What Is Gluconeogenesis & Why Do You Care if You’re Keto?
Hi, it’s Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo and I’m going to help you understand how protein can sometimes kick you out of ketosis. How many times have you been on a ketogenic diet and you found that you get kicked out of ketosis? And you find that you’re not really getting the optimum benefits of ketosis as you should be? Well, believe it or not, if you have slightly too much protein, you can kick yourself out of ketosis. You see, what happens is a process known as gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is a very normal thing that occurs every single day in our bodies. It’s where our body takes amino acids from proteins that have been broken down and converts them, sort of in a reverse-engineering fashion, into a sugar. Ordinarily, we have glycolysis, where our body takes carbohydrates out of our muscles and turns them into a usable form of sugar. In this case, our body sort of works backwards. It takes the actual proteins that are already making up the muscle and reverses them and breaks them down into a sugar that is used by the body. But here’s the thing, if you measured your ketones, you might see that you actually get kicked out of ketosis if you have too much protein. Simply because your body is now taking extra protein and converting it into sugar, which can blunt the effects of ketones.
What Happens If You Eat Too Much Protein?
Some people find that if they have too much protein with lunch or dinner or sometimes even breakfast, they’re out of ketosis a couple hours later. It’s nothing to be alarmed at, we all have our bio-individuality, we all respond differently. I know some people don’t have an issue with having more protein, but if you’re following all the rules of a ketogenic diet and you’re still finding that you’re getting kicked out of ketosis, and not getting the full benefit, you may want to take a look at your overall protein levels. The other thing that can cause an issue is actually not having enough fat. You see, if your body runs out of fat, to ultimately create ketones, it will start to tap into your stored body fat, definitely, but it will also start to reverse-engineer that protein into a sugar. Sometimes if you go for a period of time without having adequate fats, or just protein and vegetables, you will find that your body starts to break down those proteins again into sugars kicking you out of the ketogenic state.
Why You Should Test with the Keto-Mojo Meter
We all know that the gold standard to test your ketones is with an actual blood meter, that’s probably the best way that you can start to identify if proteins are kicking you out. Or you can see if abstaining from food for a certain length of time is kicking you out of ketosis. So, make sure that you keep it locked in with here Keto-Mojo so that we can bring you all the emerging news when it comes down to ketosis, but also help you understand how your body works and how ketosis is affecting you in a positive way and sometimes those annoying ways, like gluconeogenesis. I’ll see you soon.