How to Get Into Ketosis Quickly Without Fasting

If you're looking for the fastest way to get into ketosis, you'll need to make a few sacrifices.

Although, fasting is certainly trendy these days, and it will get you into ketosis in only a matter of hours, going without eating for 1 to 3 days isn't always the best way to switch metabolic pathways.

Especially, if you've come to the realization that restricting carbs is a permanent part of the new you.

This insight has been particularly difficult for me to embrace.

Which is why I've done things differently this time around.

Instead of doing a hard-core Atkins 72, like I've always done before, I created a super-simple personalized low-carb diet that would do the job for me without having to count anything. Nor would I have to stick to a specific list of foods and quantities. 

Getting into ketosis quickly is important. 

I'm not saying that it's not. 

The faster you get to burning ketones and fatty acids for fuel, the faster your appetite will calm down. Many people also see their cravings dissipate, digestion improve, blood sugar drop, and mood stabilize once they are fully in ketosis. 

Since my blood glucose was sky high before going Keto, and my appetite was already in check, my interest in doing a ketogenic diet was to get my blood sugar to fall into the safe zone as quickly as possible. And it was that goal that motivated me to create my own ketogenic plan. 

But first, lets talk briefly about protein, carbs, and fats.

Proteins: Gluconeogenesis is Demand Driven

Let's get the protein misconception out of the way, first.

Eating protein has nothing to do with ketosis.

Gluconeogenesis is demand driven.

The body only turns dietary proteins into glycogen if it's needed. If your brain doesn't need the glucose, your body will simply use those amino acids directly for energy, protein-structure repair, and other things.

So, for the first 3 days or more, you'll want to make protein the bulk of your diet. The higher the protein and lower the carbs, including vegetables, the faster you'll get into ketosis because ketosis is driven by carbohydrate restriction.

It isn't driven by the amount of fat or protein you eat.

Carbohydrates: Personalized Nutrition

There is no dietary need for carbohydrates. The body can easily get along without them. It will create glucose out of a variety of things, regardless of how many carbs are in your diet.

This is the whole low-carb platform.

You don't need carbs.

Fats: You Don't Have to Eat High Fat if You Don't Want To 

Ketosis is triggered when you use up your carbohydrate stores in the liver. It is not triggered when you eat a ton of fat.

Fats are used to control calories.

That means if you're near the end of the day and you're not hungry, you need to give yourself permission to not eat. There's no set number of fat grams or a fat percentage that you need to eat to every day.

Dietary fat isn't a goal.

How to Get Into Ketosis Fast

If you want to get into ketosis quickly, and without any hiccups, you'll need to prioritize the proteins that you eat. If hungry, reach for protein first.

I did this by eating almost zero carbs for breakfast and lunch; and then added a few carbs for dinner and dessert.

I used this as my foundation diet for the first 2 weeks.

A typical low-carb diet starts you off with 20-net carbs per day.

Net carbs are the total carb count for any given food minus the amount of fiber it has, in grams.

For example, a cup of broccoli contains 6 total carbs and 2.4 grams of fiber. To find the net-carb calculation, you subtract the 2.4 grams of fiber from the 6 total carbs in the broccoli, which gives you 3.6 net carbs.

I used the 20-net as an upper limit, and not a goal. A lot of times I ate less than 20-net carbs; but I never ate more.

This made it easy to keep a rough count of what I was eating.

By dropping your carbs to 20-net or less, you're almost always going to go into ketosis within 24 hours, or so. There's no signs that you need to watch for or symptoms that you need to evaluate.

If you're eating 20 carbs or less, you'll be in ketosis in 1 to 3 days.

This is because when your liver glycogen drops to less than half full, which it will within a few hours, the liver will begin to find alternative sources of glucose to feed the brain.

It will also jack up your hunger, so you'll want to keep a few snacks on hand to make sure that you're not tempted to reach for something carby.

3-Day Example Menu

To make it easier to see what I'm talking about, here's a 3-day sample menu for getting into ketosis fast.

Day 1

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter, 3 slices of bacon

Lunch: baked chicken leg quarter (leg and thigh with skin)

Dinner: grilled pork chop, 1 cup steamed broccoli with butter

Snacks: diet gelatin topped with whipped cream; Carbmaster yogurt; 2/3 cup of Carbsmart ice cream

Day 2

Breakfast: 2 eggs fried in butter, 3 sausage links

Lunch: ham sandwich using cheese slices for bread, mayonnaise

Dinner: hamburger patty, small lettuce salad with full-fat dressing

Snacks: diet gelatin topped with whipped cream; Carbmaster yogurt; 2/3 cup of Carbsmart ice cream

Day 3

Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with ham and green onions

Lunch: baked chicken leg quarter (leg and thigh with skin)

Dinner: baked fish with lemon juice and mayonnaise;

Snacks: diet gelatin topped with whipped cream; Carbmaster yogurt; 2/3 cup of Carbsmart ice cream

Carbsmart Ice Cream?

Yes. That's what I chose to spend 5 of my 20-net carbs on.

If I was going to make carb restriction a lifestyle, instead of a weight-loss diet, then the template I use to help me keep track of the carbs has to fit into my lifestyle and preferences, as well.

Carbsmart helped me go from WinCo ice cream to something less troublesome.

And since I wasn't looking at this as a lose-weight-quick scheme, I decided that whatever I wanted to spend my carbs on was fair game. I didn't stick to keto-friendly foods. I was simply going to decarb what we were already used to eating.

Granted, that won't work for everything.

Even Atkins 40 comes with certain restrictions.

But Atkins 40 lets you eat from all food groups from the very beginning, so I decided that's what I would do, too. Create a 35-net maximum diet, the amount of carbs that fits my carbohydrate tolerance, to be my way of eating from the very start.

So far, so good.

Down 28 Pounds in 4 Months

I've been following the above eating plan except that I have now raised my carbs to 35-net max. Max because I don't eat that many carbs every single day. I juggle them, depending on what I want to eat that day, along with my calories.

It's been working so well that it feels like normal eating to me. I've stuck with it easily over the past 4 months.

I've had 1 cheat meal.

We went to P. F. Chang's for our anniversary, which caused my blood glucose to go through the roof, due to all of the sugar in that meal; but it quickly came down over the next couple of days, since I went right back to my low-carb eating plan the very next meal.

Too be honest, I've also added a bit of gluten-free flour mix occasionally. At 7.5 carbs per tablespoon, it makes those chaffles I talked about in an earlier post 16.5-net carbs for 2 mini waffles, which are the perfect size for a 1/3 pound hamburger patty.

When I do that, I eat no carbs for breakfast or lunch, just the burger and ice cream. That comes to 21.5-net carbs for the day.

So far, just counting carbs has been working because the amount I'm eating is within my carbohydrate tolerance. Glucose readings in the afternoon and 2 hours after eating are good. And I don't feel like I'm dieting at all.

Just finding the right portion sizes for me.