Intermittent Fasting

Why would anyone take exogenous ketones?

Photo by Mary West on Unsplash

Note: consult with your physician before trying this.

Magical formula

First of all, exogenous means ‘coming from outside’. Ketones are the molecules produced by the liver from free fatty acids (fat).

So, exogenous ketones are the molecules that were produced in a lab. And you can take them in a form of salt, such as ketones salts of potassium, calcium, magnesium or sodium (K, Ca, Mg, Na) or in a liquid for, such as MCT oil (medium chain triglycerides) or ketone esters.

So far, I’ve tried ketones salts of the D-BHB type and MCT oil and the combination of both as in a fasted so in a fed state.

What I can report that I find ketones salts more interesting to experiment with. While MCT oil is the cheapest option, it comes with the cons of easily being able to disturb digestive tract, especially, if you take at once 30 ml of it or more. If you take 15 ml of MCT oil with water it is tolerated well, but the ketones’ level will be no more than 0.3 mmol/l (which is a concentration of ketones in the blood).

In contrast, ketones’ salts can be taken up to 12 or more grams at once and they do not cause, usually, digestive issues, but may result in high minerals intake, since these salts contain a mineral molecule bound to Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketone molecule.

So, if you want to try ketones salts check what is a daily intake of calcium, magnesium and potassium that you can safely tolerate in a day. Also, consult with your physicians before embarking on a exogenous ketones journey.

How does it feel like?

How does it feel like to be in ketosis if you don’t want to try a ketogenic diet, prolonged fasting of 24 to 48 hours long or exercise for more than 2 hours in a row?

Well, if you want to know then you can try exogenous ketones instead.

An athlete

If you are an athlete, then research shows that taking ketones may increase performance. Also, It helps with the recovery.

An older person

If you are an older person, then exogenous and endogenous (natively produced by the body) ketones were shown to improve cognitive function in healthy people, but also in people with onset of dementia and early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Overweight or obese

If you are an overweight or obese person, the research has shown that taking exogenous ketones lowers glucose level, but unfortunately, it also blocks lipolysis (fat burning). So, taking exogenous ketones won’t help you with weight loss. But going on an insulin lowering diets, such as low-carb or ketogenic diets, and/or fasting can put you in a state of endogenous (natural) ketosis. In this case lipolysis is actually increased and fat is used for energy.

Overall healthy and curious person

Well, if you overall healthy and want to just experiment with new stuff, then taking exogenous ketones can be fun. Research shows that they can improve cognitive function, for example.

When I took 6.3 to 10 grams of exogenous D-BHB ketones salt of potassium it put me within an hour into a state of ketosis having about 0.4 – 0.5 mmol/l of ketones as was measured by digital ketone breath meter (it measures Acetone in breath).

While in exogenous ketosis I felt a light high akin to drinking a low alcohol beer. Also, I felt an acidic taste in mouth (due to Acetone ketones excreted in a breath) and tingling in lips. By the way I did 48 and 67 hours fasts and natural ketosis didn’t feel like this at all.

I am not sure that I felt improvement in mental activity, but anecdotally, I can report better ability to focus on a task at hand.

So there you have it. Exogenous ketones may be an interesting thing to try if you are in a need for new experiences and potential health benefits.

Ketones of Potassium BHB salt to induce exogenous ketosis

Exogenous ketones

After overnight fasting of about 10 hours insulin level in the blood is very low. It means that body is using free fatty acids mobilized from adipocytes (fat cells) for energy to power skeletal muscles, liver, heart.

So to induce recreational ketosis I decided to take Potassium BHB ketones salt to do just that.

16/8 fast won’t help you to go into ketosis

Did you know that based on reading the scientific literature and my own experience measuring ketones level in breath while fasting I see that there is no ketosis even after 21 hours of the fast.

It’s concerning, and it means that doing 16/8 fast works only by using free fatty acids as an energy source, since there is no ketosis at this state. Also for ketosis to start not only insulin should be low, there is a need for the glycogen reserves in the liver to be depleted. Liver has about 100-150 grams of glycogen which varies in people.

There is this assumption that taking MCT oil or ketone salts can speed up the start of endogenous (natural) ketosis. I’ve experimented with both of them and haven’t seen this effect. One caveat, though I didn’t measure BHB ketones in blood (which is the most precise measurement you can do at home), instead I used digital ketones breath meter.

Acetone the ketone excreted in breath correlates well with the level of BHB ketones in blood.

Experiment of N = 1

Anyway, I took about 6300 mg (6.3 g) of Potassium BHB ketones salt in 250 ml of sparkling water to induce exogenous ketosis since I find it fun. Even though it’s possible to induce exogenous ketosis while eating it’s more effective in a fasted state.

Based on the papers I’ve read it should induce ketosis within one hour with the concentration of BHB ketones in blood of about 0.5 – 0.6 mmol/l. I do measure after an hour a concentration of Acetone ketones in breath of 0.2 mmol/l.

References

Potassium BHB ketone salt I’ve used.

Pull-Push and why brain prefers ketones as energy

Photo by isens usa on Unsplash

Ketones are the natural fuel for the brain

You’ve probably heard that brain cells need glucose and that’s why you need to eat high carb foods. Well, it’s true, but not completely correct.

If you eat standard western diet high in carbohydrates, and eat on average 6 or more times a day, indeed your body will use glucose for energy most of the time, excluding periods of overnight fasting.
It means that your brain cells almost most of the time use glucose for energy.

But if you are on a low-carb, ketogenic diets and/or doing intermittent fasting, then there are periods in a day, and in case of keto it can be throughout the day, that you brain cells will switch to using ketones for energy plus using glucose too.

If your doing prolonged fasts longer than 24 hours, say 48 hours or more or strict ketogenic diet, then brain cells will switch to using ketones as the main energy source.

Push-Pull strategy1

In his lecture prof. Stephen Cunnane described an interesting finding that brain cells consumption of glucose is independent of the level of glucose in blood. He calls this glucose pull. It means that brain will use more glucose for energy only when brain cells are more active, say you are thinking hard on a particular task, like playing chess.

It means that even if you consume a lot of sugar, energy drinks, fruits etc., it won’t help your brain metabolism, unless your brain works harder.

On the other hand, if there are ketones in your blood, then brain will try to use them as a fuel preferentially as much as possible. It means that when the level of ketones increases in the blood, brain cells will use more of them. Prof. Stephen Cunnane call this push of ketones.

Takeaway

To summarize, brain cells do need glucose, but glucose neither most efficient nor preferred brain fuel.

Cunnane SC. 2018. Ketones, omega-3 fatty acids and the Yin-Yang balance in the brain: insights from infant development and Alzheimer’s disease, and implications for human brain evolution. OCL 25(4): D409.

The use of both glucose and ketones as the brain’s two main fuels is governed by five principles: First, two distinctly different strategies regulate the use of glucose and ketones by the brain, a concept we call ’Push-Pull’ (Cunnane et al., 2016a, b). Brain glucose uptake is controlled by brain cell activity. Glucose is transported into the brain via glucose transporters in response to brain cell activation (Pull), so it is largely independent of blood glucose concentration. In contrast, ketones are transported into the brain via monocarboxylic acid transporters directly in response to plasma ketone concentration (Push), not brain activity. Hence, when ketones rise in the blood, they are immediately transported into the brain, an effect not seen with glucose.

  1. Cunnane SC, Courchesne-Loyer A, Vandenberghe C, St-Pierre V, Fortier M, Hennebelle M, Croteau E, Bocti C, Fulop T and Castellano C-A (2016) Can Ketones Help Rescue Brain Fuel Supply in Later Life? Implications for Cognitive Health during Aging and the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease. Front. Mol. Neurosci. 9:53. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2016.00053 ↩︎

To lose weight first understand how you gain it

Photo by Christopher Williams on Unsplash

If you struggle to lose weight following various diets and training regimens then there could be a couple of issues with your approach. But the most import thing to understand about weight loss is that you need to really know the root cause behind weight gain and what to do about it.

Blindly trying diets, without understanding how they work if at all, and going to the gym may cause a slight weight loss. But, most probably, you’ll gain weight back as soon as you stop following a diet, which happens to most of the people.

So what is the root cause you may ask?

Well, if you don’t have a rare genetic condition, then, most probably you are overweight, obese, pre-diabetic or even having type 2 diabetes due to excessive consumption of carbohydrates that causes Insulin level in the blood to be high throughout the day. This causes Insulin resistance in the long run in two ways: glucose in food you eat causes high level of insulin in the blood and fructose in food you eat causes high level of uric acid that causes insulin resistance indirectly.

As soon as insulin hormone is high in the blood it causes excess glucose in the blood to be stored as fat, and also prevents utilization of the fat that you already have as energy for the body.

Also, when insulin level is low, when you don’t eat for a period of time, due to fasting or after overnight fast this allows the body to use fat deposits that you have as energy for the body, hence weight loss.

Now, that we know that weight gain in most cases is caused by frequent consumption of foods rich in glucose and fructose, the solution is quite straightforward – there is a need to lower carbohydrates intake in any possible way. It can be a low-carb diet, it can be a ketogenic diet, it can be intermittent fasting alone or in combination with low-carb or keto. That’s it.

There is no need to be on a regular caloric restriction diets which cause you to be always hungry and have lower metabolism. There is no need to buy an expensive gym membership or any other sport equipment.

What you may find useful when you start losing weight is that you become more energetic and may find walking, which is free and affordable, enjoyable.

Personally, having been overweight for more than 10 years since my 30’s until 40’s, I wasn’t able to lose weight doing sport exercises or following a diet.

What helped me, was starting Intermittent Fasting regimen almost 2 years ago. Since then, I was able to lose 22 pounds (10 kg) and maintain this weight.
Yep, you’ve heard it right. It has been almost two years of quite effortless weight maintenance.

My review of the Ancient Keto BHB salt

My review of the Ancient Keto BHB salt

These Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) ketone salts work.

I’ve noticed people complaining that they took these pills as prescribed on the bottle and saw no results:

3 pills taken 3 times a day, which is 9 pills. The package information says that 1 pill contains about 0.542 grams of BHB salts.

Well, there is a big problem with such prescription. And the issue is as follows.

Scientific studies that are available at PubMed Central (PMC) show that the smallest does that was shown to induce exogenous ketosis was 3.75 grams at once taken twice daily.

Taking into consideration that 1 pill contains only 0.542 gram it means that to get 3.75 grams of BHB salt to induce mild ketosis (0.7 mmol/L after 15 minutes as was in the paper below) [ref #1], one needs to take:

3.75 grams / 0.542 gram = 6.91 pills. Or 7 pills exactly!

So, it means you need to take at least 7 pills at once, while the bottle has only 90 pills in total.

Now, you can see why you see no results after taking 3 or even 6 pills at once.

What can you do?

1. If you usually practice Intermittent Fasting for at least 16 hours, then your body, most probably, is already got used to producing ketones. Then, possibly, you don’t need to take more than 6 pills at once to induce ketosis on the last hours of your fast. Pay attention, studies show that BHB salts are much more effective taken in a fasted state [ref #2].

2. If you practice ketogenic diets or very low carb diets, then too, you possibly can induce exogenous ketosis between meals with 6 to 9 pills taken at once.

3. If you do intensive exercises like cycling, spinning or weight training for at least 60 minutes or more, then, again, in a resting period between meals taking 6-9 pills at once may help you induce ketosis.

In other cases, studies show that regular people who don’t practice one of the above need at least 3.75 grams of BHB salts taken at once! [ref #1]

Moreover, the dosage in various studies was 3.75 grams, 7 grams, 12.75 grams, 22.1 grams, 42.2 in one sitting! [ref #3].

So there you have it, taking 3 pills, 3 times a day won’t work for most of regular people.

References:

1. Stefan M, Sharp M, Gheith R, Lowery R, Wilson J. The Effect of Exogenous Beta-Hydroxybutyrate Salt Supplementation on Metrics of Safety and Health in Adolescents. Nutrients. 2021 Mar 5;13(3):854. doi: 10.3390/nu13030854. PMID: 33807731; PMCID: PMC8000900.

2. Saris CGJ, Timmers S. Ketogenic diets and Ketone suplementation: A strategy for therapeutic intervention. Front Nutr. 2022 Nov 15;9:947567. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.947567. PMID: 36458166; PMCID: PMC9705794.

3. Clarke K, Tchabanenko K, Pawlosky R, Carter E, Todd King M, Musa-Veloso K, Ho M, Roberts A, Robertson J, Vanitallie TB, Veech RL. Kinetics, safety and tolerability of (R)-3-hydroxybutyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate in healthy adult subjects. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol. 2012 Aug;63(3):401-8. doi: 10.1016/j.yrtph.2012.04.008. Epub 2012 May 3. PMID: 22561291; PMCID: PMC3810007; Prins, P.J., D’Agostino, D.P., Rogers, C.Q. et al. Dose response of a novel exogenous ketone supplement on physiological, perceptual and performance parameters. Nutr Metab (Lond) 17, 81 (2020); Holland AM, Qazi AS, Beasley KN, Bennett HR. Blood and cardiovascular health parameters after supplementing with ketone salts for six weeks. J. insul. resist. 2019;4(1), a47.

Walking in a fasted state yields incredible results

Nick Norwitz’s experiment of N=1 testing Oreo vs statins showed drastic results.
And walking in a fasted state can show as incredible results as Oreo had on lowering LDL-C.

Today in the morning on approximately 10th hour of the fast my weight was 81.5 kg (179.7 lb).

After walking 6.24 km (3.87 mi) at 0 degrees Celsius temperature outside in a fasted state my weight went down to 80.7 kg (177.9 lb).
It’s a delta of 0.8 kg (1.76 lb) within 1:10 hour, which is impressive to say the least!


Limitations of my experiment:

  1. Some of the weight loss is due to poop just before walking 🙂
  2. Some of the weight loss is due to perspiration (sweat).

But, there was for sure loss of glycogen and fat!

So there you have it.

Walking is free, affordable and easy to do, unless you have severe hip or knee joint issues. In the case of joint issues you may resort to spinning and swimming, which requires equipment or a pool.

And walking while fasting is a win win situation.

Stay tuned.

Prolonged Fasting is a piece of cake! Or is it?

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What is prolonged fasting?

Well, extended or prolonged fasting which is fasting for more than 24 hours is not your lovely 16/8. It’s more challenging and I should say it’s another level of fasting altogether.

First, it requires more dedication since unlike short fasts you still need to live in an environment where people continue to eat and you have to deal with food preparation for them and feel all the smells and looks of the food.

So if you can, do extended fasting when there is no one around, so not to be distracted.

Second, prolonged fasts are less comfortable than 16/8. After about 24 hours into a fast you start feeling a feeling of emptiness in the stomach that is a little bit annoying, but bearable. And at 8:00 PM as it also happens during regular fast you’ll feel hungry due to high levels of ghrelin hormone.

The good news is that in the morning of the second day of fasting if you do 42 hours for example, you don’t want to eat at all. Which is the same thing I feel during short fasts too.

Third, when you do prolonged fast you may feel coldness and low energy even though after about 24-36 hours (depending on the amount of glycogen in the liver) body should switch to using fat as main source of energy. Also, you may feel like going to sleep very early. Which is the case for me today, as usual when doing 42 hours fast.

Benefits of extended fasting

But, don’t forget that this is not in vain:

  1. During prolonged fasts you lose fat really fast.
  2. You have more time since you do not need to buy, cook or prepare food, unless you have kids. Then it sucks.
  3. You have an opportunity to look at your usual life from outside and see how our life is food-centric most of the time.
  4. Autophagy is in full swing only during prolonged fasts starting after 24 hours into fasting. I am not sure that 16/8 turns on autophagy at all (I’ll check this point in scientific papers later).

So there you have it


Extended fasting is challenging, but it comes with some benefits. If you don’t do it too frequently it can be even fun, when you do it with a partner, and kids are sent to spend time with grandpas and grandmas. And you use free time for walking, reading and sleeping.

How to lose weight and have fun doing it?

Photo by Marija Zaric on Unsplash

Can you lose fat and maintain your weight after this?

If you want to understand how to lose weight, then there are a couple of steps to follow to achieve this.

Pre-requisites

1. Check that you have no constraints that can prevent you from doing intermittent fasting. Which are

Do not try intermittent fasting if you are

  • a pregnant woman
  • a breastfeeding woman
  • underweight person
  • a child under 18 years old
  • has a medical condition that requires consultation with a doctor

Watch me!

2. I strongly recommend you to watch How to Avoid Insulin Resistance and Why it’s Important | Dr. Robert Lustig & Dr. Dom D’Agostino to understand how too much Insulin hormone that is released due to sugary and starchy foods and drinks consumption drives weight gain (fat gain). 

When you understand this simple thing then you can do three things below:

  • You can change what you eat to lessen or completely remove sugary and starchy foods and drinks from food you eat. This approach is also known as Insulin lowering diet (aka low-carb and Ketogenic diets)
  • Or you can go on an Intermittent Fasting lane and strive to do 16 hours long fast and 8 hours long eating window. It’s flexible and you can start from 12 hours fast, which means skipping your breakfast. It’s simple as that.
  • Or you can combine both of the above approaches.

3. Then if you feel like it you can start walking. As soon as you start losing weight (at first water) after stopping eating ultra processed food and sugar, you may find yourself more energetic and walking is a good thing to engage in.

4. At last, if you want to you can start doing resistance training using your own body (push-ups), resistance bands or dumbbells (these can be expensive to buy new, but you can find used ones at FB marketplace for example).

To summarize

For most of the people, it possible to lose weight without using drugs, surgeries and going to the gym by understanding that excessive amount of Insulin hormone is what is driving weight gain.

When you stop eating sugary and starchy foods, drinking sugary drinks all of which is called Ultra Processed food there is nothing that can prevent you from being healthier.

You can do it!

References:

The people that theirs advice I listen very carefully are:

  1. Benjamin Bikman, PhD – “Why We Get Sick”
  2. Jason Fung, MD – “The Obesity Code”
  3. Gary Taubes, investigative journalist – “Why We Get Fat”
  4. Mark Mattson, PhD – “Intermittent Fasting Revolution”
  5. Robert Lustig, MD – “Fat Chance”
  6. David Perlmutter, MD – “Drop Acid”
  7. Gin Stephens, author – “Fast. Feast. Repeat”
  8. Dr. Sten Ekberg (YouTuber)
  9. Dr. Berg (YouTuber)
  10. Thomas DeLauer (YouTuber)

Understand the system. How does fasting work?

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Why is it 16 hours long fast mostly useless?

If you fast without knowing how it works then you probably are doing the infamous 16 hours long fast (aka 16:8).

Moreover, if you fast 16:8, but haven’t changed what you eat then it’s almost certainly that you won’t lose much weight.

The are a couple of issues with this mechanistic approach to fasting.

Without knowing how it works you do not have a true motivation to succeed, and you don’t know what to tweak to influence your progress.

But the main issue has to do with the food you eat.

First, let’s look at some physiological facts.

1. When you eat sugar, starchy food, drink sugary drinks, generally eating processed food the carbohydrates in it are stored in the body as glycogen.

On average body stores about 600 grams of it, mostly in muscles (~80 %) and the rest in the liver.

2. On average adult requires about 2500 calories (kcal) a day.

Now, let’s do some calculation:

1. How much calories our body needs an hour: 2500 cal / 24 hours ~ 105 cal an hour.

2. Since glycogen is a carb and 1 gram of carb contains 4 calories of energy, then how much energy is stored in the glycogen in the body?

600 grams * 4 cal = 2400 cal!

3. To burn this energy you need 2400 cal / 100 cal an hour = 24 hours

Do you see what’s going on here? It means that to be able to burn all the stored glycogen in the body you need about 24 hours!

It means that doing 16 hours long fast won’t cause your body to switch to burning fat at all within that time frame.

Now, let’s understand why it’s important to change what you eat

As, soon as you stop eating sugar, drink sugary drinks and stop eating bakery, pasta etc. Insulin hormone level will go down in your body which will signal to your body to switch to use fat as an energy source.

But before this can happen you body will first use glycogen stored in muscle and the liver.

As we said, at most it can store 600 grams, but if you changed what you eat this amount would be much smaller, let’s say 300 grams.

It means 300 gram * 4 calories = 1200 calories. And if you burn 100 calories an hour, it means that you need only about 12 hours of fasting for your body to switch to fat burning mode.

Now there you have it

Doing blindly 16 hours long fast possibly won’t help you lose much fat if you continue to eat sugar and starch containing food.

When you understand how fasting works you know what you are doing and can influence the process and the progress you make.

And lastly, on average 18 hours long fast is the least amount that can cause your body to switch to fat burning mode. It’s better to go for 19, 20 hours a day.

And do extended fasts from time to time.

Books that could change your health for better

These are good books to begin with when you start your Intermittent Fasting journey

  1. Fast. Feast. Repeat by Gin Stephens is the book for beginners on an Intermittent Fasting journey. It’s the book that started it all for me.
  2. Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman is a must read if you want to really understand metabolic syndrome origins and what to do about it.
  3. The Complete Guide To Fasting by Jason Fung is the book that tells you everything there is to know about fasting. I review it from time to time it to this day.

Now that you’ve read first three books, below come additional three you couldn’t miss

  1. Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes tells you why the obesity and diabetes 2 are caused by sugar and starchy food.
  2. Fat Chance by Robert Lustig will teach you why we get fat from biological point of view. And fructose is poison.
  3. The Intermittent Fasting Revolution by Mark Mattson talks about evolutionary origins of fasting and delves into physiology of fasting. Mark fasts for mor than 30 years himself doing 18:6.

It’s time to delve a little bit into history of why sugar (fructose) is bad for you

  1. The Case Against Sugar by Gary Taubes talks about history of sugar usage and why it’s the main cause of diabetes 2 and other diseases.
  2. The Case For Keto by Gary Taubes is an opposite of the book above.
  3. Metabolical by Robert Lustig looks at the obesity and metabolic syndrome in a systematic way and again highlights that sugar and particularly fructose is poison.

The books below will be helpful in applying practical advice to lose weight by fasting

  1. The Every Other Day Diet by Krista Varady is dated, but still has good advice about alternate day fasting. Pay attention, that she is a representative of the flawed and wrong hypothesis of calories in equal calories out.
  2. The Obesity Code by Jason Fung will explain you why we get obese and what to do about it.
  3. Drop Acid by David Perlmutter explains why fructose is the main culprit behind elevated levels of uric acid which causes gout and what to do about it.