hello health champions how do you know
if you're truly fat adapted well if
you're still having cravings and
ravenous hunger and sugar cravings then
you're probably not fat adapted yet so
today we're going to talk about what fat
adaptation is I'm going to give you ten
signs to tell if you're getting into
true fat adaptation coming right up hey
I'm dr. Ekberg
I'm a holistic doctor and a former
Olympic decathlete and if you want to
truly master health by understanding how
the body really works make sure you
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so you don't miss anything so what is
fat adaptation fat adaptation simply
means that your body has the ability to
burn fat
when mostly fat is available another way
of looking at that is called metabolic
flexibility
so if mostly carbs or mostly fat or
mostly protein or a mix of all of those
are available then the body does just
fine it has the metabolic machinery to
switch from one to the other on very
short notice
that's metabolic flexibility and the
only reason that this is even an issue
is that we have trained our body away
from being fat adaptive we've trained
the body away from metabolic flexibility
by having a couple of generations of
people who have had virtually nothing
but carbohydrate and carbohydrate is a
fuel that raises blood sugar which is
dangerous to the brain that's why an
excess leads to diabetes and
neurological problems and so forth so
the body has to dispose of the
carbohydrates first and if we eat
frequent carbohydrates then the body
never really gets to anything but the
carbohydrates they become the priority
and the body becomes dependent so that
is the reason that if your carb
dependent you've shifted all your
metabolic
Machinery over to carbohydrates so now
when the carbohydrates disappear when
you go on a low-carb diet your body says
I've got no food
I don't recognize where my regular food
is I'm starving even though all that fat
is available both in the diet if you eat
a high fat diet and on the body your
body doesn't have access to it because
it has to retrain and become fat adapted
and what that means is has to up
regulate all the cellular machinery all
the receptors and the enzymes and the
mitochondria involved in fat metabolism
and that takes a while it can take a
couple of weeks if it has been totally
basically shut down ketosis is something
that's measured together with fat
adaptation because ketones is a
byproduct of fat burning so if you're in
fat burning you're making ketones you're
in ketosis but they're not really the
same thing because you can have some
ketosis without being fat adapted so
every night when you're sleeping and
every morning when you wake up you have
some ketones even if you have a carb
dependent metabolism during the night
you go eight to ten hours without food
and your body shifts a little bit but
then if your carb adapted you go
straight up and you have toast and
orange juice and cereal and oatmeal and
you fill up the glycogen stores and the
body forgets all about burning fat so
you never get into being fat adapted so
even though you can have a little bit of
ketosis from time to time it doesn't
make you fat adapted so we need to
understand that difference and I heard
some people talk about this I wanted to
make a comment about diuresis they said
that diuresis is a sign of being fat
burning and it's not it's even less so
than the ketosis because diuresis is
when you lose fluids that have been
bound up in the body and the reason is
that glycogen which you can store
carbohydrates as glycogen you
store about 1,500 grams about three
pounds three to four pounds and that
binds about three to four times its
weight and water it's like a sponge it
holds water to it so when you burn
through the glycogen stores that water
has nothing to hold on to and you flush
it straight out so the first five six
seven pounds that you lose on a low-carb
diet is water and that's normal and
that's okay
but it doesn't mean you're burning fat
or that your fat adapted it just means
you're reducing your glycogen stores
which is a good thing on the way to
becoming fat adapted another thing I
heard was that your fat adapted when you
burn through all the glucose that's
lingering that it can take a couple of
weeks to become fat adapted because
glucose is lingering and that's just not
how it works
because your body makes glucose all the
time even when you're completely fasting
your body makes glucose because you
still even in a ketosis even in a
fasting state you still are going to
maintain a blue glucose of in the 70 75
80 range so glucose does not linger you
burned through the stores pretty quickly
and then your body makes it as needed
has really nothing to do with whether
your fat adapted or not so how long does
it take to become fat adapted to where
your body is metabolically flexible
again well it depends primarily on two
things it depends on how insulin
resistant you are the more insulin
resistance you are the higher your
fasting insulin the tougher it's going
to be for you to be fat adapted because
that high insulin level locks the fat
away so even though you're eating the
fat you're kind of burning it but your
body can't see the burn the body fat so
you're not truly fat adapted because
you're still gonna get hungry because
you're depending on dietary fuel because
of that high insulin level the other
factor is how long have you been
insulin-resistant and how long have you
been carb dependent if it's been going
for a decade or two then you can
probably count on two to six weeks for
your body to completely shift its
machinery and that's if you're very
consistent do you have to be patient
here's the good news though if you are
consistent with it if you truly become
fat adapted so if you've been on a
low-carb diet
myself for example I've been low-carb
for probably ten years I've been in and
out Aikido probably been in low-grade
keto for 80% of the time for those last
ten years so if I go on a vacation and I
do a little carb loading I make a few
exceptions and I eat more carbs then I
notice immediately I get hungrier I
gotta have frequent meals my body is
screaming for food but if I come home
and I just cut out the carbs then I'm
back in true fat adaptation in 24 to 48
hours because I do have the metabolic
flexibility so that's the good news once
you get this done right then you don't
have to do it over and over and over it
gets easier and easier so here are the
10 signs that you are getting fat
adapted number one thing you're gonna
notice is less hunger you eat your meals
and you're not super hungry between
meals you don't need snacks etc just
overall less hunger number two less carb
cravings you don't feel like when you're
eating a meal that oh I have to have
that rice I have to have that potato a
lot of people they can't just have meat
and vegetables they don't feel satisfied
unless they have also stuffed in some
carbs number three is you don't feel a
need for snacks a lot of people have
been told and trained to have three
meals plus three snacks plus an evening
meal maybe but as you get fat adapted
your everything levels out and you
notice
that there's no problem at all skipping
the snacks number four no ravenous
hunger so the character of your hunger
changes too that's some people they just
get totally out of control they can't
function they get sleepy they get
headaches they get irritable they get
angry they go out of their mind their
body is screaming for food that all goes
away you're not gonna have that kind of
hunger anymore and then you'll wake up
one morning and notice you want to skip
a meal it's like I'm not hungry and
that's something that you should take
the cue that don't eat if you're not
hungry your body is trying to tell you
something it has plenty of food it has
plenty of energy resources just leave it
alone and skip the meal sign number six
is you'll notice you get fat cravings
that when you eat a meal you want it to
be really fatty if it's not dripping
with butter if it's not a lot of fat in
there your body senses that it's missing
something so then you're wondering well
now I just replace the carb craving for
a fat craving no not really it's just
that when you're eating your body knows
it wants that dense concentrated
high-quality fuel and with a carb
craving you're perpetuating the problem
with the carb craving you're creating a
blood sugar roller coaster with the fat
craving you're just providing your body
a stable fuel that it needs and if you
eat it when your body asks for it
you'll notice it becomes easier and
easier and easier to go longer without
food something else you might notice at
this point is that if you get up in the
morning and you forget to eat breakfast
like your long weekend then you get busy
with something you go out in the yard
and all of a sudden it's 5:00 in the
afternoon and you haven't eaten anything
and you didn't really think about it
because your body is fat adapted it has
a stable source of fuel you don't need
all that snacks that's a great sign that
your fat adapted another interesting
sign is ketone strips because when you
first start burning fat
and you're making some ketones a lot of
them are gonna spill out in the urine so
the ketone strips that you pee on they
measure the ketones that get out of the
body but as you get more and more fat
adapted your body produces more ketones
and you would expect that ketone strips
to show a higher rate of ketones but
instead they start showing a lower
number maybe even just a trace and
that's because even though you're making
more ketones your body has up regulated
its machinery to burn not just fat but
also to utilize the ketones and now your
body is using them instead of spilling
them out in the urine so at first the
ketone strips are going to show
increasing amounts and then they're
gonna show decreasing amounts and that's
a great sign sign number eight no mood
swings because a lot of mood swings have
to do with blood sugar and they have to
do with energy supply so if your carb
dependence you're gonna have blood sugar
swings as you get fat adapted you have
virtually no blood sugar swings today I
measured my glucose and it was 80 before
I ate and then I had a very large meal
1,500 calories or so and afterwards my
blood sugar was a hundred and one so
they're very very slight changes in
blood sugar and that reflects in your
mood number nine it's also going to
reflect in your energy level because
your mood and your energy often go
together so when your energy supply is
stable then you always have energy
throughout the day so some people
experience much better energy but
primarily what you'll notice is stable
energy you're not dependent on food
you're not dependent on snacks to
function sign number ten mental clarity
ketones is a fantastic fuel for the
brain it likes it much better than
glucose actually and it's a more stable
fuel plus when you become fat adapt
you've also decreased the inflammation
in the body you've decreased
inflammation from grains and sugar but
also because insulin in itself drives
inflammation and inflammatory processes
so when you bring insulin down and
become fat adapted now the brain has
more stable and it has better fuel and
less inflammation so for a lot of people
this shows up as mental clarity the
brain fog lifts and they can think they
can live in a way that they never have
felt for years now it's important to
understand that while most people will
experience most of these signs not
everyone is going to experience all of
them and that goes especially for the
last two the energy and the mental
clarity because there's so many other
factors that influence that and
primarily we're talking about people
with sensitivities and autoimmunity and
other sources of inflammation and maybe
hypothyroid so if you're not getting all
ten then chances are that you have a
little bit more of a complex situation
you're not in the 80 or 90% but don't
despair just keep being consistent with
these things and then maybe look for
some help from someone who can help you
iron out those last few details and then
a little bonus for you and this is kind
of interesting it's not necessarily due
to fad adaptation per se it might be
more due to habits and neuroplasticity
but here's a fact your taste buds will
change and this is a good thing because
people think that oh I can never eat
that way because I'm used to eating this
way well you can change your taste and
one way that you'll notice the first
thing that you'll notice is that things
that you used to like that we're sweet
now taste
nauseatingly sweet so for one example
milk chocolate if you used to love milk
chocolate and you taste it now it would
taste almost disgusting it would
so sweet so nauseating of course
nowadays you don't eat milk chocolate so
you wouldn't know how that tastes but
I'm just saying hypothetically and if
you were to fast for a couple of days
and then you come back and you eat a
piece of 85% chocolate it will be like
the sweetest thing you ever tasted this
is a good thing because you can learn to
eat things you can learn to like things
everything that you think you like is
because you learn to like it so just
learn to like the things that you know
are better for you simple as that
if you enjoyed this video make sure to
check out that one thank you so much for
watching I'll see you in the next video