My boyfriend is a diabetic, and sometimes I notice he has really bad or strong smelling breath. Could that be ketosis at work? If it is, isn't that a really bad thing to be happening?

He takes care of his shots well enough, but he eats in a very uneven fashion. Pretty much he'll not eat all day, then eat once, then not eat for a long time again. I know for a diabetic that's not healthy, and now after reading this article, I'm kind of concerned that he might be in ketosis a lot and not know it.

Since too much ketosis can be damaging, I really want to know if the breath thing and his eating habits and diabetes could be related. Does anybody know?

Are the damaging effects of ketoacidosis, like brain swelling and organ damage, the same dire damaging effects people refer to when they talk about a diabetic maintaining too high or too low levels of blood sugars? Since diabetics are concerned with carbohydrates so much, I could see how the two serious medical problem descriptions might actually be one and the same.

@seHiro - Yep, you've got it right! Low carb diets use ketosis in a controlled way. Think of it kind of like prescription medication: in moderation, it's good for you and can help your body stay healthy, but if you overdose you can hurt yourself or even kill yourself.

If you can be responsible with prescription medication, you're responsible enough to use ketosis the right way. Just make sure you know how it works.

By the way, Somersizing keeps the dieter from staying in ketosis by allowing them to eat carbohydrates in separate meals from the proteins. So long as the foods are eaten a certain amount of hours apart, they don't combine and spike the insulin, so you don't gain weight.

Since extremely low carbohydrates are the main cause of ketosis, you might think this would make the low carb side of Somersizing dangerous.

It isn't. Even somebody who chooses to stick just to the low carb, high protein side of Somersizing -- like I prefer -- won't stay in ketosis or probably even get there in the first place, because unlike Atkins, Somersizing encourages eating a bunch of vegetables that contain natural carbohydrates.

Atkins limits carbs so much that they cut down even which veggies you can have to just a few at first to bring about ketosis. The strictness of Atkins is why I couldn't handle doing it, and chose Somersizing instead.

@popcorn - In my understanding, there is only one kind of ketosis, so yes, low carb diets that promise to get you into ketosis are talking about starvation ketosis. Ketosis plays a big part in the workings of the metabolism and weight loss efforts relating to it.

Diets that involve ketosis, at least the one that I have looked into extensively -- the Atkins diet -- utilize ways to protect the dieter from entering anything near ketoacidosis.

The Atkins diet starts by having an individual enter ketosis by severely limiting their carbohydrates, but it emphasizes that the dieter should only stay in the ketosis stage for a very limited about of time before starting to slowly add in more and more carbohydrates per day until they reach their optimal level for weight loss.

The Atkins diet is centered around the concept that everyone has a certain level of carbohydrates they can consume while still losing weight, and that if you go over that amount, you will gain instead. The diet does not and has never advocated staying in ketosis indefinitely.

Hope that sheds some light on how low carb diets do use the same kind of starvation ketosis as is discussed here, but in a safe and controlled way.

@Hawthorne - Low calorie eating is my preferred food lifestyle. During my teens I practiced the Somersizing way of eating, which is a low-carb diet developed by Suzanne Somers and based on the French traditions of eating carbohydrates and fats separately.

Somersizing is based around the fact that without something that spikes your insulin levels, your body cannot turn the food it just ate into fat. Mixing carbs with protein spikes the insulin, and the whole meal goes to fat stores instead of being burnt -- kind of the anti version of ketosis weight loss.

If you keep your different food types separate, though, the insulin won't spike, and you will burn the food as energy instead of storing it as fat.

With Somersizing, you can choose to eat a mostly carb diet -- if you cut out all fat, including even butter on the bread, and have only carbs and vegetables. Vegetables you can eat with anything, because they don't really have any fat in them to store.

Instead of the high carb, low calorie diet, I prefer the other way around: eat a high protein, low carb diet, with all carbs being natural ones from vegetables. No refined carbs and no sugar whatsoever. Because there are no insulin spikes, I can eat things with tons of calories and plenty of fat and not worry about gaining weight. It's good to avoid saturated fats, of course, since they are unhealthy.

When I practiced this way of eating in high school, not only did I feel like I had tons of energy, but I lost weight without even exercising. I'm looking to get back into Somersizing, because it worked for me and now that I'm eating carbs and sugar again, I'm once again gaining weight.

@oasis11 - Thank you for that explanation! I've already thought of low calorie diets as unhealthy, and low carb diets as the way to go. As with anything, either one can be taken too far, though. It's just as unhealthy to eat an absolutely no carbohydrate diet with too much saturated fats as it is to starve yourself on an extremely low calorie diet.

There are a few reasons that I personally believe low carb eating is better than low calorie eating...

First of all, food allergies run in my family. I don't have any outright allergies, but I've noticed that I get an urge to clear my throat constantly for several hours after eating anything containing gluten. That's a food sensitivity -- if I keep eating gluten much, I'll probably develop an actual allergy to it.

Secondly, from personal experience I can tell you that the moment I start eating carbohydrates regularly, even when I cut out most or all sugar from my diet, I start putting on the pounds. Not only that, but after any carbohydrate meal, I feel fuzzy in the head and I can't focus.

It is my belief that some people are carb sensitive, and need to avoid refined carbs as much as possible.

@SurfNTurf- I agree and I wanted to say that a weight loss plan that forces you to eat less 1500 calories is probably one that is going to cause you to lose muscle and a lot of water weight.

This will have a negative impact on your metabolism and cause you to gain weight over time even though you haven’t changed your diet.

This is what happened to Oprah years ago when she publicly announced that she was following a liquid diet. She lost a lot of weight but only maintained her weight for a day and then dramatically gained all of her weight back and then some.

The diet really damaged her metabolism and she had to work hard to repair it.

@Popcorn- I think that if you eat lean protein and limit the carbohydrates and sugar that you intake you could really put together a ketosis diet that offers weight loss at healthy levels. When you cut out sugar and processed foods, you will probably get a headache but it should go away after a few days and then you will probably have a lot of energy.

I think that importance is to eat a variety of healthy foods and exercise that can change your lifestyle for the better. The people that see a weight loss plan as a lifestyle change are more successful than people that want weight loss for very short term goals like they are getting married or going to a reunion.

People that make a lifelong commitment to lose weight realize that progress is all that matters not perfection. Small positive changes make a big difference over the long haul.

Does anyone know if low carbohydrate diets that promise you will go into ketosis is the same as starvation ketosis?

I have been reading a lot about high protein, fat diets and there are people who have seemed to have a lot of success with them. I tried the diet for a week and felt terrible. I was weak and nauseated by the change in diet. I did lose weight, all while consuming a lot of calories, but I didn't feel good about it.

Do you think there is a safe way to bring on ketosis without feeling ill? Or is that part and partial to this technique?

Starvation ketosis is one of the things you rarely hear about when people try extreme dieting and do there best to just not eat. Our body needs a certain amount of carbohydrates. While it may sound great to have your body doing its best to use your fat, it is actually a survival tactic.

For those of you who want to lose a few pounds, the damage done by short-term starvation is not worth it. You should consult your doctor before trying large dietary change. You don't want to end up shocking your system and making yourself gravely ill.