Cutting carbohydrates is essential to a ketogenic diet and the most straightforward way to get into ketosis and stay there, but there’s more to the metabolic state than carbs alone. In our guide, we discuss how to achieve a state of ketosis and maintain it safely and efficiently.
Ketosis at a Glance
Ketosis is a natural metabolic state that occurs when your body is deprived of carbohydrates, your body’s main fuel source. Following a ketogenic diet means consuming less than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day to help your body seek out alternative energy sources.
With carb intake at that level, your body begins to use glycogen, or glucose stores in the muscles, before breaking down fat into molecules called ketones. The health benefits aren’t limited to weight loss. Ketosis is linked to improved blood sugar control, insulin sensitivity, energy levels, and cardiovascular health, as well as reduced inflammation and enhanced brain function. (#)
How Long Does It Take?
How long does it take to enter ketosis on the keto diet? Most healthy individuals reach ketosis in about 3-4 days of a low-carb diet like keto.
There are a number of factors that can influence that timing, including:
- Metabolism: Usually, those with a higher metabolic rate will enter ketosis faster than those with a lower metabolic rate.
- Physical activity levels: Exercise helps deplete glycogen stores in your muscles, which is necessary for your body to switch to burning fat for energy.
- Age: As you age, your metabolic rate slows down, which means it may take you longer to enter ketosis.
- Body composition: People with more glycogen stores might take longer to enter ketosis than those with fewer stores.
- Sleep habits: Lack of sleep can delay the onset of ketosis by affecting hormones that regulate metabolism and glucose levels.
- Stress levels: Stress can elevate cortisol levels, which leads to increased blood sugar levels and insulin secretion. This may delay the onset of ketosis. (#)
9 Tips for Achieving Ketosis
What are the fastest ways to get into ketosis? The fastest ways to get into ketosis include drastically reducing carbs, increasing healthy fats, and doing intermittent fasting. High-intensity exercise can deplete glycogen stores further, accelerating the process.
Supplements like MCT oil and exogenous ketones can also boost ketone levels quickly and speed up ketosis. Any combination of these methods will support your journey, but you need to make sure you start with a good baseline.
Calculate Macros
Macros, short for macronutrients, are categories of nutrients like carbs, proteins, and fats that supply you with energy. When it comes to reaching ketosis, the typical macro ratio to follow is 5-10% carbs, 55-60% fat, and 30-35% protein.
To calculate macros manually, follow these steps:
- Determine your daily calorie needs and macro percentages, e.g. 1,500 calories for weight loss and 10% carbs, 60% fat, and 30% protein.
- Multiply your total calories by each macro percentage. Using the data above, you get 150 for carbs, 900 for fat, and 450 for protein.
- Divide those calories by the number of calories per gram for each macro. Carbs have 4 calories per gram, fat has 9 calories per gram, and protein has 4 calories per gram.
Don’t want to calculate your macros manually? No worries — our free Keto Calculator will help you identify the exact amount of carbs, fat, and protein you need to meet your goals.
Cut Down on Carbs
The general carb limit for ketosis is 30-50 grams per day. The easiest way for someone to stay under 50 grams of carbs is by eating animal-based foods like eggs, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish, seafood, and organ meats.
For vegetables, focus on non-starchy options like salad greens, cauliflower, broccoli, cucumbers, asparagus, and green beans. Fruit options are more limited since most fruits are relatively high in carbs, but avocados, berries, coconut meat, watermelon, and cantaloupe are all lower in carbs.
Your total carbohydrate intake may vary depending on your level of physical activity. A person who’s very physically active can consume more carbs and still be in ketosis compared to someone who is less active or has a heavily desk-based job throughout the week.
Incorporate Physical Activity
Exercise can boost ketosis by depleting your glycogen stores faster. High-intensity interval training (HIIT), long runs, and other prolonged endurance exercises are all good options for improving your body’s fat-burning abilities. (#)
You know your body best, though. Excessive exercise can increase cravings for carbs, which may make it harder to achieve ketosis. If you’re just starting a regular exercise habit, start slow with walking, swimming, biking, or yoga.
Increase Healthy Fats
The keto diet is a high-fat diet. Besides breaking down stored fat for ketone production, your body also uses fats from your diet to help create them.
In the absence of carbohydrates, your body burns fat for energy. Fat is also calorie-dense, providing 9 calories per gram, is slow to digest, and won’t impact your blood glucose and insulin levels like carbohydrates.
Here are a few more reasons not to fear a higher fat intake:
- The presence of fat in a meal enhances vitamin absorption. (#)
- Fat supports a healthy balance of hormones. (#)
- The right fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids, improve brain function. (#)
It’s best to choose only healthy fats found in whole, unprocessed foods like eggs, olive oil, fatty cuts of meat (e.g. chicken thighs and pork belly), salmon, avocados, nuts, and seeds.
Read Next: The Pescatarian Keto Diet: A Beginner’s Guide (With Food List & Meal Plan)
Try Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting (IF) has been known to speed up ketosis by depleting stored glycogen and increasing your body’s production of ketone bodies. (#)
You can start with a 12-hour fast, the shortest possible fasting duration, and combine it with exercise for the best results. Make sure to break your fast with low-carb foods, such as bone broth, leafy greens, eggs, and meat.
Occasionally, your doctor may recommend a longer fasting period of 16 hours or more to determine markers of metabolic or cardiovascular disease. This level of fasting may also be used to give your digestive system a break.
Alternatively, try a fat fast, where you get most of your calories from high-fat foods. Fat fasting can be a useful tool if you’re not quite yet ready to forgo food for many hours but still want to reap the ketone-boosting benefits of a regular fast.
Monitor Your Ketone Levels
Ketone testing is a helpful way to know whether you’re starting ketosis or staying in ketosis. Blood testing, which measures the ketone beta-hydroxybutyrate, is the most accurate way to check for ketosis.
It involves pricking your finger and taking a small blood sample, which is then analyzed by a small blood ketone meter. The optimal range for nutritional ketosis is 0.5–3.0 mmol/L.
There are 2 more ways to test your ketone levels:
- Urine testing: This measures ketone acetoacetate, which is excreted through the urine. Ketone test strips are dipped into the urine and change color, which correlates with levels of ketones. The darker the color is on urine strips, the deeper a person is in ketosis.
- Breath testing: This measures ketone acetone, which is exhaled through the lungs. Like urine testing, breath testing is non-invasive and convenient. (#) It uses a portable breath-acetone meter. Ketosis can produce breath acetone concentrations of 2–40 ppm.
Try Adding Supplements
Supplements that can boost ketosis include:
- Omega-3 fatty acids: Krill oil and fish oil supplements are a good option if you’re not getting enough omega-3s from your diet with an added antioxidant boost. Healthy fats are essential to a balanced keto diet.
- Electrolytes: Sodium, potassium, and magnesium are important to maintain balance in the body during ketosis. When transitioning to keto, replenishing lost electrolytes can reduce symptoms of keto flu, boost hydration, and support energy production. (#)
- Digestive enzymes: If you’re dealing with gut issues that cause malabsorption and make it harder for your body to absorb nutrients, digestive enzymes may be helpful. (#) On a keto diet, enzymes like lipase and protease can reduce initial gut discomfort, too.
- Exogenous ketone supplements: These supplements provide an external source of ketones in the form of beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), the most abundant ketone in the body. They help your body enter and sustain ketosis and minimize keto flu symptoms.
- Medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs): MCTs are rapidly absorbed and converted into ketones, providing a quick energy source and enhancing ketosis. (#) Look for this as MCT oil in liquid or powder form, or add more coconut oil – a natural MCT source – to your diet.
Our Perfect Keto MCT Oil Powder can be easily blended into your morning shakes and smoothies, which can help start your day off right with 10g of MCTs for a boost of mental clarity and ketone production.
Get Adequate Protein
For the average healthy adult, protein should account for 30-35% of total dietary calories on keto. Moderate protein intake helps stabilize blood sugar, curb cravings, and support muscle recovery.
That said, protein needs may vary by individual. Older adults, anyone looking to grow muscle, and people recovering from an injury may need more protein. For others, excessive protein intake can cause your body to convert protein into glucose, which can prevent the ketosis state.
Be Consistent
Your body relies on sustained low carbohydrate intake to remain in ketosis. If you frequently eat too many carbs, you’ll switch back to burning glucose for fuel. Consistency also helps you avoid fluctuations in blood sugar levels and reduces the likelihood of repeated keto flu symptoms.
Keto isn’t meant to be a short-term diet; it’s meant to be a lifestyle. Part of any healthy lifestyle is making room for real-life situations where you may not be able to maintain a ketogenic state 100% of the time. Keto reboots are fine, and following a keto diet does get easier with time.
How to Know You’ve Entered Ketosis
The most definitive way to know you are in ketosis is through a blood test. Blood levels of 0.5 to 3 mg/dl indicate nutritional ketosis. Other signs of ketosis include breath acetone tests, urine ketone testing, and monitoring physical symptoms.
What are the signs and symptoms of entering ketosis? Physical symptoms of ketosis are known as the “keto flu” and may include:
- Headache
- Irritability
- Fatigue
- Brain fog
- Increased thirst
- Nausea
- Constipation
- Bad breath
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) isn’t a side effect of keto or a low-carbohydrate diet but a complication affecting diabetes patients. (#) In this case, ketone and blood sugar levels increase to dangerous levels.
Maintaining Ketosis
Maintaining ketosis requires following all of the tips above. Tracking your progress can help you visualize the benefits of a keto diet.
How long should you stay in ketosis? You can remain in ketosis for as long as 6-12 months. Some people on the keto diet intentionally go in and out of ketosis every week using an approach called a cyclical keto diet.
If you’ve been instructed to maintain ketosis by your healthcare provider to manage conditions like obesity or type 2 diabetes, be sure to inform them of any changes. (#) Rapid changes to diet can mean side effects.
Final Thoughts
For some, following a keto diet is enough to get into ketosis, but many benefit from fasting, ramping up exercise, or adding supplements to boost and sustain the metabolic state. It’s all very individualized and starts with a close look at your lifestyle habits, diet, and baseline ketone levels.
Your doctor should always be looped into any plan for a new diet, including keto, especially if you’re at risk for conditions like diabetes, heart disease, or high cholesterol. They can help you determine where your baseline is, as well, before working toward ketosis.
FAQ
Is it possible to get into ketosis without eating low-carb or fasting?
You can achieve ketosis without fasting, but it would be highly unlikely to get there without cutting carbs. Conversely, you can achieve ketosis while still eating carbs, but you’ll need to introduce fasting or more physical activity. Doing both will increase ketones faster.
Is it possible to get into ketosis within 24 hours?
It usually takes days for someone to reach ketosis, but achieving ketosis fast within 24 hours is possible. To enter ketosis in the shortest possible time, try fasting, high-intensity workouts, and taking exogenous ketones in addition to reducing carbs to less than 50 grams.
Do you lose weight faster in ketosis?
Ketosis can lead to faster weight loss and reduced body fat as the body burns fat stores for fuel instead of glucose. Ketosis may also help suppress your appetite and manage food cravings, which can help keep you at your ideal body weight.
I’m struggling to get into ketosis; what should I do?
If you’re struggling to get into ketosis, check your macros to make sure you’re limiting your carb intake, increasing healthy fats, and eating moderate levels of protein. Intermittent fasting, more exercise, and adding supplements like MCT oil can help boost ketone levels.