Atkins diet, blood sugar, and weight loss

Many (most) of the anti-Atkins diet hoopla is overblown. I encourage you to research it though. And with that I encourage you to trust studies involving actual data from people who have actually been on the diet, and not some physician's speculation of what might happen if one goes on the diet.

It is controversial, but I too have blood sugar issues, and this has all but elimated the problem entirely... for the first time in my life, I should add. This has changed my life dramatically. And, interestingly, my immune system seems to be far stronger than most people around me. I haven't been sick in over two years, which has never happened before, and I've been surrounded by sick people lately. I did finally get the sniffles for a couple of days but never got hit hard like everyone else, not yet anyway.

I have and as I said, I am on some version of the diet myself, though not for weight loss purposes. In rankings of Diets *generally* Atkins rates very low. The weight loss effects from Atkins are mostly due to the fact that carb restriction is a good way to lower calories. So it amounts to a a calorie restriction diet for people who simply want to lose weight, and it works because people generally like being allowed to eat fatty stuff, so they are more likely to stick to it than to a "healthier" calorie restriction diet.

But for people with blood sugar issues it is beneficial for other reasons. What Dr. Atkins did was to take a hypoglycemic diet that previously existed and re-package it for weight loss. At his death by congestive heart failure he weighed 258 pounds.

-Dave K

One thing that I wanted to add regarding perception. I've talked with quite a few people who said they went on the Atkins diet and lost some weight, but nothing dramatic. After a bit of interrogation, it was obvious that they had never gone into ketosis. While that allegedly is an alternate path, all of my dramatic losses, which ocurred during several rounds of intense dieting over a period of a year, were associated with strong ketosis. And there is no missing this. Your mouth gets as dry as a desert and taste like you've been chewing on iron. You can get test strips for this but you really can't miss the signs.

During these periods of extreme weight loss [~ 5+ pounds per week], I was consuming 25 grams of carbs a day, and mainly from raw vegetables. Three days of that and you WILL be ketogenic. But it takes a few days to deplete the glycogen reserves in your body.

So I have to think this notion that it is simple matter of calories is at best selective. Maybe for some people, but I reject that claim 100%. When I went on this diet, I was still eating 1500 calories a day, but I was shedding weight so fast that it scared my wife.

Well, most people who diet do not enter the state of ketosis thus the amount of calories consumed should be predictive for their weight gain/loss.

Ketosis is an inefficient metabolic state where energy from fatty acids is partly wasted (acetone) thus caloric requirement for sustained weight becomes higher. I tried to look up exactly what the ratio of energy production is of a normal metabolism vs a ketogenic metabolism, but unfortunately couldn't find it. It would be interesting to know the numbers..

Within the context of people who have blood sugar issues, I don't think a direct comparison can be made to non-ketogenic and high-carb diets. We don't respond properly to carbs in the first place. In my case, I got so bad that even the sugar in a glass of milk would cause me to release too much insulin and then crash my blood sugar. And while I was lying on the couch sweating with a heart rate of 160, all of the sugar I needed to function was being converted to fat. I was only able to break this cycle by taking carbs out of my diet via Atkins.

I was actually going toxic on my own insulin and exhibiting acanthosis nigricans, which has all disappeared since going on Atkins.

Within the context of people who have blood sugar issues, I don't think a direct comparison can be made to non-ketogenic and high-carb diets. We don't respond properly to carbs in the first place. In my case, I got so bad that even the sugar in a glass of milk would cause me to release too much insulin and then crash my blood sugar. And while I was lying on the couch sweating with a heart rate of 160, all of the sugar I needed to function was being converted to fat. I was only able to break this cycle by taking carbs out of my diet via Atkins.

The following question is for me to understand the situation, if you have too much insulin and blood sugar crashes all the time.. doesn't the body already go into ketosis? Or is it too confused by the sugars ingested and the glycogen stores it tries to convert back into sugar?

Another question: if you are on the Atkins diet, what happens to the glycogen stores? Does the body hold on to a certain reserve? The muscles still need it for fast energy right?

I think the blood glucose levels have to be below a critical threshold for a period of time before ketosis kicks in. So I'm not sure but I would guess that the blood sugar levels aren't low enough long enough to change one's metabololic mode.

Oh boy, now you're really stressing my limits of memory... IIRC, most of the body can use fatty acids for energy through beta-oxidation. The big concern is typically the brain, which cannot convert over to use fatty acids. This is where acetyl-CoA, which is produced though the citric cycle [...?...] is thought to pass the blood-brain barrier and provide the energy needed for the brain. But even the most die-hard Atkins fan will tell you that you don't want to eliminate carbs completely, I think mostly due to concern about energy for the brain.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I'm not up-to-date on the details (it's also buried in my memory), but I'm 100% sure that the ketones are the primary alternate energy resource for glucose in the brain (ketosis is a treatment to manage epilepsy, the brain likes it). There should thus be no concern in that respect. I don't know how muscles store and utilize ketones though..

A reason not to completely eliminate sugar and carbs is that the body needs insulin to stimulate the fat cells to store fatty acids. Maybe insulin levels become too low and would disturb the endocrine system? I'm not sure if that's true though. At least it's clear that people with diabetes type 1, who completely lack insulin, go into very dangerous ketoacidosis. The massive and uncontrolled production of ketones acidifies the blood and becomes toxic (the low pH).

I'm glad that you've found a diet that works for you, that's the most important fact.

Ketosis
When glycogen stores are not available in the cells, fat (triacylglycerol) is cleaved to provide 3 fatty acid chains and 1 glycerol molecule in a process known as lipolysis. Most of the body is able to use fatty acids as an alternative source of energy in a process called beta-oxidation. One of the products of beta-oxidation is acetyl-CoA, which can be further used in the citric acid cycle. During prolonged fasting or starvation, acetyl-CoA in the liver is used to produce ketone bodies instead, leading to a state of ketosis.

During starvation or a long physical training session, the body starts using fatty acids instead of glucose. The brain cannot use long-chain fatty acids for energy because they are completely albumin-bound and cannot cross the blood–brain barrier. Not all medium-chain fatty acids are bound to albumin. The unbound medium-chain fatty acids are soluble in the blood and can cross the blood–brain barrier.[3] The ketone bodies produced in the liver can also cross the blood–brain barrier. In the brain, these ketone bodies are then incorporated into acetyl-CoA and used in the citric acid cycle.

The ketone body acetoacetate will slowly decarboxylate into acetone, a volatile compound that is both metabolized as an energy source and lost in the breath and urine.

High protein, low-carb diets can cause a number of health problems, including:

Kidney failure. Consuming too much protein puts a strain on the kidneys, which can make a person susceptible to kidney disease.

High cholesterol . It is well known that high-protein diets (consisting of red meat, whole dairy products, and other high fat foods) are linked to high cholesterol. Studies have linked high cholesterol levels to an increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, and cancer.
Osteoporosis and kidney stones. High-protein diets have also been shown to cause people to excrete a large amount of calcium in their urine. Over a prolonged period of time, this can increase a person's risk of osteoporosis and kidney stones. A diet that increases protein at the expense of a very restrictive intake of plant carbohydrates may be bad for bones, but not necessarily a high-protein intake alone.

Cancer. One of the reasons high-protein diets increase the risks of certain health problems is because of the avoidance of carbohydrate-containing foods and the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants they contain. It is therefore important to obtain your protein from a diet rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Not only are your needs for protein being met, but you are also helping to reduce your risk of developing cancer.

Unhealthy metabolic state (ketosis). Low-carb diets can cause your body to go into a dangerous metabolic state called ketosis since your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy. During ketosis, the body forms substances known as ketones, which can cause organs to fail and result in gout, kidney stones, or kidney failure. Ketones can also dull a person's appetite, cause nausea and bad breath. Ketosis can be prevented by eating at least 100 grams of carbohydrates a day.