Hi Dr. Rosedale,

I’m writing to you because I’ve been trying to get into ketosis for 3 months, and I can’t seem to do it. I’m hoping you’ve seen cases like mine, and that you might have some suggestions for how to induce ketosis in stubborn adaptors like myself.

I’m a 43 year-old male, 5”7, 94 kg. I’ve been on a strict zero-carb diet for 3 months.

Almost immediately on going zc I found that joint and muscle aches and pains that I’d had for years disappeared. I’ve also suffered from depression, and my depression is in remission. Which is amazing.

However, after a full three months of being super careful zero carb, I am still not in ketosis, and I’m utterly exhausted most of the time.
For the first month, I ate a wide variety of foods but kept my carb intake to as close to zero as possible. I was not in ketosis after a month, so I transitioned to an all-beef diet for 6 weeks. Over time I found that I was gradually feeling worse and worse – I simply had no energy, and each day was a long struggle just to do basic things.

About three weeks ago I started reintroducing other food – cheese and eggs, at first, and then butter. This helped somewhat with brain clarity, but the low energy continued. A week ago at the suggestion of some of the great folks on the “zeroing in on health” forum, I stopped drinking caffeine and increased my intake of eggs. When I started zc, I was drinking up to a gallon of coffee and tea per day. Cutting caffeine also seemed to help with brain clarity.

I also had a major realization, which was that I was not at an 80/20 fat/protein ratio. I started tracking on fitday, and I found that I had probably been way out with regard to the ideal ratio.

So I made adjustments and I’m now on my 8th day of eating a 80/20 fat/protein ratio. My diet is butter, eggs, ground beef, beef roast and a little liver – sometimes some chicken. I’m supplementing with magnesium, a multivitamin (no iron), vitamin E, a probiotic and 10000 units D3. I’m also taking 5-6 spoonfuls of coconut oil each day. In the last couple of days, I’ve brought down my caloric intake, too.

At the beginning of zc, I had good days followed by 1-2 day long energy crashes where I couldn’t do anything. Now I have a constant ongoing low level of energy, and I feel crap most of the time. Sometimes I seem to get small windows of feeling good – an hour or two at a time – but the dragging-ass state comes back. Mornings have been really rough for the past few days. It’s a struggle just to get up and go through the day, and I’m finding it hard to think. Evenings have also been quite low energy.

I got some ketostrips and I’m using them. So far, no ketosis during the day. I see mild ketosis when I test my pee in the middle of the night. Blood glucose is ranging from 100-110. I did blood tests about a month ago. Almost everything was normal, but my cholesterols were up a bit. In addition, my TSH was a bit high 5.82 (5.5 -0.35 normal range). I’ve been high in the past, and it has come back into the normal range, so I don’t know if this is an exception or a sign of something to check. FT4 was normal, testosterone was a bit low but in the normal range.

My recent food numbers are as follows:
Date F/P Ratio Calories
17/08/12 75/24 1731
16/08/12 73/26 2810
15/08/12 76/23 2427
14/08/12 81/19 2820
13/08/12 75/23 3022
12/08/12 79/20 2136
11/08/12 80/20 1859

So… I’m wondering if you have any idea what might be going on with me. Why can’t I get into ketosis? I seem to be stuck in some kind of no-man’s land. Gluconeogenisis is working well, but I have almost zero energy reserves, and I still can’t get into ketosis. What do I need to do to induce ketosis? What might be blocking me from getting into ketosis?

Thanks,
Daniel K.
[email blocked]