Science of Keto

Having an ileostomy means you don’t have a large bowel and you cant absorb certain electrolytes and nutrients the way the average person would. I am essentially an electrolyte drain where the effluent that is left over from the small intestine now goes into a bag it would normally pass through the large intestine absorbing all the water and minerals that was left, this has left a major hole in my bodily processes and its something im currently working on solving.

With keto, you deplete yourself of glucose so you can start burning fat. Glucose actually acts to hold water in the body. 1g of carbohydrates holds 3-4g water. We hold between 400-500 g glucose in our body and so stand to loose between 1.2 -2L water when transitioning between a standard diet and a keto diet. This loss of water carries with it a ton of salt, potassium magnesium and chloride which leads to a massive drop in levels for me.

This electrolyte drain effect has exasperated the keto flu massively and has causes me loads of problems. There have been many stories of people with ileostomies who have taken to the keto diet for years so im hoping these are just teething problems.

As for fat adaption my body has run on carbs now for 40 years so I expect the fat adaption process to take a little longer than usual. Ideally I hope to become fully fat adapted in within 12 weeks of starting so around next February.

Once my brain starts to accept ketones and my body starts harvesting fat well to produce them things should start to lift and I can start going the right direction but in the meantime it means monitoring my sodium intake as well as adjusting my carbs to allow by body to hold water.

Acetoacetic acid (acetoacetate), beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone are the two main ketones that produced during ketosis along with acetone but acetone is mainly expelled in the breath.