Tips To Maximize Your Success On a Ketogenic Diet

Epilepsy in children was controlled using ketogenic diet  in the 1920’s but it has been adopted for a highly effective weight loss plan.

Embrace The Most Wanted Low-Carb Diet Solution!

According to The Metabolic Diet Center, the Ketogenic diet forces your body to enter into a state called ketosis. Your body then makes use of the carbohydrate’s as its primary source of energy. This is because those carbohydrates are the easiest for your body to absorb.

The essential aim of the diet is to prompt your body to burn fats instead of carbohydrate’s, which has the effect of fast weight loss.

If your body run’s out of carbohydrates, it will revert to making use of fats and proteins for its energy production. Essentially, your body has a sort of energy hierarchy which it follows.

First of all, your body is programmed to use carbohydrates as an energy fuel when it is available. Secondly, it will revert to using fats as an alternative in the absence of an adequate supply of carbohydrates.

1. Drink tons of water.

While on a ketogenic diet, your body has a hard time retaining as much water as it needs. So, staying properly hydrated is absolutely essential. Many experts recommend that men intake a minimum of 3 liters of beverages each day, while the figure for women is 2.2 liters daily.

A good indicator of proper hydration is the color of your urine. If your urine is clear or light yellow, you’re most likely properly hydrated. Keep a bottle of water with you everywhere you go!

2. Don’t forget the fat!

Simply put, our bodies need fuel to function. When we limit our carbohydrate intake, especially to levels that induce ketosis, our bodies need an alternate fuel source. Since protein is not an efficient source of energy, our bodies turn to fat.

Any fat you eat while in ketosis is used for energy, making it very difficult to store fat while in ketosis. Choose healthy, unsaturated fats as often as possible: foods like avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds are ideal.

3. Find your carb limit.

All of our bodies are different. Some dieters will need to adhere to a strict low-carbohydrate diet that entails consuming less than 20 grams per day of carbs. Other dieters will find that they can comfortably stay in ketosis while consuming 50, 75, or 100 grams of carbohydrates.

The only way to know for sure is trial and error. Purchase Ketostix or any brand of ketone urinalysis strips and find out your carbohydrate limit. If you find that you have a bit of wiggle room, it will make sticking to your diet that much easier.

4. Be smart about liquor.

One of the great aspects of the ketogenic diet is that you can drink liquor while on it without throwing your weight loss too far off course. You can drink unsweetened liquors like vodka, rum, tequila, gin, whiskey, scotch, cognac, and brandy, along with the occasional low-carb beer.

Use low-carb mixers and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated, as hangovers are notoriously bad while in ketosis. And remember, calories still count, so don’t go overboard. All things in moderation.

5. Be patient.

While the ketogenic diet is known for rapid weight loss, especially in the early stages of the diet, weight loss is always a slow, time-consuming process. Don’t freak out if the scale doesn’t show weight loss, or shows slight weight increases, for a few days.

Your weight varies day-to-day (and throughout the day) based upon a number of factors. Don’t forget to use metrics like how your clothes fit or body measurements to see progress beyond what the scale shows.

In a ketogenic diet, the most important factor of the composition of those calories is the balance of fat, protein and carbohydrates and how each one affects your insulin levels.

This balance is very important because any rise in insulin will stop the breakdown of fats. Therefore, you need to eat foods that will create the smallest rise in insulin. This will help to keep your body in the state of burning stored body fats for fuel.

The body can normally go into a ketosis state by itself. This is often the case when you are in a fasting state such as when you are sleeping. In this state, your body tends to burn fats for energy while your body carries out it’s repairs and growth while you sleep.

Carbohydrates generally make up most of the calories in a regular meal. Also, the body is inclined to make use of the carbohydrates as energy because it can be more easily absorbed. The proteins and fats in the ketogenic diet are thus more likely to be stored.

However, in a ketogenic diet, most of the calories come from fats rather than carbohydrates. Since the ketogenic diet has a low amount of carbohydrates, they are immediately used up. This low carbohydrate level causes an apparent shortage of energy fuel for the body.

As a result of this seeming shortage, the body resorts to its stored fat content. It then makes a shift from being a carbohydrate to being a fat-burner. The body however does not make use of the fats in a recently ingested meal but rather it stores the fats up for the next round of ketosis.

As your body gets more familiar to burning fat for energy, the fats in an ingested meal then become used up with very little left for storage.

This is why the ketogenic diet uses a high amount of fats so that your body can have enough for energy production and also still be able to store more fat. The body needs to be able to store fat, otherwise it will start breaking down its protein stores in your muscles during the ketosis period.

When you are fasting  during ketosis like in between meals and during sleep, your body still needs a constant supply of energy. You do have these periods in your normal day and therefore you need to eat enough fat so your body can use the fat as energy.

If there is not enough stored fat, then the proteins contained in your muscle’s will then become the next option for your body to use as energy. Therefore it is important to eat enough so that you can avoid this scenario from taking place.

The main goal of a ketogenic diet is to mimic the state of starvation in your body. This situation forces your body into a fat burning mode for energy.