Stayed in ketosis after more carbs than usual

(Christopher Avery) #1

I went out with a colleague yesterday to a festival, then for sunset drinks, and another spot for dinner. At the festival I joined her for a glass of hard cider (imagining plenty of carbs), at the sunset viewing I had a couple of glasses of Chardonnay. I could have had red wine or bourbon and soda for fewer carbs, but the Chard just sounded good on a hot afternoon, and I can sip it in a way that I would not sip bourbon. Then for dinner, we went to a BBQ place but ordered BBQ Taco appetizers which included plenty of tortillas which I consumed. After that I pigged on meat, easy on the sauce, and went easy on the sugary cole slaw.

My blood ketones measured 0.9 this morning. Yay! (It was 1.8 a couple of days ago.)

The #win is my learning about how far I can lean away from keto in a day and likely remain in ketosis.

(Todd Allen) #2

My carb tolerance is much better than a year ago. I think this is the way it is supposed to work when we are in good metabolic health and our livers are working correctly and not choked in fat.

I’m guessing that our ketones elevation is correlated to the level of depletion of liver glycogen. And our livers can hold 100-120 grams of glucose as glycogen. There’s a direct path from the small intestine to the liver which can give it first crack at ingested carbs before they hit the blood stream raising blood sugar, stimulating insulin and inhibiting lipolysis. If everything works properly in a glycogen depleted state it is easy to imagine ingesting 50 or more grams of carbs and having it all soaked up by the liver with minimal impact.

I stick to lower glycemic carbs though it really shouldn’t matter much if you are consuming something sugary like BBQ sauce so long as you don’t get more than your liver wants. If you are strict with carbs the next day or two your liver will deplete again as it sustains your blood sugar from stored glycogen.