Dieting Delilah - I help diet

Well, this was a question I got asked by a very good friend of mine. I knew that ketosis had something to do with dieting, but wasn’t sure what the word actually meant. So I did a little bit of research and - voila – now I know what it is and want to share my knowledge with you.

Ketones are molecules produced by our bodies, to be more precise by the liver, which turns fatty acid into these sources of energy and fuel.

Diets, like the Atkins diet, are based on ketons being the major source of energy for the body. Thereby unlike with other diets not water and muscle tissue is lost with ketogenic diets but the loss of actual fat leads to long term weight loss.The key with those diets is that a minimum amount of carbohydrates is consumed to reach the state of ketosis.

“Ketosis” is often confused with ketoacidosis, which is a life-threatening condition connected to diabetes, but kitosis is not dangerous at all. Many people also spell the word wrong and write kitosis, but ketois is actually the right word. To be in ketosis means that your body’s major source of energy is actually fat. However, you just have to be aware to consume enough protein so that your body has no need to break down your muscle tissue.

I read that when you try a ketosis diet for the first time you will not feel too well for the first 1 to 4 days, but then your body adjusts to just being fuelled by ketones. It will take another 2 to 4 weeks until your body is finally efficiently burning body fat as fuel. In the Atikins diet the major goal is to get into and maintain kitosis, which is why the diet is so strict.

This is the same with other ketone based diets, like the Zone diet.

There are even special ketone strips that can detect if you are in ketosis if they are held into the urine of a person. People undergoing a ketosis diet can thereby test if they are in ketosis, meaning if the weight loss really really comes from lost fat.

That is really an interesting concept! I have never tried out the Atikins diet and only read about it on other blogs, but please let us know how it was like to be "in ketosis"!

Yours,

Delilah

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