Can the Cool Fat Burner speed up acquiring ketosis?
Most people eat carbohydrates, and lots of them. Breads, pastas, cereals, sugars, etc. Carbs are eventually broken down into glucose during digestion. The body then uses this glucose as fuel. As was discussed below, chronically high glucose (and insulin) levels are associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and the metabolic syndrome.
However, people who eat low carb diets, and thus have lower glucose incoming for fuel, may instead burn fat, via ketones, for fuel. Common examples would be the Atkins diet, as well as any very low carb (VLC) ketogenic diet. (Note: it’s a misconception that high fat intake is necessary to enter ketosis; it is in fact, a function of carbohydrate intake. Low carb intake will induce ketosis, independent of fat intake.)
People who champion low carb diets, often refer to themselves as “fat adapted” and “fat burners,” Yet there is still no conclusive proof that, all things being equal (total daily caloric intake), that “fat burners” lose any more weight than regular ‘glucose burners.’ In other words, there is still not proven to be an inherent metabolic advantage to ketogenic diets in regards to fat loss. (Studies that show greater weight loss on VLC diets often don’t standardize protein intake across groups, and often don’t account for fat loss vs muscle loss… thus we still can’t draw conclusions)
However, those on low carb diets espouse many other benefits to the routine. Lower cravings, especially for sweets and carbs. Lower appetite, making it easier to restrict calories for weight loss. Mental clarity; no ups and downs in mood or energy associated with carb meals. An increased store
Cold stress via the Cool Fat Burner can speed up ketosis on low carb diets.
The Cool Fat Burner accelerated ketosis.
of energy reserves, for endurance athletes. (we have far more energy, via our body fat, than we do via blood glucose and muscle glycogen) And the activation of ‘AMPK,’ an enzyme involved with cellular “clean-up” which may be associated with improved health and longevity. (Cold thermogenesis also increases AMPK)
As part of this experiment, the Cool Fat Burner was used at Moderate and Hardcore intensities (goosebumps, up through various levels of shivering) for at least an hour, to see if the transition from glucose burning, to fat burning (ketosis) could be accelerated. Long-story-short, cold thermogenesis did appear to speed up acquiring the ketogenic state, in comparison to waiting on mere diet to induce ketosis.
Details:
– A “CKD” was used. (“cyclic ketogenic diet” — 1carb refeed day per week, every Saturday).
– Time to acquire ketosis after the Sat carb day was observed using ketostix readings 3-5X per day. (“Small” to “Moderate” readings usually happened by Wed evening)
– Only diet was used to achieve ketosis for a baseline reading; this went on for 3 cycles (3 weeks) eating the exact same meals.
– Then the Cool Fat Burner was added daily, for 1-2hr sessions, usually in the evenings, for an additional 3 weeks. Total experiment = 6 weeks.
– Exercise type, intensity, and duration was kept constant through all weeks of the self-experiment,.
Cold thermogenesis appeared to speed up the time it took to enter ketosis by 1/2 to 1 day. In other words, after the carb refeed on Saturday, it might typically take until Wed night to see “Small” to “Moderate” results as per the ketostix. When engaging in cold thermogenesis, this would be shortened to Wed morning on the first 2 of the weeks, and as early as Tues night on the 3rd and final week.
Discussion: This was more of a self curiosity, than a serious experiment. What’s more, these findings and the methods are very imprecise. Ketostix are a very limited and inexact tool for measuring ketosis. They work by detecting whatever ketones are in one’s urine. But one can be in ketosis and have little to no ketones in their urine. What’s more, the level of ketosis, as determined by comparing the strip color to the color on the bottle, seems very imprecise as well. (a blood ketone monitor would be far more applicable for this type of experiment)
It’s been shown that cold thermogenesis can deplete muscle glycogen. This is probably the method by which the Cool Fat Burner was able to speed up the ketogenic state. Granted, I also exercised throughout the entire experiment. I suspect that helped speed up the process on all weeks.
Note: I do not necessarily endorse or advise a ketogenic diet. I do not follow one myself, except on occasion. Find out what works for you, and do it. *Results may vary.