Ketosis is when your body stops getting most of its energy from sugar and starts getting it from fat. When you eat a special diet called the ketogenic or keto diet, this happens.
The keto diet is a way of eating that has a lot of fat, not much protein, and few carbs. It helps your body get into ketosis by limiting carb-heavy foods like grains, fruits, and veggies. Instead, you focus on eating things like meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, butter, and oils.
To get into ketosis and stay there, you must eat less than 50 grammes of carbs per day. Getting into ketosis usually takes a few days, but it depends on your age, how many carbs you eat, how busy you are, and how your body works.
Ketosis might help people lose weight, feel less hungry, improve brain function, and treat or manage some health problems, such as seizures, neurological problems, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and heart failure.
Some of the side effects of ketosis include feeling sick or tired (sometimes called “keto flu”), bad breath, constipation, trouble sleeping, dehydration, weaker bones, high cholesterol, and kidney stones.
Ketosis is not the same as ketoacidosis, which is a dangerous disease that can happen to people with diabetes. Ketosis itself is not dangerous.
If you want to try the keto diet, you should talk to a doctor or nurse first to make sure it’s right for you and to get the right instructions.