Thanks Susan, this is interesting. We seem similar, except that I actually tend to gain weight on a ketogenic diet, which is one reason I don't keep my ketones that high. I'm sure that's at least in part due to diminished activity levels while caregiving compounded by physical limitations I have.SusanJ wrote:I think it's tied up in the type of bugs you have. Her take is that archaea like Methanobrevibacter use methyl compounds like TMA and TMAO to generate methane but are also particularly important to maintaining levels of Bifidobacteria (which we all know are important to overall health), who like to hang out with archaea to better utilize glucose.circular wrote:So this thinking goes: If your microbiome is well balanced the TMAO isn't an issue?
Here's her take on how to increase those bacteria:So, for those of us who have trouble doing IF and keeping on weight without additional protein, it seems that an ultra low carb diet might be problematic because we need to make sure we have the right bugs to break down TMA and TMAO that comes with eating protein.More broadly, though, in humans, Methanobrevibacter abundance is positively associated with higher carbohydrate consumption (both recent and long-term), and negatively associated with recent consumption of fat (especially vegetable fat and polyunsaturated fat intake) and amino acids. Although more research is definitely needed, the picture getting painted so far is that archaea benefit from a variety of plant polysaccharides, and not so much from animal-based diets.
However, this isn’t because the archaea themselves eat carbohydrate. In fact, methanogenic archaea have an almost complete lack of enzymes for breaking down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars. What does appear to be happening is that archaea thrive off the metabolic products of carbohydrate-loving bacteria, and therefore are still dependent on dietary carbohydrate for their own survival!
Last time I tracked in September, I was getting about 100-125 net carbs per day.
I don't track my carbs so much as watch that I at least have some ketones on a frequent, regular basis. Typically my carbs are (besides vegetables) berries, green banana, some sweet potato ... and lately I've been eating up to a cup of pressure cooked lentils daily, with no affect on my ketones. I feel fine this way so far, so I'm not going to worry that it doesn't fit any particular protocol. I did nix the one ounce goat milk keifer I was having every morning, because I think it's inflammatory for me but at that amount I barely notice it and it's too easy to write it off the probably down side.
I fast anywhere from 12-15 hours.
I still struggle to live by any sort of routine. Maybe when my life calms down in that fictional place I keep thinking must exist for me some day.
