Does The Carnivore Diet Put You in Ketosis? Does Protein Take You Out?

Ketosis is like a superpower for humans as it gives your body many benefits. It turns out that if you have a healthy metabolism and heavily reduce that amount of carbs your body will go into ketosis and a carnivore diet can do just that.

However, I heard if you eat too much protein you will lose those ketosis abilities and benefits and drop out of it. Turns out that’s not exactly correct and protein won’t throw you out of ketosis according to a paper published by Diabetes Journal. (4)

Let’s dive in!

What Is Ketosis?

Your body uses food to make energy, and it will only turn to fat when carbohydrates are scarce. This shift takes time as your body uses up the stored carbs.

Ketosis is the process of making energy from fat when your body can not find glucose, and, as a by-product, ketones are produced.

Fat can be the fat stored in your body or the fat from your diet, in which case the process is referred to as nutritional ketosis. Your body uses glucose (carbohydrates) to produce energy through a process called glycolysis.

Ketones are the glucose to your ketosis process.

During this shift, you will start noticing some signs like bad breath, thirst, headache, etc. This group of symptoms you experience as you transition into ketosis is called the low-carb flu.

If you experience the keto or carnivore flu we have found some potential remedies which we wrote about in this article:

• Keto Flu vs. Carnivore Diet Flu & 7 Possible Remedies

You can also measure your breath, blood, or urine ketone levels to see where you stand.

In their book The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living, Dr. Stephen Phinney and Dr. Jeff Volek explore in detail what level you should aim for according to your goals (1).

To put it simply, nutritional ketosis starts after the 0.5 mmol/L mark, light ketosis after 1.0 mmol/L, and optimal ketosis is between 1.0 mmol/L and 3.0 mmol/L.

What Are the Benefits of Ketosis?

Research well established that low carb diets are more successful in weight loss compared to low-fat diets, and a pattern of favored loss of fat at the trunk is noticed too. (2)

Modern-day Keto diet was introduced around a century ago as the food regimen for patients suffering from severe epilepsy resistant to anti-epileptics.

A randomized controlled trial proved the diet’s efficacy with some subjects seeing up to a 90% reduction in seizure frequency (3).

Low carb diets showed favorable effects on diabetes control, heart disease, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and even cancer. People often experience a surge in their cognitive abilities as sugar levels no longer fluctuate as crazily.

These benefits made low-carb diets popular and encouraged scientists to research them to prove ketosis safe.

Protein and Ketosis

You already know that carbs and fat can be a source of energy, but most people do not know that proteins can be utilized for energy too.

When your body digests proteins, it breaks it down to amino acids a.k.a. the building blocks of life. Amino acids are recycled and used to make up to 10,000 proteins in your body.

They can be your muscle, collagen in your skin, hormones, enzymes, neurotransmitters, etc. Proteins keep you fuller for longer and help you recover after workouts.

Your body doesn’t know how to store excess protein, so it takes what it needs and transforms the rest into glucose or triglycerides to build energy reserves.

Gluconeogenesis is the metabolic process of making glucose from protein in your liver and kidneys. However, this process shouldn’t kick you out of ketosis. Gluconeogenesis exists to be your back-up glucose plan.

Yes, you are starving your body from glucose, and your body’s instinct is to preserve its last glucose generating mechanisms as much as it can for truly dire times. Not because it exists, your body will instantly activate it after every protein meal.

After you digest protein, two hormones are released: glucagon and insulin. Glucagon promotes the breakdown of glycogen to glucose in your liver. On the other hand, insulin is released to control the sugar levels, so it balances out at the end.

This is not done to maintain ketosis but to maintain steady sugar levels and protect your energy stores from depletion. Therefore, if you are not struggling with insulin resistance, you shouldn’t be kicked out of ketosis so easily.

A study published in the American Diabetes Association shows that protein contributes little to glucose production (4).

Researchers put subjects on a standard diet for 5 days and asked them to fast for 12 hours the day before the experiment. Then, they gave them high protein meals with very low carbs and measured ketone levels.

This way they recreated the optimal conditions for gluconeogenesis, and this is what they concluded, “under optimal gluconeogenic conditions and in a realistic nutritional situation, dietary proteins only make a relatively modest contribution to the maintenance of blood glucose levels’’

Carnivore Diet and Ketosis

Ketogenic diets might be more centered on protein intake to prevent excess gluconeogenesis. Probably because this is what drives the most benefits on these diets.

In the carnivore diet, the emphasis is on a healthier way of life. We do not count calories or macros, and it works.

You are encouraged to eat protein whenever you are hungry and until you are full. This approach may or may not take you out of ketosis, but it does not matter.

The diet is simple and satisfies your nutritional needs, why should you complicate it?

What Should You Do?

“Throw those monitors and balances away, and spend that money on quality food.” This is the bottom line advice Dr. Shawn Baker gives in his book The Carnivore Diet.

Of course, individuals with health problems that require certain levels of ketones should not follow that advice. In fact, it is recommended that anyone interested in modifying their dietary lifestyle should speak with their doctor.

If you are only concerned about ketosis and you let it grow on you, you might be tempted to decrease your protein intake or gorge on unnecessary fats. Perhaps you should not develop negative feelings for protein on a carnivore diet! It just doesn’t make sense.

I always encourage people to read and educate themselves about the carnivore diet to not fall into mistakes and adjust smoothly into this somewhat drastic lifestyle.

Many people attempting this diet do make a few mistakes and that’s why we wrote this article on the:

• Top 11 Carnivore Diet Mistakes

What is more important than your health to invest your time in? This brings me to education.

If you do have time, I strongly recommend these books.

• The Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker
• The Carnivore Code by Dr. Paul Saladino

However, you should not get too caught up in technicalities that you miss the whole point.

Conclusion

Ketosis has research-proven benefits, and protein is not likely to kick you out of it anyway. Nonetheless, you may not want to turn it into an obsession.

Rather, focus on your health and the tangible benefits the carnivore diet brings to your life.

Carnivore Motivation!

If you are new to the carnivore diet or looking for motivation, I would suggest checking out MeatRX. This website has a plethora of carnivore diet material as well as coaches. I should mention I am a coach for them as well, and you can book me for a private session here.

Also, check out our YouTube channel Wild Lumens. Go ahead and subscribe so that you can learn all about a carnivorous lifestyle.

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor. Consult with and ask your doctor about any diet or medical-related questions. No information on this site should be used to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease or condition.

Resources

1. The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living: An Expert Guide to Making the Life-Saving Benefits of Carbohydrate Restriction Sustainable and Enjoyable
2. Comparison of energy-restricted very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets on weight loss and body composition in overweight men and women
3. The ketogenic diet for the treatment of childhood epilepsy: a randomised controlled trial
4. Dietary Proteins Contribute Little to Glucose Production, Even Under Optimal Gluconeogenic Conditions in Healthy Humans