How I Got Into Ketosis in less than 3 days
Most of us have a massive juicy repository of non essential adipose tissue which we would like to have incinerated. Ketosis is one of the best ways of achieving this goal. Ketosis offers following benefits besides fat loss:
- Increases satiety and reduces hunger and cravings.
- Lowers risk of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
- Overall well being, higher energy levels and less blood sugar spikes.
Endurance runners tend to benefit most from a ketogenic diet. This is largely due to the ability of our body to store twenty times more fat than glycogen. The maximum amount of carbs our body can hold at a time is about 2000 calories when compared to our fat stores which has the capacity to be a reservoir of approximately 40000 calories of energy. This is precisely why ultra marathoners embrace a ketogenic diet in the off season and carb load before a competition as it maximises performance and helps them prevent bonking at the finish line.
Human body takes about 2 to 10 days to get into ketosis. We start metabolising glycogen stores in about 6-8 hours and most of us require about 1-2 days of fasting to totally deplete the glycogen stores in the body. Once glycogen is depleted our body starts tapping into fat which is the secondary fuel for energy. Maintaining the sugar consumption down to zero is therefore imperative to train the body to adapt to fat. As far as my body is concerned, new machines and enzymes required by me to adapt to fat were probably under construction even before I had embarked on shifting from a sugar burning mode to a fat burning mode. During the previous months I had been following an intermittent fasting 16:8 low carb protocol.
I kickstarted the process of entering into ketosis with a two day water fast to deplete my body totally of all the glycogen stores .Beyond this point, fasting becomes counterproductive as it starts to cannibalise ( autolyse ) tissues that one is fond of … for instance, the biceps.
On the third day, Tabata app on my iPhone helped me finish an intense 25 minute HIIT (High intensity interval training) workout. HIIT helps to rev up ones metabolism and also contributes towards biogenesis of mitochondria, the power plants inside our cells.
I broke my fast after the interval training with a cup of Bullet Proof Coffee which is basically a coffee brew blended with 2 table spoons of Brain Octane Oil and 2 table spoons of clarified butter (Indian Ghee) in a blender. This coffee contains MCT oil which rapidly converts to ketones. This is a coffee which was created and popularised by the bestselling author Mr. Dave Asprey.
At lunch, I had ten eggs cooked in a tablespoon of butter with two cups of spinach cooked in mayonnaise.
After about two hours, I consumed five, 1000mg soft gels of Sports MCT Oil manufactured by Now Foods, Inc, USA and followed it up with 5 more eggs cooked with a tablespoon of butter. After a passage of couple of hours, I noticed a feeling of fatigue and some shoulder pain. I also noticed symptoms of halitosis or bad breath. Being in ketosis generates elevated levels of acetone which causes bad breath with a fruity odour. The acetone also becomes detectable in urine and blood. When I tested my urine with Ketostix, I realized that my three day journey had already led me into the wonderful ketotic universe of high energy and high performance.
K. Jayanth Murali lives in Chennai, India. He personally people improve their health and gain lean body mass through various intermittent fasting protocols as well as time restricted feeding.