You're Probably Not In Ketosis... Here's Why

I've been in the fitness and health industry for years, so I know that every so often a "new" diet comes along and everyone wants to try it to help cure their woes. Their woes are usually the desire for rapid weightless. 

Introducing the Keto diet..

Whether you watched a Netflix documentary, seen one of your friends talk about it on Facebook, seen it on the news, or gotten spam emails, you've probably heard about it at this point.

But here's the truth, my friend. You're probably not in ketosis. You're probably not even close.

Frankly, if it's not hard, you're not doing it right. 

It sounds simple, I get it. Lower your carb intake and increase your fat. Sounds fantastic, but it's actually really, really hard. 

Ketosis has been used as medicine treatment for epilepsy in children, where patients are monitored heavily by doctors and nutritionists. The concept is simple, as I've discussed before, lower and deplete your glycogen levels from carb/sugar intake and your body produces more ketones for energy and thus burns fat more efficiently. 

It can be very challenging for adults to get into ketosis. The Keto diet is medically prescribed for children because it's much easier to reach a state of ketosis. Without guidance it can be very difficult for adults to get into a state of ketosis due to increased muscle mass and a metabolism that has seen a range of functioning speeds. 

So here's a couple things to keep in mind:

1. A true Keto diet isn't actually palatable. You should be getting 80-90% of your daily calories from fat sources. Our bodies love fat. It tastes good and we need it to function. But think about eating cookies every day for every meal. You get sick of it, right? With the Keto diet, you can't really switch it up. You are committing to high fat foods every day for every meal.

2. Eating high fat does not mean you're in ketosis. I'm a stickler on this one. There's a big difference between having a lot of fat in your diet, which is perfectly healthy and can help you lose body fat (especially if this is a change in your diet) and eating to the point of ketosis. Remember that reaching a state of ketosis is triggering your body to think it's starving and fuel itself differently.

3. The amount of carbs you eat matters. To be in ketosis, you should not be consuming more than 20 grams of carbohydrates daily. This means if you're not tracking and measuring your food, you're doing it wrong and you're probably way off. To clarify, 20 grams of carbs won't even get you a full banana, and it includes the veggies you're eating for that you aren't eating solely meat, eggs, avocado and cooking oils.

4. Just like with carbs, the amount of protein you eat matters. In the absence of carb sources for energy, your body will convert protein into glucose if it has enough of it to do so. That being said you need to get enough to allow your cells to function properly, but not too much or your body will be internally combatting your efforts. And this amount is unique to you based on your muscle mass, so there's no one right measurement for protein intake.

5. In case you hadn't come to this conclusion yet, there is a lot of tracking involved. In fact, if you're not testing your ketone levels daily, there's no way on knowing if what you are doing is working. So much of nutrition is trial and error, finding out what works best for you body, and what you can sustain long term. You can buy testing strips and test your ketone levels through your urine, but you have to do so regularly.

6. Keto is meant to be a consistent and long-term diet. This means that you cannot eat Keto during the week and binge on pizza on the weekend. It doesn't work that way and it's a real commitment to your consistency in the diet. It takes time for your body to actually deplete of glucose and move into a state of ketosis, and it's possible to do metabolic damage if you are unable to commit to it.

There's a million articles on the interwebs to help you learn about the Keto diet and how to include more fat into your diet to do it, but if it's something that interests you I urge you to commit fully, be consistent, do your tracking, and possibly work with an expert to keep yourself safe. There's nothing more frustrating than starting a diet, seeing results, just to have the weight bounce right back.