How to get into Ketosis – Top 10 Simple & Effective Ways That Work

January 3, 2018 by Spencer Rowles Blog Weight Loss

Looking to jumpstart your keto diet or find effective ways on how to get into ketosis?

There are plenty of things that you can do to jumpstart this process.

Ketosis is a body process that occurs when you don’t have any carbohydrates or sugar in your body. Most of the time, your body burns sugar to get its energy. When your body burns sugar, it produces insulin to help metabolize it.

Unfortunately, insulin has the nasty side effect of suppressing fat burning and even triggering fat storage. Even worse, the hunger pangs you feel between meals trigger when your body burns all of its sugar and needs more to keep running.

However, if you stop eating carbs and eliminate sugar from your diet, your body triggers the ketosis process.

With this being said, let’s take a look at the top 10 ways on how to get into Ketosis.

How to Get into Ketosis – Top 10 Effective Ways

1. Examine the Carb Levels of Your Favorite Foods

Most people in this world are carb addicts and will have a hard time adjusting to ketosis. Before starting, take a look at the carbohydrate levels of your favorite foods. Calculate how many carbs you eat in a day and figure out how many you’ll have to cut out to get into ketosis. For example, most people probably eat 300 grams of carbs daily.

That means you’re going to have to cut out 250-275 net carbs from your diet every day! Start out by eliminating foods that are high in sugar, like candy bars. Next, find ways to cut your serving levels down. In this way, you can minimize your carbohydrate consumption and get into ketosis more quickly.

2. Find Fatty Foods You Love

Take the time to find fatty foods that you can use to replace your foods. For example, let’s say you eat a bowl of oatmeal every morning for breakfast. Cut out this carb-heavy food and replace it with eggs and sausage. These foods have zero net carbs but provide a high level of fat and healthy protein.

Next, move on to finding fruits and vegetables that minimize your sugar intake. Berries and avocados are your best bet because they have the least amount of sugar. Veggies such as broccoli are often nearly as high in protein as many types of meat. Try this diet out for a day to see how it feels.

3. Start Using Coconut Oil

When you start cooking your meats for a ketogenic diet, switch up your cooking oil by using coconut oil. There are a few reasons for this change. The most important of these is the fact that coconut oils contain medium-chain triglycerides. Most people don’t get enough of these healthy fats in their diet.

More importantly, these fats are absorbed directly into your liver and convert fat into energy more quickly. As a result, you will get into ketosis faster. Even better, you can decrease your risk of severe nervous system problems!

4. Flavor Your Foods With Delicious Additives

While many people will fall in love with a ketogenic diet at first, they may lack imagination for flavoring meat dishes. We suggest using ghee to flavor many of your meats. It is delicious, filled with healthy fats, and helps to trigger ketosis.

You should also use low-sugar peanut butter to boost the flavor of chicken dishes. And if you are suffering from a sudden craving for sweet foods, low-carb dark chocolate chips are an excellent snack choice. If you get bored of water and tea (as you cannot drink fruit juice or sodas on this diet), flavor your drinks with lemon!

5. Kickstart Ketosis With a Fast

Ketosis is a simple way to simulate a fast in your body. However, it isn’t a bad idea to start out a ketogenic diet by fasting for 24 hours. During this period, you should drink only water and ingest only soup bouillon. This step will get your body into ketosis by eliminating all of the sugar and carbohydrates you’ve eaten during that period.

Just as importantly, it will help your body get used to what it is like to live without carbohydrates. That’s because the hardest part of this diet is cutting out bread and other delicious foods. However, you can also cheat a little by using alternatives to these baking items, which we will discuss below.

6. Coconut Flour is Your Best Friend

If you’re a fan of delicious pizzas, you may be disheartened to know that you can’t have any on ketosis. However, if you replace your normal flour with coconut flour, you can make ketosis-friendly pizzas! You can then layer them with meats, artichoke hearts, and broccoli to lose weight while eating your favorite foods.

We also suggest using coconut oil for just about any other kind of baking dishes. For example, you can cook ketosis-friendly cakes, cupcakes, and much more. That said, make sure that you eliminate sugar and use an alternative, like Stevia, to stay in ketosis.

7. Bake Cheese Chips for Snacking

If you love chowing down on potato chips, you must learn how to make these delicious cheese chips for your ketosis diet. These chips are very easy to make and will keep you in a ketogenic state. Start by placing wax paper on a baking pan and sprinkling small circles of shredded cheese on the sheet.

Place the baking sheet in the oven and cook them until the cheese is hard and lightly brown. Now, you can remove the chips and chow down. You can also add other types of flavoring to create diverse kinds of chips. This tip is particularly great for those who love snaking regularly.

8. Don’t Neglect a Supplement

It may surprise you to learn that there are several supplements available that help to start ketosis. These supplements are a great choice if you need a little help getting into this kind of diet. In fact, some of these supplements can be used to get you into ketosis in less than a day. As a result, you can become a fat-burning machine without much hassle.

We suggest BHB supplements and keto sales. Unfortunately, the latter type doesn’t taste very good at all. That said, there’s no faster way to get into keto without a lot of hassle. This choice is wise if you have fallen off the keto wagon and need a little help getting back onto it. And don’t forget that you can reactive your ketogenic state at any time! In fact, that point brings us to the next tip.

9. Consider Breaks From Keto

The toughest part of this kind of diet is staying on it for extended periods. However, ketogenic diets offer you the option of getting off them temporarily and rejoining them at any time. For example, you could enjoy a large pizza once every two weeks and then immediately start back on your normal ketogenic diet.

Within just a few days, your body will process the sugar and carbohydrates in your body, and you’ll be back to losing fat. We suggest these breaks no more than once or twice a month. Any more will run the risk of creating a yo-yo dieting situation that can be dangerous for your heart health. The keto supplements we mentioned above are particularly useful for this process.

10. Eat When You Need to Eat

If you feel hungry during your ketogenic diet, don’t hesitate to eat. Remember that your caloric intake isn’t that important on this diet. This fact makes it one of the most useful for people with larger appetites. That’s another reason it’s so useful for obese people. They naturally have a larger caloric need due to their weight, and keto lets these individuals eat as much as they need while still losing weight.

Also, make sure to eat slowly and to let your body acclimate to the amount of food in your stomach. It takes at least 10-15 minutes for your body to realize it is full. As a result, you may overeat and feel sick. Thankfully, the ketogenic diet helps avoid this problem because it focuses on foods that naturally make you feel fuller than usual.

Extra tips on how to get into ketosis 

• Take Omega-3 supplements to improve your fat content
• Avoid alcohol during your diet, as this drink disrupts ketosis
• Cut out all cream cheese, as it is too high in carbohydrates
• Workout every day to increase your fat-burning needs
• Use cast-iron patterns to increase your meat’s flavor
• Avoid low-fat foods at all times to boost your fat intake
• Take fiber and psyllium husk supplements to improve digestion
• Drink soup bouillon to further improve digestion
• Aim for at least 140-160 grams of water every day to avoid constipation
• Use coconut milk to flavor your baked goods and make them tastier
• Get at least 7-9 hours of sleep to keep your ketones balanced
• Eliminate stress with meditation and avoid panicked or nervous eating

Where Did Keto Diet Originate?

These types of fasting behaviors have been common for thousands of documented years. The earliest known use of the ketogenic diet was during 500 BC. Fasting diets like these were used to treat epilepsy and other ailments in these ancient times.

While ketogenic diets are still used by some specialists to manage childhood epilepsy, it has mostly become a popular diet choice. A growing number of people are turning to it and finding that it helps them lose weight quickly and efficiently. The useful nature of ketosis and ketogenic diets have been proven for decades, but a debate rages on whether or not these types of diets are safe.

Is Keto Safe?

Controversy about the safety of ketogenic diets has obscured many of its obvious benefits. For example, one study on this diet method found that it was a useful alternative method for treating epilepsy and other types of diseases. They also believed it was a safe way to lose weight and stay in shape. However, they were concerned about how difficult it would be to remain on this type of diet. They were also unsure of the potential long-term ramifications of such an extreme diet.

Another study found that a low carbohydrate diet like this helps to improve fat metabolism and reduces body weight. That said, they were concerned about the potential for bound or constipated digestive tracts and believed that ketogenic diets that used foods that mimicked carbohydrates were a better choice. In spite of some concern, their final statement was that a ketogenic diet was a useful tool to medically-manage severe obesity.

So, getting into a ketogenic diet on your own will require a careful adjustment period and help from a dietitian. However, you can also try it out on your own if you are careful and follow the steps we will outline below. Before we do that, it is essential for you to understand the many keto diet variations and understand which type we are going to help you master.

There are Many Types of Keto Diets

The most basic kind of keto diet available is known as the Standard Ketogenic Diet or SKD. SKD requires you to eat no more than 20-50 grams of carbs every day. The rest of your calories will be split into fat and protein sources. The number of calories and the types of food you eat will be completely up to your choice.

Before talking about other diet types, it is important to remember that your carb levels are “net” carbs, not total carbs. Net carbs subtract the fiber from the total carb count. So if your meal had 14 grams of carbs with eight grams of fiber, you would have six net grams in that meal. Keep this calculation in mind because it can help you adjust a little more comfortably.

The second type of ketogenic diet is the Targeted Ketogenic Diet or TKD. TKD requires that you eat all of your carbs just before going on a 30-60 minute exercise routine. You must also avoid foods that are high in fructose and choose foods with glucose. Like SKD, you will eat 25-50 grams of net carbs. After you are done exercising, you would eat fatty foods to rebuild your muscles.

The last type of diet on this list is Cyclic Ketogenic Diet or CKD. This kind of diet is the most extreme because you must “carb-load” for 24-48 hours. During this period, you must eat 450-600 grams of carbs. You must then jump down to about 50 grams every day. This yo-yo diet is only appropriate for people who plan on bulking up their muscle mass.

For this article, you will be learning about mastering SKD. It is the easiest method to understand and requires the least amount of dietary changes. If you master SKD and are interested in the other types of ketogenic diets we have mentioned, feel free to try them out.

The Psmf Diet or Protein Sparing Modified Fast is a ketosis-based way of eating designed to invoke rapid and significant weight loss in just weeks with minimal exercise.

Don’t Hesitate to Try Ketogenic Diets for Yourself

By now, you should have a pretty good idea as to what makes up a ketogenic diet. Even better, you should have a strong and detailed guide towards getting started on this healthy new path to weight loss. Talking to your doctor about these changes can help you streamline them and make them even easier. For example, a dietitian can help you find high-quality ketogenic foods that will maintain your weight loss easily.

And don’t forget to stay physically active, hydrated, and work to avoid the kind of severe constipation or bowel impact problems that can occur with ketogenic diets. While these diets can be a healthy way of losing weight, they can also bind you up and make it hard to pass fecal matter. Fiber supplements can help here because they will break down your bowels and make them easier to pass. It will also help to increase your metabolic rate even more.

Another critical factor to consider during this diet is your cholesterol levels. Unfortunately, some people may have heightened levels during a ketogenic diet due to the fatty foods they eat. Higher levels of cholesterol increase your chances of severe heart disease and cardiac arrest. Get your cholesterol levels tested regularly during this period to avoid grave dangers. If your levels rise too much, dietary changes are likely necessary.

Just as importantly, make sure that you have fun with your ketogenic diet and work hard to ensure it is a balanced and healthy routine. Dietary fatigue is a real problem and may cause you to fall off the ketogenic bandwagon. Even worse, you may end up turning to lower-quality ketogenic foods to save money.

Go all in with your ketogenic diet and be willing to spend a little money. While it won’t be cheap, it can help you stay on the right track for ketogenic dietary success. Even better, try to get someone you know to get involved in your new diet routine. This can streamline the process and make it even more effective.

Resources

Heathline: Ketogenic Diet Foods

News Medical: History of the Ketogenic Diet