Matt
Level 3 Valued Member
I was wondering why we would need to eat a lot of fat considering our body has so much of it as an energy reserve. I understand obviously that from a nutritional point of view we would need to eat some - so getting past that point.
To put it simplistically, as I understand it, to get the body to use fat as an energy source, it is easier when you are in ketosis. To get into ketosis you have to keep the carbohydrate levels low - once there you then (eat protein) eat fat. Yet the emphasis is on keeping the ketosis happening (ie. low carb) but not really giving consideration to the amount of fat. So you could have a variable energy input, predominately from fat, either a high energy input or a low energy input. And the body seems to manage this fine either way when eating like this.
But is there a lower limit to this fat input? I understand obviously there would be (starvation). But it doesn't seemed to be talked about. As it might come down to a handful of nuts a day?
When I've read information on low carb/high fat diets to understand (on a simplistic level) how they "work", they seem to be promoting the eat-what-you-like side of it, ie. go nuts with the nuts. Yet the energy available to the body from body fat is pretty high (and that is why eating like this is obviously better - massive source of constant energy) and then further eating more fat is giving you a more quickly available source of more high density energy - so you'd think it would be possible to actually eat quite little fat (when in ketosis).
A purely theoretical curiosity, not really something I need to know to train/live.
To put it simplistically, as I understand it, to get the body to use fat as an energy source, it is easier when you are in ketosis. To get into ketosis you have to keep the carbohydrate levels low - once there you then (eat protein) eat fat. Yet the emphasis is on keeping the ketosis happening (ie. low carb) but not really giving consideration to the amount of fat. So you could have a variable energy input, predominately from fat, either a high energy input or a low energy input. And the body seems to manage this fine either way when eating like this.
But is there a lower limit to this fat input? I understand obviously there would be (starvation). But it doesn't seemed to be talked about. As it might come down to a handful of nuts a day?
When I've read information on low carb/high fat diets to understand (on a simplistic level) how they "work", they seem to be promoting the eat-what-you-like side of it, ie. go nuts with the nuts. Yet the energy available to the body from body fat is pretty high (and that is why eating like this is obviously better - massive source of constant energy) and then further eating more fat is giving you a more quickly available source of more high density energy - so you'd think it would be possible to actually eat quite little fat (when in ketosis).
A purely theoretical curiosity, not really something I need to know to train/live.