Keto Diet and Breath Analysis – the dream team for successful weight management?

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

By cutting carbs and increasing fat intake, the Keto diet aims to be a successful weight-loss strategy. When applied correctly, it helps preserve muscles, and when combined with exercise at the right intensity, performance can improve. To ensure health is not overlooked, it's crucial to regularly check health parameters. This is where breath analysis proves highly beneficial.

Weight Control through Ketosis

Our body has different ways to meet its energy needs. It's like a car with both a gas and petrol engine: you'd first use gas as it's more cost-effective than petrol. When the gas tank is empty, the car automatically switches to petrol.

In the body, gas combustion corresponds to carbohydrate burning because glucose is its simplest and fastest energy source. When the glycogen store (gas tank) is empty, the body enters ketosis: stored fat is converted into free fatty acids, which are then turned into ketones (petrol) in the liver.

The faster and more frequently the body generates energy through fat burning, the quicker fat reserves are depleted. This can be achieved through intense, endurance-based workouts and/or dietary control. If the body doesn't receive glucose from carbs or sugar in the diet, it has no choice but to access consumed fat and fat reserves.

Keto Diet: Basics and Origin

To induce ketosis, the ketogenic diet drastically reduces carb intake while increasing the share of fats in the diet. The exact composition of macronutrients depends on various factors, including:

• Body weight
• Health status
• Activity level: How much exercise/sport is integrated into your daily life?
• Goal: How much weight do you want to lose?

A rough guideline is a nutrient distribution of 70% healthy fat, 20% protein, and a maximum of 10% carbs. Reducing glucose production through carb and protein burning triggers a shift in energy metabolism. Only when glucose is lacking or depleted does the body produce ketones through fat burning. There are various approaches regarding portion size, meal timing, and frequency.

In 1911, the ketogenic diet was initially used as a therapy for children with epilepsy, providing a healthier alternative to fasting. Both methods reduced epileptic seizures, but the ketogenic diet ensured adequate nutrient supply. Today, epilepsy is treated with antiepileptic drugs, while the ketogenic diet gains popularity as a weight control method.

Measuring Ketone Levels with Breath Gas Analysis

Ketones can be measured in blood or through acetone in exhaled breath. The measured ketone values determine the degree of ketosis, allowing for individualized dietary and training optimization. Before breath gas analysis could measure ketone levels, they were determined through blood samples. Thanks to the improvement in non-invasive alternatives with accurate acetone sensors, this method is gaining more popularity. Exhaled breath analysis also excites with the following criteria:

• Precise measurements
• Regular adjustment of carb intake possible
• Avoids overtraining through individualized training optimization

The precise data can determine if the body is in fat-burning mode. As each body reacts differently to carbs, continuous measurement allows for individual adjustments, ensuring an optimal balance of ketosis and performance.

Moreover, proper breath gas analysis enables a general assessment of metabolism, optimizing training ideally. This reduces the risk of overtraining, which can be restrictive to ketosis. In terms of weight management, regular monitoring of metabolic performance with associated adjustments in diet and training provides synergistic benefits.

VitaScale Breath Gas Analysis: Customizing the Keto Diet

The combination of the Keto diet and breath analysis offers promising perspectives for sustainable weight reduction or healthy weight management. With precise values indicating the metabolic status, the ketogenic diet can be tailored to the individual needs of each person. Therefore, this interplay can indeed be a potential dream team for those aiming for successful weight loss. However, professional guidance should not be skipped before starting the diet.

VitaScale is already developed a practical handheld device with specialized sensors, measuring acetone in exhaled breath precisely in real-time, among other features. The associated app not only displays the data but also provides suggestions for adjusting nutrition and training plans based on individual health data.

Author: Lisa Schräder

Translation: Bruna Rocha

Source:

Alkedeh O. &, Priefer R.: The Ketogenic Diet: Breath Acetone Sensing Technology (2021), URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7835940/ (Stand: 18.01.2024).