Dr. Eric Berg DC - 9 Clear Signs You're in Ketosis: Without Testing

Short Summary

Main recommendation: Use the nine signs described by Dr. Eric Berg to judge whether you are in ketosis, since he says urine and breath ketone tests can be unreliable and blood tests are expensive and require pricking yourself. The signs are: transition symptoms (keto flu, keto fatigue, keto rash), early water-weight loss, looser clothing around the midsection, higher energy, better cognitive function, less inflammation and pain, greater satisfaction when eating, better mood, and loss of appetite.

Key Points

• The nine signs are: 1) transition symptoms (keto flu, keto fatigue, keto rash), 2) rapid early weight loss, 3) looser clothes around the midsection, 4) increased energy, 5) improved memory, focus, and attention, 6) reduced inflammation and pain, 7) feeling more satisfied after eating, 8) better mood, and 9) loss of appetite.
• The transition symptoms usually appear over about two to three days and are often linked to missing B vitamins or electrolytes.
• Early weight loss of 7 to 14 pounds in the first one to two weeks is mostly water: each gram of stored glucose holds about 3 grams of water.
• Ketones feed brain cells directly, which he says bypasses damage caused by high sugar, and he says this is why diabetics have higher rates of dementia.
• Loss of appetite is described as the best indicator, because the body begins using its own fat between meals.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: Include a good amount of greens or salad (he mentions around seven to ten cups per day as a reference point, noting many people are not used to that much) to supply minerals and vitamins. Take B vitamin supplements and electrolytes (including sea salt) to offset transition symptoms. Focus on nutrient-dense, higher-quality foods rather than just low-carb eating. Keep carbohydrates very low; he says carbs should be about 5 percent of calories.
• He says the most fat you can realistically burn per week on a healthy body is about two pounds on keto alone; adding multi-day fasting may increase fat loss to roughly three to five pounds per week.
• He says fasting in the morning put him in "hardcore ketosis," and that his video editing went faster when fasting than after eating.
• He notes that diarrhea during keto is often linked to eating a lot of vegetables without enough gut microbes to break down the fiber, while keto breath is linked to not eating enough greens.
• He cautions that some mood studies were unreliable: they used mice, used high-fat diets with about 30 percent carbs rather than true keto, or gave ketone supplements rather than the diet itself.
• He says the video ends by pointing viewers to a separate video on the best version of the ketogenic diet to start with, which the transcript does not detail.

Bottom Line

Watching for these nine signs, especially shrinking midsection, reduced appetite, and steady fat loss after the initial water weight is gone, can indicate ketosis without a test, according to Dr. Eric Berg.