>On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, Denise LePage wrote:
>
>> One theory is that high levels of ketosis trigger an exaggerated insulin
>> response.  This is the feedback mechanism that prevents ketoacidosis.  When
>> ketone levels are high in the blood stream, insulin is the mechanism to
>> remove it.  Therefore, someone on a highly ketotic diet will actually be
>>less
>> able to lose fat than someone in fairly low ketosis.  This is all theory
>>from
>> Lyle McDonald, from anectodal evidence, but seems to ring true.
>

Todd Moody replied:

>Interestingly, this has been my experience as well.  On the
>Anchell diet I seem to be in trace-mild ketosis most of the time.
>My previous experiments with ketogenic diets tended to be of the
>deep ketosis sort, and I didn't have great success with weight
>loss.
>
>I think *part* of the deal is that, for deep ketosis to be
>measured with ketostix, the diet must already be pretty
>hypercaloric.  If the ketones in the blood are being burned, not
>many will actually be dumped into the urine (although some will,
>since ketones are so volatile).  If the ketostix are turning deep
>purple it means that *lots* of ketones are entering the urine.
>But why should this happen?  It means that many more ketones are
>being made than can be used.  If calories are high enough, then
>they won't even get dumped out into the urine fast enough, and
>that's when the serum level will rise and insulin will be
>stimulated to start storing fats in adipose tissue.

That's interesting. I continue to lose weight no matter how purple the
sticks get, and it seems to be pretty linear. On the other hand, it's
difficult for me to get into ketosis and never happens if I eat more
than
20 grams of carbs per day - tough to do on anything but the
Philosopher's
Stone, ground turkey and water. Perhaps what's happening is that my
insulin
receptors are messed up in some way that causes an offset in the
ketoacidosis metabolic cycle so that I "start late" in ketosis and
never
get into the red zone where the insulin response jumps in. Damged
receptors?

Mike