On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Ilya wrote:

> To continue your analogy, it's machinery
> noticing that it has extra fuel and dumping it before it does
> damage. Extra fuel gets in there because the machinists puts it there
> for some (not necessarily practical) reason. Getting out of the
> analogies - the body detects extra food and discards it.

I wonder why this doesn't work the same way for everybody -- me,
for example.  It's also true that ketones stimulate insulin
production, and the more ketones the stronger the stimulus.  I
conjecture that in some insulin resistant individuals the insulin
response to ketones is exaggerated and sustained, enabling them
to gain fat more readily on a ketogenic diet.

> And
> after adaptation to a low carb diet you only need about 40gm glucose
> per day.

This may work as an average, but it makes sense that there would
be much individual variation.  Consider: red blood cells, certain
brains and eye tissues, and fast-twitch muscle cells cannot use
ketones but must burn glucose.  While the brain and eye cells
might be fairly constant from person to person, the red cell and
FT muscle cells would vary according to blood volume and muscle
mass.  Furthermore, "need" for glucose also depends upon demand.
A weight-lifter who is tapping out the glycogen supplies of his
FT muscle fibers and liver is also increasing his need for
glucose.

I mention these things because of my consistent experience that
after about three weeks of extreme low-carb dieting I pretty much
hit the wall.  That is, I am so uncomfortable that I must give it
up.  The heart palpitations are especially annoying.  At that
stage I seem to have all the signs of chronic hypoglycemia and it
is not pleasant.  I really don't know the reason for this but my
best guess is that my absolute glucose needs simply aren't being
met.

Todd Moody
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