What is Ketosis?
Ketosis is a natural metabolic state that allows your body to burn fat for fuel. During ketosis, your body produces ketones from your fat stores, which can be used for energy when there are no more carbohydrates left to burn. Although you always produce a small amount of ketones, you can dramatically increase your ketones (and the fat you burn) by reducing the calories you eat, fasting, reducing carbohydrates in your diet, or increasing your activity with exercise.
When practiced as a lifestyle, ketosis has countless benefits, including weight loss, decreased inflammation, and improved mental clarity.
What are Ketones?
Ketones are compounds that your liver makes by breaking down fat cells when you fast or restrict your carb intake. During these processes, your body switches its main fuel source from glucose — a type of sugar — to fat and ketones. Your liver releases these ketones into your bloodstream and almost every cell in your body, including brain cells, can use these ketones for energy.
Types of Ketones
Acetoacetate
Acetoacetate is the first ketone body produced and is created from the breakdown of fatty acids. This ketone is used as energy, converted into BHB, or broken down into acetone.
Beta-hydroxybutyrate
Beta-hydroxybutyrate is the most prevalent ketone body. It is transported in the blood to the muscles, heart, brain and other tissues where it is converted back into acetoacetate and used for energy.
Acetone
Acetone is a type of ketone that is created as a side product of acetoacetate. This ketone breaks down quickly, is virtually useless to the body and most of it is excreted through the breath.
What are the Benefits of Ketosis?
Ketosis has a range of physical and cognitive health benefits with the potential to treat certain conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s. It is an effective treatment method for weight loss and cardiovascular diseases as well, being utilized by physicians and medical practices internationally to improve patient outcomes.
You can take an active role in your health when you adopt a keto or low-carb lifestyle. While you should always consult your physician before beginning a new diet regimen, especially if you have a chronic condition like diabetes, you don’t need constant medical supervision to practice ketosis. In fact, anyone can go keto and experience the full range of health benefits as soon as they’re ready.
Benefits of going low carb or keto include:
- Weight loss
- Increased metabolism
- Natural appetite suppression
- Improved cognitive function
- Increased energy levels
- Treat cognitive decline
- Reverse insulin resistance in patients with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes
Ways to Enter Ketosis
One of the best things about ketosis is that there is more than one way to enter it. Every person has a unique body with an even more unique lifestyle, so what works for one person may not work for another.
The three most common and effective ways to enter ketosis are fasting, intermittent fasting or consuming a ketogenic diet. Of course, a lifestyle that utilizes each of these methods and more may produce greater, more sustainable results.
Fasting and Intermittent Fasting:
Fasting is the practice of refraining from food and beverage consumption for a set period of time. This may be anywhere from 16 hours (intermittent fasting), days at a time (extended fasting), or alternate-day fasting. When the body has a smaller window to consume food, it triggers a metabolic switch from glucose-based to ketone-based energy, which encourages the body to burn unnecessary fat stores.
Keto Diet:
The keto diet is high in fat, adequate in protein, and low in carbs. This diet limits the body’s access to glucose, forcing it to produce ketones and use that for fuel instead. You generally need to eat fewer than 50 grams of carbs per day to activate ketosis. However, this number is different for everyone, which is why tracking your ketone levels throughout the day is essential.
Tracking Fat Burn in Ketosis
You can track your ketone levels anytime, anywhere with Biosense, an accurate and portable breath ketone monitor. This device lets you know when you’re in ketone-based energy mode, burning fat for fuel.
Biosense shows you when your fast or diet plan is working and lets you optimize and personalize a regimen that works best for you. For example, you might find that a 16 hour fast didn’t provide the results you had hoped for, but maybe an 18-20 hour fast might. Or maybe replacing carbohydrates with protein or fat reduces the time it takes to achieve the benefits of fasting.
Biosesense’s ketone data provides a complete view of fat metabolism in real-time, allowing you to tailor your diet and exercise to whatever works best for you.
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