How Many Carbs Should I Eat A Day While Dieting?
Dietary ketosis, for the purpose of intentional weight loss, generally occurs when total carbohydrate intake is limited to somewhere in the range of approximately 50 to100 grams of carbohydrate spaced throughout the day, for a period of several days. The exact number depends on the individual, and is influenced by such factors as exercise and activity level. Because the body uses carbohydrates for energy, the more active you are, the more carbohydrates and fat you will burn. If you have a particularly sedentary day, you may find that you need to decrease your carbohydrate intake to achieve ketosis. As you lose significant amounts of weight, your body’s energy requirements change and you may find it necessary to further reduce carbohydrate intake or increase exercise in order to achieve ketosis. People who follow a low calorie, low carbohydrate ketogenic weight loss diet experience a rapid rate of weight loss. Because they tend to lose weight more rapidly than on “traditional” diets that focus primarily on calories, their motivation to stick with their program until they achieve their goal is great. Most individuals experience reduced hunger and cravings, and increased physical and mental energy while in ketosis. They also tend to report feeling less moody, less irritable, and less depressed. The degree to which people experience these benefits varies from person to person. Continue reading >>
How To Find Your Ketogenic Diet Carb Limit
There is no legitimate carb limit for keto. The keto gods won’t banish you to burn in sugar hell forever if you eat an extra blueberry. The truth is that every person has a different carb limit that they should stick to so that they can trigger ketone production. This “carb limit” also changes depending on the day. Whether your body achieves ketosis or not — the main reason why you are limiting carbs in the first place — depends on many factors. Some people may be able to get into ketosis with a slightly higher carb intake while others need to restrict their carbs below 35 grams per day. So, what does this mean for you? How can you find your very own keto carb limit? Finding Your Keto Carb Limit Although everyone may need to restrict their carbs to slightly different amounts to get into and stay in ketosis, there is a carb limit that almost anyone can use to achieve results. This keto carb limit is 35 grams of total carbs and 25 grams of net carbs. (Net carbs are found by subtracting the grams of the fiber from the total grams of carbs.) If net carbs are further limited to less than 20 grams, then most people will get into ketosis even more quickly. Keeping your carbs consumption at this level and rarely going above it is a reliable way to stay in ketosis (as long as you eat the right amount of protein — more on that later). To figure out how to track your carbs and stay below the carb limit, here’s a guide you can use to keep it as simple as possible. And here is a brief list of what you should and shouldn’t eat to achieve ketosis: Do Not Eat Grains – wheat, corn, rice, cereal, etc. Sugar – honey, agave, maple syrup, etc. Fruit – apples, bananas, oranges, etc. Tubers – potato, yams, etc. Do Eat Meats – fish, beef, lamb, poultry, eggs, etc. Lea Continue reading >>
How Many Carbs Will Kick You Out Of Ketosis?
You are asking what level of circulating and stored glucose is required to prevent you from primarily burning fat. Typically, one begins while primarily burning glucose and must virtually exhaust that before you begin adapting to burning fat. During that period the best answer is zero grams. After that, some tissues (such as red blood cells) can burn only glucose. Small amounts can be made from fats but usually one will cannibalize amino acids from muscle and converting them to glucose. About 30–40 grams of glucose is the minimum that one can achieve in a mixed diet and should suffice to preserve muscle. Protein will also kick one out of ketosis because as much as half may be converted to glucose on first pass through the liver. One would normally plan for 50–60 grams rather than the recommended 30–40 grams of protein to reduce muscle catabolism. Since the above totals 400 Calories, most Calories must come from fat and that is what actually drives ketosis. Fat kills appetite. The proportion of glucose and protein in a food would not matter if one is not hungry enough to eat. I keep using the term glucose because sucrose and HFCS contain 50% fructose which does not count. Fructose is metabolized into fat on first pass through the liver. Some long molecules are not digested and bacteria convert them to fats in the gut. Assume that those would be reported as fiber on a label. Finally, humans react to the circulating glucose/insulin level, not a written number. Very slowly digesting starches won’t break established ketosis. I find that beans and green vegetables do not count if served with enough olive oil. Continue reading >>
The Beginners Guide To Ketosis: Investigating Low-carb, High-fat Eating
The only hard and fast rule of health is that health is personal and what works well for one person may not work for someone else. Aside from that rule, there are “frameworks” that seem to benefit large groups of people. One more level down from that are alternative strategies that benefit smaller groups. Ketosis is likely one of those alternative strategies that works well for certain, smaller groups of people. So, right off the bat I want you to understand that Ketosis might not be for everyone. I’m going to lay out the case for potential benefits of Ketosis. If it sounds interesting and beneficial to you, then consider trying it. (see our free cheat sheet to help you). What is Ketosis Ketosis occurs when liver glycogen gets depleted and the body burns fatty acids for fuel. The primary driver of this state is a very low carbohydrate intake. Often, it also requires a low protein, higher fat intake. You can also achieve a state of ketosis by not eating altogether. The creation of ketones is a byproduct of this metabolic state. Ketones are a source of fuel, just as glucose is a source of fuel. Ketones tend to have some added benefits, though. What role does Ketosis play in human health? Ketosis allows our bodies to function in the absence of carbohydrates, both physically and mentally. Instead of burning carbohydrates, or converting protein to glucose, the body burns ketones. This is pretty much a survival mechanism. It allows your body to function in a state of caloric deprivation. This is why ketosis often gets bad press (as it’s linked to “starvation”). Being a survival mechanism doesn’t make it invalid as a strategy, though. There can still be potential benefits to be had. Let’s cover a few of them… Ketosis and Accelerated Fat Loss Being in ketosis 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 >>
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 >>
Find Your Keto Macros
Fine tune your fat-burning with the perfect keto ratio. Learn the special concerns for protein and fat ratios, how to track your keto macros and where to find the wiggle room. Best keto ratio for rapid fat-burning Printable keto food pyramid Online keto calculator Printable list of keto macros: calories, fat, net carbs, protein Keto macro is short for ketosis macro-nutrient. The three keto macro-nutrients are fats, proteins and carbs. Sometimes, calories are also considered part of the equation. What’s the best keto ratio? “Best” depends on your goals. A typical keto ratio has 75% of calories from fat, 20% of calories from protein and 5% of calories from fiber-rich carbs. A Typical Keto Ratio Keto Tip: A perfect ketogenic ratio happens when the amount of protein grams are equal to or slightly great than the grams of fat. Keto Food Pyramid Keto foods center around healthy fats, with moderate amounts of protein and scant carbs. During ketosis, think of fat as a food group. The Atkins Keto Food Pyramid illustrates which of the 200 ketosis foods to enjoy liberally and which ones to limit. Click the image to view, print or save. Tracking Keto Macros Track keto macros helps identify diet stalls and plateau. Macro tracking pinpoints troublesome keto ratios in your diet. For example: Are you eating enough fat? Are you eating too much protein? Track your keto foods and find out. Keto Wiggle Room If your keto ratio is off a bit, it’s not a big deal. You have wiggle room. If some days are over and some days are under your ideal goals, it’s fine. Keep your calories in check and track your keto macros by averaging several days at a time. A single day won’t make or break your plan. Testing for Ketosis Special test strips called keto sticks (or ketostix, keto strips) are u Continue reading >>
Ketogenic Diet Beginners Guide
Brief Overview A ketogenic diet is a way of eating that promotes a state of ketosis in the body. Generally speaking a ketogenic diet will have the following macronutrient ratios: High Fat – 60%-80% of total calories come from fat. Moderate Protein – 15%-35% of total calories come from protein. Low Carbohydrate – 5% or less of total calories come from carbohydrates. Everyone’s macronutrient breakdown will be different and depends on a variety of factors. Reference our Keto Macro Calculator to figure out what yours are! Eating in accordance with these macronutrient ratio’s will deplete your body of glucose and force it to start producing ketones. Your body will then use these ketones for energy. What is Ketosis From Wikipedia: Ketosis is a metabolic state in which some of the body’s energy supply comes from ketone bodies in the blood, in contrast to a state of glycolysis in which blood glucose (sugar) provides most of the energy. With the abundance of high carbohydrate foods available in modern times, virtually all human beings that don’t make a concerted effort to restrict carbs are always in a state of glycolysis. There are a number of reasons why ketosis is beneficial when compared to glycolysis, which we will get into later. What are Ketones? Ketones are the fuel source your body is running on when it’s in a state of ketosis. They are produced in the liver when glycogen is depleted and are characterized as a slower burning fuel source when compared to glucose. Insulin and Keto This is where the magic happens. Eating a high carb diet means you’re always producing insulin to transport the glucose around your body. The fat can just sit around and watch because insulin is doing all the work. The fat is eventually stored, which leads to weight gain. In a Continue reading >>
So How Many Carbs A Day Can I Eat?
Even a fairly strict keto diet will include some carbohydrates; they’re in just about every vegetable you eat, after all. Fortunately, a ketogenic diet allows for a very small portion of your diet to include carbs. The exact amount will vary depending on your body type, metabolism, lifestyle, gender and more. A good guideline is to aim to have 5% or less of your calories come from carbs. For most people, that will be less than 50 grams of net carbs per day, and most days you should aim to be closer to 20 to 30 grams. Net Carbs = Total Carbs – (Fiber + Sugar Alcohols). Continue reading >>
How Many Carbs To Stay In Ketosis
The ketogenic diet is probably one of the most meticulous ways of eating out there. For it to actually work you need to be careful and know how many carbs to stay in ketosis. Nutritional ketosis occurs as the result of our body running low on glycogen and the liver producing ketone bodies. It can be caused by either a prolonged period of fasting or by restricting carbohydrate intake significantly. At first, your body will show signs of withdrawal, because glucose is its primary fuel source. To start using ketones effectively you need to go through a period of adaptation. The length this of time this takes depends on several things. How many carbs have you been eaten before. How many carbs are you eating on keto right now. How well your body is accepting ketones for fuel. There isn’t a set magic barrier, that once crossed, will instantly put you into ketosis. As said, the liver will start to produce ketones as a substitute for glucose. The lower your daily carbohydrate intake, the sooner your liver glycogen will be depleted and the quicker your body will start utilizing. For complete adaptation to take place as quickly as possible, you would have to restrict your carbs to under 30 grams per day. NET, that is. Some people have a higher carb tolerance than others. At first, it’s advisable to go even lower than 30 grams, for ketosis to occur faster. Eating less than 20 grams for the initial 2 weeks will definitely hasten adaptation. After this initial period, your body’s biochemistry will have been completely altered. Your liver enzymes will have changed from preferring glucose to loving fat and ketones. Even our hungry brain will be satisfied and won’t create sugar cravings. However, how many carbs to stay IN ketosis is a totally different question. Despite our inc Continue reading >>
How To Get Into Ketosis Faster On A Low Carb Diet
This post may be sponsored or contain affiliate links. We may earn money from purchases made through links mentioned in this post, but all opinions are our own. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliates sites. Want to be a fat-burning machine without having to count calories? Here’s a few ideas on how to get into ketosis faster on a low carb diet. Do you want to look leaner for bikini season? Yoga pants starting to feel a little tighter? One way to burn fat fast is to go on a ketogenic diet. The physiological process of burning stored fat instead of sugar, can be achieved within a short amount of time after following a strict keto diet. It is possible to get there in a day. In fact, some people show you how to get into ketosis, this fat burning state, in 24 hours. Do you need to fast? Becoming keto adapted where the body burns fat rather than sugar isn’t as hard as you might think. And, you don’t have to starve yourself to get there quickly. The great news for those who want to know how to get into ketosis faster is, well … you don’t have to fast. Fasting has been used for thousands of years by virtually every religion and traditional society. There are some people who think that a complete fast (not just intermittent fasting) is a way to get into ketosis faster. But the great thing about following a ketogenic diet is that you can eat until your heart—er, stomach—is content. You just have to eat enough of the right foods. And, of course, eat very little of the wrong foods. Is getting into ketosis safe without a doctor? Before reviewing how to get into ketosis quickly, let’s take a look at a quick background: T Continue reading >>
How Do You Count Carbs On A Ketogenic Diet?
If you are using the Keto Zone Diet for weight loss then you are probably paying a lot of attention to how many carbohydrates you are consuming. You are likely already aware of the myriad of benefits of a ketogenic. They include weight loss, improved energy, and enhanced cognitive performance. However, in order to reap the benefits, you need to keep your daily consumption of carbs below 20 grams per day, especially for the first 2-4 weeks. Keto Macros The macronutrient ratios (macros) of daily caloric intake for a successful ketogenic diet look like this: High healthy fat intake at 60%-80% of calories. Moderate clean protein intake at 15%-35% of calories. Low carbohydrate intake at 0%-5% of calories Many people initially scoff at these ratios as ridiculous or even impossible. The fact is, however, that it is not only possible, but once the body is adapted it is actually incredibly easy to maintain. This is because once the body has adapted to using ketones (fat) for fuel instead of glucose (sugar), hunger diminishes dramatically and cravings virtually disappear. But first, you must make it through the keto adaptation phase. Keto Adaptation The human body is designed to efficiently burn fat for fuel. That is actually why the body stores fat to begin with, as a backup fuel supply when no food is available. For those of us in the Western world, food is always available, so most of us never tap into our body fat reserves and instead pile on body weight from all the excess calories. The easiest way to access these fat reserves would be to simply not eat (i.e. fast), but that is simply too difficult for most people with busy lives. A ketogenic diet restricts carbohydrates and protein to a degree that mimics the metabolic effects of fasting. This allows the body to remember ho Continue reading >>
A Keto Diet For Beginners
A keto or ketogenic diet is a very low-carb diet, which turns the body into a fat-burning machine. It has many proven benefits for weight loss, health and performance, as millions of people have experienced already. 1 Here you’ll learn how to eat a keto diet based on real foods. You’ll find visual guides, recipes, meal plans and a simple 2-week get started program, all you need to succeed on keto. Get even more, custom meal plans, ask the experts and low-carb TV, with a free trial. 1. Introduction: What is ketosis? The “keto” in a ketogenic diet comes from the fact that it makes the body produce small fuel molecules called “ketones”. 2 This is an alternative fuel for the body, used when blood sugar (glucose) is in short supply. Ketones are produced if you eat very few carbs (that are quickly broken down into blood sugar) and only moderate amounts of protein (excess protein can also be converted to blood sugar). Ketones are produced in the liver, from fat. They are then used as fuel throughout the body, including the brain. The brain is a hungry organ that consumes lots of energy every day, 3 and it can’t run on fat directly. It can only run on glucose… or ketones. On a ketogenic diet, your entire body switches its fuel supply to run almost entirely on fat. Insulin levels become very low, and fat burning increases dramatically. It becomes easy to access your fat stores to burn them off. This is obviously great if you’re trying to lose weight, but there are also other less obvious benefits, such as less hunger and a steady supply of energy. When the body produces ketones, it’s said to be in ketosis. The fastest way to get there is by fasting – not eating anything – but nobody can fast forever. A keto diet, on the other hand, can be eaten indefinite 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 >>
How Many Carbs Per Day On A Low-carb Ketogenic Diet?
Although my initial plan was to include this post in All You Need to Know About Carbs on Low-Carb Ketogenic Diet, I decided it deserves to be discussed separately. How Many Carbs per Day to Stay in Ketosis? As described in my post How Does the Ketogenic Diet Work? Weight Loss and 3 Main Effects of Ketosis, weight loss on a ketogenic diet is achieved by limiting the daily intake of net carbs and getting your body in a metabolic state known as ketosis. While in ketosis, your body effectively uses fat for fuel. In general, the daily intake of net carbs required to enter ketosis could vary from 20 to 100 grams per day (and very rarely over 100 grams per day). Most people, who have experienced ketosis, claim to have reached that state at about 20-50 grams of net carbs per day. I'd suggest you start at 20-30 grams and see how you can adjust it for your needs. There are two ways to find your ideal net carbs intake: Low to high method Start from a low level of net carbs to ensure you quickly enter ketosis (~ 20 grams of net carbs per day). When you detect ketosis after about 2-3 days, start adding net carbs (about 5 grams each week) until you detect a very low-level or no ketones (using Ketostix or blood ketone meter). This is usually the most reliable and quickest way to discover your net carbs limit. It could be a bit hard the first couple of days, as you have to give up almost all carbs from one day to another but it will be worth it. This method is highly recommended. High to low method Assuming you're not in ketosis, start from a relatively high level of net carbs (~ 50 grams) and keep reducing (about 5 grams each week) until you detect presence of ketones. This is a less difficult approach but not recommended, as you may spend a long time out of ketosis before you find yo Continue reading >>
