Ketosis isn't a diet – all weight loss requires ketosis

Losing weight, and the difficulty of doing it successfully, is an emotionally fraught subject. As such, arguments about the “right” or “wrong” way to do it get heated, and heated arguments create misunderstandings (sometimes wilfull!) as people cling to positions, determined to ‘win’ a debate.

One of the most heated debates in nutrition has been around the “keto” diet — associated with lower intake of carbs and sugars, and higher intake of fats or proteins — and the related concept, and biological mechanism, of ketosis.

Limbo takes no prescriptive view on any specific diet or regimen. We don’t endorse the keto diet, nor do we endorse paleo, Atkins, South Beach or anything else, because the Limbo system is driven purely by biodata: what was the effect of a specific food on a specific individual member.

However, while Limbo is not a ‘keto’ program, per se, the biological mechanism of ketosis is critically important to the human weight loss process, making all diets ‘keto’. Here we’ll clarify this important, often misunderstood, concept.

You’re in ketosis every day

Ketosis has been portrayed as an almost mythical state, taking people to another level both physically and consciously. But it is actually just the normal order of things for your body, a completely natural state of being. In fact, we are all in ketosis every morning.

Approximately 4 hours after eating, your food has been digested, absorbed and assimilated and is no longer directly contributing to your BG. So if you eat dinner at 7pm and go to bed at 11pm, you are already in a post-absorptive state, or ‘running on empty’, as your head hits the pillow.

We think of sleep as resting, all we have to do is breathe, but our bodies don’t see it that way. This is when essential work gets done — vital repairs and recovery from the days’ activities, on top of the normal demands for circulation, a stable body temperature and other core systems.

Without a direct source of energy from food your body is very efficient at getting what it needs to continue this essential work. It turns to ketosis, as a step in the process of gluconeogenesis — derived from the Greek for “making new glucose” — and converts some of the energy stored in your fat and muscle into glucose, fuelling your body and maintaining a stable BG level.

By the morning you weigh slightly less than when you went to bed. And the strength to get out of bed and break your overnight fast? All thanks to the power of ketosis and gluconeogenesis.