How To Burn Stored Body Fat — A Ketosis Primer
“So, how do you tell your body to start burning stored body fat?” my friend and fellow mother asked. “Cut the carbs,” answered another mom. “I go into ketosis just about every afternoon.” “Ketosis? Isn’t that bad for you?” The short answer? No. I talk to a lot of people who want to lose weight. They try all sorts of things — exercise, calorie restriction, you name it. Sometimes, they lose the weight. Inevitably, they gain it back. That’s because what they’re doing is going on a diet — a temporary fix at best. What they need is a lifestyle change, a perspective shift, a new paradigm. Of course, you all know the paradigm I espouse — a conversion to eating real, traditional foods. Yet even a conversion to eating real food won’t necessarily help the pounds melt away. If you’re still eating 200 grams of carbohydrates a day — even if they’re “traditional” carbohydrates like sprouted or soaked grains, unrefined sweeteners, etc, you’re not going to lose weight without making some serious changes. If your body is regularly storing body fat (you gain a little bit of weight each year), then something is wrong with how your body metabolizes food. Let me introduce you to a new concept: the body fat setpoint. The body fat setpoint is the mass of body fat that your body attempts to defend against changes in either direction. It’s your body’s attempt to maintain homeostasis. This is why if you exercise more, you eat more. It’s also why if you restrict calories, your metabolism slows down to compensate. Why should you care about the body fat setpoint? From Stephan at Whole Health Source: We care because this has some very important implications for human obesity. With such a powerful system in place to keep body fat mass in a narrow range, Continue reading >>
The Keto Diet: A Low-carb Approach To Fat Loss
Along with the Atkins diet and the South Beach diet, individuals who are interested in low carbohydrate approaches to dieting will likely want to look into the Keto Diet. Popular among many who are trying to maintain blood sugar levels and lose body fat, the main premise of this diet is, 'eat fat to lose fat'. So How Does It Work? The idea of the ketone diet is to get your body into a process called Ketosis where you stop burning carbohydrates as fuel and instead turn to the burning of what are known as ketones. This will occur when you bring your carbohydrate levels to around 50 grams per day or lower. Many keto activists advise that number to be 30 grams of carbohydrates but most individuals can still maintain ketosis while consuming the 50 grams and this allows for a little more leeway in the diet since you can increase the consumption of vegetables and a variety of flavoring's that contain a few grams of carbohydrates. TKD Or CKD Usually people who are involved with exercise will follow either a TKD (targeted keto diet) or a CKD (cyclical keto diet). TKD A TKD is one where you will eat carbohydrates right before and right after your workouts. This is the best bet for those who are involved in more intense activities and require some carbohydrates to fuel them and who are not as interested in doing carb loads and depletion workouts. CKD A CKD on the other hand is a diet where you will eat a minimum amount of carbohydrates per day (that 30-50 gram number) and then on the weekend (or at a time that is appropriate for you) do a large 'carb-up' phase where you will eat a large amount of carbohydrates in an effort to refill your muscle glycogen stores so you can continue to workout the coming week. Normally right before the carb-up phase you will do a depletion workout wh Continue reading >>
On A Low Carb Diet? Have Some Fruit.
I'm a big fan of the low-carb diet. Not only has it been shown to be more effective than a low-fat diet, but it bestows many additional health benefits over a typical diet. As I've mentioned previously, there are a lot of downsides to consuming sugar, so it makes sense why cutting it from your diet is a great way to lose some weight and improve your health. The problem with the low-carb diet is that people become too focused on cutting out all carbs verses eating healthier. I'll get to that in a second, but first I need to explain the difference between a low-carb diet and a ketogenic low-carb diet. Ketogenic Diet vs. Low-Carb Diet A lot of people think that ketogenic and low-carb diets are the same thing, this actually is not true. You can go low-carb without going into ketosis. Your body can fuel itself at anytime with either sugar or fatty acids. The only organ in your body that can't use fatty acids is your brain. When you deplete all of your body's glycogen stores (sugar stored in the liver and muscles), your body has to break fatty acids down further into ketone bodies so that they can provide energy to your brain. This is what people mean when they say they are in ketosis. Ketogenic diets are incredibly effective, but they can be a little hard to adapt to at first. To totally deplete your glycogen stores, you need to cut your carbohydrates to less than 50 grams a day. Not only will this sudden drop in energizing carbohydrates sap your energy levels, but the transition from fueling your brain with glucose to fueling it with ketone bodies can cause you to experience feelings of mental slowness. People often refer to this transition as the low-carb flu because the symptoms can be very flu-like: headaches, fatigue, mental slowness, even stomach aches, and nausea. The Continue reading >>
What's The Maximum Carbs On Ketogenic Diet?
Justin's answer here is pretty good. I would add that I've seen the standard recommendation as less than 40g of carbs per day. Ketosis is achievable on more carbs, as Justin points out, but is dependent on your activity level. The more active you are, the more carbohydrates you can consume while staying in Ketosis, or staying in Ketosis most of the time. To effectively get into Ketosis, you need to reduce both carbohydrate and protein intake, less your body simply use your dietary protein to create glycogen through gluconeogenesis. In other words, you can drop your carbs to 0-20 grams, but if you're consuming too much protein, you still won't get into ketosis. How much protein is too much is going to depend on how much you weigh, how messed up your metabolism is, and how active you are. Maybe try for less than 80g protein a day, and see how that works out. I would suggest eating only fatty sources of protein, e.g., eggs, 80 or 85% grass fed beef, wild caught salmon and sardines, and full fat cheese. I would also suggest that you stick to leafy and cruciferous vegetables (spinach, kale, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts are some of my favorites) which tend to be high in fiber and low in net carbohydrates. This is a good list of vegetables to eat (The Best Low Carb Vegetables for Keto) but I wouldn't eat anything below "water chestnuts" on that list if you're trying to get into and maintain ketosis. Avoid all grains, beans and starch, including potatoes/sweet potatoes. If you've never entered Ketosis, be prepared for some discomfort as your body adapts from burning glucose to producing and burning ketones. If you've been in Ketosis before, transitioning in and out is less painful. Continue reading >>
Everything You Need To Know Before Going On A Low-carb Diet
Much like Oprah, we LOVE bread. So naturally, the thought of cutting it out of our lives (along with any other carbs) is terrifying. But then again, if everyone and their mom (and lots of scientific research) claim that quitting carbohydrates is the key to weight loss, there's got to be something to it, right? Whether it takes the form of Atkins or the Paleo Diet, the low-carb trend has been around for a long time. But chances are you might not fully understand where it came from, how it works, and why experts are torn on whether this eating plan is smart. Here, we break down all of that so you can decide if carb-cutting in the name of weight loss is worth it. What Low Carb Actually Means Depending on who you talk to, there are different definitions of a low-carb diet. Plans can range from 100 grams of carbohydrates per day to zero grams (yikes), says Susan Kleiner, Ph.D, R.D., author of Power Eating. To put that into perspective, a small piece of fruit has about 15 grams of carbs and a banana contains up to 30 grams. For the sake of this article, though, we'll talk about a diet containing 100 grams of carbs per day, for someone who exercises three times a week at a moderate pace. For everyone else, a true low-carb diet would be about 50 grams per day, says Kleiner. What’s Considered a Carb? Unfortunately for Regina George, butter is not a carb. But according to the USDA’s Nutrient Database, lots of foods, including fruits and veggies, contain high amounts of carbohydrates. Though you probably know potatoes and bananas are packed with the carbohydrates, over 20 grams of the macronutrient are also found in a serving of grapes, apples, pears, and cauliflower. Plus, dried fruits, such as apricots, cranberries, and raisins, have a whopping 80 grams per serving. You’ll Continue reading >>
Keto Flu 101: Everything You Need To Know
In Keto Flu 101 my goal is to answer the questions I get asked on a daily basis about the Keto Flu. Many people who are interested in going into ketosis are afraid that they will get the keto flu and are looking for ways to avoid getting it all together. While every person’s experience is different, knowledge is power, so prepare to arm yourself with as much information about the keto flu as possible before you start the diet, so you know what to expect. ~ This post contains affiliate links to help you find the products we use. Already started Keto? Don’t worry; this post will still give you the tools you need to prepare yourself as well. Look, this is the rest of your life we are talking about. As my favorite author, C.S. Lewis said “Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.” and that is true even in the case of the keto flu! Keto Flu 101: Everything You Need To Know The “keto flu” is what we commonly call carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms usually occur in people who start a low carb diet that alters their hormones and causes and electrolyte imbalances. Don’t let this alarm you; this is a GREAT thing. In other words, it describes a cycle in the body adapting to a newly started low carb diet. Think about the keyword here, which is withdrawal. The same way an addict withdrawal from any drug. Your body is so used to living off of carbs that both your body and your mind think you need these to survive. On most diets you’ve tried in the past, your mind was probably much harder to fight than your body. Maybe you’ve never been on a diet that caused you to go through any form of withdrawal, and that’s where you’ll find the greatest source of power when it comes to Keto! With Keto, once your body goes through w Continue reading >>
What Everybody Ought To Know About Ketosis
Recently I wanted to explore the world of Ketosis. I thought I knew a little bit about ketosis, but after doing some research I soon realised how wrong I was. 3 months later, after reading numerous books, listening to countless podcasts and experimenting with various diets I know have a sound understanding of ketosis. This resource is built as a reference guide for those looking to explore the fascinating world of ketosis. It is a resource that I wish I had 3 months ago. As you will soon see, a lot of the content below is not mine, instead I have linked to referenced to experts who have a greater understanding of this topic than I ever will. I hope this helps and if there is something that I have missed please leave a comment below so that I can update this. Also, as this is a rather long document, I have split it into various sections. You can click the headline below to be sent straight to the section that interests you. For those that are really time poor I have created a useful ketosis cheat sheet guide. This guide covers all the essential information you should know about ketosis. It can be downloaded HERE. Alternatively, if you're looking for a natural and sustainable way to improve health and lose weight head to this page - What is Ketosis? What Are The Benefits from being in Ketosis? Isn’t Ketosis Dangerous? Ketoacidosis vs Ketosis What Is The Difference Between a Low Carb Diet and a Ketogenic Diet? Types of Ketosis: The Difference Between Nutritional, Therapeutic & MCT Ketogenic Diets Is The Ketogenic Diet Safe? Long Term Effects Thyroid and Ketosis - What You May Want To Know What is a Typical Diet/Macro Breakdown for a Ketogenic Diet? Do I Need to Eat Carbs? What do I Eat On a Ketogenic Diet? What Do I Avoid Eating on a Ketogenic Diet? Protein Consumption a Continue reading >>
This Is How To Get Into Ketosis The Right Way
What if I told you that you can get into ketosis only in 2 days. It is possible. What about one day? Also possible! 1 hour? Of course! Most people are looking for the easiest and the fastest solution to everything. “Lose 20 pounds in 1 day with this magic pill!” Did it work for you? I don’t think so. I don’t blame people who want it to be easy and fast. I was one of those people when I started a ketogenic diet. What I didn’t realize is that it is not about how fast I get into ketosis, it is about changing my lifestyle and sticking to it day in and day out. Today, I want to talk about how to get into ketosis the right way. This is a blueprint that you can use when starting out with a ketogenic diet or when you want to get back into ketosis. I will also provide you with necessary techniques, shopping list, and recipes that will help you to start the keto diet and get into ketosis. Ketosis vs. keto-adapted There is a lot of confusion all over the Internet about being in ketosis vs being keto-adapted (fat adapted). Some people use them interchangeably without fully understanding the meaning behind them. Let’s clarify both terms and find out which one we are trying to achieve today. What is ketosis? Ketosis is a metabolic process that is activated when our body doesn’t have enough glycogen (derived from carbs) for our cells to burn for energy. Instead, it starts to convert fat deposits (adipose) to energy. As a part of this process, it makes ketones. Ketone bodies are water-soluble molecules that are produced by our liver from fatty acids. We produce ketones because fatty acids can’t cross a blood-brain barrier, and they can’t be used by our brain as energy. When people talk about nutritional ketosis they associate it with the presence of ketones in your bo Continue reading >>
Will This Kick Me Out Of Ketosis?
A common question people have when starting keto is “will this kick me out of ketosis?” I’m going to address as many items as I can think of and explain why it will or will not kick you out of keto. This is going to be as comprehensive as possible so either use ctrl + f to find what you’re looking for or buckle up and read on. How do humans enter ketosis in the first place? Things will become much more clear if we explain how humans enter ketosis. Mainly, liver glycogen is what determines if ketones will be produced. Specifically, glycogen in the liver signals malonyl-coa to be formed by carboxylating acetyl-coa. Acetyl-coa is used in many processes and it’s the main substrate used to be turned into ketones. The wiki on regulation of ketogenesis which applies to this scenario says “When the body has no free carbohydrates available, fat must be broken down into acetyl-CoA in order to get energy. Acetyl-CoA is not being recycled through the citric acid cycle because the citric acid cycle intermediates (mainly oxaloacetate) have been depleted to feed the gluconeogenesis pathway, and the resulting accumulation of acetyl-CoA activates ketogenesis.” Basically, when there is more acetyl-CoA than oxaloacetate, the acetyl-CoA becomes acetoacetate, a ketone body. In plain English, carbs provide oxaloacetate, so if it doesn’t have carbs, it likely isn’t going to kick you out of ketosis. I’ll state the exceptions later. Why do humans enter ketosis so readily? Humans enter ketosis faster than any animal on the planet. It usually takes 24-36 hours before we enter ketosis.This is because we have huge brains and tiny bodies. Our brains need ~400 calories/day, which for most people that equates to 20% of our total energy demands. To put this in perspective, most anim Continue reading >>
How To Find Your Ideal Carb Intake
Low-carb, high-fat diets have a number of known benefits for your body and mind. They keep you lean, support your hormones and brain, regulate your blood sugar, stop food cravings, keep you full for hours, and give you license to put bacon on everything. For the vast majority, a low-carb, high-fat diet is miles ahead of a low-calorie, low-fat one. But within the realm of low-carb, there is no one-size-fits-all. Instead, it’s important you find your body’s sweet spot for carb intake and timing. Tailoring your nutrition to your unique biology helps you perform even better. This guide will show you how. Let’s break down how to hack your carb intake, step-by-step. Find the Goldilocks zone of carb intake: not too low, not too high This is where you get to do some personal experimenting. Most people do best eating somewhere between 30-150 grams of net carbs daily. “Net carbs” means you can subtract fiber and sugar alcohols (like xylitol) out of your daily carb count – they don’t affect your blood sugar or get stored as glycogen. Here are three different low-carb approaches within the 30-150 gram range: Cyclical Ketogenic Diet Eat high fat, very low carb (<50g net carbs/day) 6 days a week, then have a carb refeed on day 7 (~150g net carbs). This is what the Bulletproof Diet is based on. Here’s why : Some people (Dave included) have thyroid issues when they do very low carb with no carb refeed [1]. For some people, chronic low-carb eating can lead to low mucous production, which disrupts gut bacteria [2] and causes dry eyes. A cyclical ketogenic diet works very well for a lot of people. On the other hand, re-upping on carbs once a week will keep you out of deep ketosis, which may cause carb cravings (Brain Octane helps with that). Try a weekly carb refeed and se Continue reading >>
How Many Carbs Should You Eat To Get Into Ketosis?
Limiting carbs is one of the easiest ways to get into ketosis. It doesn’t require fasting; it doesn’t even require you to eat fewer calories — all you have to do is restrict your carbohydrates and eat just enough protein (and not too much) to stimulate fat burning and ketone production. Other factors like fat consumption, stress, and activity levels are important to consider as well, but knowing how many carbs you need to eat to get into ketosis is a good place to start. How Many Carbs For Ketosis? Regardless of how many variables impact ketosis, it is important to start somewhere, and carbs are the most important metric to start with on the ketogenic diet. For most people, keeping total carbs below 35g and net carbs below 25g (ideally, below 20g) will get them into a deep ketosis after about a week. (To figure out your net carb consumption, simply subtract total fiber intake from total carbs.) Note: Some sweeteners are considered keto-friendly and do not raise blood sugar levels. These can be subtracted from the total carbs as well. For more, read our Guide to Low Carb Sweeteners > To eat such a small amount of carbs, you must be vigilant about your food choices. You may find that many of your favorite foods will put you over the carbohydrate limit for the day with just one serving. Even healthier foods like fruits and vegetables are packed with sugar and carbs, but don’t get discouraged — there is plenty of delicious food you can eat on the ketogenic diet. For example, you can have a Bacon Breakfast Bagel for breakfast, a Thai BBQ Pork Salad for lunch, and a Keto BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner. Mouthwatering aren’t they? Check out this list for some more ideas of what you should and should not eat on the ketogenic diet: Do Not Eat Grains – wheat, corn, ric Continue reading >>
The Ultimate Keto Alcohol Guide
Alcohol on a Low Carb Diet! Alcohol gets a bad rep, and is certainly one of the most abused substances in the world. It can become a serious problem when it interferes with your personal/social life and well-being. To enjoy it we need to exercise moderation and self-control. If you like having a couple of beers, shots or glasses of wine to relax or have a good time on weekends, you’re in good shape! But throw a low carb diet into the mix, and you may find yourself struggling with the quantity of alcohol you’re drinking. People on a keto or low carb diet notice their tolerances significantly drop. And when you realize your favorite drink contains more than 30 grams of carbs in a small serving, you may consider giving alcohol up. Before you give it up, use our Ultimate Keto Alcohol Guide to help navigate your way through your local bar and become a keto connoisseur. How and Why Alcohol Affects Us “…alcohol molecules slow down signals from the brain for actions such as walking and talking” Alcohol is actually the fourth macronutrient, providing our body with 7 calories per gram. If you aren’t familiar with macronutrients, you can read more about macronutrients here. Since alcohol is not needed for survival and is considered toxic to humans, it’s ignored under this umbrella of essential macronutrients. When we ingest alcohol (in the form of ethanol), our body begins to work to metabolize it, or destroy/break it down to get energy. Since alcohol is toxic to our bodies, we begin to metabolize it as soon as possible. The tipsy feeling we get is the alcohol being metabolized. Since alcohol molecules are water and fat soluble, they’re able to pass through and be delivered to pretty much all parts of our body, most importantly, our brain and liver. About 98% of th Continue reading >>
8 Ways To Blast Through Low-carb Flu And Dive Into Ketosis
Have you just started a low-carb diet? Do you find yourself feeling exhausted and overcome by tiredness? Perhaps you are thinking that going low-carb wasn’t a good idea after all… You might already know that these symptoms are not uncommon, especially if you are doing low-carb for the first time. Also known as “low carb flu” or “Atkins flu”, this phase is completely normal – although by no means pleasant. This condition occurs when you cut your carb intake sharply, to about 20-30g a day, in order to induce ketosis. What is low-carb flu? Your body is used to running on carbs. It’s been operating this way for decades. Cutting carbs in favour of fat is a huge change for your metabolism. Your body needs some time to adjust to this change. This period of adjustment can sometimes cause flu-like symptoms. Fatigue is the most common one, but you could also get muscle cramps, headaches, dizziness and mental fog. Some of these symptoms are markers of sugar withdrawal. Sugar addiction is real and common, so trying to break away can be difficult. Low-carb flu is not actual flu Please note that “low carb flu” does not include fever or respiratory cold-like symptoms such as coughing or sneezing. If you are experiencing any of these, it means that you might have actually caught an infection! So it would be a good idea to postpone starting your diet until you are all clear. How can you fight tiredness and other symptoms of low-carb flu? First of all, remember that it won’t last forever. Low-carb flu usually lasts around 3-5 days (although could be 1-2 weeks for some unlucky people with high metabolic resistance). Here are some simple tips on making this transition easier. 1) Eat more fat Fat is the key to this whole issue. You must eat lots of it – a lot more th Continue reading >>
Diabetes & Ketogenic Diet: Can You Manage Your Diabetes On A Ketogenic Diet?
In this article we will cover what a Ketogenic diet is and if you can manage your diabetes while on this diet. Ketogenic diet for diabetics is a highly controversial topic, but we will break down everything here for you! As a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE), I have to tell you from the start I will have a biased view here. Sorry, but I feel that I need to be completely honest right up front! I will however, present all the evidence that is available currently on the subject. As a CDE, I have been taught to follow the American Diabetes Association Dietary Guidelines for Americans which is low in carbohydrates, high in fiber, with fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains. The Ketogenic Diet this article will be discussing is much lower in carbohydrates, in order to promote the state of nutritional ketosis, or the fat burning state for weight loss. What is a Ketogenic Diet? The Ketogenic Diet is a low carbohydrate diet, consisting initially of less than 20 carbohydrates per day. Not per meal, yes, you heard me correctly, per day. It is not for the faint of heart and yes I am writing from experience. Of course I have tried it! Hasn’t everybody in America at some point who has wanted to lose weight? Does it work you ask? Of course it does! The problem is how long can you keep it up? Your body uses the carbohydrates you eat for energy, so if we restrict how many carbohydrates we eat, the body has to get its fuel source from fat. A byproduct of this fat burning state are ketones which are produced; this is called nutritional ketosis. You can determine if you are in this fat burning state by purchasing urine ketone testing strips from your local pharmacy. The Ketogenic Diet with Diabetes Some precautions must be made clear; this diet is not appropriate for people with any Continue reading >>
How To Get Your Body Into Ketosis: 6 Simple Tips
If you’re looking to burn fat off your body fast, then you need your body to get into ketosis. This is the basis behind the ketogenic diet. Most of us have bodies that are sugar burners. This isn’t a bad thing. Most of our diets lead to our body wanting to burn sugars first anyway. That’s the problem, though, our diets. A lot of the foods we eat on a daily basis are going to convert into glucose when they are processed by our bodies. This leads to our bodies looking at the glucose as its main source of energy instead of fat. When your body is using sugar for energy, it’s burning that instead of any fat you may be wanting to get rid of. If you can get your body into ketosis, it will become a fat burner instead of a sugar burner. This means that your body will look to burn fat for energy instead of something else. You will then begin to start shedding fat off your body and you’ll begin seeing the pound come off. Getting into ketosis isn’t a very easy task. There is a process that you need to go through. Your body will be making a major change. You’ve probably been a sugar burner your entire life so changing into ketosis will be a giant leap. Tips to Get into Ketosis Below are going to tips on how to get your body into ketosis. They are proven tips so if you follow them, you should be a fat burner in no time. If you’re looking for more guidelines on how to change your body, look at this 28-day challenge that is guaranteed to help you drop fat and make your body a fat-burning machine. Lower Carb Intake One of the first things you need to do if you want to get into ketosis is to bring your carb intake way down. Not just a little bit, you need to have a significant drop in the amount of carbs you eat daily. This is by far the most important tip when it comes t Continue reading >>
