So you may have heard some of the great things about teaching your body to be in a fat-burning mode, or what is referred to as “being in ketosis.” There can be a variety of benefits for many in terms of weight loss and health, so props to you if you decided to give it a try.
Now you’ve decided to do ketosis (yay!) but maybe you found it’s not working for you (boo!). Guess what, you’re not alone. We encounter this from new PLATFORMers and those just testing out ketosis from time to time. If you don’t have more energy and/or aren’t losing body fat, it’s quite likely that you’re doing ketosis wrong.
Don’t fret though. Like I said, you’re not alone. What follows are the most common issues we’ve seen with people who haven’t yet had keto success. Look in the mirror--are you doing any of these?
Taking powders, potions and pills:
With these (processed) items there are additives that have the potential to cut the effectiveness of getting into ketosis and feeling awesome. The more that you have real food, the better off you’ll be in getting ketosis to work for you. Powders, potions and pills do have their place--but it’s unlikely they have a place in your diet right now, particularly if you haven’t dialed in ketosis yet.
Inflammatory foods:
Although you may (or may not) be eating foods higher in fat, the lion’s share of the fats are inflammatory and have a fat profile high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Crispy bacon, fried chicken skin, and peanut butter are delicious and high in fat--but they’ve also got lots of highly inflammatory fats that are oxidized when cooked at high heats. In fact, that fried burned/crispiness in your food is a pretty clear-cut sign of a structural change in the chemistry of your food, referred to as oxidation. You might be in ketosis, yet a high-inflammation diet will have you feeling like you-know-what constantly and holding onto toxins longer.
Not Enough Fat or Other Nutrients
We alluded to it up above: some of you decided to take the low-carb route and let the body do its thing. Although low carbohydrates combined with calorie-restriction can put you into ketosis, you will likely feel low in energy if you’re not replacing those carbs with healthy, high-quality fats. You may feel tired and low in energy because you literally are low in energy intake. Removing the processed carbs is one part of the equation, but replacing them with slowly utilized, sustained energy sources is critical! As well as other critical micronutrients which we’ll touch on some later.
Giving up too early:
Success usually lies on the other side of adversity. You’re doing something very new and you and your body have to adjust! You’ve been carb-dependent your entire life, and now you’ve tried to be keto-adapted for a few days and give up because it’s hard and not working. Of course it’s not working, you didn’t give it a fair shot!
Think about it: it’s reasonable to think it’ll take a bit of time to train your body to burn fat for energy when all it’s known for years and decades is to use carbs. Not giving it a chance and/or not understanding it’ll be hard to make the switch leads many to failure.
Now that you know why ketosis isn’t working for you, you need an action plan to get it working for you. Next week we’ll go over steps you can take right here, right now to get it working for you right away.