Network Marketing BLOG with information on the Keto Lifestyle, Pruvit, and network marketing training.

5 Signs You Are In Ketosis

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5 Signs You are in Ketosis

One of the biggest reasons people love the ketogenic diet is because it’s a great way of losing weight without starving or stressing your body. It is a particularly ideal method for people who cannot exercise for one reason or the other. That’s because the Ketogenic diet works by raising the blood ketone levels. The diet consists of low-carb and high-fat foods and as a result of a low carb supply, the body is forced to burn more fat in order to generate enough energy. Your liver ends up producing more ketones which aid in the generation of energy for your brain.

This goes well beyond just losing weight though. This is all about being healthy, increasing performance, improving your mood, sleeping better, and more! You’re talking about the most efficient way to apply nutrients in to your body.  Pretty cool, right? The key to all of this is getting your body in to Ketosis, where it’s literally burning fat for fuel and saving that hard-earned muscle you’ve been working on.  So how do you know when you are in Ketosis?  Here are five signs that will indicate if your body is in ketosis or not:

Bad Breath

It is quite common to develop bad breath when you reach complete ketosis, even if you are practising proper oral hygiene. There is a ketone named acetone that is contained in urine and breath and causes a not so pleasant fruity smell. It is very active when ketone levels are high, hence the bad breath.

It’s not the most fun, but brushing your teeth a couple of times a day, and chewing sugar-free gum can help you mitigate the issue.

Suppressed Appetite

Your appetite should reduce if you are really on a ketogenic diet and it is working. It is one of the ways through which you are going to lose weight. The production of more ketones affects your hunger hormones and your brain as well. These effects cause you to feel full more often and your body already has what it needs to function properly.

Short-Lived Fatigue

While your body adapts to the new conditions caused by the ketogenic diet, it is normal to feel weak and fatigued. It is important that you anticipate these side-effects and brave them if you want to reach full ketosis.

As mentioned earlier, your body’s initial reaction to reduced carbs is burning reserve carbs and water. The reducing water levels in your body cause fatigue. It should end soon when your body adapts to the new conditions, though. To reduce the effects of reducing water levels in your body, you should take electrolyte supplements.

Digestive Challenges

Obviously, you have to make major changes to the foods you eat when adopting a ketogenic diet.  Most of the time, your digestive system is not used to or ready for the abrupt changes. Many people complain of diarrhoea and constipation when they start on the Ketogenic diet.

Ensure you include low-carb foods that are rich in fiber. The fiber will aid the digestion process. Include a variety of foods in your diet to make it diverse and balanced as well.

Weight Loss

One of the primary objectives of adopting a ketogenic diet is losing weight. Or at least losing fat.  Even if you aren’t trying to lose weight on teh scale, you certainly don’t want unnecessary fat on your body. Therefore, weight loss itself can indicate that you are in ketosis. The results are not typical, and they differ from person to person.

However, you should expect a rapid weight loss at the start of the ketosis as your body rapidly consumes the stored carbs and water. It will then start gradually burning fat. At this point, weight loss is not very rapid, but it should be consistent.

 

The most important thing on any low carbohydrate diet is to be consistent. You will certainly notice one or more of the above signs if you are doing it properly and you will surely benefit. While some of them might not be very comfortable to experience, they indicate that you are in some form of ketosis and your body is going to thank you!

 

What is a Keto Diet?

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Keto Diet: What is a Ketogenic Diet

Ketogenic diet can help you lose weight and improve metabolic health

The ketogenic diet is a very low-carbohydrate, high fat diet offering a number of health benefits. And according to studies on this diet, it can help you in reducing weight and improve your overall health. As a ketogenic diet drastically reduces carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat, the reduction of carbohydrate puts the body in a condition called ketosis.? When this condition is reached, the body gets more efficient at burning fat for energy. It also changes fat into ketones in the liver that can provide energy for the brain. These diets can lower blood sugar and insulin levels in a large amount.

You will find ketogenic diets in many different types. The main types include:

Standard ketogenic diet ? It is low-carb diet with high fat and moderate protein level. Generally, it constitutes 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrate.

Cyclical ketogenic diet ? This is a diet that involves intervals of higher-carbohydrate refeeds, for example, 4 to 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high carbohydrate diet.

Targeted ketogenic diet ? This is a diet that allows you to include carbohydrate around workouts.

High-protein ketogenic diet ? This diet is similar to standard keto diet but has more proteins. It generally constitutes 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs.

The standard and the high-protein ketogenic diets are quite popular and a lot of studies have been done on them. The other two diets are more advanced methods and are mainly used by bodybuilders and athletes.

Health benefits of a ketogenic diet

A ketogenic diet provides many health benefits. They are more beneficial with metabolic and insulin-related diseases.

Help in losing weight – Research shows that a keto diet is one of the most effective ways of reducing weight. It is far superior to other suggested low-fat diet. The good thing is this diet is so satisfying that you can shed weight without considering the calories or monitoring your food intake.

Helps in diabetes and prediabetes – As the ketogenic diet helps in losing weight, it is also linked to controlling diabetes. Studies have found that many individuals following this diet either stopped or reduce diabetes medication.

Heart issues – A low-carb diet can improve the risk of HDL, cholesterol levels, blood sugar and blood pressure.

Alzheimer’s disease:?A keto diet may minimize signs of Alzheimer’s disease and decrease down its development.

Cancer ? These days, the keto diets are used to treat several types of cancer and slow down the development of tumor.

Parkinson’s disease ? A study has found that a low-carb diet has helped many improve the signs of Parkinson’s disease.

The experts who help people follow ketogenic diets recommend them to limit food that is high in carbohydrates. The food that should be eliminated or reduced includes sugary foods, starches, wheat-based products, unhealthy fats and alcohol.

So, a ketogenic diet can be beneficial for people who are obese, diabetic or are looking for ways to improve their metabolic health.? And this diet will be effective for you if you are consistent and stick to it at a long-term basis.

 

 

Counting Calories on Your Keto Diet

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Should I Count Calories?

Losing weight on a Keto Diet is a big deal because it’s so effective. People everywhere are jumping on board to get in the best shape of their lives. Unlike other diets however, there is a common misconception that calorie counting is not necessary while you are on a Ketogenic diet.?Calorie counting is a great tool for you to get an idea of caloric intakes, and even to pinpoint mistakes when you may have hit a plateau. Calorie count is actually essential to ensure you are putting just about the right amount of carbohydrates and proteins into your body.? If you are trying to keep under 50 grams of carbohydrates in a day, you sure would do well to know how many you are eating with each meal!

How to Count Calories

The most common way of counting calories involves measuring calories and percentages of the food you eat. Percentage ratios involve assigning a percentage supply of calories to each macronutrient (Fat, Carbs, Protein). For instance, you can decide that your calories supply should be 60% from fat, 30% from protein and 10% from carbohydrates. A Keto diet involves suppressing your carbohydrate intake and keeping the protein intake moderate, swapping a bit of carbs and protein for good, healthy fats. You use these percentages to calculate how much of the macronutrients you should take every day, depending on your daily calorie requirement.

Since protein, and carbohydrates are both 5 calories each, and fats are 9 calories each, a simple calculation will get you what you need. So if you eat 1,000 calories in a day, and you want 60% to come from fats, then you take 1000 * .60, and divide by 9, which is 600 calories.? Fats are 9 calories each, so divide 600 by 9 and you get 67 grams. That’s how many you can have.? You do the same thing for protein and carbs using 4 instead of 9.

You should set your macronutrients requirements based on your body weight. Better still if you use lean body mass measurements based upon your bodyfat.? That’s the most accurate way to do it. So a 150 lb women with 35% bodyfat has roughly 98 lbs of muscle (and bone and water :>).? So, using that as your baseline, you would try and get roughly 15x that, or nearly 1,500 daily calories assuming you are exercising.

It’s Just a Tool

Counting Calories is a tool to help you stay on course and make adjustments in your day to day life. Don’t make it more than it is. Don’t obsess over it.?While you don?t have to be 100% accurate, you can use calorie counting as a starting point. Find out what works for you, adjust accordingly, and keep monitoring how you feel, your changes in weight, etc.? Do whatever you need to so you can look great, feel great, and be healthier than you have every been!

Avoid These Common Mistakes on Your Keto Diet

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Three common mistakes to watch out for on the Keto diet

The Keto Diet involves long spells on extremely low, (typically less than 50g per day), to virtually no daily carbs as well as increasing your fats to the point where they can make up as much as 65% of your daily macronutrients intake. The idea behind this is to get your body into what’s called a, “State of Ketosis”, meaning the body becomes more inclined to use fat for energy ? and research suggests it does just this. Exhausting your carbohydrate/glycogen liver stores and then moving onto fat for fuel means you should end up being fit and healthy.

With no prior experience, though, you are more than likely to make some mistakes when you start out, and these mistakes can end up sabotaging your expectations of getting your body in a good shape. Here are three common mistakes keto dieters make that you must avoid so your diet doesn?t end in a failure.

Not eating enough salt

One of the most common mistakes people following the keto diet make is not consuming enough salt. While in ketosis, your kidneys excrete a large amount of sodium into the urine, so it?s important that you consume more than the recommended 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Not doing so can trigger symptoms like headaches, fatigue, and constipation.

Not eating enough vegetables

Keto Diet – Eat Vegetables

In your pursuit of keto you may obsess over macronutrient numbers and sacrificing nutrient density, but that doesn?t mean you have to refrain from all vegetables. Doing so is a rookie mistake and can lead to various health complications. Vegetables like celery, spinach, asparagus, avocado, zucchini, cauliflower, cucumber, cabbage, broccoli, and kale are a healthy centerpiece for a keto diet as they provide vital micronutrients and antioxidants, play a central part in supporting a healthy intestinal microbiome, and stimulate minimal insulin production. Mom was right after all, don?t skip your veggies!

Not exercising

Of course, keto is not a crash diet, a quick fix or a magic pill but most keto dieters don?t seem to understand that. Following a keto diet can improve your health but more importantly Living the Keto Lifestyle is where you need to be headed. Don’t workout when you find time, MAKE it a point to put aside some time to work out. Be disciplined and make it a habit. Combining your keto diet with a healthy lifestyle is only going to give you the absolute best results and help you feel better, look better, and live better!

If you have chosen keto as the first step to improving your long-term health, more power to you. It can change your life!? Just make sure you avoid these common mistakes which often derail most keto dieters and lead them to give up way too soon.

9 Health Benefits of a Keto Diet

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Since 2002, dozens of studies have been conducted on low-carb diets and have exposed a number of health benefits. Here are nine scientifically proven health benefits of following a low-carb Ketogenic diet:

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Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes

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Keto Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Donut Holes

This time of year it’s all about Pumpkin Spice and everything nice, from Coffee to Pie. How about finding one that is healthy, and keto-friendly with all that great, spicy flavor? Make them for a great on the go snacks, or breakfast on the go.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups Almond flour
1/3 cup Erythritol
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 tsp. Cloves
1/2 tsp. Ginger
1/2 tsp Sea salt
1/4 cup Butter, melted
1/4 cup Unsweetened almond milk
2 large Eggs
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

 

Cinnamon Sugar Coating Ingredients:

6 tbsp unsalted melted butter
1/2 c granulated swerve
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
Powered swerve for dusting

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, stir together the almond flour, erythritol, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and sea salt.
2. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the 1/4 c melted butter, almond milk, eggs, and vanilla extract.
3. Add wet mixture into the dry mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Form dough into 1? balls and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Bake at 350F degrees for 11-13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the donut hole comes out clean.
6. Let cool for five minutes.
7. Add the melted butter to a small bowl.
8. Add the cinnamon and sugar substitute to a separate bowl and mix together well.
9. Take each donut hole and dunk it into the melted butter, making sure it is fully coated.
10. Then dip it into the cinnamon and sugar substitute mixture, making sure to coat well.
11. Dust with powered swerve.

 

Makes 16 donut holes. Per 1 donut hole: 16.4g Fat, 4.5g Protein, 2g Net Carbs, 173 calories

Fight Inflammation with Keto

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Anti-Inflammatory Effects of a Ketogenic Diet

Many are aware that Ketogenic diets offer a ton of health benefits, but one that’s often missed are the anti-inflammatory effects.? A recent study was published which looked at the potential mechanisms underlying the specific anti-inflammatory properties of ketosis and found that a good Keto diet may in fact fight inflammation in the body.

A Ketogenic Diet may fight diseases caused by inflammation: new answers from a science-based study

(The snippet below is from an article on Keto Lifestyle)

Adopting a low-carb ketogenic diet will induce the state of ketosis, in which most of the body?s energy supply comes from ketone bodies in the blood, rather than from blood glucose or sugar. However, the role of ketones bodies in the regulation of the immune system is largely unknown. This is critically important because excess inflammation has been shown to be involved in the development of major diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer?s disease, diabetes, obesity, Parkinson?s disease and inflammatory bowel diseases. The purpose of this article is to explain a recent groundbreaking study that examined whether ketone bodies, specifically ?-hydroxybutyrate, can reduce the severity of inflammation in the immune system.

Read the entire article at The Keto Lifestyle.

Keto – A Beginner?s Guide to Macros

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The Ketogenic diet- A beginner?s guide to macros

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that forces the body to burn fats for fuel rather than carbohydrates. This increases fat burning, reduces hunger and more. It works great for people of all ages and experience, and that’s why so many people are adopting the Keto Lifestyle.

So you that you know the ‘why’, maybe you want to understand the ‘how’ a little bit better. You can get sample Keto Diets and Recipes all over the place, including those right here on our website, but it will help you to understand Macros so you can build your own and make adjustments that will work for you. Below is a quick primer on macros:

Macros, or macronutrients, are food components that fuel our body. They include carbohydrates, protein, and fat.

Carbohydrates

Unlike proteins and fats, carbohydrates are not an essential nutrient. In fact, your body may actually benefit from carb restriction. See, carbohydrates are instrumental in numerous metabolic diseases as well as obesity and have also been linked to dangerous conditions like cancer and cardiovascular disease. For that reason, it is important for you to identify what foods are low in carbs and which ones to abstain from.

Proteins

Protein is an essential macronutrient that your body needs to build and repair tissue. Protein deficiency can result in fatigue, dizziness, weight loss and stunted growth. So, when on a keto diet, you need to consume moderate amounts of protein to stay healthy. Keep in mind that your protein intake is dependent on your activity levels: the more active you are, the more protein your body will need.

Fats

We have all heard that fat is unhealthy but is that really the case? As it turns out, it is not! Fat is an essential nutrient your body needs for energy, growth and development, absorbing certain micronutrients like Vitamins A, D, E, K, and carotenoids, providing protective cushioning for the organs and maintaining cell membranes. If you are well limiting your carbs intake and consuming moderate amounts of protein, then the rest of your dietary requirements will naturally be met with fat.

How to calculate your ideal keto macro ratio?

If you fail to hit your macro targets, the chances of your body reaching ketosis will be very slim. Therefore, it is crucial that you correctly calculate your keto macros and maintain an ideal ratio. There are a number of simple and precise online calculators based on a standard keto diet that will definitely help you do just that. All you need to do is input your data, define your goals and view your results.

When following a ketogenic diet, carbs are typically reduced to under 50 grams per day, though stricter and looser versions of the diet exist. Fats should replace the majority of cut carbs and deliver approximately 75% of your total calorie intake. Proteins should account for around 20% of energy needs, while carbs are usually restricted to 5%. This carb reduction forces your body to rely on fats for its main energy source instead of glucose, which gets us to… ketosis. While in ketosis, your body uses ketones ? molecules produced in the liver from fats when glucose is limited ? as an alternate fuel source. This is the goal. This helps you stay leaner, healthier, have more energy, and even fight off diabetes and other health conditions.

Mayan Mocha Ice Kreme Coffee

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Keto Recipe: Mayan Mocha Ice Kreme Coffee

Give me a coffee recipe and it’s a winner. Give me a coffee recipe with ice cream…and we’re friends forever!? Check out this incredible Pruvit Keto recipe for a healthy, Keto-approved, snack! Don’t let anyone tell you that the Keto Diet is hard! You can make it so much easier and focus on enjoying the Keto Lifestyle instead of worrying about what you’re eating!

KETO//KREME? Mayan Mocha Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 13.5-ounce can full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup of xylitol erythritol
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 package of Mayan Mocha Keto Kreme
1/2 cup chopped Coffee beans
2 tablespoons of vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Add coconut milk, sweetener, coffee beans and salt to a saucepan
2. Whisk until smooth.
3. Simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes to infuse the milk.
4. Strain into a bowl,
5. Sprinkle xanthan gum and stir
6. Place a layer of plastic wrap directly on top of the mixture and allow to cool completely.
8. Add heavy whipping and KETO//KREME? Mayan Mocha to chilled mixture
9. Whip until thick (but still pourable)
10. Mix in vanilla extract
11. Place ice cream in a sealable container and freeze until frozen (4-6 hours)
-You can still use your ice cream machine if you wish (roughly 15 minutes to churn).?
12. Take ice cream out of freezer 10-20 minutes before serving.