Saw a copy of it on the shelf at my local library so I grabbed it.
I looked at the table of contents and picked the section “what’s happening with your metabolism”
Wow, learned a lot, including realizing I was wrong about a couple of things. In just 3 pages.
Any opinions about the book from those who have read it ? All I knew about Dr Mercola before I found the book was seeing his name on supplements.
To be honest, that’s my exact problem with Dr mercola. He seems more intent on selling supplements than any actual science. What was it he said that is contradicting what you thought you knew?
Mostly mixing up terms. For example I have been referring to glycogen stores as glucose stores when explaining ketosis to friends who want to know how I’m slimming down. I’ve been telling them one has to burn up all the glucose stored in the muscles and liver before the body starts burning fat. It’s glycogen, not glucose we have to burn through first.
As far as selling suppliments, those that sell them while posting videos promising “lose belly fat in 5 days” and the like, I tend to avoid.
Glycogen is a form of glucose, a main source of energy that your body stores primarily in your liver and muscles.
So… you were not wrong.
My main questions:
How do you replace glycogen in muscles on keto? There’s this, which showed similar glycogen for high and low carb folks, but I don’t remember exactly how they said keto folks got glycogen:
Does your body “know” you exercise and create higher blood sugar levels (on keto) so you CAN replace glycogen? For instance, assume two genetically “identical” people, same weight and maybe muscle mass. One exercises quite a bit and one does not, both eating the “exact” same keto diet (let’s ignore that the exerciser might eat more). My guess is that the former (exerciser) would have higher blood sugar than the latter (non-exerciser), but I have nothing to base that on other than a theory and seeing what others who exercise say their blood sugar is.
According to the AI overview, so take it for what it’s worth, on a low carb diet, muscle glycogen gets replaced via gluconeogenesis from non carbohydrate sources such as amino acids and glycerol.
I remember reading some time ago, that for one who exercises once a day, the rate of glycogen replacement on low carb is just fine. For those higher level athletes who exercise twice a day, eating carbs after the workout helps replenish the muscles more quickly for the next round of exercise.
The overview also mentioned that as the body gets fat adapted, it becomes more efficient at gluconeogenesis and so it can replenish the muscles more quickly. That seems to fit with the paper you referenced.
*"Compared to highly trained ultra-endurance athletes consuming an HC diet, long-term keto-adaptation results in extraordinarily high rates of fat oxidation, whereas muscle glycogen utilization and repletion patterns during and after a 3 hour run are similar."*I think you also don’t completely replace the muscle glycogen. As i understand it, when you stay in sustained ketosis, the glycogen and the three water molecules of water associated with the glycogen all release, resulting in approx 4 lbs weight loss (primariy water) for most people. Which is also why cheating ketosis results in a fast regain.