What does Fat Adaptation mean to you?

#1

What does fat Adaption mean to you?

(KM) #2

That my body has the ability to easily convert fat to energy and isn’t reliant on exogenous glucose. Unpeeling the onion a little, probably that I am insulin sensitive enough that my fat cells are letting go of stored energy when it’s needed?

(Mark Rhodes) #3

A nebulous term meaning when one has sucessfully transitioned from using glucose as your primary fuel source to using fats. Once fat adapted atheletic performance will go back to normal or improve.

This was what Phinney and Volek discovered in extending one of their first Ketogenic Experiments on cyclists showed. They were going to quit at two weeks and instead one of the study group went an extra week and it was this week that made all the difference.
"Fueling tactics that emphasize carbohydrate-based diets and sugar-based supplements bias your metabolism towards carbohydrate while simultaneously inhibiting fat mobilization and utilization

This suppression of fat oxidation lasts for days after carbohydrates are consumed, not just the few hours following their digestion when insulin levels are high.

This high carbohydrate paradigm produces unreliable results, especially during prolonged exercise when body carbohydrate stores are exhausted. In order to sustain a high level of performance under conditions of glycogen depletion and decreased glucose availability, cells must adapt to using fat fuels.

This process is referred to as keto-adaptation which has the potential to improve human performance and recovery."

Phinney, Stephen; Volek, Jeff. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance (pp. 7-8). Beyond Obesity LLC. Kindle Edition.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Fat-adaptation is defined as the point when the skeletal muscles have healed their mitochondria and reactivated certain cellular pathways involved in metabolising fatty acids. At that point, they are refusing glucose and ketones, thus sparing them for the organs (brain, red blood cells, heart, and some others) that really need them.

Fat adaptation therefore means greater endurance, since fats metabolise easily and with less oxidative damage than glucose. I find that eating keto/carnivore “tops up” my energy level, which has been low since a virus I contracted in 2006, so that I can do outdoor chores (mowing the lawn, blowing leaves, pruning trees and shrubs) without having to spend a couple of days in bed afterwards to recover.

Fat-adaptation is different from being in ketosis. When we begin a ketogenic diet, we enter ketosis as soon as insulin drops low enough, but fat-adaptation of the skeletal muscles takes six to eight weeks, in general, though some people adapt more quickly and others take longer.

(Jane) #5

To me personally, it means I don’t get hungry until lunch time. It crept up on me gradually when I first started keto and then one day got real busy at work and realized I’d forgotten to eat lunch and it was around 2 pm.

(Allie) #6

Running on fat without feeling like crap.

#7

What I feel is that I don’t get some sharp, sudden, attention seeking hunger anymore :smiley:

My main fuel source always was fat, I never needed food in the morning… (Baby times don’t count but I was a baby who slept through the night! :wink: )
But I got those bad hunger attacks on high-carb. It was amazing to lose it and I am happy about it since.

I have read something about a deeper fat adaptation than what one gets after 1.5-2 months…?

#8

I would agree.

Not sure I agree with this statement. Take for example the Tour De France riders. They are among the best in the world for mitochondria efficiency, function and capacity. In a tougher stage, they will consume up to about 120 grams per hour of simple carbs. They are already very good fat burners. When their blood lactate is under 2mmol/L they burn a higher percentage of fat than sugar as most ofus do. Once above 2, the demand for sugar increases exponentially. Keep in mind that their slow place would be very close to most weekend worrier’s max effort. A diabetic just out walking probably has a blood lactate above 2.

Fat cannot give you rocket fuel at the highest levels of intensity.

#9

Metabolic flexibility. I can go on a 4 hour bike ride at a relative easy pace and do not have to eat. On the other hand, if the pace picks up, I can eat carbs and have no issues.

#10

Can’t nearly everyone do that without fat adaptation? Oh. Maybe not. I am too used to my tiny family’s abilities where the one without fat adaptation easily does it as it’s such a short time for a not very intense exercise…
My SO runs (and partially walks) 13km and does light physical work for 8 hours even well-fasted if he forgets his breakfast… He is merely hungry, nothing else changes. I suspect it is a bit uncommon…?

I didn’t do long biking rides before fat adaptation (and I am super slow anyway but we have some hills here so effort is done) but indeed, I started to do hiking without eating some time in my low-carb years, it’s quite possibly fat adaptation played a role. But my hiking trips usually were longer than 4 hours… Just walking in the mountains though.

It is quite individual. When I wake up, I never need food for quite a few hours (it depends when I wake up. at 7am? I am probably fine for about 7-8 hours then), I have enough energy from my previous meals and I had this all my life. I still don’t know if having fat as my main fuel source played any effect…
But I rarely had much exercise in the morning. Only on hiking days.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #11

The insulin response to carbohydrate intake inhibits fat metabolism. It’s simple: think of a bear eating berries in the fall to get fat for the winter. You want to be in a state of storing fat, not mobilising it for energy.

Now, it is entirely possible that Tour de France riders are so insulin-sensitive that the carbohydrate they ingest doesn’t provoke much of an insulin response in comparison with someone who is insulin-resistant, and thus they can stay in fatty-acid metabolism even while consuming carbohydrate. But with low enough insulin, they are bonk-proof; too much and they return to being dependent on gooes and gels.

But if the sugar they are consuming is not glucose but table sugar (sucrose = 1 glucose bonded to one fructose), they are actually damaging their metabolism, since the fructose impairs metabolic function, thus reducing the cell’s ability to produce ATP for energy. That’s not good for performance, as you can imagine.

(Mark Rhodes) #12

And the chemicals and added hormones affect their performance how? Because lets face it, these atheletes produce at high levels because of PEs from oxygenated blood to hormones.

When I ran marathons in the 90s I ate oatmeal and cereal, yet Im positive I was also ketogenic because I ran 10 hours fasted for 13 miles plus. No reason except I didnt like running with stuff in my tummy. However, like Tim Noakes I also gained weight running 150 miles a week. Why? Because I wasnt fat adapted, only ketogenic and only during the run.

As Paul said, I know I damaged my metabolism. Fortunately after almost 8 years, my fat cells have all turned over (10% annual turnover rate) my HOMA-IR is .8. At 60 I am in the top 1% of body fat percentage according to CDC for my age group.

Besides, Phinney disagreed with me on fasting. Ill tell you what he told me, Paul might remember. I gained 33 pounds of lean mass over 3 years per DXA scans fasting 5 consecutive days a month for 18 months. He said “your’e an outlier. Do what I do, get a grant, conduct an RCT and publish your results”.

Ouch.:smiley:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

I remember that! :rofl:

(KCKO, KCFO) #14

That is my idea of it as well. I think we easily move into fat burning and out again, based on nutrients, timed eating and other factors.

(icky) #15

Could you say more about this? I know how to tell I’m in ketosis (I know what my body feels like in ketosis) but how can I tell I’m fat-adapted? How is the metabolic process different of being fat-adapted to “just” being in ketosis?

Thanks :relaxed:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

The liver starts making ketones as soon as insulin drops low enough to permit it and glucagon rises high enough to require it. Glucagon and insulin are, among other things, metabolic regulatory hormones. They even regulate each other. They are both made in the Islets of Langherans in the pancreas, glucagon in the α-cells, and insuliin in the β-cells. Their job is to maintain a steady supply of energy to the cells of the body. When the ratio of insulin to glucagon is high, the body is in sugar-burning, fat-storing mode. When the ratio is low, the body is in fat-burning, ketone-producing mode. (The liver also produces the small amount of glucose actually required in the body.)

So we get into ketosis as soon as our insulin drops low enough to permit/require it. Keto- or fat-adaptation is necessary when someone has been eating a high-carb diet for some time, because the body, not liking to spend energy on unneeded processes, down-regulates certain pathways in muscle cells that deal only with fat metabolism. Also, the mitochondria get damaged by having to process too much glucose, though this is not a problem on a high-carb diet, since glucose can be metabolised anywhere in the cell. (It’s an evolutionarily ancient process.)

When we cut our carbohydrate intake and enter ketosis, the muscle cells need to reactivate the deactivated metabolic pathways, and their mitochondria need time to heal and to produce new, healthy mitochondria. We call this process fat- or keto-adaptation. People who start a ketogenic diet often don’t really notice this period, but athletes do, because they notice a drop in their performance. But after the period of adaptation is over, they return to their previous level of endurance, and often exceed it. Explosive power takes somewhat longer to recover, but it does, as well.

During the adaptation period, the liver produces a great quantity of ketones, because the muscles limp along on them as they re-adapt to metabolising fats, but they actually prefer to metabolise fatty acids when they can, and will actively refuse to take in ketones or glucose, once they are fat-adapted. This spares the glucose and ketones for other cells that really need them. At that point, the liver stops over-producing ketones and matches production more closely to need.

Ketones, by the way are intermediate products of fatty-acid metabolism, much as charcoal is an intermediate product of the burning of wood.

(icky) #17

Thank you! That’s a great explanation. :relaxed:

So, how will I be able to “tell” when I’m fully fat-adapted? Is it measurable or can you tell via how you feel/ physical symptoms?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

I believe it is measurable if you do a stress test and measure O2 max. But for at-home use, it’s just a sense that endurance is back to what it was before keto–or better, in some cases. If you are not an athlete, you might notice only a mild tendency to get more tired than usual, which goes away after a while. That going away is the signal that your muscles have successfully re-adapted to using fatty-acid metabolism. It’s not an on-off switch, but rather more a sense of gradual improvement.

(Brian) #19

Fat adaption, to me, means not being tethered to the next meal. I can eat or not eat and I’ll feel fine. That was NOT me on carbs. I am not hungry all the time, either. No more “crashing” because I need some sugar. No more ravenous hunger pangs.

I can see the value in such a thing in the event of a disaster of some kind when the food supply is interrupted or when severe restriction of available supplies is important. Though it’s been a while since I’ve gone more than a day or two without eating, I am perfectly capable if I need or want to, and my world won’t come tumbling down because of it. Some might even think of that as a “prep” (as in the “prepper” world). One downside, though, is that many emergency “foods” are basically carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Having shelf-stable high-fat and serious proteins are not usually prevalent in the typical MRE. I’d actually be curious if some of you may be into prepping and how you’ve stocked up for your fat and protein needs, just in case. Canned tuna, canned chicken, Spam, those are kind of a given. What else? … if you’d care to share. :slight_smile:

(Doug) #20

Indeed - better to already be fat-adapted, rather than become fat-adapted, against one’s will. :wink::smile: