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What Kills Ketosis?

Are you following keto, eating all the keto foods, but can’t seem to get into ketosis or stay there?

In this show, I’ll share the top 8 ketosis killers that sabotage your fat burning state and keep you from getting the results you want on your keto diet.

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Transcript:

(Transcript provided by Descript)

Carole Freeman: Hey, we’re live, everyone! are you trying to get into ketosis or stay in ketosis and having a heck of a time wondering what’s going on? Stick around. This episode is gonna be all about the top ketosis killers. Now, they may not be what you think.

I promise at least one of these is gonna be different than what you think it is. So welcome to Keto Chat Live. I am your host, Carole Freeman. I have a master’s in nutrition and clinical health psychology and also a board certified ketogenic nutrition specialist. A certified clinical hypnotherapist and I specialize in helping women 40 plus follow a keto diet for sustainable weight loss and optimal health.

And just so you know, this show is meant for educational and entertainment purposes only. It is not medical advice nor intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any condition whatsoever. If you have any questions or concerns related to your specific, Conditions, Please seek out the care of a qualified functional medicine doctor and get your own medical advice from your medical provider, please.

All right hey, if you’re joining us live, let me know in the comments where you’re joining from. I can see we’ve got some people here live, but I can’t see who you are until you add a comment. So let me know you’re here and would love to have you participate in the show here. I haven’t been on here live in a little while.

If you’re listening to the recordings, that doesn’t matter. But for those of you live I’ve had some travel going on. I’m getting ready in a couple weeks to head back up to the Pacific Northwest. I 27 years of my life lived in the Seattle area. My son and most of my family and lots of my friends are still up in the area.

And I go up there every year for my son’s birthday. So this year I’m going for a full two weeks, maybe longer. And I’ve got a bunch of comedy shows up there as well. If you follow me on Facebook, I just posted my show list, but I’ve got lots of shows in Washington State and some in the Portland area for your enjoyment.

So let me know if you’d like to know that schedule and you wanna see me in person. Would love to see you.

So a throwback episode with our first cohost that I had on here. And I will be doing some of the comedy shows with him. And so if you like that dynamic, we have the two of us check out our shows coming in the next couple weeks and also come show, see some of our comedy shows in the northwest area there.

Alright, onto the topic of the day. Ketosis killers. All right. A couple of upfront disclaimers on this is that, lot of terminology people might say Oh, I got kicked out of ketosis, or this is even the term I’m using ketosis killer. Think of it actually as a spectrum though.

So there’s not, it’s not like a light switch. It’s not like you’re in ketosis or you’re not. It’s more of a a spectrum. Are ketones detectable in your blood, and they may be trace levels. They may be all the way up to, I don’t know, a five or a 10 at the really high end of the spectrum there.

So it is a spectrum. So the things I’m talking about generally are going to suppress ketosis and it’s gonna be dose dependent. And for example, if you ate 500 grams of carbohydrates, for most people, that is gonna be enough that it completely suppresses your body’s ability to be in keto. All the way.

And, but if you overeat carbohydrates a little bit, maybe you eat 20 grams of carbs at one meal, you may still have some ketones but it may be a lot lower than what it would be you been fasting. All these things that I’m gonna mention here as ketosis killers, think of them as ketosis suppressors.

Why Ketosis Gets Suppress

If you’ve been in ketosis is already. Any of these things may or may not suppress your ketone levels for you personally. That’s the other thing to know, is that it actually can be very case by case dependent. Whereas some people can eat 50 grams of carbs a day or a hundred grams of carbs a day and still remain in ketosis depending on their metabolic health, their level of activity.

Some people eating 10 grams of carbs in one meal, no matter what kind is gonna be more than their. Can tolerate. Case by case. Also, again, thinking of these as on a spectrum of things. And so here’s a fun fact. Here’s one you’re gonna think is on this list, but it’s not, I’m putting it right up front, is that for most people, Too much protein does not kill ketosis.

It does not suppress ketosis. This is something that we’ve learned over the years. I’ve been doing this work for over seven years now, and we’ve learned that turns out that was just a myth or misunderstanding in the beginning, that if your goals are weight loss and you’re otherwise a healthy person, which I know if your.

1) How about Too Much Protein?

Needing to lose weight. That’s a loaded term. But if you don’t have any other disease diagnosed too much protein actually, especially when your goal is losing. Is not going to be a ketosis killer. Now somebody has pretty significant type two diabetes, Advanced diabetes. They may be a little sensitive to protein and too much protein for them may suppress ketosis.

But for all the people that I’m working with, what I’ve found is that actually. More protein is better and it helps with retaining hair. You don’t get the hair loss. It actually accelerates weight loss, fat loss specifically, and many more benefits of that. Unlike in the beginning this work that when, 10 years ago, seven, six years ago, when this was really popular, we used to be.

Worried about consuming too much protein because it will kick you out of ketosis. It turns out that is just a myth that’s been perpetuated out there. So that is not true. Too much protein is not something you need to worry about. It’s not on this list of ketosis killers here.

2) Too Much Insulin

Now the number one ketosis killer is gonna be insulin.

There are a bunch of different things actually that will trigger insulin. And I’ve got them kind of different categories here too And I’ll, cover these in different ways here. So one of the things, the most obvious thing that’s gonna trigger insulin is too many carbs at one time.

Too Many Carbs at One Time Kill Ketosis

And so this is why. I don’t recommend saving up your carbs for one meal. I have my clients divide their carbs evenly throughout the number of meals they have during the day. Most of my clients are eating either two or three meals a day, and so we wanna spread out your carb total over those meals because it’s not wait watchers points where you can save them up.

You actually want to have them in the smallest possible doses throughout the day that’s gonna. Better chance of your body being able to actually sustain that ketosis level and so too many carbs at one time. And again, like I mentioned earlier, this is gonna be very specific to your metabolic health.

Some people can have. 10 carbs in a meal or 20 carbs in a meal if they’re metabolically healthy. And it’s not going to affect ketosis where some people, more than five or six in a meal is going to completely suppress ketosis for ’em. This is something that you’ll want to experiment and figure out what’s true for yourself.

Types of Carbohydrates that Kill Ketosis

The other thing is the different types of carbs. So it’s not just the amount of carbs, the total grams of carbs, but there are certain carbohydrate. That will cause a bigger insulin release will cause a bigger spike in blood glucose. And those type of carbs again, will cause more of a suppression of ketosis than other carbs.

So for example, maltodextrin gram for gram, it elevates blood glucose more than regular sugar. And so that’s an example of a type of carbohydrate that is going to suppress ketosis greater than some others. One of the. Rules you can follow with this type of carbohydrates is the more refined they are.

So the more processed and refined they are, the greater the impact they’re gonna have on suppression of ketosis. The more, the closer they are to the way they exist in nature, the way that they grew on this planet those are gonna have in general, the least impact on your Suppression of ketosis, your maintain maintenance of ketosis.

So think of it as again, that’s spectrum. So if you’ve got a a whole broccoli likely it’s not gonna, you’re, you can tolerate more of those carbohydrates, then you can, if you’ve. Chopped and puree and blended and cooked those, that broccoli that is gonna have a greater impact on blood glucose and insulin release.

More purified. And then if somehow I don’t, I’ve never seen it in the stores, but, wait, you watch if you’ve got puree refined broccoli powder that’s been stripped of all of its nutrients and now. Broccoli carb powder that may be the same impact as sugar. But I haven’t seen that in the stores.

But just wait. There’s new products coming into the market all the time.

Illness Raises Blood Glucose and Insulin

Another thing that’s gonna raise your insulin level is if you are ill, if you have any kind of a illness, virus or bacteria that you’re fighting. And it often or not often it does happen. So your blood glucose starts to raise as soon as your body starts fighting the whatever it’s fighting, and it’s before you’re gonna even have symptoms typically, and that also will raise your insulin.

And so during that time you’re Ketosis will be suppressed. So you can see this if you’re a regular checker of your ketones or blood glucose, you might have a time where you’re like, Wait, why is my blood glucose so much higher than it normally is? The other thing that people notice during this time as well is that they often feel more hungry.

They’re craving carbs, they’re hungrier, and that’s because insulin is higher and blood glucose is higher as well. And so you can see this pattern that it will typically happen maybe the week before you actually start to show some symptoms of. And illness that you have. Also too many ketones. This is a fun thing.

Too Many Ketones

Your body protects when everything’s working properly in your body. Too many ketones is just as dangerous as too high a blood sugar, and so your body will suppress your body’s creation of its own ketones. When you introduce anything that will stimulate ketones. So I’ve got this as a separate item here in a moment that I’ll go over a little bit more, but just know that if your ketosis level gets too high, that will suppress ketosis.

3) Cephalic Phase of Eating

Another one that can be a possible ketosis killer for people is the cephalic phase of digestion. When we anticipate that we are going to eat something, and this is by seeing it, smelling it, hearing it, or even just a little taste of it on our tongue, our body thinks we’re gonna get to eat that.

And so it starts to prepare for that. So this can happen if you work in an environment where you’re seeing a lot of base goods or high carb foods or fast food. You’re maybe you’re in an event that there’s a lot of these high carb processed foods in front of you. You’re in something where your friends are eating these in front of you.

Maybe it’s someplace you work. Sometimes people think the way that I, I deal with my cravings is I just look at it, I smell it. I just take it in. All of these things actually. So your body prepares that you’re gonna eat it. Your body isn’t smart enough to know that You’re just smelling it and you’re not gonna eat it.

It thinks you’re gonna be weak in this moment and eat it. And so it gets the digestive juices going. It prepares your body for ingesting that thing. And so one of those things, for some people, especially their extra insulin resistant, their pancreas may start pumping out some insulin in anticipation that they’re gonna need to digest all of that sugar.

That it’s, that you’re gonna take in take in and. For some people, just the sight, sound and smells of. High carb foods that they’ve eaten in the past typically may be enough to suppress ketosis. Now again, this is gonna vary from person to person. Likely it’s gonna be more tied into the more insulin resistant you are, the greater this is going to impact you.

And This is part of the reason why for my clients, I recommend staying away from the sensory input for any carbohydrates. Cuz not only is it gonna likely possibly increase your insulin, it also is going to perpetuate cravings. Cuz again, your body’s Oh, we are gonna eat this. And that starts the craving and desire part as well too.

Eliminate this possibility. Eliminate the cravings by just avoiding looking at smelling, seeing or hearing any of those foods that are Former Carby favorites of yours or in, Curiosity Foods for you.

4) Sweeteners that Kill Ketosis

Another top ketosis killer, some sweeteners. I’m gonna go over a bunch of them.

I actually really Dr. Nally. Dr. Adam Nally has a page on his website. Doc Muscles has a page where he goes through the research on all of these different sweeteners. I’m just gonna give you the highlights from that here.

And specifically we’re looking at non-nutritive. So non sugar sweeteners, no calorie sweeteners here. Of course, sugar as a sweetener and all those like nutritive sweeteners are gonna raise your insulin blood glucose. But these are considered non-nutritive, so typically they should not raise blood glucose.

But some of these do raise blood glucose a little bit and then some of them raise insulin independent of raising glucose or not. So I’ll go over these here. All right. IDM takes STRs while I eat keto. Okay. Yeah, no most drugs , I don’t suppress ketosis. But what you eat when you’re on drugs that may very well affect your ketosis.

Alright, so non-nutritive sweeteners here. Here’s the summary of what can and can’t affect ketosis. Aspartame also known as. Oh man. What one’s that? Equal, that’s what that one is. Does not raise insulin. Does not raise blood glucose. Now the thing is with. Desserty things that maybe say low carb or keto friendly, they often have a combination of different sweeteners in them, and so sometimes one of them may be okay, but the other one may be problematic.

This is also a case where some people are gonna be sensitive to these, even though the research says, Oh, this one should be fine. Some people are sensitive to these, this is what research shows about these, but also your results may vary. So if it doesn’t work for you, that doesn’t mean you should keep forcing yourself to try to consume it.

So aspartame research says that one’s okay, that it does not raise blood glucose, does not raise insulin. Acesulfame K or sometimes it’s abbreviated ace. K is another name for it. It does raise insulin so that one can suppress ketosis. It does not affect blood glucose though. Sucralose.

Itself is fine. This one also is known as Splenda. However, you wanna be really wary of other ingredients in this because sucralose, if you buy it as a powder at the store, the generic version or Splenda version is always gonna be mixed with maltodextrin. And we talked a minute ago about how problematic a maltodextrin is.

It’s worse than sugar. And so they get to label as saying, No sugar in. But it has an ingredient that’s worsen sugar in it. So read the label, anything with multiple dextrin, don’t buy it, throw it away if you already have it in your house. Another one. Is okay, is saccharin, it’s not as popular.

You don’t see it in a lot of products anymore. That’s an old school. No, no calorie sweetener. Stevia seems to be okay, but again, you wanna read the ingredients. Sometimes it’s mixed with other things. Sometimes there’s a powdered stevia that’s mixed with maltodextrin. Don’t use that. Monk Fruit is a very popular one.

However, it does raise insulin. It research shows that it does not raise blood glucose. But that may or may not be the case for you. But raising insulin though, that means that it can suppress ketosis. And so there’s another one here is Fructooligosaccharides. It may be abbreviated as f os on the label you’ll also see it as chicory or chicory root, cuz that is the source of it.

Also you may see it listed as inulin. All those are the exact same thing, different names for it. And this tends to be okay. But again even though research shows that it doesn’t raise insulin or raise blood glucose, I’ve found for a lot of my clients that it increases cravings. So there’s multiple factors here of things you wanna watch out for.

So just because it doesn’t suppress ketosis doesn’t mean that it’s gonna help you stick with keto long term and help you lose weight. Because if you eat this thing that has inulin or FOS in it and suddenly you’re craving all day long and you can’t stop eating it, you are going to overeat and you’re gonna.

You’re gonna kill your goal of weight loss in the first place. Erythritol is a type, a specific type of sugar alcohol. It often is blended with other things, so sometimes it’s blended with monk fruit or it’s mixed with stevia or other or inulin and. In general, this one research shows is okay, it does not raise insulin or blood glucose, however, some people have troubles with digesting it.

You may get some gas or bloating or other issues. And then in general, all other sugar alcohols, the way that you can recognize these things is that on the ingredient label, The last two letters of the word is gonna be “ol”, right? Xylitol, maltitol sorbitol, the list goes on. Almost all of those are gonna raise blood glucose and or insulin.

So they tend to be problematic. Also, they tend to cause severe digestive issues for people, and gas, bloating just, disaster pants as well. So issues with diarrhea. So a lot of people just like to stay away from those in general, not. They can be ketosis killer, but they can be a buzz kill as well.

Gotta deal with all that kind of stuff. Sandra’s asking, if you eat zero carbs, how long would it take you to get into ketosis? It varies. Basically you’ve gotta run through your liver storage of glycogen first. Most people, three to five days of keeping total carbs under 20 grams. So three to five days of following that you should be in ketosis.

But that doesn’t necessarily, mean that happens for everyone. So it may take longer. Then that may take less than that. But eating zero carbs the only way that you’re actually eating zero carbs is if you’re eating no food whatsoever, because all foods have some carbs in there.

So that’s a, a pitfall that people fall into is that I’m talking to potential clients and they say, Oh, I don’t eat any carbs now. But all vegetables have carbs in them. Even foods like eggs and. Heavy cream have some carbohydrates in there as well too, Sandra. So a lot of people think they’re eating zero carbs.

They actually are consuming many more than they think they are. And, okay, so let’s go back to this. Okay. Top ketosis killers I mentioned a bit ago that too high of ketones will cause will suppress ketones. And the main culprits for that typically are gonna be when you’re taking exogenous things that raise your ketones.

5) Too High of Blood Ketone Levels

So if you’re keeping carbs low, like Sandra’s question, if you’re keeping carbs low, your body’s in ketosis. That’s because it’s making its own ketones because there aren’t any carbohydrates. So ketones are an alternate fuel source. So if you’re in ketosis already, your body’s making ketones.

But too many ketones is not healthy. It’s a bad state for your body to be in. So your body actually regulates your ketone levels. And so let’s say you’re cruising along, your body’s making his own ketones, but then you. See this product that’s an exogenous keto drink or liquid. Also MCT oil, which is to promote more ketosis.

Your body will say whoa. We are already going along well making ketones. We don’t want our keto levels too high. Cuz again, that’s dangerous. So guess what? Your body releases insulin to suppress your body’s making ketones. It’s gotta burn through these ketones. So ketones are, A fuel source that our body can use and it doesn’t need too much of them.

And again, that’s a dangerous state for your body to being, to be too high of ketosis. So if you take a product that increases your keto levels, your body will release insulin in order to suppress your own body’s production of ketones to prevent your ketones from going too high. Once you’re following a ketogenic diet, that means that all these exogenous ketone products are not only.

Not gonna help you. They’re actually counterproductive because it’s suppressing your own body’s ability to make and burn ketones. Sandra’s asking if you eat eat meat, zero carbs. There are trace amounts of carbs in meat as well. And again, so most people. If you wanted to go a hundred percent carnivore it typically would take three to five days for your body to get into ketosis.

But again, that’s typical. I have no idea, for you specifically how long that would take.

6) Premenstrual Affects on Ketosis

Here’s another thing that can suppress ketones is premenstrual time. And so typically the week before a woman’s menstrual cycle for some women I’ve worked with a lot of women over the last seven years and for some of them so if you’re somebody who seems to have kind of that time of the month for you that week, pre-menstrually is a crazy feeling time where you have tons of cravings.

Maybe you’re really moody. That seems to correlate with the people that have, The biggest challenge with this is that some people’s bodies are more sensitive and so what’s happening during that time? It’s a building phase for female bodies. and so your body actually will raise your your blood glucose during that time.

Your insulin is probably a little higher as well because insulin is a building hormone and it’s telling your body to build. We need to build this vessel because there may be a baby that comes along and that increases cravings for those women. And again, it doesn’t happen for all women. But increases cravings.

You’re increasing your blood glucose, your insulin is higher, and this is gonna be a time where your ketones are gonna be lower. For some women so that premenstrual the week before that time that may be a time that your body is suppressing ketosis. And I instruct my clients during the time, if this is something that comes up for them, is to lean heavy on the protein feed yourself very well.

Again, acknowledging that we don’t wanna fight against what your body’s trying to do. It’s trying to you need to be well-nourished. So pick. The high protein foods the high fat foods that are your favorite. So this is the time to feast on your favorite keto friendly foods. Splurge on the expensive steaks the expensive cheeses, and just.

Don’t try to focus on, I need to lose weight right at this time. I need to lose fat. Just feed and nourish your body. Typically, what I’ve found for my women as well, that this is a struggle for them, that after two cycles on the keto protocol that I put them on they have a much easier premenstrual time that Their cycles tends to shift and go into alignment with the New Moon and that their cravings are lower and they’re much more able to stay on track with things after about two cycles of following my protocol.

If it is something in the beginning that is a struggle for you, it does get a lot better over time.

7) How Alcohol Affects Ketosis

Another thing that’s gonna suppress ketosis is alcohol.

Alcohol suppresses ketosis now it’s not just about the amount of carbs in it. So a lot of people say I drink vodka and soda, it has no carbs. So therefore I’m not suppressing ketosis. But alcohol in and among itself, even if it had zero carbs in it, will suppress ketosis. That’s just a fact of physiology.

And also this can, just this can be problematic for people as well too, because. You’re also suppressing your liver’s ability to make blood glucose. This physiologically makes you hungrier. It also can make you feel like you are gonna crave carbs a lot as well too. So just being mindful of alcohol on a keto diet, it is, can be counterproductive to your goals in a lot of different ways.

8) Cortisol Affects Ketosis

And the final one I have here that’s gonna be a ketosis killer is cortisol. There are several things that can raise cortisol in our body. And one of the ones I mentioned already is illness. So during a time of illness, cortisol is higher in the body as well. That’s another factor that’s going to suppress ketosis.

Lack of sleep raises cortisol so if you’re not getting adequate sleep even one night, or if it’s a chronic problem for you, this may be the culprit. If you have trouble staying in ketosis or getting in ketosis is examine your sleep. Acute or chronic stress, that’s a cortisol increaser as well. And a ketosis killer, a ketosis, suppressor and travel.

Also Check Out: How to Stop Yo Yo Dieting | KCL50

So even if you’re going to a place that you love and you’re going on vacation, travel itself is just a stressor on the body. Raises cortisol. It very likely may suppress ketosis for you. Was well too. All right, so those are our top six ketosis killers. And again, they may not be what you thought. And next week’s episode, I’m gonna talk about the fear of failure.

This is something that I see in potential clients because working with ladies that often  they’ve dieted for decades. They’ve tried every diet under the sun. My last client that I enrolled to come work with me, she said that she said, I challenge you to name a diet I haven’t tried.

So this is how many diets these ladies have been on, and one of their top fears, it’s a, How do I know working with you is gonna be any different than what I’ve done before? They blame themselves for their failures. They blame themselves. I lost weight on the diet, so it wasn’t the diet’s fault, but some reason I didn’t stick with it and I gained the weight back.

That’s the diet’s fault. You need both. The diet isn’t just the weight loss part, the diet is the sustainability of it. Your ability to stick with it, to get the support, the education information about how you could actually stick with something long term. And so I’m gonna talk about. In my next episode, the fear of failure and the things that you need in place in order to not fail on your weight loss attempts.

And how our brain tends to have this black and white thinking of all or nothing. So that’s gonna be the next episode. Fear of failure, how to overcome that, how to actually be successful on your weight loss attempts when you’ve failed so many times in the past. And so this episode we’ve talked about.

Top ketosis killers. I covered six of them. It’s not too much protein, not what you thought. Insulin increase sensory input of the cephalic phase of digestion. Some sweeteners, maybe a culprit. Too high of ketones in your body. Premenstrual time for some women. Alcohol too high of cortisol. Those are my top ketosis killers that may be sabotaging your results and your ketones.

Get Personalized Keto Coaching Support

So if you liked what you heard hear today and you like to get a more. Personalized support for your keto diet. I invite you to check out my website, KetoCarole.com. I have current openings for clients and working with a very small amount of people at a time. And I only work with people by application because I wanna make sure that they’re right fit for what I can help with, and also that I’m the right person that matches what their goals are.

My approach is very comprehensive personally tailored to each person’s needs. It includes a complete keto training program, easy meal plans, live coaching calls, email support, metabolic health lab monitoring, peer support, coaches, accountability calls, and so much more. It truly is the most comprehensive keto coaching program available.

I know that to be a fact. And so if you’re ready to stop messing around and you’re ready for the next chapter of your life, Where you are the best version of yourself, I invite you to apply to work with me. So visit KetoCarole.com, See if it’s a match, and remember, share the show.

Here we go >> KetoCarole.com << check that out, see if it resonates with you. If you’d like to apply to work with me. Tell your friends if you found this valuable, share this out cuz remember, help us grow the show and we’ll help you shrink. Thank you everyone for being here today. We’ll see you next time.

Bye now.

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