Ketosis helps a person lose unwanted fat in his body. The body starts to break down the stored fats instead of relying on carbohydrates. Achieving the state of ketosis is not easy. However by consistently following certain routines one can easily regulate their ketogenic diet without fail. Here are some of the tips to succeed and gain the maximum from the ketogenic diet
Increased physical activity
As one starts to follow ketogenic diet, the body takes a while to learn to use the stored fats. Exercises teach the human body to use the stored fat. After morning exercises, a human body consumes stored fats for 2 hours.
Reduce carbohydrates
This is the major part of the ketogenic diet, as reduced carbohydrates (in the form of sugar) force the body to search for alternate sources. The person trying to reduce weight or trying to reduce the risks of heart problems by following ketogenic diet, or trying to control sugar levels in the blood, should begin by reducing the consumption by 20 grams in a day or less.
Care should be taken not to reduce more than this, as reducing carbs will increase ketones that will make the blood acidic leading to catastrophic effects. However, the number is just for a safety limit. Some can even start by reducing it by 1 gram per day. The levels of reduction is advantageous when they are slower in their pace.
Fasting
People say that ketogenic diet helps to control the appetite. This is because the body gains its energy from the stored fats. Therefore it hardly feels the urge to take food. However, in the early days, one might find it difficult to get accustomed. During such phases, short period of fasting helps. However, it is essential to take lots of fluids, especially water.
Reduce stress
A high level of stress is a hindrance to enter ketosis. This is because cortisol, a stress hormone increases in the blood with increase in stress. The hormone prevents the body from burning fats rather demands more sugar in the blood. This is the main reason some people develop eating disorders of eating large quantities at frequent intervals. So allow the stress to reduce and take some time before starting ketosis.
Enough sleep
A normal human should sleep from 6 to 8 hours. If the body does not receive a complete sleep, it is tiresome. Here it is the brain that is tiresome, probably 8 grams of muscles. But when this organ gets tired, it will make the entire body tiresome; say 50 kg of muscles begin to demand for more energy. So the ketogenic chart begins to cause problems.
Add more salt
Usually doctors advise to consume very less amount of salt, to reduce the sodium intake. This is because high carbohydrate diet increases the levels of insulin in the blood. When the insulin levels are higher, the kidneys begin to retain sodium. This rule works well only for high carbohydrates diet.
When one adapts to low carb diet insulin levels are much lower. Therefore one needs to add more salt while preparing their keto food. To find out sodium rich foods offered by keto restaurants visit KS website.
A ketogenic diet follower should add 3 to 5 grams of sodium in his diet. The following are the healthy ways to get more salt in a ketogenic diet.
- Add Himalayan salt or pink salt. This salt helps to get most out of the sodium in human body by countering its negative effects.
- By drinking organic bone broth
- Add more low carb foods rich in sodium like cucumber, etc
Stop diet soda
The diet soda has zero calories. They use several sugar substitutes that will induce the entering of large amount of sugar inside the body. This will increase blood sugar levels. Therefore the body reduces the pace of gaining energy from the stored fats which is the major objective keto diet.
Also, zero calorie, sugar free sweeteners increase the cravings for sugar. On the other hand, Keto diet is the path towards increasing the cravings for a healthy diet.
Drinking lots of water
One has to stay hydrated all the time as he begins ketogenic diet. This is because a ketogenic diet increases the acidity of the blood stream. If the acidity is not controlled by the water, many organs might stop functioning or show initial symptoms of malfunctioning.
Consume lots of vegetables
The vegetables those are low in carbs, rich in all other necessary nutrients should be selected. They should be very rich in fibres. This is because; fibres give no energy to the body. Rather as they get digested they absorb lot of moisture that helps in bowel movement, pushing the waste through the intestines easily. The low carb vegetables are broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage, kale, sprouts.
Test the ketone levels regularly
If the ketone levels rise beyond limits it is dangerous. However, when they are at the limits of healthy ketogenic diet they do wonders. There are 3 ketones in a human body namely
- Acetone
- Beta – Hydroxybutyrate
- Acetoacetate
These ketones can be measured from breath, urine and blood. Acetone is found in breath. Studies confirm that testing acetone breath level is the best method to check on the ketone level. Today many keto restaurants provide free ketone testing. To find them online, visit KS website.
The Ketonix meter is the instrument used to measure acetone in breath. After breathing into the meter, it flashes a colour to indicate the level of ketones in the blood.
