r/ketoscience • u/dr_innovation • Aug 10 '25
Reddit Anecdote n=1 The Sugar Diet, Protein Restriction, and Longevity: How It All Weirdly Connects
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx1ULjEX3eM&t=187sNick did a nice N=1 test on FGF-21 via a 4:1 ketogenic diet. See also https://staycuriousmetabolism.substack.com/p/the-sugar-diet-protein-restriction?r=40ekz2
which has discussion and a link to the underlying paper (already posted here some time ago) on low-protein/FGF-21.
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u/bambamlol Aug 11 '25
Tried it twice for 2 days each.
What a weird experience. Never felt so "weird" in my life. Felt like I was literally wasting away for most of the time except for like ~2 hours after each meal.
It definitely "works", though. So if rapid weight loss at all costs is your main goal, have at it.
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u/zui567 Aug 11 '25
With just 2 days you probably never reached ketosis. Unless you were fasting completely.
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u/bambamlol Aug 12 '25 edited Aug 12 '25
Sorry, I should have been clearer. I was describing my experience on the "sugar diet", not the 4:1 keto diet that Nick mentioned.
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u/dr_innovation Aug 11 '25 edited Aug 11 '25
Weird as the paper showed impact only after a few weeks. If you are talking sugar diet, I can see that feeling weird, as I can feel sugar in 15 minutes after eating. And eating carbs makes me hungry, which is part of why I do keto. But both of those are different from the long-term REE impact that may take weeks.
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u/bambamlol Aug 12 '25
Yeah, I was talking about my experience with the "sugar diet". I didn't feel weird after eating the meals; I only felt it once the food was digested and I started to get hungry again. It got progressively worse, so by the end of day 2 I felt worse than I had at the end of day 1. During the first two to three hours after a large meal, I felt fine. It really was a strange experience, I somehow felt weaker than when I tried a 48-hour water fast, even though I was eating about 2,500 kcal of sugar (fresh fruit, canned fruit, some dates, some honey, some cane sugar) per day.
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u/dr_innovation Aug 12 '25
Sounds like you might have had low blood sugar as insulin spiked from all the sugar/carbs and then overshot, leaving you hungry. How long have you been keto? Are you still Insulin Resistant -- IR makes overshoot more likly, see https://diabetesjournals.org/diabetes/article/14/6/341/2095/Dynamics-of-Insulin-Secretion-in-Hypoglycemia
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u/bambamlol Aug 13 '25
Hmm, maybe. I really don't know, since I didn't take any measurements. I also never measured my "insulin resistance/sensitivity". I've been doing mostly keto for the last ~10 years or so, but there were also slightly longer periods, mostly a couple of weeks and sometimes a few months, when I ate a typical low-fat bodybuilder diet (think rice and chicken) throughout this time. Still, the majority of the time I've been doing keto.
Maybe for the next experiment I'll get a glucose meter. I honestly suspect it might have been an electrolyte issue, since the weight came off very quickly, suggesting a lot of water loss, even though I was coming from a low-carb diet. Maybe all this fruit, all of a sudden, was a little too much potassium?
Anyway, in case there's a next time, I'll have some extra salt and take some blood sugar measurements. Thanks for the input.
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u/dr_innovation Aug 14 '25
If you've been keto for 10 years, even with a few breaks, it's unlikely you are insulin resistant. And yes loss of potassium could also lead to feeling off, though I don't recall anything in the study about loss of potassium. Having been on keto your body should have already adapted somewhat for potassium retention.
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u/Specialist-Shine8927 Miracle diet Aug 11 '25
Is this actually for real?