Help a newbie figure out ketosis?:S

[intouchwithinstinct]

Hey really simple, I have been looking it up here and there and kinda got a idea of what ketosis is but it still baffles me a little.

Can anyone give me a basic summery of what ketosis is?

How ketosis happends?

If its healthy and why?

I need to understand the basics of something before dwelling into the complications of it.

I know I can just google it and do research and I actually have a google link open to do that right after posting this.  But I want to hear your versions as I know often theres mixed data on everything and it takes awhile to get a grasp of alternating views.

[TylerDurden]

The above topic should really have been put in the Raw, Zero-Carb forum as it's more appropriate a place for such discussion. Ketosis is more of an RZC phenomenon, not a general rawpalaeo experience.

*Moving topic*

[chucky]

Ketosis happens when you restrict your carb intake above ~20g to make body use keto bodies instead of glycose for energy.

Heart and brain work better on keto bodies. It's shown that heart can work 28% better. Don't know about the brain but brain learned to use keto bodies too and the result was better than with glycose.

I have also question. Can there be too many keto bodies and if yes then what causes it ? I have had problems with facial flush that come whenever I restrict my carbs.

[kurite]

Basically as stated by jarnapal, ketosis happens when you restrict your carb intake to such a low degree that your body uses fat and protein (mostly fat) for its energy source. Most people believe in ketosis because your body will more readily uses its own body fat and in turn you lose weight more easily. I know you just wanted a summary but if your interested in it heres a pretty descriptive article on it.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/ketogenic_diets.htm

Heart and brain work better on keto bodies. It's shown that heart can work 28% better. Don't know about the brain but brain learned to use keto bodies too and the result was better than with glycose.

All the studies done on ketosis were done on people who ate SAD diets vs almost completely meat diets. In other words it might not be ketones that made their heart work better it may have simply been the reduction of non-paleo foods.