How To Achieve Ketosis Without Following A Keto Diet
Ketosis is the metabolic state that occurs when your body doesn’t have enough glucose from carbohydrates to burn for energy. When this happens, fat is converted into ketone bodies, which your body will then use for fuel. While a keto diet can help you achieve ketosis, it’s not the only method. Read on to find out how to achieve ketosis without following a strict keto diet.
Being on a keto diet means your body will fall into ketosis; however, being in ketosis doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on a keto diet.
It involves the body producing ketone bodies out of fat and using them for energy instead of carbs. You can get into ketosis by following a low carb, moderate protein and higher fat ketogenic diet, like The Fast 800 Keto. However, a keto diet may not be right for everyone and is not the only method of achieving ketosis.
The Fast 800 Keto combines a traditional keto diet with the principles of a Mediterranean-style diet, which science continues to recognise as one of the healthiest out there. While this approach can be extremely effective for accelerated weight loss, it may not be sustainable for everyone and is certainly not a long-term plan. If you don’t think the keto approach is right for you but are hoping to achieve mild ketosis, here are some ways to induce it on any of the other approaches of The Fast 800.
“Once you flip the ketosis switch its so easy. All you have to do is follow the plan and the rest takes care of itself.”
– Current Online Programme Member
START YOUR WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY TODAY!How To Achieve Ketosis
Time-restricted eating
Intermittent fasting has been recognised to speed up the process in which ketone bodies are produced.
Around 12 hours after eating your final meal, the sugar stored in your muscles (glycogen) will be depleted. As a result, your body will be forced to release some of your fat stores, which convert into ketones, flipping your metabolic switch to begin burning fat and therefore, inducing the process of ketosis.
If you’re new to TRE, we recommend starting with a 12:12 pattern (12 hours fasting : 12 hours eating window) or if you’re more experienced, you may wish to try 14:10 or 16:8. The Fast 800 Online Programme now has two meal a day (TMAD) plans for anyone looking to enjoy a 16:8 method of fasting while having confidence that they are hitting nutritional targets, which is often difficult to achieve when splitting your daily intake over just two meals.
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Consecutive fasting days on the 5:2 diet
When following The New 5:2 diet, you may wish to fast on two consecutive days, which could help to induce mild ketosis, as per Dr Mosley’s recommendation in his latest book.
However, our top advice for altering your fasting days while following The New 5:2 or The 3:4 Transition plans are to work your fasting days around you and your schedule. Most people find them to work well on their busiest days where there’s little time to think about food and especially on days where there are no social events in the diary!
Increase your physical activity
One method of increasing your ketone levels is to exercise in a fasted state. Muscles are able to switch between two energy pathways: glucose-burning and fat-burning. Muscles use glucose preferentially, but when glucose has run out, they burn fat instead.
One way to trigger fat-burning during exercise is to train for long periods, so that the body’s stores of glucose are used up – runners’ term this “hitting the wall”. Another, more realistic way is to train during a fast and the simplest method to achieve this is by training before breakfast.
A final point
If you have put on a little weight and are looking to shift it quickly, you may wish to follow The Fast 800 Keto meal plans, or The Very Fast 800, for a short period of time to kick-start weight loss (if you’ve previously completed 12 weeks of 800 calories then we suggest no more than two weeks after an extended break).
Alternatively, if the plans don’t suit you and your lifestyle, we recommend trying TRE, consecutive fasting days on The New 5:2 or fasted exercise to flip your metabolic switch and burn fat. Both of these options are supported on our Online Programme with meal plans for all approaches along with a comprehensive and progressive exercise programme with options for true beginner through to advanced levels of fitness. You’ll also have access to a library of Pilates workouts, mindfulness resources and our interactive Community where you can chat to like-minded people focussed on their health.