On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Whitson wrote:

> Pre-Paleo diet I took Metabolife which was an herbal diet control,
> weight loss pill with Ma Juang and naturally occuring ephedra.  The
> feeling I got from those pills is similar to the feeling when I am in
> ketosis.  I assumed it was energy but it makes sense that hormones are
> being triggered to tell you something.  (I happen to like the feeling
> when I am in ketosis but have not stayed in it for more than a few days
> at a time).

To me, the feeling of "energy" is a feeling of readiness to
engage in various activities, a lack of fatigue.  This is
different from the fight-or-flight feeling that I get in ketosis.

Further evidence that my gluconeogenesis is not up to speed is
this: after several days of ketosis, my "failure" set of push-ups
drops from 45 to about 25, and I notice that my legs feel like
lead when climbing stairs.  Both of these are indications of
glycogen depletion, of course, and in ketosis the body must rely
almost exclusively on gluconeogenesis to replenish glycogen.

At 20g or so of carbs/day, I am in deep ketosis, according to
ketostix.  I remember reading, but cannot recall the source, that
the Inuit, even on a near-zero carb diet, show only trace
ketosis.  Does anyone else remember hearing or reading about
that?  If it is true it once again points to a signficant
difference in gluconeogenesis, a difference that may have been
selected for in the Arctic but not elsewhere.

Anyway, the fact that the body uses stress hormones to trigger
gluconeogenesis suggests to me that ketosis may indeed be a
metabolically stressful state for some of us, at least.

Todd Moody
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