Why Ketosis Is The Secret To Healthy Low Carb Weight Loss

May 31, 2011 by Greg Williams  
Filed under weight loss

Low carb diet plans have many attractive features. There is no need to purchase special diet foods, follow a meal plan or count calories. You can burn body fat while continuing to eat creamy dairy products and succulent, juicy beef and pork. Best of all, you don’t ever need to go hungry. One of the most often misunderstood and misrepresented aspects of low carb dieting is ketosis, the metabolic by-product of accelerated fat-burning.

Because our ancestors were hunter gatherers, our cells evolved to make use of two kinds of fuel. They can meet their energy requirements with glucose, usually derived from plant-based foods. Alternatively, they can run on fatty acids, either from animal foods, or from fat deposits in the body. When we are trying to lose weight, we would obviously prefer our metabolism to burn stored fat for energy.

We can switch to a fat-burning metabolism by restricting carbohydrates. Without sufficient dietary sugars and starches, the body cannot meet its energy requirements with glucose. To maintain its energy balance, it produces the hormone glucagon. This triggers the process by which fat cells release their stored energy. Ketones are molecules produced when stored fat is broken down into free fatty acids.

Ketones are a perfectly normal component of our metabolism, even when we aren’t on a diet. We are in a fasting state during sleep each night. Once the body has used up the glucose circulating in the blood from its last meal, it needs to release stored energy to maintain basic functions. As it does so, it generates ketones.

Because stored fat is continually converted into energy in the absence of glucose from carbohydrates, a low carb diet naturally leads to the production of more ketones. When levels of ketones rise to the point where they can be measured in the blood, we are said to be in ketosis.

Once created, ketones cannot be converted back to stored fat. Many cells, including those in the brain and central nervous system, will use ketones to meet some of their energy requirements. The heart and kidneys will run on energy from ketones in preference to glucose.

One type of ketone molecule, acetone, cannot be used as energy and must be excreted. When released through the breath, it has a distinctive fruity odor that some people find unpleasant. Most low carb diet programs advise drinking plenty of liquids so that excess acetone will be carried out of the body in the urine.

A major advantage of a a ketogenic diet for weight loss is that it reduces appetite and food cravings. When fatty acids are constantly being released from deposits to circulate in the bloodstream, hunger signals are inhibited. The body does not require glucose from sugary and starchy foods because it has a readily available source of energy that is preferred by some of the vital organs.

On a typical weight loss diet, when calories are reduced to the point that the body burns its own fat, it burns its own muscle tissue as well. Ketogenic low carb diets promote the release of fatty acids and ketones for use as fuel and encourage the intake of plenty of dietary protein. This combination protects the body’s lean muscle tissue.

When we are in ketosis as a result of limiting carbohydrates, it means that our body is breaking down excess fat and burning it for energy. There is nothing unnatural about this process. It is exactly what we want to happen when we set out to lose weight. A low carb ketogenic diet plan is a healthy alternative to a low fat, low calorie diet.

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An Idiot Proof Diet? It’s So Simple!

August 29, 2010 by Anil Pandey  
Filed under weight loss

For those who are planning to be slim, this is one of the most widely accepted diets. It is popularly know as fat loss 4 idiots diet. To some, the name may seem a bit awkward, even silly. The reason for this silliness is its simplicity. It is so simple that even a person without any knowledge whatsoever can still follow. However, a lot of science works behind it. The whole shifting calories method is the the basis of it.

The shifting calorie method is no new discovery. The shifting calorie diet works on the principle of our metabolism getting used to the type and quantity of food we intake. It is true. If you give your body a certain amount of time, your body will get accustomed to the diet you are following. That is the reason why you manage to lose weight when you follow low-fat, low-carbohydrates and low-protein diets. Do it long enough and your body will get accustomed to it and you will shed no more weight. Our bodies have been made in such a way that our metabolism adjusts fast enough to the changes we make, be it eating less of carbohydrates, fats and proteins or eating a different quantity of food as compared to before.

The body needs to work hard to be able to burn fat. In case the body is not active and providing high levels of metabolism, more time would be required to burn down the fat. Simply put, the higher the metabolism rate of the body, the higher the rate of burning of fat. A significant drawback of diets that are based on slow metabolism is that they stop being effective as soon you are off the diet.

The perfect diet would be, one that keeps changing your metabolism, giving your body no chance to get used to it. That is exactly what the shifting calorie method is all about. You keep changing your eating routine and that indeed leads to high metabolism which then reacts into weight loss. Makes sense doesn’t it? The idiot proof diet is formed along the same lines. The diet offers you a different list of rules to follow. The diet encourages you to eat 4 meals a day. The type of food you eat at every meal will be rotated ensuring that your metabolism is high and your fat is being burned out.

The best feature of this idiot proof diet is that there is no exercise involved in it. Do I have your full attention now? Yes, there is no need for any exercise. It goes a step further, helping you lose up to 9lbs in just 11 days snap! And this is just the average!

This idiot proof diet meets all its claims. But it is very important that you should be sincere to this plan. Religiously following the diet is important to get results.

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