For some people, Keto can be something mystical and always out of their reach. Indeed, it’s difficult to establish a state of nutritional ketosis, but everyone can do it by using the easiest way to get into ketosis.

What You Need for Ketosis

Getting into ketosis requires these conditions to be met.

Liver glycogen stores (100-150 grams of glucose) have been depleted and the liver starts converting fatty acids into ketone bodies. This takes approximately 16 hours or so.

and the liver starts converting fatty acids into ketone bodies. This takes approximately 16 hours or so. The concentration of serum blood ketone levels is above 0.5 mMols , optimally not higher than 3.0 mMols.

mMols optimally not higher than 3.0 mMols. Blood sugar and circulating insulin have dropped significantly, while not causing a hypoglycemic response.

You can accomplish it with two things:

Fast for an extended period of time

Restrict your carbohydrate intake to close to zero for a few weeks

Both of them are almost identical – fasting induces ketosis, and the ketogenic diet mimics the physiology of fasting to a great degree.

Fasting Ketosis VS Nutritional Ketosis

There’s not much difference between fasting ketosis and nutritional ketosis. The only distinction is what physiological state your body is in, but they still have a few unique traits.

Fasting Ketosis – You haven’t consumed any calories for 24+ hours and thus experience higher levels of blood ketones. In addition, you’ve elevated the metabolic pathway called ‘autophagy’ that causes cellular repair and maintenance.

Nutritional Ketosis – You’ve established ketosis by restricting carbohydrates to almost zero and have depleted liver glycogen that way. Ketone bodies get created but you’re still in a fed state, thus suppressing autophagy.

While getting into fasting ketosis takes about 1-3 days, nutritional ketosis requires 2-3 weeks of keto-adaptation, during which you need to stay close attention to how many carbs and protein you eat, and how it affects your blood sugar levels.

Strict water fasting reduces circulating blood glucose and insulin levels while raising glucagon and ketones, which promote fat burning and ketosis.

Not only is fasting the fastest way of establishing ketosis, but it’s also the easiest.

The Easiest Way to Get Into Ketosis

It’s FASTING.

The liver starts producing ketones only after its glycogen stores are empty.

At first, your muscles and brain will go through a short energy crisis because the metabolism is still geared towards burning glucose.

Because of that, the body will experience slightly higher rates of gluconeogenesis to compensate for the lack and converts some of the protein found in muscles and organs into sugar.

After 3 days, your body begins to realize that this sh#t is real – that carbs have indeed run out and that, in order to survive, it needs to come up with another solution. The brain will then accept ketone bodies as energy and will derive 75% of its energy demands from them. At day 4-5, ketone bodies may rise up to 70-fold.

Fasting Is Better

Fasting has taken up a negative connotation in society and the medical community, although it’s been practiced by many cultures of the world for centuries. In my opinion, it should be the foundational cornerstone of a healthy diet or lack thereof.

There’s also a huge difference between fasting, starvation and caloric restriction.

Starvation – The body doesn’t have access to essential nutrients and is slowly wasting away by cannibalizing its vital organs. A gradual process of degradation.

Caloric Restriction – You’re consuming fewer calories needed to maintain your current energy demands. What ensues is burning stored fat. However, it the body tries to compensate for it by decreasing metabolic rate, down-regulating reproductive hormones, thyroid functioning and gluconeogenesis, especially if not keto-adapted. This is basically starvation, you’re still eating but not in adequate amounts, thus degrading.

Fasting – Despite not having consumed any calories, your body is still nourished. By shifting into ketosis, you’ll be burning body fat for energy exclusively. Ketones are protein sparing and they give more energy to the brain, thus you preserve all your vital organs. Micronutrients can be covered as well because they’re primarily stored in our bones.

Fasting does not equal starvation because after you shift into ketosis, you’ll have direct access to your body fat. With caloric restriction, this shift won’t happen and you’ll simply stay malnourished. Doing intermittent fasting is the healthiest and easiest way of losing fat and getting into ketosis.

Why Fasting is Easier

You’re actually better off by not consuming any food at all, rather than feeding yourself in inadequate amounts. That’s why people who experience malnutrition burn off their muscle but still have quite a lot of body fat on them – they’re starving and not in ketosis.

This applies to both physically as well as mentally. Having practiced intermittent fasting and done several 3-5 day fasts, I must say that it’s not difficult at all. It’s actually quite enjoyable and blissful.

Hunger becomes less of an issue the longer you fast. The more your body adapts to ketones, the better it becomes at burning your stored fat for energy. This prevents you from getting hungry and if you do, you can easily stave it off by drinking water or other non-caloric beverages.

The more your body adapts to ketones, the better it becomes at burning your stored fat for energy. This prevents you from getting hungry and if you do, you can easily stave it off by drinking water or other non-caloric beverages. The sensation of hunger does not change the longer you fast either. There’s a difference between getting hungry in between lunch and dinner vs not eating for 24 hours, but beyond that, the feeling stays the same. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been fasting for 2 days or 7, the signal of hunger stays the same.

There’s a difference between getting hungry in between lunch and dinner vs not eating for 24 hours, but beyond that, the feeling stays the same. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been fasting for 2 days or 7, the signal of hunger stays the same. Hunger follows a circadian pattern that’s linked to your habitual eating habits. You get hungry in the morning because you’ve taught your brain that usually, that’s the time to expect food. That’s why snacking in between meals is one of the worst habits to have. Eat your food once and be done with it. Force your body to burn its stored fat instead.

It’s easier to fast. To lose weight, to prevent hunger, to get into ketosis.

How to Stay In Ketosis

But you can’t fast for the rest of your life. The longest recorded one lasted for 382 days, during which an Irish man went from 456 pounds (~207 kg) to 180 pounds (~82 kg). So, he lost 276 pounds (~125kg).

You can get into ketosis by fasting for 3-5 days already. Going for any longer than that can actually be counterproductive unless you do it for weight loss purposes.

Whatever the case may be, if you want to shift from fasting ketosis into nutritional ketosis, you still need to start a well-formulated ketogenic diet. It means, after you break your fast, you continue eating low carb and high-fat meals.

Breaking the fast should be done gradually, as to not cause stress to the gut or massive fluctuations in blood sugar.

First, you introduce liquids, like a hot glass of lemon water or bone broth with a dash of salt.

Then you have something very small and easy to digest. Keep it low glycemic, like an avocado, some steamed veggies or a boiled egg.

You continue with introducing an entire meal that’s still relatively small and sub 500 calories.

Afterward, you can return to a standard ketogenic menu. Low carbs, moderate protein a lot of healthy fat.

What you want to avoid entirely are carbs, because eating large amounts of carbohydrates immediately after fasting causes an abrupt weight gain. Insulin will skyrocket and you’ll be a far fetch from ketosis.

Eating a ketogenic diet should be done as a long-term thing because you’ll start reaping the full benefits of keto-adaptation only after several months. Kickstart your fat burning pathways with fasting, but maintain it with the appropriate meal plan.

Check out my KETO // IF program that teaches you how to get into ketosis and stay there through mindful manipulation of your own biology. It includes a 21-day meal plan with the exact quantities and qualities of what you should eat, in what amounts and at what time.

KETO INTERMITTENT FASTING

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Siim