How Do I Get Back Into Ketosis Faster?

You went out to eat at a restaurant or you went to a party. You think you ate on plan. But the Ketostix this morning stayed beige, the scale bounced up a pound or two; and now, you just don’t feel like you’re in Ketosis anymore.

You want to fix the problem – fast. Get the sticks turning lavender again. Lose the excess water weight. But most importantly, you want to feel the euphoria that comes when you’re predominantly burning fatty acids for fuel. So what’s the fastest way to get back into ketosis?

The body has four options when it comes to fuel: glucose, protein, fatty acids, or ketones. At any one time, the body switches back-and-forth between these fuel sources, depending on availability and immediate needs. When you follow a low carb diet, the body “predominantly” burns fatty acids for fuel, but when glucose becomes available, it burns that first.

When restricting carbohydrates, the glucose most often burned comes from vegetables, incidental carbs, or amino acids. But sometimes life interferes and you accidentally (or intentionally) eat more carbohydrates than you can use. When that happens, the body immediately burns as much glucose as it can, then chauffeurs the rest to the liver where it converts into glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrates.

Refilling glycogen results in a weight gain of a pound or two, because the body deposits water along with the glycogen for later processing. It’s not fat though. So as long as you get right back to your diet plan, it won’t do any permanent damage. If glycogen stores are full, however, that’s when carbohydrates find their way into your fat cells. So a single free meal, or restaurant accident, creates only a temporary setback.

When you first go on a low carb diet, the body uses liver glycogen to keep your blood glucose within a narrow, tight margin. Fatty acids fuel this process, with ketones the resultant by-product. Within a day or two, the glycogen level drops so low that the body begins to use the ketones for fuel, because it can’t break down fatty acids fast enough to take care of the body’s needs.

Once the body adapts to ketosis, and the brain, kidneys, and heart begin using ketones for much of their glucose needs, the amount of fatty acids the rest of the body requires goes down. And fat loss slows.

When you refill glycogen stores, returning to your diet program simply starts this process all over again. The length of time it takes to return to a state of predominantly burning fatty acids for fuel depends on how full your glycogen stores were, as well as how many carbohydrates you ate. Therefore, the fastest way to get back into ketosis is to eat a minimum amount of carbohydrate and up your activity level.

While it isn't necessary to cut back to a diet of just "meat and eggs" (personally, I do an Atkins '72 Induction after a free meal or refeed), a lot of low carbers do choose to cut carbs to a bare minimum, since sugar, wheat, and other food sensitivities from eating off plan can cause bloating and discomfort. If you need fast correction, then a no carb diet and extra movement will get you there the quickest.