What is ketosis and what causes it

The story behind ketosis

When the count of ketones in human blood increases above the normal limit, that condition is called ketosis. It is a possibly grave disorder, in case the ketones count is high. The ketones bodies develop when the liver runs out if the reserves of glycogen and these bodies are normally used for producing energy.

This condition called ketosis is especially related to diets which involve consuming very little or no carbohydrates. Why is that? When we go on a diet which involves no carbs, our bodies adapt to burning fat instead of carbs. In such a situation the feeling of hunger is successfully repressed, and the person will probably eat a substantially smaller amount of food, which will eventually lead to weight loss.

The contemporary body of a typical person relies on carbohydrates for energy. However, when an organism is forced to use up fat for the same purpose, ketones are formed. The liver produces ketones from fatty acids. Ketones are useful, especially for the brain. Since, brain is not able to consume fat for fuel, it uses ketones.

Also, ketosis can emerge in cases where the glucose for some reason cannot be disintegrated and used as fuel. This can happen in instances where the value of insulin is insufficiently high, or when the body is deprived of enough glucose. Some of typical situations that are often related to ketosis are diabetes of the type 1, alcoholism, deprivation of food, and in the instances where a person’s nutrition plan involves little or no carbohydrates and a lot of fat and proteins.

Ketosis and very few carbs

As we have previously mentioned, many people aim at losing fat deposits from their bodies. What they sometimes do is try to induce fat burning mechanisms and ketosis typically follows. Now, this can be considered an extreme situation for a body, but some experts maintain that it can be considered safe. They claim that what we need to do is perform urine dip on a regular basis and keep things under control, while at the same we can safely lose excessive weight.

Of course, there are some perils from diets that are followed for too long and with low levels of carbohydrates. For example, the kidneys can suffer too much stress, and kidney stones may form. Also, high levels of cholesterol in blood can appear. However, after several weeks of adaptation to the fat burning mode of our organism, it will probably adapt to it and the side effects of ketosis may vanish.