Thursday, August 18, 2011

Ketosis

When people eat less carbohydrates, the body turns to fat for energy. This is called Ketosis. In order to "trick" the body into burning fat for energy, one must take in very few carbohydrates for approximately 2-3 days straight, and then consume moderate carbs on the following day.

On the low-carb days one will only need about half of a cup of oatmeal for breakfast and a 6-8 ounce sweet potato for lunch. The rest of the day will consist of eating lots of protein and veggies. Egg whites, chicken and fish is the best forms of protein. While on a low-carb diet, drink lots of water and eat plenty of fiber and healthy fats such as flax seeds, olive/sunflower oils, almond butter, etc. 

On the moderate carb day, one should consume small amounts of carbs throughout the entire day.

It is good to cut carbs out every night at around 6-7 pm, because the access carbs will turn into sugar, which will turn in to fat. If one would like to measure the amount of fat loss during ketosis, Ketostix is used to test urine for ketones, or fatty acids.