Ketosis? help

hello....in the simplist terms, can you please describe ketosis to me. What it does to your body, the negative as well as the positive effect.

I believe I am starting to get an understanding but still a little unsure.

Ever since thanksgiving, I have been a a really strict diet containing veggies, lean protein and fat. I had one cheat meal on X mas eve and from then on I have switched and been on JUST Lean protein and fat. Right now I am the 5th week and have now just starting to see great results.

I do not lift weights anymore do a injury and just do cardio every morning on an empty stomach to loose fat and basically look good. I use to bodybuild a few years ago (never competed) but now would rather have a medium build instead of huge....so I just want to lean out. Im not tryint to look like a competing bodybuilder but I would like to look really riped. Any advice would be great..

I am 170lbs
around 10% BF
23 YO

bump

Very Simply your body needs glucose at all times. When you cut out dietary glucose you are forced to create glucose from other sources. After a few days of carb restriction you will enter ketosis, which enables your body to convert fats to glucose. This is an inefficient process and normally results in lethargy, headaches, concentration issues etc...Not ideal unless you are a diabetic or epileptic.

ok well since i posted this ive been trying to do more reasearch. Another question i have is what color should the keto sticks be to optimize fat burning?

^ there is usually a color index on the bottle that you bought them off of, i did an atkins (i know, shoot me) diet last summer and i used those to gague my progress and make sure i was still burning fat as fuel rather than carbs...

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Originally Posted by Always Liftin'

^ there is usually a color index on the bottle that you bought them off of, i did an atkins (i know, shoot me) diet last summer and i used those to gague my progress and make sure i was still burning fat as fuel rather than carbs...

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yeah it does, but that was the very thing that i was conmfused about. Do you want the color darker for the most fat being burned, or do you want it lighter.....

bumpy

You just want some color, enough to show that you are in ketosis, If its heeps dark it probably means you are getting deyhdrated and need to drink more water.

and consume under 50 carbs per day to ensure ketosis..

still not the ideal.. at 10% bf you are lean already.. to get to a ripped state you will not be able to obtain that condition at the rate you are going.. the body will turn on the muscle.. and it does sound like you are dehydrated..

good luck..

I have found the cutting sticky to be the best keepable approach to fat lose.. and keep or build muscle at the same time

Yeah i am getting tons of water. I usually drink between 2.5 and 3g a day. I was drinking crystal light like crazy cause I was still in the "pink" (trace) and I figured that all the crystal light and splenda i was using was causing it to be in "pink" and not "purple". I am lean as hell too, I just wanted to be able to see a complete 6, perhaps 8 pack. This would totally make me happy...but Honestly i really dont care about loosing muscle. All i really care about is the fat. I am totally content with staying small instead of being heaping with muscle.. But you said that at the rate im going I wont be able to obtain that goal? Why is that? is there anything more that I can do to speed or better help this fat lose?

Gluconeogenesis is the process by which lipids, amino acid and/or glycerol units are converted to glucose in the liver. This is a part of ketosis.

Ketosis is simply the liver being starved of glucose. Ketones are produced in this process and 'burned' throughout the body, leading to sweet smelling breath (acetone, mistaken for acetyl alcohol). Ketones are a means of making the energy stored in fat available in water soluble form, and to reduce the need for glucose as a fuel. During the initial stages of glucose starvation, the brain does not burn ketones, since they are an important substrate for lipid synthesis in the brain. But after several days of starvation, the brain transitions to burning ketones in order to utilise the energy from the fat stores. Ketones and glucose are the only two things that the brain can run on.

Theres a form of low carb diet called the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet, it's more suited for people that lift etc and want the benefits of fast weight loss of atkins but don't want to loose muscle in the process. It is realy hardcore and you have to be very strict. Try looking it up on the net, theres a site dedicated to it, c-k-d or something like that.

I recommend Body Opus by Dan Duchaine and Ultimate Diet 2.0 by Lyle Mcdonald... two pretty highly regarded books on keto...

Personally, i don't really care about the color of my ketostix as long as I'm in ketosis... lots of factors will influence the color of your urine... including consuming too much protein which as a BB is definitely what you want...

Yeah, hit up Google and type in KETO DIETS and you'll find all the answers you need.

~SC~

alright, thanks guys!!!

if your wanting to burn fat make sure the colour is in the darkest region...However ketosis is not good for you at all...Loss of brrain cells/Damage....blood vessels are damaged,,,,breath stinks of pear drops/real tacky mouth

were did you get keto srips at ???

What should I expect with the bad breath? what do you mean by tacky mouth? I bought my keto strips at my local pharmacy

tacky mouth as in dry, kind of sticky

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Originally Posted by BIGPHIL

tacky mouth as in dry, kind of sticky

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AHhh yes i see. that I just what I have! so good. I cant figure out what the hell im doing wrong here. I am tryin my hardest to get the color darker but just cant do it. I am following my diet to a T. I wonder if perhaps I am not getting enough fat. hmm....Maybe i'll up the fat cal and see if that is what it is. Thanks though

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Originally Posted by steve0

were did you get keto srips at ???

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target, wallmart, wallgreens

I don't think it matters how dark it is, if you want to make it dark just don't drink any water for a while and the ketones will just build up and be more concentrated in your urine . It will get darker but won't mean shit, you will still be burnng fat at the same rate.
Or you can do a massive cardio session and I bet 30mins - 1hr latter it will be dark purple for a few hours.
The color on the strip should only be uses as a guide to show that your are still in ketosis, not how deep you are in or anything. It's only realy used to test how you react to different levels of carbs in your meals. to see how many carbs your body can tolerate without getting out of ketosis.
If your strips are showning pink all the time then you are doining everything right, as your in ketosis 24/7. the only time you have to worry is when they don't show any color, which could mean that you ate some food with hidden carbs, or are not eating enought fat or whatever.

Is anyone of you that are doing the Atkins diet on any gear while doing the diet?

bump!

You need serious carbs to grow, and grow big. i doubt anyone would restrict carbs to anywhere nearly only 50g while bulking on gear.

I dont do steroids...but...

Im trying a diet with I guess carb loading:

Basically I just eat pro/fat with fiber ed...EXCEPT:

Tues/Thurs: I carb up with about 200g of low GI carbs - Whole wheat pasta brown rice oatmeal banana...

Just something I need to try so I can see what it does...