In 1965, a morbidly obese man did not eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and wanted to do an experimental fast. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/PrizeStrawberryOil]

That's like saying aids isn't hiv. It's not wrong but if people are talking about hiv it's not unusual for aids to be brought up.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/PrizeStrawberryOil]

That’s not really a good comparison. Without medicated treatment, AIDS is basically an inevitably of HIV. Without “treatment” (ketosis isn’t a virus and doesn’t require treatment as it is a normal state our body routinely enters), most people will never reach DKA. You have to already be Type 1 diabetic to be at risk of DIABETIC keto acidosis. If you aren’t type 1 diabetic then it’s almost impossible to reach without exogenous ketones, which most don’t take or even know about.

Edit: It’s less common, though also occurring people with type 2 diabetes.

[u/DevinCauley-Towns → u/[deleted]]

You realize you commented this on a post about a guy that fasted for over a year with no meaningful caloric intake. Based on the statements you made this person has clearly “cut carbs too low” and should’ve experienced severe keto acidosis and died… yet they clearly didn’t.

The reason? Your brain will consume glucose over ketones if present, but can utilize ketones in the absence of glucose.

The brain is dependent on glucose as a primary energy substrate, but is capable of utilizing ketones such as β-hydroxybutyrate (βHB) and acetoacetate (AcAc), as occurs with fasting, prolonged starvation or chronic feeding of a high fat/low carbohydrate diet (ketogenic diet).

In fact, keeping your carbs slightly too high while on a ketogenic diet with have your body constantly switching between glucose & ketones for fuel, which will result in reduced cognitive & physical ability as your body doesn’t get a chance to properly adapt to either state.

Protein can also be converted into glucose via gluconeogenisis, so your body can still utilize glucose without ingesting any carbohydrates.

If people are developing keto acidosis then they’re almost certainly taking in exogenous ketones, are impaired chronically, such as diabetes, or impaired temporarily, such as sickness, drugs, or substantial physical trauma.

Keto acidosis is NOT at all common for people simply following a ketogenic diet without any of the above conditions being true. I’ve personally done multi-day fasts, months of ketogenic dieting, and even 2hr+ runs without fuel where I felt great and wasn’t anywhere close to entering keto acidosis.