Not All Fats Create Ketones at the Same Rate
Not all fats create ketones at the same rate and to the same degree. Yeah, like eating a steak might end up causing your ketones to rise differently than eating a salad with some olive oil. It all has to do with what makes up a fat in the first place. Fats are made up of carbon chains, they have different levels of saturated bonds of hydrogen. Now, I’ll explain a little bit more of that in detail as we go along but, it’s not like you can just eat different fats and expect the same desired ketone reading. I’m Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo, and we’re going to break it all down.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism Study
So let’s go ahead and start off with a study that was published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. It took a look at 20 adult participants. They were divided into two groups. Both of these groups of individuals were consuming a Ketogenic diet. They were consuming a Keto diet for five days. But one group had 60% of their calories come from saturated fat, and the other group had 60% of their calories coming from polyunsaturated fats. So what that means is they still had them on a Keto diet, they were still eating high amounts of fats and moderate amounts of protein and low amounts of carbs but, what they were trying to figure out was, does the Keto group with saturated fat create ketones at a slower or faster rate than the polyunsaturated fat group. So they measured their ketone levels, they measured their insulin sensitivity and they measured their lipid profiles. The results were pretty darn interesting. So after five days they found that the group that was consuming more in the way of polyunsaturated fats, had higher ketone levels. They had an increase of 8.4 milligrams per deciliter when it came down to ketones versus saturated fat group having 3.1. Does that mean consuming polyunsaturated fats are better for ketosis? No, it doesn’t mean that at all. All it means is that that particular kind of fat gave you a higher reading of ketones, at that point in time.
How are Fats Broken Down?
You see what we have to look at is how fats are broken down. Saturated fats are saturated. What that means is when you take a look at a fat you’ve got a series of carbons, and carbon chain, and some of these double bonds have hydrogen, and some of them don’t. With a saturated fat, all of the bonds are saturated with hydrogen, that’s where the term saturated comes from. They’re all saturated with hydrogen. Which means that when you consume a saturated fat, your body has to break down those saturated bonds, they have to break down those bonds which means saturated fats in essence, break down as far as fats concerned a little bit slower. Now polyunsaturated fats on the other hand, like the name implies, polyunsaturated means multiple unsaturated areas of a carbon chain. So that means that there less hydrogen bonds that have to be broken down. So it absorbs faster, therefore getting the ketones up a little bit higher. Medium-chain triglycerides, another example. They’re shorter chain, so they end up breaking down a lot faster. It doesn’t necessarily mean that one is better than the other. Saturated fats are great for Ketosis, just like MCT oils great for Ketosis. But if you utilize your Keto-Mojo meter, you can start playing with different fats at different times to see when you get the best result.
Benefits of Utilizing Your Keto-Mojo Meter
You might find that you feel mentally a little bit more clear, a little bit better when your ketones are slightly higher. Some people do, some people don’t. So if you utilize your ketone meter after using specific kinds of fats, or eating specific kinds of fats, you can get really granular and start figuring it out, but it’s nice to know which fats are going to elicit a higher ketone response. If you know that you’re going to be going a period of time without eating, You may want to have some saturated fats because then you know that you’re going to have an extended break-down. Slightly lower ketone levels, but they’re going to be sustained, and might give you a little bit more energy. Of course it’s always hard to tell exactly what’s happening because when we go in between meals, our body might start pulling body fat tissue to make ketones. So all we do know right off hand, is that polyunsaturated fats create more ketones in the moment, okay. And saturated fats create a little bit less in the moment. Which one is better? Well, that’s going to be entirely up to you, and entirely up to how you feel. But as always, no matter what. Don’t just calculate in your head, leave the measuring to the meter, and utilize the goals standard of ketone testing with Keto-Mojo. As always, I’ll see you in the next video.
