Dear Lyle,
I went over your personal bodyopus experience on the web. One question I had was what, if at all, was your final verdict on the drinking of water while dieting on ketogenic-type diet. Last I read(and maybe I missed something), was that water may flush out the blood stream of ketones, thus leaving one open to catabolism.
I ask this because I drink at least a gallon of water daily
Any verdict on this?
Thanks,
Rich Quinn
I haven’t made up my mind. To be honest, I think it would be nearly impossible to wash all the ketones out of the bloodstream. What happens is that excess ketones are filtered by the kidneys and excess water can push ketones out of the kidneys. But I doubt that would knock you out of ketosis. However, anecdotally some people tend to show lower levels of urinary ketones (less purple on the stix) when they drink a lot of water (this may simply be an artifact of the fact that Ketostix mesure ketone concentrations). And the epileptic children are kept slightly dehydrated so that they maintain VERY deep ketosis (like the darkest purple, which is necessary to prevent the seizures).
I guess I would say it’s a non-issue. As long as you’re showing trace ketones on the ketostix you are fine and getting the benefits (which have been overstated but I don’t have time to get into that here) of ketosis. And even then, the ketostix are problematic. It’s possible to be in ketosis (technically, ketonemia: ketones in the bloodstream) and not show urinary ketones (technically: ketonuria) because you’re not excreting any. I can usually tell when I’m in ketosis by how nasty my breath smells even if I’m no showing urinary ketones.
About the author
Lyle McDonald+ is the author of the Ketogenic Diet as well as the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook and the Guide to Flexible Dieting. He has been interested in all aspects of human performance physiology since becoming involved in competitive sports as a teenager. Pursuing a degree in Physiological Sciences from UCLA, he has devoted nearly 20 years of his life to studying human physiology and the science, art and practice of human performance, muscle gain, fat loss and body recomposition.