Ketosis happens when your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates to burn for energy. Instead, it burns fat and makes things called ketones, which will be used as fuel. Ketosis is a word you’ll probably see when you’re looking for information on weight loss or diabetes.
How to reach ketosis
The most common way is through what you eat.
- Significantly reducing carbohydrate intake.
- Fasting for short periods.
- Increasing healthful fat intake.
- Protein intake.
- Consuming more coconut oil.
These are some recommended ways to reach ketosis
Supplements
TTA – Tetradecylthioacetic acid
Where it comes from: Tetradecylthioacetic Acid (also known—and more easily pronounced—as TTA) is a fatty acid that does not get used for fuel by the body, but instead helps to regulate how much fat the body stores by influencing genes that control the metabolism. It’s delivered to the body in supplement form.
What it will do for you: “Early studies are suggesting that [TTA] helps to burn fat from the body without the need for exercise,” explains Amy Shapiro, RD and CDN of AWS Nutrition. Often used in conjunction with other supplements (such as sesamin), TTA can help individuals feel full more quickly while the fatty acid decreases overall hunger and burns fat. In addition to regulating fat metabolism, this fatty acid has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunity-enhancing properties. Here, a closer look at the key benefits:
- May aid in fat-loss efforts
TTA has been found to enhance mitochondrial function and therefore increase the energy level in cells (also known as the metabolism), which further equals an increased fat loss. In 2009, a Norwegian study observed rats on a high-fat diet for seven weeks. Despite eating even more food than usual during the final two weeks, the rats fed TTA gained less body weight than the other rats not getting TTA. This effect has been found independent exercise. “If you exercise, too, it will speed up your fat loss because your body will continue to burn fat at rest and when exercising,” explains Shapiro.
May lower cholesterol
Research suggests that TTA activates receptors that are responsible for decreasing the creation of LDL particles (the bad cholesterol). Eighteen healthy men, between the ages of 18 and 55, were given doses of TTA for one week—and were studied for an additional week after supplementation stopped. The researchers concluded that TTA reduced the total plasma cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels by 17 percent by increasing the number of mitochondria and by stimulating the oxidation of normal fatty acids. What do Triglycerides matter? Shapiro explains it: “These are fats in the blood so, if TTA helps to increase fat burn, it makes sense that there would also be less fat floating in the blood.”
