Ketosis vs Keto Adapted

The goal is keto adaptation. The path to get there is consistent ketosis.

Ketosis is the process of burning ketones (fat) rather than glucose (sugar) for fuel. Read the basics here.

Keto Adaption is a long term shift in your body’s way of metabolizing and reacting to all fuels.

From the reddit/r/keto (amazing resource by the way — check out the link)

One of the goals of the keto diet is being “keto adapted”. This means that your body is primed for functioning with very little glucose. Different enzymes are involved for breaking down fat than breaking down glucose. When you first enter ketosis, you are using fat for energy, but at first it’s in limited amounts because you don’t have as many fat-converting enzymes. These get built up over time. This is what causes the tiredness at the beginning of the diet. Once the enzymes are in place, your cells change the way they get energy. It’s really amazing all the changes that have to happen internally for keto-adaptation to happen. It’s like you can’t just put diesel into a regular car engine and expect everything to work smoothly.

How long does it take to become keto adapted?

Anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the person, their history of sugar use, and their sugar intake through the initial (induction) phase.

What are the benefits of keto adaptation?

You will have more energy.

You will be able to better handle an incident where you go over on carbs and return to ketosis more quickly.

How will you know you have adapted?

Not hungry. No food cravings. Food has stopped being important. (This makes intermittent fasting easy.) It becomes easy to “stay on track” with your meal plans and not eat the crap all around you. You will walk past a box of donuts like “whatever.”

You will stop feeling tired, lethargic or muzzy headed (which is common while your body switches from sugar burning to fat burning — aka -KETO FLU).

What questions do you have? Coming up next.

How can you tell you are in ketosis?