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.
Increase Your Physical Activity
Working out can also put you into ketosis more quickly by using glucose storage. When glycogen storage is low and not refilled by carbohydrates, your body starts to use fats as fuel for energy. But an important thing to consider, not all exercises are sustainable with restricted carbs intake. If you’re doing slow-paced workouts like swimming, walking, cycling, etc., it would be good, but if you’re involved in high-resistant training, you may need to add a few additional carbs to your diet.
Increase High-Quality Fat Intake
Healthy fat makes up a large part of any keto meal. Eating healthy fats may increase the number of ketones in your body, which leads to ketosis. The best way to determine how many grams of fat you need to consume is to calculate your keto macros with the help of a calculator or keto-friendly app. You can consume olive oil, coconut oil, butter, etc., as good fats in your diet. Also, many foods have healthy fats present.
Maintain Your Protein Intake
Maintaining an adequate amount of protein is vital to achieving ketosis. While the amount can vary according to the person, a standard keto diet recommends consuming 20% of calories as protein. This doesn’t mean you have to cut back on protein drastically. Focus on having high-quality protein because this will give you enough nutrients to keep you full, satisfied and prevent muscle breakdown during the weight loss process.
Watch Your Snacks
While you have full control of your diet at home, it becomes quite challenging to find keto-friendly foods when you step outside. When you’re at work, at the gym, on vacation, or at the airport, it’s impossible to find keto food items. Having the right snacks will keep you staying on track and save all the efforts you’ve been putting in.
You can carry these snacks with you :
- Keto Bars
- Low sugar Beef Jerky
- Nuts and Seeds
- Keto Nut Butter
Consume MCT Oil
MCT oil can boost ketones in your body more than coconut oil, butter, or olive oil. If you take it with exogenous ketones, your body enters ketosis in no time. This happens because the medium-chain triglycerides present in MCT oil are quickly metabolized and used for your cells’ energy. On the other hand, long-chain fatty acids take more time to break down.
To Sum Up
The time needed to get into ketosis depends on an individual’s body type, activity level, and diet plan. A healthy individual usually takes two days, whereas this range can vary up to a week. The easiest way to stay in the stage of ketosis is to keep your keto diet constant and carb intake low. You can also track your daily macros with a calculator. Limit your keto cheat days as you don’t want to lose all the hard work for a meal.
