Hey, it’s health coach Tara. Today I’m going to break down exactly why the keto diet works so well for weight loss. By the end of this article, you’ll understand the basic science behind why the keto diet produces rapid fat loss.
Why Does The Keto Diet Work For Weight Loss?
The keto diet is different from any other diet you’ve been on in the past because its goal is to change the type of fuel your body runs on. It’s pretty amazing that our bodies can do this.
Fuel Source Changes
On a normal diet, our bodies are primarily sugar burners. When we consume food, the food is digested and converted to glucose. Our body can store a few thousand calories worth of glucose in our muscles. The stored form of glucose is called glycogen.
On the keto diet, the goal is to change your fuel source from sugar (glucose) to ketones. Our body knows how to do this naturally. We are born in a state of ketosis. Let me explain how this works by walking through what happens when you start a keto diet.
What Happens To Your Body On Keto
When you start a keto diet, you drop your carbohydrate intake all the way down to 20 grams per day. In the first day or two, your body simply uses up its glycogen (stored glucose).
On the second or third day, your body begins the process of figuring out how to efficiently create and use ketone bodies for energy. It’s at this point that many people say they experience symptoms of the keto flu.
Symptoms Of Change
You may experience symptoms like fatigue, headaches, dry mouth, or shakiness. The reason for these symptoms is multilayered. If you were eating a lot of carbs and sugar before you started keto, you’re going through carb or sugar withdrawal. If you were eating a lot of gluten, some people will experience gluten withdrawal.
Finally, your body is also resisting switching over to being a fat burner. In order to produce ketones, your body has to start breaking down fat (free fatty acids) and converting them into ketones. As this happens, your body needs to learn how to use the ketones efficiently as an energy source.
There are all kinds of biological and enzymatic processes that occur as your body adapts to using ketones for fuel.
Adaptation Varies
The breaking down of fat stores into ketones is what makes the keto diet so powerful for weight loss. How long it takes to get into ketosis and become adapted varies from person to person. Our experience demonstrates that men tend to get into ketosis faster than women. On average, most of us are in ketosis after a week.
At this point, our body has made the switch to burning fat for fuel. To lose fat rapidly, begin moderate calorie restriction after you’re in ketosis and keep your carbs between 20-30 grams of total carbohydrates per day.
How To Start Keto
Next, you may be wondering just how to start the keto diet. If you want results, and want them quickly...this next article is for you.
You've likely heard story after story of people losing large amounts of fat very quickly with a ketogenic diet. In this article, I talk about how to start keto in 2021 and share what you need to know for rapid fat loss with the Keto Diet. It's not going to be what you think 😉.
Click the link for my How To Start Keto Video. Also, visit our website at www.wholebodyliving.com and sign up for our Free Weekly Meal Plans and our free keto food list to help you get started!
If you liked this article, please take a moment to comment and let me know what else you'd like to see.
Each week on Tara's Keto Kitchen, our YouTube channel, we post a new keto recipe video and new how to keto videos. If you ever have a question, comment on any of our videos or blogs and we’ll get back to you as soon as we see it. We do our best to respond to every question and often make new content based on the questions we see.
Until next time, this is health coach tara of Tara’s keto kitchen wishing you the best of health.
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