Atkins and Ketosis

Most diets are calorie-reduction diets designed to help you lose weight. When losing weight you must realize that some of the weight loss comes from fat and some of it comes from lean muscle tissue. The danger of losing muscle is that it slows your metabolism which makes losing weight more difficult. The Atkins diet plan is designed to help you burn your stored fat as energy.

The main source of energy in your body comes from fat in the form of ketones. Since the Atkins plan is a carbohydrate restrictive diet it creates a state of ketosis in which your body burns only the fat.

Ketones are a very efficient source of fuel for the human body which are created in the liver from the fatty acids as a result of the breakdown of body fat. *Dr. Robert Atkins stated: "Briefly, the body naturally turns to fat for fuel when carbohydrate isn't available. When a lot of fat is burned, some of the fat fragments - ketones - get excreted to preserve the body's acid-base balance (because ketones are acid), and this is called ketosis."

The Atkins plan suggests using ketone-testing strips to determine your level of ketosis when dieting. Ketone strips will help you to know how well you are doing on the Atkins diet and can be purchased in the diabetic section of most retail stores.

These strips when used as directed will change color indicating ketones are present in the urine. A color chart on the bottle ranging in shades of pink to purple is to be used to guage your level of ketones. The higher the concentration of ketones in the urine, the more purple the sticks will turn. Follow the diet plan correctly and use the ketone testing strips as a guide to your progress.

There may be a time after you have had a meal that was high in fat that your test strips will be a darker purple, this is because ketones come from fat in the bloodstream. However, if you have been eating normally and your test strip shows the darkest purple color it is a sign of dehydration, therefore, you need to drink more water.

Eliminating carbohydrates from your diet is the best way to reach a state of ketosis which is the key to success on the Atkins diet plan.

*Resources: http://www.survivediabetes.com/ketosis.htm