Ketosis is a metabolic state where you are burning fat for energy, instead of burning sugar. When this transition of energy source is made, the body begins producing something called ketones, and is said to be in a state of “ketosis”. 

There are four levels of ketosis, starting with a light form of nutrition ketosis, moving into optimal ketosis, then therapeutic ketosis and finally highest level of ketosis which is generally achieved through longer 3+ day water fasting. All levels of ketosis are beneficial, but depending on what your health goals are, you may be trying to reach a specific level of ketosis. You can measure your ketones using a Keto Mojo.

6 Steps to Hacking Ketosis:

But what if you’re struggling to get into ketosis?

Or you want to get into ketosis faster?

Try these tips. 

Increase your fasting window.

Increasing your fasting window will create a hormetic stress on your body. Hormetic stress, or hormesis, is a beneficial type of stress. It’s a small dose of stress that pushes your body to adapt and grow stronger. This may look like increasing your fasting window just 1-2 days a week. 

Vary your fasting style.

This means utilizing the 7 styles of fasting. What you want to do is avoid doing the same type or style of fast over and over. The variation is what tells the body to adapt and start to burn energy from fat instead of sugar. 

Look at the food you are eating.

The food you’re eating may be preventing you from getting into ketosis. You’ll want to avoid something called “dirty keto”, which entails eating low-carb, yet unhealthy bad fats. Bad fats include vegetable oils, like canola, corn, safflower, soy and sunflower oils, commercial dressings and margarine. They are generally found in processed, store-bought packaged foods, especially snack foods like crackers and chips, baked goods, fried foods, restaurant foods, commercial meats and dairy. You will also want to avoid “keto friendly” snack foods. While these foods may be low carb, they don’t necessarily mean that they will help you get into ketosis. So when you eat, make sure you’re eating clean, healthy, natural foods. 

Support your liver.

The metabolic switch that takes you from burning sugar to burning fat happens in the liver. A sluggish or congested liver will keep you from getting into ketosis. There are several highly effective ways to support your liver detox pathways, including castor oils packs and coffee enemas. 

Rule out adrenal fatigue.

If you’ve been under significant stress, your body will not want to switch metabolic pathways, because the “fight or flight” response requires quick access to sugar. The best way to determine whether you are adrenal fatigued is with a Dutch Hormone Test. You can also support your adrenals with quality sleep. I use the Whoop band to track my sleep quality, HRV and fitness. I also recommend meditation or breathing, listen to my podcast episode with Niraj Niak.

Look at your toxic load

High toxicity is often an underlying reason why clients aren’t seeing results, despite their committed efforts to fasting. This is because toxins literally block the cell receptor sites for glucose and insulin. So if you’ve done everything I’ve mentioned above, yet you’re still not getting into ketosis, consider your toxic load. Common sources of toxicity include mold exposure, chemical beauty and cleaning products, unfiltered tap water and dental amalgam fillings. For more about toxins, read my article, Everything you need to know about toxins.