Why Keto Is Ideal for Women
There’s actually some pretty solid reasons as to why women can really excel on the ketogenic diet. Not to say that men cannot, but women actually physiologically, have some advantages that make it so that they can possibly utilize fat as a fuel source even better than men. I’m going to break em’ down. I’m Thomas DeLauer with Keto-Mojo, and today we’re breaking down the science of women, and the keto diet.
Women Have a Higher Percentage of Overall Fat Mass
So basically what’s going on is women have a higher percentage of overall fat mass than men do. Basically women are going to be more like 12.5% percent of their overall mass being fat. Whereas men might be like three to five. Okay. Now that’s not percent body fat, that’s percent total like mass, right? So, when we look at it like that, it actually makes sense that the female body is a little bit more efficient at utilizing fats. Now the theory in general, is that women have a little bit more body fat to handle childbearing. But it also makes sense when we look at it from an oxidation standpoint. So here’s what I mean, there’s a study that was published in the Journal of Medical and Science in Sports and Exercise. And it investigated how women utilize fuel. In this particular case, during exercise, but it still translates into just everyday life. They found that women oxidize lipids significantly better than men, and actually use a lot less carbohydrates than men. So, a female body when exercising actually utilizes what’s called beta-oxidation, and actually mobilizes fat and uses fat for energy, more so than a male would.
Understanding Intramyocellular Triglyceride Content
Now additionally, it’s also found that women have a higher level of what is called intramyocellular triglyceride content. This is really cool cause this is the fat that is sort of in the muscle that readily gets used for fuel. So, because they have a higher degree of fat already weaved into the muscle, it indicates that their muscle tissue in the cells are much more likely to utilize fat as a fuel source. Again, this all makes sense with keto, right? We want our bodies to be adapted to using fat for fuel. And it’s like the female body is already more fat adapted than the male body. The other thing is that women have far less leucine oxidation. So the cool thing is they burn less muscle, they waste less muscle.
Now, when we look at it from somewhat of an evolutionary standpoint, this might make sense, right? We look back in time and the women were usually ones that were walking the long distances and carrying somewhat large loads, and carrying children as they would trek from village to village. Whereas men would have more anaerobic quick bursts, where they would go out hunting, and doing things like that. So it makes more sense that women would have more of a slow, oxidizing, fat burning process, than men having a more carbohydrate, quick-acting, quick energy response, right?
Journal of Applied Physiology Study
Now additionally, if we take a study that was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, we find that adrenaline burns more fat in women, than it does in men. Now, it’s important to know that adrenaline is a big driver for hormone-sensitive lipase, for actual fat burning to occur, for men and women. But it just so happens that if we were to put it into a simple analogy form, or a simple form like this, one drop of adrenaline burns a lot more fat in women, than that same drop of adrenaline in men. This all makes sense, right? It makes perfect sense it’s because women have more fat that is able to be used as fuel, it would make more sense that adrenaline would cause it to burn more. So basically, less of a catalyst is needed to actually burn more fat. So keto and fasting– a lot of the fat burning occurs because of adrenaline. Adrenaline mobilizes the free fatty acids, sends them to the liver where they get packaged into ketones. It’s a simple process, and it just makes sense with women.
How the Ketogenic Diet Effects Thyroid Levels
Now, the other thing that we talk about is thyroid issues, right? So, women are much more susceptible to hypothyroidism. Which means that the ketogenic diet scares some of em’ off. However, when we are on a ketogenic diet, we might see a decrease in our thyroid levels, but we potentially see an increase in thyroid sensitivity. Which means that even though our levels are lower, our receptors don’t need as much thyroid to actually get the job done. So we’ve actually decreased our need for as much thyroid, which works very, very well for women who might have a potential of going hypothyroid, right? So how do we figure out if we’re in keto, if we’re fasting? Well the simple way is utilizing your Keto-Mojo Meter, right? This is exactly where it comes into play. It’s exactly where you want to measure your ketones to see if you’re fasting properly, to see if you’re in keto properly, and to see if your body is utilizing those fats for fuel. Specifically for women, in this particular case. So make sure you’re leaving the guess work out of the equation. Leave the measuring to the meter, so you can determine if you’re really living up to your full female potential with the ketogenic diet.
