How Do You Get From Ketosis to Fat-Adaptation to Awesome?
Well, how does someone become fat-adapted?
Your body gets three types of macronutrients from food: fat, carbohydrates, and protein. All three of these macronutrients are used by your body to create energy.
Planning your meals, well in advance, can have a massive impact on your health and fitness outcomes. If fat-adaptation is a goal for you, then you may want to consider how you will be planning your meals.
Naturally, Your Body Has Three Gears
One way to approach the answer to this question of how someone becomes fat-adapted is to think of how our body produces its energy. As far as making energy from macronutrients is concerned, your body, essentially, has three gears.
- Gear #1: The apparatus that processes dietary fat while in ketosis is the slow gear.
- Gear #2: You can think of this gear as being a hybrid of the fast and slow gear.
- Gear #3: You can think of the gear that processes carbohydrates as being the fast gear.
For most of us, our body is good at producing energy by any one or all of three of these methods.
Most of Us Walk Around Operating in the Fast Gear
You can imagine the kind of wear-and-tear that would happen to our automobiles if we always drove around town in the fastest gear possible!
Now transfer that example to what happens to our bodies. Now, take that a step further and think of how that affects most of us when we do not have a regular exercise regimen in place.
Carbs, Fat and Fat-Adaptation
Carbohydrates as fuel
- If you usually eat the standard American diet, you probably process carbs well but have a hard time digesting dietary fats and using them for fuel.
Fat as fuel
- If you exercise regularly and always eat a ketogenic diet and have done so for quite some time, then your body is probably good at digesting dietary fat and using it for fuel.
Carbohydrates and Fats as Fuel--Fat-Adapted
- If you exercise regularly and have been pursuing a ketogenic diet and have acclimated to consuming dietary fats, your metabolic system is probably going to be more flexible. You will be good at processing carbs for energy, and you will be good at processing fat for energy. It is almost like the best of both worlds.
Most of us that generally favor the standard American diet become good at consuming and using carbohydrates for fuel. Our bodies break down carbohydrates to make the glucose we need for energy.
So, Why Are So Many People Excited About the Ketogenic Diet?
The exciting thing about ketogenic diets and being in ketosis is the way the body can make energy from dietary fat.
Our bodies have a built-in mechanism for facilitating fat oxidation. Moreover, these by-products of fat oxidation, in turn, can be used again for the fat oxidation process. These by-products are called ketones. There are three primary ketone bodies:
- acetyl-acetate
- Beta-hydroxybutyrate
- acetone
Ketosis is a condition in which your body is producing ketones. So while you are in ketosis, your body burns fat with the help of ketones, which helps us to burn more fat.
Note that there is a distinct difference between fat-adaptation and ketosis. Fat-adaptation is a situation where your body has acclimated to using ketones and fat for fuel. You do not need to be in ketosis to be fat adapted.
To simplify this a little more, the more time your body spends in ketosis, the more it becomes fat-adapted. The more time your body spends in ketosis, the more efficient you become at consuming dietary fat for fuel.
Three helpful tips:
If you are attempting fat-adapt here are a few things to consider while you are on this part of your fitness journey:
- You may want to fast. Fasting makes keto-adapting easier. An excellent way to implement a fast would be to refrain from eating two- to four hours after you wake up most mornings. Black coffee (no cream, no sugar, no sugar-substitute) helps with fasting. Also, adding cinnamon to your coffee may help to suppress your appetite.
- Be sure to consume electrolytes regularly. Electrolytes play a crucial role in our body's metabolism, especially when transitioning to becoming fat-adapted. Your body may lose electrolytes while you are in ketosis, and to prevent muscle cramps and headaches (and other side-effects of a ketogenic diet), you must consume electrolytes (minus the sugar) to replace the electrolytes that have lost.
- Eat more greens. Whether you are eating the standard American diet or pursuing a more ketogenic diet, vegetables play an essential role in facilitating a healthy lifestyle. Something as simple as adding a salad (without dressing) to your meals would go a long way to ensuring you eat as nutritiously as possible.
Remember, the longer you stay in ketosis, the more fat-adapted you become, and the more flexible your meal choices become.
be fit. be well. be strong.
be stronger.
grasp.
Also, keep in mind, this blog post is describing ketogenic diets within the context of regular exercise.
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