The Keto Diet – Lets Get Shredded!

The Keto diet is an extremely popular diet, especially among natural bodybuilders who are intent on getting as ripped as humanly possible.

The premiss of the Keto diet is to get your body to go into Ketosis, which is the state you are in when your body runs out of glycogen. In this state, you have no glycogen stores in your liver so that your brain resorts to using ketones to burn fat for fuel.

Ketones are the by-product of when you break down fat. When you are in a state of Ketosis, your brain uses the ketones to burn even more fat. In the absence of glycogen and blood sugar your body needs energy, and the brain commands the body to us ketones to get it.

The Keto Diet and Achieving Ketosis

Your brain has a huge impact on your metabolism. It actually provides 20% of your resting metabolic rate. When you are on a ketone diet and the brain is commanding the body to burn ketones, you begin to lose a lot of fat.

The goal of the diet then is to get into a state of ketosis. So, how do you do it?

Simple – don’t eat any carbs.

Zero.

Zilch.

Apart from the carbs that are in nuts and oils, you will be eliminating them all together. After a period of carb deprivation your body will enter a state of Ketosis. You will have entered the fat burning zone.

How long does it take to go into a state of Ketosis? That really depends on the individual and could range from 7 days to as long as three weeks.

What to Eat

On the Ketone diet, protein and fat is all you want to eat. Get your protein from lean pork, lean beef, chicken, protein shakes, and fish.

Stay away from cheese and other proteins that are high in saturated fats. The fats that you need to consume are healthy fats that are high in monounsaturated fats.

These fats are easily used by the body for energy. Get your monounsaturated fats from avocados, almonds, macadamia nuts, and olive oil.

The Ketone diet is tough. The hardest part is the first three days. Your body will be starving for carbs, just a like a smoker who has gone cold turkey.

After about 72 hours though, a switch will go on in your body and you won’t desire the carbs as much. That’s because the proteins and fats will be keeping you full.

Keep it Strict

On the Keto diet there is no such thing as cheating. If you do you have to start all over again. Your body has to cumulatively build on the no carb state in order to reach and sustain the Keto diet state.

Many people on the Keto diet add in a re-feed day once per week, usually on a weekend day.  On your re-feed day you eat no fats. You will however eat lots of carbohydrates with your lean protein.

Make sure that the carbs that you consume on this day are clean carbs such as brown rice, sweet potatoes and vegetables. This will give your metabolism a jolt.

Taking in 500-600grams of carbs on your re-feed day will allow you to burn fat super quick. In addition re-feeding is great to give you a mental boost and to put you into an anabolic state.

Stay away from fruit on your re-feed day. The fruit sugar fructose is a sugar that is stored in the liver. In Ketosis, it’s important that the liver contains no sugar at all.

When you are in a state of Ketosis your appetite will drop. You will have less desire to eat. This is because you are not having massive fluctuations in blood sugar. Your blood sugar will be low the whole time.

Ketones also help the body to hold and preserve protein, meaning that they are anti-catabolic.

Make sure that you drink plenty of water in order to flush your system and remove the ketones from your body.

Summary

The Keto diet is based on zero carbs. After a number of days you will enter the state of Ketosis. This will dramatically enhance your fat loss ability.

This diet is not for everybody. We are after all, living in a carb-laden world. It takes a lot of will power to go zero carb. And you can’t do it indefinitely.

By re-feeding on clean carbs once per week, you will boost your metabolism for even greater fat burn.