Our body cells usually use glucose or sugar as their primary fuel source. But when you are following a low carb diet like keto, your body does not get enough glucose for energy, so it burns the extra fats instead. As a result, your body produces a kind of acid called ketones from the fat of your body. In simple words, Ketosis is a metabolic state which involves the body producing ketone bodies out of fat and using them for energy instead of carbs.
Ketosis and Keto Diet:
Nowadays people are encouraging ketosis with some low carb, high protein, and fat-based diet like the ketogenic diet. In this diet, carb consumption is restricted so our body is forced to rely on stored fat, which further increases the ketone level and we lose extra weight really fast. The best way to enter ketosis is to reduce your carbohydrate intake. But it varies in people to people. Some might find it easier to enter ketosis and others take much longer to enter the state of ketosis.
Benefits of ketosis:
Though ketosis is broadly known for its impact in weight loss, but beyond that it helps in reducing inflammation, oxidative stress and lowers the risk of heart disease.
Some potential benefits of being in nutritional ketosis are:
- Normalize blood sugar and insulin response
- Regulates Appetite
- Enhance athletic performance
- Prevent seizures
- Reverses Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
- Helps in Metabolic syndrome condition
- Increase High-density lipoprotein (HDL) Cholesterol
- Reduce insulin level
- Lower blood pressure
- Help cure children of epilepsy
- Increase Focus and Energy
With the above-mentioned benefits, the ketosis state improves our overall health in many ways. On the other hand, it has a few side effects as well. At the beginning of ketosis journey, one may experience some symptoms called “low-carb flu”. It includes fatigue, headache, leg cramps, insomnia, nausea, weakness, brain frog, digestive issues, dehydration, short-term decreases in performance, etc. Though it might seem a little daunting, but in most of the cases these are usually over within a few days
Tips for getting into ketosis:
Achieving the state of ketosis and staying in ketosis for a longer period is not that simple task. Apart from cutting carbs, ketosis requires proper knowledge and planning.
Here are some tips to help you get into ketosis faster:
- Make a proper low carb-high fat meal plan
- Track your carb intake.
- Include coconut oil and fish oil in your diet
- Avoid eating out.
- Be aware of hidden carb sources
- Use keto trim weight loss supplement
- Eat more nuts and seeds
- Increase your intake of high-quality fats
- Try intermittent fasting
- Use a medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) supplement
- Exercise more
- Test your ketone levels regularly
- Maintain adequate protein intake
If you follow the rules of a low carb diet religiously, reaching the level of ketosis will not be so tough. After you have achieved ketosis state, make sure you are retaining that the blood ketone level. It is suggested to test your ketone levels with blood ketone meter so you can adjust your diet as needed