I am writing this article today because over the past several weeks I have had many patients coming to the office asking lots of questions about a low carbohydrate high-fat diet and most were concerned was that this would put them into ketosis. Now for some people, ketosis is something that they heard about and it may be something that they know when their friends who tried this type of weight loss diet usually lost quite a bit of weight.
But then some have heard some negative comments about ketosis. So in this post I'm just going to review the simplified version of what ketosis, how to get into ketosis and if it is safe. Going into a state of ketosis just means that your body is switching from burning sugars that are floating around in your bloodstream from all of the foods that you have eaten like; pasta, cakes, pastries, rice and drinks and even alcohol into a mode where your body is now burning it's own body fat for fuel instead of the sugar that has been floating around in your bloodstream. This is very simple and straight to the point and still it may be a little bit confusing for some people in understanding how your body really goes into ketosis.
Now this basic knowledge of ketosis will help you finally understand why people lose weight on low carbohydrate diets. You may think that this type of diet is new but it’s been around since the 1800’s but it was not called a ketosis or low carb diet. It had a variety of names and just as many versions of what to eat and what not to eat. I bet you didn’t know that doctors would recommend this type of diet to their patients in the early days of medicine.
Yes, this type of diet has been around for a long time.
In the early years of medicine many physicians would actually have their patients going on a diet that excluded starchy carbohydrates and sugars. And astonishing proved to help a multitude of people with variety of different health issues.
Now, back to explaining what ketosis is. Your body goes into a ketogenic state when there is not enough carbohydrates and sugar in your bloodstream to replenish the amount of sugar type of compounds that are stored in your lover. And this sugar type of compound that is stored in your liver is called glycogen and this is just simply a super fast source of fuel for your body.
But when you have too much sugar in your bloodstream into much sugar in your liver you develop what is commonly known as a fatty liver and this is not healthy. So too much sugar in your body too much sugar in your liver causes a variety of issues such as diabetes and we all know that when people have diabetes sometime down the line if they do not get everything under control they will eventually have a heart attack or stroke.
So in order for your body to go into a ketogenic state the only way for this to happen is when there is a lack of sugar floating around in your bloodstream and this will decrease her insulin levels and this will cause your body to start using its own body fat for fuel and energy. Your body specifically your liver will break down all the facts into compounds known as ketones. And when your body starts using this instead of sugar for fuel is call the state of ketosis.
So in order for your body to go into a ketogenic state the only way for this to happen is when there is a lack of sugar floating around in your bloodstream and this will decrease her insulin levels and this will cause your body to start using its own body fat for fuel and energy. Your body specifically your liver will break down all the facts into compounds known as ketones. And when your body starts using this instead of sugar for fuel is call the state of ketosis.
So just to prove you when you eat foods that contain a lot of sugar my candies and sodas and cakes and pastries and when you also eat foods that are just starchy carbohydrates like your rice pasta and rice your body will break them down into sugar that sugar will float around in your bloodstream and this picture is on my bills and when you're in some levels are high in your bloodstream it will push all of the calories from everything that you were eating into your fat cells. This is what is giving you that big fat belly and the big hips the big thighs the big legs. So
This means when you were increasing your weight and body fat that your body is using the sugar that is floating around in your bloodstream for energy instead of using your body fat for fuel and energy.
So in order for your body to burn fat you simply need to decrease the sugar types of food you were eating so that your body will eventually start burning your own body fat and you will lose weight, you will usually lose pounds and inches.
How do I get into ketosis?
You put your body into a state of ketosis I simply decreasing you mount of sugar loaded food and starchy carbohydrates that you were eating each and every day. As you do this the body will burn the sugar in your bloodstream very quickly and then it has no other choice but to start burning your body fat for fuel. Normally it takes anywhere from 48 and sometimes 72 hours to get your body into a state of ketosis.
Can I lose weight on a ketosis diet?
There seems to be a growing trend of many weight-loss specialist recommending to their patients to follow a key to see this type of diet or a lower carbohydrate diet. The sad thing is that most of the food that we eat during the course of our day during this present time consist mostly of processed foods and starchy sugar eluded carbohydrates. And we all know that most of eat too much bread, pasta, rice, sugar, bagels, muffins, cakes and pastries and let's not forget that nice glass of wine that we drink at the end of the day just to relax and unwind.
If you limit these types of food on a daily basis this should automatically put your body into a fat burning mode and possibly make your body go into the ketogenic state.
When used for weight loss people usually use quite a significant amount of weight on programs that lower the amount of carbohydrates that you were eating in a day. Such diets are the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet and even the Paleo diet. T
hey Count on the fact that when you stop eating certain type of foods your body will eventually start burning your own body fat for fuel and this will cause you to lose weight. These types of diets depend on this order to get your body losing weight quickly. And of course the low-carb diet has also been called the primal diet or even a caveman diet in these types of diet ultimately cycle periods of ketosis and periods of Maintaining normal sugar levels.
Is a Ketosis Diet Safe For Me?
So many people ask this question and quite honestly ketosis is usually safe for most people. In fact and caveman times and times much before what we called civilized society there were periods of feasting and periods of famine.
So during the periods a feast our ancestors were eating everything that was available to them and they would gain weight and then when food was scarce they would slowly instead of the store dropping weight but as the amount of food decreased their body probably slowly entered state of ketosis in this enabled human beings to survive and prosper throughout the course of time.
Maintaining key ptosis in definitely is not recommended. The one part or something that we should be careful of with his ketoacidosis and normally only people that are type one diabetics can enter ketoacidosis because their body does not produce any insulin at all. But in a normal person usually your insulin levels prevent your body from going into ketoacidosis.
But if you are considering this type of diet in order to lose weight or improve your overall health I certainly recommend that you speak with the medical weight-loss doctor and have him guide you through this type of program so you will be as successful as possible.
There are even studies now where they are trying a ketosis type of diet in order to help people with all types of diseases including diabetes, hypothyroid and a multitude of other health problems.
There are also some people who recommend the ketogenic diet program to assist people who are suffering from cancer. It is thought that the ketones help destroy cancer cells in the body.
But this is new research and definitely needs to be looked into a bit more thoroughly. But like I always say before you start any type of nutrition program you always must discuss it with your family medical doctor to make sure that it is safe for you to do.
I hope you enjoy this article and as always please come back to my blog next week for more healthy tips.