If Ketones are used by the body like carbs, why switch to Keto?

Simple:

Without being in a ketogenic state your body does not produce glucose (carbs), so you have to eat it. This spikes your blood sugar, creates an insulin response, and if you eat too many they will get turned into fat. In Ketosis however your body does the reverse, it breaks down the fat you already have and turns it into energy.

Harder:

While glucose can be used directly without any conversion, ketones must be made by the liver, the benefit is that they are produced from fat. Ketosis acclimates your body to running on fat instead of sugar, giving you a nearly never ending supply of energy from parts of your body you would probably like gone anyway.

Your body does need some glucose to run, fortunately it is also made by the body itself during ketosis.

Exercise

Simple: Not a lot is simple when it comes to keto and exercise but I will summarize as best as possible and break into more of the science with a couple of studies below. You should really know 2 things: Until you get fat adapted, which could take 3-6 months, exercise will be more difficult. The first couple of weeks can be especially hard. Get lots and lots of water and electrolytes, this can help immensely in the beginning. Know that there are 2 basic types of exercise, Aerobic and Anaerobic. Aerobic is generally a lighter pace, something you can keep up for a long time, it is when your body has plenty of oxygen to your muscles. Anaerobic is high intensity exercise that uses a different pathway as there is insufficient oxygen. Sprinting is an example of this. The ketogenic diet is really very good at part 1, aerobic exercise, and really not very good at anaerobic for reasons I will go into more detail below. Keeping the difference in mind, and planning according...

What is Keto?

Simple: Keto is short for ketosis, or the ketogenic diet. When carbs are restricted enough your liver will produce a new type of energy called a ketone, when it does you are said to be in ketosis and a diet that does this is ketogenic. OK, so? The so is that a ketogenic state forces our liver to make ketones from fat. so instead of eating sugar for energy we can create it ourselves from the fat we have stored on our body. For most people this is a very good thing. It is important to understand that this is nutritional ketosis, something we do on purpose with our diet and not related to a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis. These have nothing to do with each other outside of the word keto used in the name. Harder: On a standard diet, your body runs primarily off of glucose from your blood, these are sugars/carbohydrates. This glucose in your blood is commonly called blood sugar as in my blood sugar is low. Your muscles, organs and brain all run off...

Welcome to Keto Q&A

The purpose of this site is to research and post answers to common questions about Keto. This is not medical advice, or really any advice for you, but an attempt to answer common questions. My goal is to make 2 or 3 versions of answers for each question. The first would be a higher level, general answer this would be followed by more detail, sources, and the science to back it up. Lastly will be some sort of analogy that helps us come to grips with some complex topics. Comments are turned off, too many people misread or misinterpret down in the comments and cause confusion, this is meant to be a reliable resource for answers backed by information with as little bias as possible. I am not a web guy, so be patient as I work on this thing.

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