What is Ketosis?

This is how it was explained to me.

Your body needs a certain amount of carbohydrates to function. Your brain, for example runs on carbohydrates. When you starve most of your body can run off of fat but you need carbs for certain activities like keeping your brain running. Your body can not easily convert fat to carbohydrates, protein can convert to carbohydrate fairly easily so to keep things going your body starts to break down protein to make enough carbohydrate to keep you going. The conversion of protein to carbohydrate is also rather messy making your system more acid which leads to other problems. To keep from consuming too much of your muscles your body starts making ketones which your brain can use in a pinch to keep running.

Anyone who doesn’t eat enough carbohydrates can experience ketosis whether they are starving or on a low carb diet.

One of the side effects of ketosis is your appeteit is reduced. This is one of the reasons why people loose weight on Atkin’s.

Some people limit carbs but not to the extent that their body goes into ketosis while other dieters intentionally keep themselves in ketosis.

My personal opinion is that low carb diets and especially ketogenic ones are unhealthy and dangerous. Of course being overweight is dangerous as well so for overweight people who can’t seem to loose weight any other way it can come down to picking their poison.