The term “biohacker” conjures images of a cyborg—part man, part machine—a genetically-engineered specimen with electrodes attached to all major muscle groups. While that might be the biohacking of Hollywood movies, the “biohacking” of today refers to the use of natural tools and scientific knowledge to improve your health. The keto diet is one of these tools, and it’s a favorite of biohackers, because it helps them (and you) burn more fat, feel more alert, and cruise through the day with smooth and steady energy.
But did you know that you can biohack the keto biohack? In other words, if you employ certain practices, you can further elevate your results on the keto diet. This article tells you how.
Understanding the Concept of Biohacking
The intersection of biology and technology is at the core of biohacking. It involves making deliberate changes to your lifestyle, environment, and even your own body to enhance performance and well-being. Biohacking enthusiasts believe in taking control of their own biology, using various tools and techniques to optimize their physical and mental capabilities.
What is Ketosis and How to Get into Ketosis
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carb regimen that promotes ketosis, a naturally occurring state where the body, deprived of carbs, converts fat into ketones (water-soluble molecules) and burns them for energy. In other words, the ketogenic diet is a biohack that forces your body to burn fat (and consequently improve health and increase weight loss).
There are two main strategies for entering and staying in ketosis:
- Following a ketogenic diet
- Fasting
Following a keto diet means consuming about 70 percent of your calories from fat, 20 to 25 percent from protein, and five to 10 percent from carbs on an ongoing basis. Keeping carbs low and fat high is essential for entering and maintaining ketosis.
Fasting has a similar effect on your metabolism. When you fast, your cells run on body fat. The result, as with keto, is a fat-burning ketogenic state.
Why, exactly, do these interventions promote ketosis? Simply put: following a keto diet and/or fasting promote ketosis because they keep blood sugar and insulin levels low. Low insulin, in turn, signals cells in your liver to start burning fat and producing ketones. So anything that keeps insulin low, or improves insulin function, is naturally ketogenic.
Measuring Your Success On Keto
The keto diet is the only diet with a specific biomarker to track success: the ketone. Ketone levels are measurable at home by testing your blood, breath, or urine. Of the three, blood-ketone testing is the most validated and reliable method. As a general rule, if your blood measures ketone levels above 0.5 mmol/L, you’re in ketosis.
Testing your ketone and blood-glucose levels, understanding your test results, and learning how to affect them is key to successful biohacking via the keto diet.
But don’t stop at ketone measurements and call it a day. A keto biohacker will track many other metrics, including the following:
- Bodyweight: If you’re trying to lose, maintain, or gain weight on keto, it’s important to step on the scale each day to confirm your efforts are working. Measure your weight first thing in the morning, before you’ve had anything to eat, for consistent and reliable bodyweight tracking.
- Glucose levels: Your blood-glucose (or blood sugar) levels not only determine your diabetes risk, but also are a useful marker for general health. Optimally, blood-glucose levels should be between 80-100 mg/dl. Lower blood glucose generally means higher ketones. There are many meters that allow you to test your glucose levels at home, including the Keto-Mojo meter.
- The glucose ketone index (GKI): The GKI is a calculation of the ratio of blood glucose to blood ketones. It gives a good picture of your overall metabolic health and state of ketosis.
- Sleep quality: Most adults need eight to nine hours of sleep per night. At the most basic level, sleep tracking records when you go to bed at night, when you wake up, and how you feel in the morning. To really biohack your sleep, use a wearable device (like the Oura Ring), which tracks biomarkers like heart rate, body temperature, and motion to assess your sleep quality each night. Sleep quality can enhance ketosis by improving insulin sensitivity—crucial for remaining in a fat-burning state.
- Mental function: How quickly am I getting work done today? Am I able to focus? How clear is my mind? A keto biohacker frequently asks herself such questions to assess if her keto diet is working and adjusts diet or lifestyle if refinement is needed.
- Exercise performance: The first rule of exercise is simple: Be active every day. If you want to go further, track times, reps, weights, and more with an app like MyFitnessPal. Seeing your numbers improve can be a big boost to your exercise motivation. And since exercise is ketogenic (it increases fat-burning), this is a very good thing.
- Appetite: If you’re on a keto diet and craving snacks all the time, you may be doing something wrong. Ketosis, after all, is very effective at reducing hunger. See the following keto biohacks for possible fixes.
Biohacking Techniques for the Keto Diet
Combining biohacking with the ketogenic diet opens up a world of possibilities for optimizing cognitive performance. Two popular techniques within the biohacking community are intermittent fasting and dietary optimization.
Intermittent Fasting and Keto
Intermittent fasting involves alternating periods of eating and fasting. When combined with the ketogenic diet, it can help the body enter ketosis more efficiently and maintain it for longer durations. This approach may enhance the benefits of both biohacking and the keto diet, promoting sharper cognition and mental acuity.
Related: Intermittent Fasting and Keto: Can You Do Both? and Combining Keto and Extended Fasting for Maximum Benefits
Optimizing Your Diet for Ketosis
To maximize the cognitive benefits of the ketogenic diet, biohackers often experiment with different ratios of macronutrients. Fine-tuning the amount of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins they consume can help maintain ketosis while ensuring optimal brain function. It's essential to find the right balance that works best for each individual.
5 Ways To Biohack the Keto Diet
Now that you know how and why the keto diet is a biohack itself, you can biohack the keto biohack! Following are five evidence-based recommendations for how to enter ketosis and feel better faster than you will if you simply begin eating a ketogenic diet.
1. Mind your macros
On a keto diet, you must limit carbohydrates to a maximum of 10 percent of daily calories. Why? Because if you eat too many carbs, your rising blood sugar and insulin levels will kick you out of ketosis.
If you’re new to keto, it’s probably not enough to simply eat with an aim for optimal daily macronutrients (macros). Hidden carbs are everywhere, so you’ll want to scrutinize labels whenever necessary and make a point of avoiding anything with sugar, starchy carbs (think wheat flour, starchy vegetables, rice, and more). But even more important is utilizing a macros-tracking app like Cronometer, which will make your carb intake crystal clear and help you avoid unintentionally overindulging. This simple hack can be the difference between success and failure on a keto diet.
2. Eat more salt
On a keto diet, you need to work extra hard to prevent sodium deficiency because you’re likely eating less salt than before (unlike processed foods, a whole-foods keto diet contains little added salt) and you excrete more sodium through urine in a low-carb (aka ketogenic) state.
Sodium deficiency commonly leads to headaches, cramps, fatigue, or insomnia, and it’s so common for people new to the ketogenic diet that there’s a name for it: “the keto flu.”
Here’s where the hack comes in: if you fix the deficiency, you fix the symptoms.
Or more plainly put, eat more salt and consider a high-sodium electrolyte supplement. A good place to start? Add 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of sodium to your current intake (either by measuring out salt or taking an electrolyte supplement), and see if your energy levels improve.
3. Fast intermittently
The keto diet keeps insulin low, but fasting keeps it even lower. No food equals no insulin response. For this reason, intermittent fasting can accelerate your transition to a keto-adapted state.
If you’re new to fasting, start slow with 16-hour overnight fasts (meaning stop eating at a specific time at night, say 6pm, then don’t eat again until 16 hours later). Once you’re comfortable with this regimen, work your way up to longer daily fasts, or consider a weekly fasting program like 5:2. For more info on getting started, check out this helpful guide to fasting.
4. Exercise
All forms of exercise improve the function of insulin, your blood sugar boss. And when you improve insulin function, you need less insulin to do the same job. Expressed more simply: less insulin equals more ketosis.
Exercise is also ketogenic in and of itself. A long hike, for instance, will increase your ketone levels. This happens, most likely, because your body releases fatty acids (fat) during activity, which serve as fuel for ketone production.
5. Take MCT Oil
Medium chain triglyceride oil (MCT oil) is a form of saturated fat derived from coconut oil. It comes in a bottle and is available at most health food stores and well-stocked grocers.
Unlike other fats, MCT oil bypasses most of the gut and heads straight to your liver for ketone production, consequently effortlessly boosting your ketone levels. (In one study, older adults supplementing MCT oil saw a boost in both ketone production and mental performance.)
So, supplementing your diet with 1 to 2 tablespoons of MCT oil per day is a quick way to boost ketone levels. It’s not a substitute for the keto diet, but it’s a good keto biohack to have in your toolbelt if you want to enter higher, more therapeutic levels of ketosis.
Cognitive Performance Enhancement through Keto Biohacking
Keto biohacking holds exciting potential for enhancing cognitive performance. By harnessing the power of ketones and combining it with effective biohacking techniques, individuals can unlock new levels of mental clarity, focus, and memory.
The Connection Between Keto and Mental Clarity
Many people report experiencing enhanced mental clarity and sustained focus when in a state of ketosis. By providing the brain with a consistent and efficient fuel source, the ketogenic diet may promote optimal cognitive functioning. This can lead to increased productivity, improved decision-making, and enhanced overall cognitive performance.
Boosting Memory and Focus with Keto
The ketogenic diet may also have a positive impact on memory and focus. The stable energy supply from ketones may enhance neural connectivity and support efficient information processing in the brain. This has exciting implications for biohackers looking to excel in tasks that require concentration and memory retention.
Potential Risks and Benefits of Keto Biohacking
While keto biohacking offers promising rewards, it's essential to understand its potential risks and benefits. This will help individuals make informed decisions before embarking on this journey.
Evaluating the Pros and Cons
As with any dietary or lifestyle modification, it's crucial to weigh the pros and cons. While the ketogenic diet may offer cognitive benefits, it may not suit everyone's needs or goals. Additionally, there are potential side effects and individual variations to consider. Consulting with a healthcare professional and conducting thorough research is highly recommended.
Safety Measures in Keto Biohacking
When undertaking keto biohacking, it's important to prioritize safety and well-being. Proper nutrition, hydration, and monitoring of important health markers are essential. Biohackers should approach this journey with caution, ensuring that they are adequately educated and supported throughout the process.
The Final Word
You don’t need fancy gadgets or gene splicing to biohack the keto diet. You just need an understanding of ketosis and how to biohack your keto diet through various means, including keeping carbs low and fat high, getting enough sodium, intermittent fasting, exercising, and adding MCT oil to your diet.
Finally, to confirm you’re succeeding on keto, track your ketone levels, bodyweight, body measurements, energy, mood, and mental acuity; they should be improving with your efforts. Happy biohacking.
For more insights, you can refer to the study on the subject: Bio-Hacking Better Health—Leveraging Metabolic Biochemistry to Maximise Healthspan.
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