Ketosis can help you in many ways, especially if you want to lose weight should be your best friend. What is it, and how to get there?
What is it
Ketosis is a metabolical state where the body uses fat for fuel instead of glucose (sugar). When people consume a lot of carbohydrates in a non-keto diet, the body uses its glucose to make energy and never gets to use fat storage. When the consumed carbs are strictly limited, the body starts to use fat as energy.
The body burns fat for energy and stores the extra energy as reserve energy in fatty tissue. When fat breaks down, the body starts to manufacture ketones. Ketones provide enough energy for body and brain.
Health benefits
Studies show that ketosis can have several health benefits. Ketogenic diet and ketosis are used even for the treatment of epilepsy and other neurological diseases.
- Weight loss – burns fat for energy, especially visceral fat (belly fat).
- More energy and better focus.
- Inflammation.
- Type 2 diabetes – lowers sugar levels.
- High blood pressure.
- Cholesterol – adds good cholesterol (HDL) and lowers triglycerides.
- You stay full longer and do not need to eat so often.
- Mood improvement.
- Better heart-health.
How to get to ketosis
Ketosis can be achieved when districting carbohydrate intake. Methods are, ketogenic, carnivore or low-carb diet and fasting. It’s personal how easily one reaches ketosis. Some get there in two days but for some, it may take over a week. The amount of consumed carbs is the key, but there are also other factors like lack of sleep and stress. Read about the basics of keto here.
When you limit your intake of carbs, have a moderate amount of protein, and have lots of good-quality fats, you achieve ketosis. After that, your body and brain are using ketones as fuel instead of glucose so long as you limit your carb intake.
Fasting often accelerates getting to ketosis. If one is unfamiliar with fasting, it might be smart to start with intermittent fasting (IF). The most popular IF method is 16/8, which means that you are in a fasted state (only water, electrolytes, and unflavored tea or coffee) for 16 hours a day and you have an 8-hour eating window when you eat your day’s food. If you eat more carbs than your keto plan allows, you might lose your ketosis, so be mindful about what and how much you eat❣️
People use different keto methods and one finds best practices by trying and measuring. The basic rule for ketosis is, that consumed (food and drinks) carbs should stay under 50g per day. Some follow a more strict rule where carbohydrates should stay under 20g per day.
Macros generally used in the ketogenic diet are 5% carbs, 20% protein, and 75% fats. This means the portion of everything you consume in a day, food and drinks.
Having trouble remembering terms regarding the ketogenic diet? Download our keto dictionary for free!
You might also benefit from our KETO 2.0 article.