Achieving ketosis is considered the milestone and gold standard of successful keto dieting. But many of you may have questions that what exactly is ketosis and how do you get and stay there. Ketosis is a natural state of the metabolic process. When you reach ketosis, your body starts to burn fat instead of glucose. So, how do you know you’ve entered ketosis? The presence of ketones in the blood and urine states that you have entered ketosis.
Ketosis helps you lose weight as your body breaks down the unwanted fat stored in your body instead of relying on carbohydrates for energy. Additionally, according to research, ketosis helps suppress a person’s appetite, which again helps in weight loss. But as we know, achieving this stage is never easy, and many people wish to reach ketosis when they start their keto diet. In this post, we will see steps to get into ketosis faster.
Tips For Going Into The Stage Of Ketosis
Before we see how to get into ketosis, let’s find out how much time you need to get into it?
It’s not possible to jump into ketosis within 24 hours. Your body is habitual to burning sugar as fuel, and it will need time to burn ketones as fuel. So, the question arises, how long does it take to get into ketosis? The process can take anywhere between 48 hours to a week. The time will vary according to your body type, activity level, and carb intake.
This doesn’t mean that your body will remain in ketosis after entering that stage. If you start eating a carb-loaded diet or increase your carb intake for athletic performance, your body may start to burn glucose.
Cut Down On Carbs
The most widely accepted approach to get into ketosis is to restrict unnecessary carbs. This is because ketosis occurs when the body uses fat as its primary energy source instead of sugar, which happens due to its lack of carbs. The level of carb restriction depends on the individual and their body needs but on average, one has to limit carbs to 20 grams per day; but again, if your body allows, you can reach ketosis even if you eat twice this amount.
To be more sure, your carb needs depends on these three factors :
- Fitness level,
- Body composition,
- Overall calorie needs.
In simple words, you can understand that 5% or less of your calories should come from carbs that are again roughly 20 grams per day.