Ketosis in the Low Carb Diet, Ketones, Burning Fat

The Role of Ketosis in the Low Carb Diet

A lot of people don’t understand ketosis and how it works with the low carb lifestyle. Ketosis is a natural state of burning body fat for fuel. It’s also known as lipolysis. When you consume a lot of carbs, especially processed carbs, your body is in a fuel burning state called glucosis. That means it turns those carbs into sugar very quickly and uses the ‘instant’ sugar as its fuel source.

When you limit your carb intake, the body is forced to convert stored fat into sugar for the body to use. If the daily intake of carbs is 20 grams or less, as in the Induction phase of Atkins, then the body stays in this state of lipolysis or ketosis and will burn body fat more quickly.

You can still lose weight with a low carb diet without limiting your carbs that strictly, but the weight loss will be slower.

When the body is in ketosis, it produces a chemical called ketones. Ketones are also a by-product of fat burning. This also causes the bad breath you hear about in this stage. This is a sure sign to know if you are in ketosis or not. You will also have a bad taste in your mouth, especially when waking up in the mornings or any time you go awhile without food or drink. Again, this is a natural process. If you worry about bad breath during this stage you can keep some sugar free mints handy. However, most people don’t notice this by being around you if

The human body is designed to have ‘feast or famine’ mechanisms. During times of feast, when food is plentiful and people consume too many calories, it will store fat. During times of famine, when food sources are low, the body will burn its fat stores to maintain life.

In modern times, people are consuming way too many calories and carbohydrates. They are feasting but don’t have times of famine to burn off the excess fat that accumulates. This had led to obesity and health related problems.

Getting your body into ketosis, by limiting your intake of carbs, will (as a gross generality of the process) switch on what the body considers a time of famine and will begin to burn the fat stores through ketosis. Your body is not actually in a time of famine because you will still be eating plenty of protein, fiber and healthy fats. However, since its quick fuel source is being limited, it will think it’s going through a time of famine and use up the fuel it has stored.

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