acetone concentration in your breath. You can do this easily and painlessly.

No need to guess about fat adaptation. If you are exhaling acetone in the range of 40ppm, give or take, and you are not comatose, you are fat adapted.

(Jim) #9

Interesting. How do you measure that?

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #10
#11

Dr Ken Berry is good value.

Here is his take on it:

(mole person) #12

People usually care about when they will be fat adapted because they feel terrible at the start of keto. They are hungry, cranky, low energy and can’t physically perform the way they could before. Fat adaptation rectifies all this and eventually gives some people even more energy and improvements in mood. It also allows you to go long periods without food without feeling like your starving.

But fat adaptation doesn’t make you burn fat as fuel faster. As soon as you are in ketosis you are burning fats. In fact if anything, early on, when your body is bad at burning fat efficiently you actually waste more ketones and hence need to burn a tad more fat.

The reason people want fat adaptation is that it makes you less HUNGRY. This allows you to start eating a bit less. People usually stop snacking or drop breakfast entirely. Your body is no longer freaking out and firing off “I’m starving” signals all the time. Thus, you burn more fat when fat adapted because you are giving your body less to eat since you’re not hungry.

As to experimenting with higher carbs, here is my experience. I can be in mild ketosis as high as about 85 grams of carbs, but I don’t lose weight there. In fact I’ll slowly gain weight at that level. At about 40 grams my weight is pretty stable, and below that I lose. The fewer carbs I have the faster I will lose weight. I’ve noticed improvements in weight loss all the way down to zero carbs.

(mole person) #13

I forgot to say, and this is perhaps the most important thing, that when you are able to go longer periods without eating your insulin levels drops. Low insulin is necessary for fat to be consumed as fuel. The longer and more frequently you can keep your insulin low, the better your losses will be. The only way most people can do this before being fat adapted is by letting themselves go hungry and that’s not sustainable for very long.

I wouldn’t worry about not feeling the effects of fat adaptation. From what you have said you did not experience any of the big negatives that many suffer. Not everyone gets them all. It sounds like you are lucky and have almost none of them. Maybe it means your body was already better adapted to metabolizing fat.

(Jim) #14

Thanks. That all makes sense! To be sure I understand, I can experiment with slightly higher levels of carbs now? Waiting for higher levels of fat adaptation is not necessary? In other words, I won’t derail anything by carefully experimenting. At least no more than I would later.

(mole person) #15

You said that weight loss was not a great concern for you so I don’t really see any problem with experimenting a bit. Some people start at 50 grams of carbs and that works fine for them. The reason 20 grams is recommended here is that is low enough to work on almost everybody.

Don’t go above 50 grams though. You still won’t be fully fat adapted for months yet, and you don’t want to risk backsliding on your adaptation. But 50 grams of carbs is still only 200 calories so you will very likely still be in ketosis.

(Jim) #16

I’m going to keep close track of my ketones. If they start to go under 1, I’ll back off.

(*Tame Those Ghrelin Gremlins) #17

I have been in the same boat as the OP. I felt energy after day 7 and it has been consistent since. I never had much of an appetite before and could easily go between meals so there isn’t much of an indication there. I’ve never really slept well and still don’t.

I’ve been keto for 3 months so I have to be certain I’m fat adapted but I don’t know when it happened lol. My ketone normally range from 1.5 to 3 daily. I can easily go 24 hours without thinking about food.

(Jim) #18

As I mentioned, I haven’t had many noticeable differences since starting keto a month ago. One difference I have noticed is regularity. I used to be an every morning guy and now it’s every 2-3 days. I think in trying to keep under 20g of carbs, I’m not eating enough fiber. Experimenting with allowing a bit more carbs may allow me to get my fiber intake to a better place.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #19

If the only issue you experience is that your daily dump has become your every other day dump, I wouldn’t worry about it.

Being ‘constipated’ is different from simply ‘not having to dump’ for a couple of days. Constipation is feeling like you have to dump urgently, but you can’t because there’s a brick blocking everything in there. You feel heavy and bloated and it hurts because your diastolic muscles are trying to push it all out but can’t budge it.

When you eat keto, you consume much more energy dense food than you did when you ate mostly carbs. So it takes longer to build up enough detritus to stimulate your bowels into deciding to move it out. But it will do so eventually.

Something else to consider is that something specific you eat may cause less frequent or difficult dumps. For me it was cream cheese. I love the stuff, but it can make the next couple of days pretty unpleasant if I eat too much.

If you are seriously concerned about having more frequent dumps then start eating MCT oil powder every day. POWDER not oil; the oil doesn’t work for this. Start with 10 grams twice a day mixed into something like coffee or cream. You will soon be dumping as much or more as you want and you can then adjust the amounts you’re eating to suit. Be forewarned, however, after two or three days on MCT oil powder don’t wander far from the nearest latrine or you may regret it. :hot_face:

(Empress of the Unexpected) #20

12 months in. Still need to eat every six hours. Longest I have gone is 18 hours. It is still so frustrating to me that everyone here can forget to eat and go days without eating.