MiniJunkie wrote:My question is: when researching and partaking in the Keto diet, I got the impression there's no "mild" Ketosis - you are either in it, or not. Is that incorrect?
A few thoughts.
There are a number of ways to get into ketosis, including restricting carbohydrates, fasting & exercise. For example, Dr. Peter Attia recounted when he was exercising like a fiend, he could consume something like 600 g of carbs/day and still be in ketosis.
I've been "keto adapted" since 2009. I've had periods of time where I was consuming up to 180 g carbs a day and would test > 0.4 mmol/L BHB (beta hydroxybutyrate) on a morning finger stick test.
Virta Health is medically prescribed keto diet coaching for T2 diabetes remission. Their data suggest that people will present with lower BHB after having been on a keto diet for an extended period of time, presumably the body gets better at using BHB, so less floating around.
I've never "unadapted" in 12 years. If I start an extended fast, my glucose just drops and my ketones increase, with no "keto flu" symptoms. In my case, once the "machinery" turned on, it never turned off. This may be individual. The only way to tell would be to test.
Mark Mattson, PhD used to run a lab at the NIA (National Institute of Aging) and has studied this for many years. In this several year-old
podcast, he notes that even BHB levels as low as 0.2 mmol/L are material.
Mark Mattson: It turns out there's two phases of ketone production that occur. As soon as the
glycogen source in the liver are depleted, you get an increase from way down,
below micromolar levels up to about two to 300 micromolar. They stay up in
that level for between 10 up to 24 hours, and then there's a second bigger
increase in ketones, where they go up into the millimolar levels.
Dave Asprey: That's over what timeframe was the second spike?
Mark Mattson: Beginning about 24 hours of complete fasting. My ketone levels, in the late
morning, I get up to around the two to 300 micromolar level. Then actually, I
haven't measured them after exercise, I should. I'm expecting to go up getting
closer to the one millimolar level or above during the exercise. I think a lot of
people will find that if they use the ketone strips, even after 12, even 16 hours
of fasting. They may look and say, "My ketones aren't up at all," but probably
they are up. It's just below the lower limited detection of those ketone strips.
Source p 17.
So there is my two cents...