Show notes
On this episode, I explain 4 reasons why long-term keto is a bad idea. Today is the worldwide release of Keto Flex, and I dive deep into Chapter 10 which is all about keto flexing.
Pre Order Keto Flex: http://www.ketoflexbook.com
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/ / E P I S O D E S P ON S O R S
PureForm Omega Plant Based Oils (Best Alternative to Fish Oil): http://www.purelifescience.com Use ben4 for $4.00 off.
Dr Phillips CBD oil, CBD gummies, CBD topical pain cream.
Use keto15 for 15% off: https://www.drphillipscbd.com/ketokamp
Text me +1 (786) 364-5002
Consuming a low amount of carbohydrates over the long term is a good thing. It will cause you to burn excess body fat and improve your overall health.
But there’s one important caveat.
A constant, unrelenting state of ketosis—in which your body is burning its own fat for fuel—is obviously unsustainable, because eventually you’d have no more fat. In this chapter, we move into the Flex pillar, which will allow you to maintain your Keto lifestyle month after month, year after year.
Four Reasons Why Prolonged Ketosis Is Counterproductive
My mantra is, “Lose the excess fat; treasure the necessary fat.” Ketosis is a brilliant strategy for accomplishing the first goal. As for the second goal, prolonged ketosis doesn’t have an
automatic shut-off valve. If you remain in state of constant ketosis, burning your own fat, then your body will keep doing that as long as it must to stay alive. If necessary to preserve life, once your fat is gone, various bodily functions will be shut off or minimized. This process of shutting down will continue until Mr. Death knocks on your door and says, “Sorry, buddy—time’s up.”
No one wants that. To ensure that you’re well informed, let’s review some of the bad things that can happen if you go too far with ketosis.
Fat Burning Slows Down
As levels of body fat drop, your primal brain, whom we thought we had trained to accept a high-fat diet and fasting, will be aroused and will begin to object.
Why and when will this happen?
Your primal brain, that eternal watchdog, will sense that your reserves of fat are becoming depleted. Remembering those long periods of deprivation thousands of years ago, your primal brain will sound the alarm: The fat supply is running low!
It will issue the command that your body must preserve its precious fuel. In response, your body will actually slow down fat burning—all for the sake of survival!
When you stay in ketosis too long, the body starts to rebel, and conserve its fuel. A good analogy is if you lived out in the woods and you had stored 500 logs of firewood to heat your cabin for the winter. These were your reserves, because you could still go out and chop more firewood. So if you had to dip into these reserves, you wouldn’t be worried.
But now it’s early March, and snow still covers the ground. It’s been a tough winter and you haven’t harvested many trees, and you see that you’ve got only 50 logs left. That’s a very low supply! Suddenly you’re reluctant to use them because you don’t want to run out. When you had 500 logs, you didn’t care about burning them.
The same thing happens with your body fat. This is why when you stay low carbohydrate for too long, your body will slow down fat metabolism.
And you know what? This is a good thing. There is a big difference between losing excess fat and losing all your fat. You want to lose excess fat. But your body needs a small amount of fat, and your primal brain is smart to insist that you meet this minimal requirement.
Thyroid Problems
Hormone production is often a function of a “chain of command,” as orders are passed from one organ to another, until the desired outcome is achieved. The hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, which are located in the brain, help control the thyroid gland, a butterfly-shaped gland located at the base of your throat, just below the Adam’s apple.
To provide their direction to the thyroid, the hypothalamus releases thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH), which stimulates the pituitary gland to release thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). When the hypothalamus and pituitary are working normally, they respond when:
Thyroid hormone levels are low, so they secrete more TRH and TSH, which stimulates the thyroid to make more hormones.
Thyroid hormone levels are too high, so they secrete less TRH and TSH, which reduces hormone production by the thyroid.
The thyroid gland uses iodine from food to make two thyroid hormones: triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). The primary secretory product is inactive thyroxine (T4), which is a prohormone of triiodothyronine (T3). T4 is converted to
T3 peripherally by tissues with high blood flow, including the liver and kidneys. In the brain, T4 is converted to active T3 by type 2 deiodinase produced by glial cells.
The thyroid stores T3 and T4, and releases them as they are needed. These two thyroid hormones function in almost every cell in your body, and play a fundamental role in regulating your metabolism and maintaining your resting energy expenditure—that is, the energy you burn just to keep functioning while sitting on the sofa.
Diet can influence thyroid hormone levels, and prolonged ketosis and severe calorie restriction can lead to reduced thyroid function, or hypothyroidism, which is a mechanism to ensure survival in response to perceived famine. The goal is to slow metabolism, preserve energy, and preserve vital organs.
T4 is the inactive form of thyroid, it needs to be converted to T3 which is the active form used by the cells. Do you know which hormone helps with this conversion? Insulin.
Low thyroid hormones cause a drop in levels of insulin, the hormone needed to transport sugar from the blood to different cells throughout the body. Chronic low insulin levels slow down cellular function, including muscle contractions and basic brain function. Over longer periods of time, low insulin levels compromise this T4 to T3 thyroid hormone conversion.
Testosterone Deficiency
Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) is a protein made by your liver. It binds tightly to three sex hormones found in both men and women—estrogen, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), and testosterone. SHBG carries these three hormones throughout your blood.
SHBG controls the amount of testosterone that your body tissues can use. Too little testosterone in men and too much testosterone in women can cause problems. Factors such as sex, age, obesity, liver disease, and hypothyroidism can change the level of SHBG in your blood. Hypothyroidism is when your thyroid produces an insufficient amount of thyroid hormones, which can happen with prolonged ketosis. What I’ve seen reviewing lab work over the years is too much SHBG leads to lower testosterone levels, and not enough SHBG leads to an increase in estrogen; both can be problematic for men and women. Long term ketosis can lead to either of these.
Leptin Reset
Leptin is your “stop eating!” hormone that plays an instrumental role in your hunger and weight management. It comes from the Greek word ”leptos,” meaning “thin.”
Fat cells produce leptin in proportion to levels of body fat: the more fat cells you have, the more leptin they make. When your body fat increases, your leptin levels go up. Your brain senses the increase in leptin, and thinks, “Okay, we’ve got enough fat in reserve, so we can stop eating.” Thus, you eat less and burn more. Conversely, when you don’t eat, your body fat decreases, leading your leptin levels to drop. Your brain, sensing a shortage of leptin, thinks, “Hmm, we’re low on fat reserves. Better find some food!” At that point, you eat more and burn less.
This negative feedback loop is similar to the control mechanisms for many physiological functions, such as body temperature, breathing, and blood pressure.
A properly working leptin system tells your brain that you have enough energy stored in your fat cells to engage in normal, everyday metabolic processes. It leads to better brain function, memory, metabolic performance, mental sharpness, and coordination, and it can even affect the regulation of mood and emotion.
This is wonderful—except that many overweight people suffer from leptin resistance. They have plenty of blood leptin, but the brain doesn’t recognize it. Despite the abundance of leptin, the brain thinks there is too little leptin—and orders the body to keep eating!
This is obviously a bad situation. What can cause it?
Several potential mechanisms behind leptin resistance have been identified.
Free fatty acids. Having elevated free fatty acids in your bloodstream may increase fat metabolites in your brain, and interfere with leptin signaling.
Inflammation. Inflammatory signaling in your hypothalamus could be a cause of leptin resistance.
Having consistently high leptin. It may be that your brain gets accustomed to a constant flood of leptin churned out by your fat cells, and becomes “numb” to it.
So, what happens when you follow a low-carb keto diet that puts you in long-term ketosis? Perhaps paradoxically, many people do not suffer from an increase in appetite, as you might expect from falling levels of leptin.
It’s complicated, but the short version of the story is that leptin levels will drop, which would normally signal your brain to start eating. But something else happens—your brain becomes more sensitive to the effects of leptin, so a smaller amount of leptin packs more punch.
In addition, the brain’s response to leptin is inhibited by inflammation, resulting in increased leptin resistance. Obesity increases inflammation, which increase the brain’s “numbness” to high levels of leptin. Inflammation is dramatically reduced by sustained nutritional ketosis. The reduction in leptin resistance due to reduced inflammation adds to the brain’s heightened sensitivity to leptin. In other words, on a well-formulated ketogenic diet the brain perceives a greater satiety response to less leptin. This explains the paradox as to why we see a decrease in appetite with nutritional ketosis.
In order to achieve a sustained state of ketosis, you need to occasionally boost your levels of leptin and send the signal to your brain that higher levels of leptin are normal, and that you need to keep eating. This is another reason why the “flex” part of Keto Flex Lifestyle is so important. We never want your brain to think you’re starving—but we also don’t want it to forget about eating!
Pre Order Keto Flex: http://www.ketoflexbook.com
/ / E P I S O D E S P ON S O R S
PureForm Omega Plant Based Oils (Best Alternative to Fish Oil): http://www.purelifescience.com Use ben4 for $4.00 off.
Dr Phillips CBD oil, CBD gummies, CBD topical pain cream.
Use keto15 for 15% off: https://www.drphillipscbd.com/ketokamp
💻 Free Keto Diet Masterclass ➡️ http://www.ketosismasterclass.com
🎁 KETO KAMP BLUEPRINT: http://www.ketokampblueprint.com
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