Am I kicked out of ketosis?

#1

Hi there,
I have been doing keto for about three months now (the first attampt a few years back did not last long).
I don´t test for ketones since I heard a lot of conflicting information about the accuracy of different tests.

I just figured, since I keep below 20g of carbs every day, there is no reason why I should not be in ketosis, plus I kind of thought I would feel it. Not sure how exactly it would feel, but I thought I would feel the difference.

Anyway, today I woke up, had a breakfast as usuall, but then I started to feel hungry very soon. This is the first time it happened during my 3 months of Keto. I had a luch - again as usual and started feeling hungry very soon again. And I do feel this weird feeling in my stomach. It is hard to describe, but when I felt it, the first thing that came to my mind was, this is how getting kicked out of ketosis feels like. No idea where I got that idea since this never happened to me, but thats what my immediate thought was.

Now I have been trying to figure out what happened since I only eat what I cook and I am very carefull about my carbs and I could not figure it out, Only now something crossed my mind.

Yesterday night I plugged in one of those sweet, fruity smelling electric air fresheners and completely forgot about it. Could this possibly cause it? I think it is crazy. I know that certain smells can start production of insulin, but excess of insulin would cause cravings, possibly hunger, but it could never kick me out of ketosis, since there are no carbs present to be used, correct?

What are your thoughts? Have you experienced anything like that before?

(Cancer Fighting Ketovore :)) #2

I don’t think the air freshener did anything. Maybe things changed and you aren’t eating enough (hence the being hungry).

As for the feeling in your stomach… No idea.
Are you keeping up on your electrolytes?

#3

As I said, I did everything exactly the same. Same work, same work out. I carefully keep track of my macros because I dont trust myself estimating, so I know for a fact that both my breakfast and lunch were roughly 33% of my recommended intake (minus the same deficit I always deduct). No matter how hard I try I cannot think of anything I did differently.

I drink KetoAid daily, so I think my electrolytes should by OK, but as far as know there is no way to actually know that for sure, right?

(Robert C) #4

2 things have changed.
You plugged in an air freshener and you.
You can’t undo the “you” change - we all are constantly changing and adapting to our environment - but you seem to be pretty sure you minimized it.
You can undo the air freshener change.
Then see if - after you are sure all noticeable sweet smells are gone (maybe a couple of days) you have the same issue.

(Robert C) #5

I think there might be arguments about accuracy but I don’t think anyone would argue about the blood ketone test being the most accurate. I would try that to see if you are even in ketosis at all in the first place.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

If you are eating less than 20 g/day of carbohydrate, then it is virtually assured that you are in ketosis. Eating that little carbohydrate means that your liver has to manufacture a small amount of glucose for those cells that absolutely require it (mostly the red blood corpuscles), and a larger quantity of ketone bodies for other organs, such as the brain and the heart muscle. At this stage, your muscles are probably no longer buring ketones (and certainly not glucose), but rather enjoying metabolising fatty acids.

As far as appetite is concerned, the important thing is to eat to satisfy one’s hunger. Some days this involves eating very little food, other days quite a bit, but the body knows what it needs and will adjust appetite accordingly. One of the benefits of eating to satiety is that the body will set the appetite to allow both dietary fat and any excess stored fat to be metabolised. (Of course, if there is no excess stored fat any longer, all the body’s calories must come from food, and the appetite will increase accordingly.)

Deliberately restricting caloric intake to an arbitrary target runs the risk of causing the body to lower the metabolic rate to compensate for the reduced intake. This leads eventually to reduced energy levels and constant hunger. The more satisfactory approach is to give the body an abundance of energy, so that it can increase the metabolic rate and burn off excess calories. The appetite hormones, ghrelin and leptin, will then regulate appetite properly, so that appetite becomes a reliable guide to how much to eat.