A metabolic process, ketosis provides a wide range of health benefits. Many studies have revealed that (ketogenic) diets that promote ketosis are quite helpful for weight loss.
When in ketosis, your body begins converting fats into ketones. These ketone bodies are used by the body as its primary source of energy.
In other words, the body starts burning stored fat instead of glucose to meet its daily energy requirements.
This biological shift in the metabolic process, besides appetite suppression, results in weight loss.
But, achieving ketosis isn’t exactly easy. Getting back into ketosis after cheating isn’t a cakewalk either.
Here in this post, we will look at five effective tips to get into ketosis.
Reduce Your Carbohydrate Intake
Although human body cells use glucose, stored in glycogens in the liver and muscles as their main energy source, they can also use other sources such as fatty acids and ketones.
Ketosis occurs when glycogen levels deplete; your body is forced to use fat as its main energy source instead of glucose or sugar due to a lack of carbohydrate in your daily diet.
This is the reason why eating a low-carb diet is considered as the most important factor for anyone trying to achieve ketosis.
Anyone looking to achieve ketosis, whether for weight loss or to regulate blood sugar levels, needs to reduce their daily carbohydrate consumption to 20 grams.
Some people can get into ketosis with twice the amount of carbs but it is advisable to keep carb-intake under 20 grams per day.
Increase Physical Activity
Your body will need more fuel or food on a daily basis if you are physically active.
When you exercise, the glycogen levels in your body will deplete at a faster rate.
Since you’d also be on a low-carb diet, your liver will eventually start producing more ketones from fats to make an alternative source of energy available to meet additional energy requirements.
According to a study, exercise is helpful in increasing the ketone production rate when blood ketone concentrations in the body are low.
But, if the blood ketone levels are high already, they do not increase with exercise but may decrease for a short duration.
The body generally takes some time before it learns to use stored fat instead of glycogens. While the body adjusts to this new change, you may experience fatigue.
Increase Intake of Healthy Fats
To boost your ketone levels and achieve ketosis, consume plenty of healthful fats such as coconut oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil, avocados, butter, tallow, lard, etc.
According to researchers, fat sources (e.g. coconut oil) containing a higher concentration of lauric acid can help achieve and sustain ketosis for a longer duration.
Lauric acid is a type of fat, referred to as medium-chain triglycerides that are quickly absorbed in the liver where they can be converted into ketones.
It is advisable to pick a variety of healthy fats from animal and plant sources. Those on the ketogenic diet typically get around 60% of calories from fats. Â
Consuming the wrong fats is one of the most common mistakes people make when on the keto diet.
Keep the calorie count in mind if you want to get into ketosis to lose weight. You don’t want to consume too many calories.
Fasting
It is possible to get into mild ketosis between major meals of the day such as lunch and dinner.
You can avoid eating for several hours at a stretch. Intermittent fasting has been proven to be effective in inducing ketosis.
If resisting the urge to snack on something during the day is a challenge, you can consume Garcinia Cambogia Premium 95% HCA for effective appetite suppression. It can also help you get rid of visceral fats.
You can also try ‘fat-fasting’ to boost ketone levels in the body. It involves consumption of around 1,000 calories daily, 90% of which come from fats.
Maintain protein intake
To achieve ketosis, you need to consume just the right amount of protein.
You shouldn’t be consuming too little or excessively high amounts of protein if you want to get into ketosis.
Your liver will need some protein to meet its requirement of amino acids, required for a process called gluconeogenesis.
During this process, glucose is made available to some organs including the kidney and some portions of the brain as well as red blood cells that cannot use ketones.
Protein is also required for maintaining muscle mass when you are trying to lose weight.
When you lose weight, you will lose both muscle mass and fats. But if you consume a sufficient amount of protein especially when on a low-carb diet, you can maintain muscle mass.
While the exact amount will vary for different individuals, one expert recommends consuming around 20% of calories on a daily basis as protein.
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