After following the keto regimen really strictly for months now and my blood ketone meter consistently showing values of around 2,5 mmol/L in the morning, I wanted to stir things up a bit. So yesterday, I started some sort of experiment, trying to answer the following question for myself:
Do absolute or relative macros count? What I mean by that is whether me getting kicked out of ketosis by a higher intake of carbs and protein are demand-driven processes (as is the case with gluconeogenesis) or whether, say, anything above 50g of carbs will signal the body to rely less on ketones and switch its fuel source. If the former is true, then it shouldn’t matter whether I consume 20g or 100g of carbs or 100g or 300g of protein, provided that I scale up the fat intake accordingly (meaning relative to the higher carb/protein).
With that hypothesis in mind, I consumed as many calories as I could. I ended up with 12.148kcals, with 1.167g fat, 324g protein, 86g carbs.
Ketone bodies are 3,3 mmol/L this morning, my breathalizer’s indicator went through the roof.
Tentative conclusion so far: The macro ratios seem to matter for my case (N=1), not the absolute values. I am still deep in ketosis, despite consuming 85g carbs and 325g protein, because the fat still made 87% of the total calories consumed. I guess my body doesn’t see the need to shift its fuel source, if I provide enough fat.
I will be testing this further down the road with foods that have a very keto-friendly ratio like cream, macadamias and the like: if my theory is correct I cannot technically “overeat” these foods as far as getting kicked out of ketosis.
So what I want to do the next weeks is allowing my body to regenerate, eat/fast as I would do normally with a diversity of foods, then pick a date, pick a keto food I want to test and then only eat that particular food throughout the day.
Of course, consuming 300g of protein isn’t safe and I won’t be doing that any time soon. But with keto-friendly food like cream and macadamias specifically, this testing should be easy to do. For example, I would have to consume beyond 4.2 pounds of macadamias to end up with only 150g of protein. So I won’t put my health in jeopardy by doing that.
I am excited to see whether I am correct or not.
Appendix: I figure, some of you might ask, therefore let me get this out of the way: I gained 3.5 pounds overnight, the majority of it being water weight (I ate a lot of salty foods like fatty cheese and fatty sausage). Tomorrow, I will be at my starting weight, guaranteed (not the first time I ate MANY more calories than my body needed). This goes to show that CICO is bullsh*t and how difficult it is to consistently gain weight on keto. Your body just balances out things for you. Have faith, keep calm and keto on!
No, that was really easy. I can chug down 200ml of olive oil, or eat 2 sticks of butter straight out of the package without feeling ill. Combine that with cream, cheese, macadamias, sausages and so and and you’re up there calorie-wise really quickly.