The keto diet offers an effective way to lose excess weight, balance hormones, improve mental cognition, and also treat various diseases such as epilepsy and diabetes. However, before you start enjoying the benefits of a ketogenic diet, your body must enter into a metabolic process known as ketosis.
During ketosis, your body usually converts fat into complex compounds known as ketones and starts to use them as the primary source of energy. Konscious Keto reports that all diets that promote ketosis are highly beneficial for weight loss since they suppress your appetite. However, achieving the state of ketosis can sometimes take a lot of work and dedication. It isn’t just as simple as cutting down your carbs intake.
Here are the 8 Steps to Getting into Ketosis
1. Minimize Your Carb Intake:
Eating a low-carb diet is one of the most critical factors in achieving ketosis. It is the greatest determinant in the whole process of how to get into ketosis. Usually, your body utilizes glucose as the primary source of fuel.
But, when there is insufficient glucose, the body cells are forced to look for other means of producing fuel. Fatty acids and ketones become the alternative sources of energy. When your carbs intake is low, the glucose reserves are depleted and the levels of insulin decline. This allows the fatty acids to be released from the fat reserves into your body to provide fuel.
The level of carbs restriction needed to induce ketosis varies from one individual to the other. Some people can achieve ketosis when they consume less than 20g of carbs per day while others can still achieve ketosis while consuming more than this amount. All you have to do is to ensure that your carbs intake is less than 50g per day.
2. Increase High-Quality Fats:
The keyword here is “high-quality.” Healthy fats make up a significant component of any keto diet out there. However, if you are still new to keto, it may take you some time to transition to this way of eating. Make sure that your fat intake accounts for at least 70% of your total calories.
This is critical since it will help your body to transition to using fat as the primary source of energy. Some of the healthy fats that can help you get into ketosis fast include fatty meats, butter, coconut oil, and plant fats such as olives and avocado.
3. Be Wary of Your Protein Consumption:
Since you aren’t consuming a lot of carbs, you might be tempted to go overboard with proteins. This isn’t a nice idea since it can harm you in the long run.
You need to keep in mind that when you consume too much protein, the excess amount will convert into glucose and that isn’t how to get into ketosis quickly. Make sure that you have a healthy balance of proteins in your diet to keep insulin levels in check.
4. Work Out:
According to Healthline, several studies have proved that regular physical exercises deplete muscle and liver glycogen much faster than fasting. For instance, swimming for just one hour every day breaks down the same amount of glycogen as a 24-hour fast. However, it is recommended that you consume a tiny amount of protein and carbs before and after working out to avoid muscle wasting.
Your body might start to break down the proteins stored in your muscles if glycogen reserves start depleting during your regular workouts. Engaging in physical activity can increase your ketone levels significantly during carb restriction. This is one of the most effective ways of how to get into ketosis that you need to try out.
5. Fast:
Fasting is another excellent way of driving your body into ketosis. Intermittent fasting is the best fasting technique while on keto. In intermittent fasting, you stick to periods of short fasts so that you aren’t starving yourself through the process. You only eat during specific times that you set yourself.
You can give yourself eight hours during the day to eat which leaves you with 16 hours of fasting. Although fasting isn’t going to be easy, it will help your body get into ketosis quickly. Your body is going to deplete the glycogen reserves much faster since you aren’t eating and start burning fat.
6. Take Exogenous Ketones:
Most people who are on keto love exogenous ketones since they offer one of the quickest ways of how to get into ketosis. Apart from fighting the common keto flu, exogenous ketones also help speed up ketosis.
Perfect Keto reports that taking drinks that contain exogenous ketones can help in lowering your blood glucose and free up the fatty acids. Exogenous ketones offer a practical and effective way to get into ketosis. Taking exogenous ketones for longer can also speed up the process of keto-adaptation.
7. Make Coconut Oil Your Biggest Friend:
If you want to achieve ketosis faster, start adding coconut oil to your diet. Make sure that you add it to almost anything that you take since coconut oil contains healthy fats that will help your body get into ketosis quickly.
According to the Daily Nutrition, coconut oil contains medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) that help a lot of people who are stuck with the process of how to get into ketosis. This is critical to your body since the liver starts to use the MCTs to make ketones as well. However, don’t add a lot of coconut oil to your food at the beginning since it might cause other digestive problems. This is something that you ought to do gradually to give your body sufficient time to adapt to the new nutrients.
8. Make Healthy Swaps When You Eat Out:
Did you know that making healthy swaps when eating out is much easier than you think? You don’t have to discard your effort simply because you are having some fun out. The good news is that most restaurants can accommodate special requests to make you happy.
Therefore, make sure that you watch out what you eat while away from home. You should always request for unsweetened beverages, tacos without tortillas, a burger without a bun, and salad without dressing.
Conclusion
If you are looking to put your body into ketosis faster, complementing your keto diet with these tips can really help. As long as you stick with your diet and be patient, you are guaranteed to get into ketosis sooner or later. These tips will also help you have an easier time transitioning to keto-adaptation.