How much weight can you expect to lose after a week on Keto?
People who start a ketogenic diet often lose weight quickly in the first week, but the amount of weight they lose can vary. Some people may lose a lot of weight in the first week, while others may lose very little or none at all. Several things can affect how much weight you lose on a ketogenic diet, such as your starting weight, age, gender, level of activity, and the type and amount of food you eat.
Early weight loss is water weight
People may lose a lot of weight quickly in the first week after starting their custom keto diet plan because they are losing water weight. When you cut back on carbs, your body uses the glycogen it has stored as energy. Water is stored with glycogen, so when your body uses glycogen for energy, it also releases the water that was stored with it. This can cause a lot of water weight loss in the first week.
Your muscles and liver store glycogen together with water. Usually, it takes 3 grams of water to hold 1 gram of glycogen. When you burn these stored carbs, you get rid of this water through your urine or sweat.
So, when you first start keto, you might feel like you have to go to the bathroom more often and thirstier than usual. You may also lose a lot of weight, which is mostly made up of water.
This weight loss can be different for different people, depending on their size and how much water weight they are carrying. People have said that they lost anywhere from 1 pound (0.5 kg) to 10 pounds or more in the first week (5 kg).
The more water weight you lose when you first start keto, the bigger you are. Though it's unlikely that much of this initial weight loss is fat.
But once you're in ketosis, it's much easier to use your own fat stores for energy. This is one reason why the keto diet may help you lose weight.
Entering ketosis
When you enter ketosis, your body stops using glucose (a type of sugar) as its main source of energy and starts using ketones instead. Ketones are made when the body breaks down fat. This usually happens when you eat a lot less carbs than usual, because your body will switch to using fat for energy instead.
On keto, you can only eat a certain amount of carbs each day, usually 50 grams or less of total carbs or 25 grams or less of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber).
The body gets most of its energy from carbs for most people. When you cut back on carbs, your body burns through the carb stores in your muscles and liver, called glycogen, usually within a few days.
After this, your body goes into a metabolic state called ketosis, where it uses ketones, which are made by breaking down fat from food or fat stored in the body, as its main source of fuel.
This shift usually takes less than a week. During this time, you burn through your glycogen stores and start using ketones instead. But it may take longer for some people.
When they first start the keto diet, many people lose a lot of weight quickly during this transition period. However, most of this weight loss is due to changes in water weight.
Final Verdict
It's important to remember that losing weight on a ketogenic diet is not a straight line, and it's normal to have ups and downs along the way. It is also important to remember that the main goal of a ketogenic diet is not necessarily to lose weight, but rather to improve your health and well-being as a whole.
People often use the keto diet to lose weight, and you can read online about people who lost a lot of weight quickly after starting the diet. This is probably mostly water weight because as you burn through your carb stores, your body releases the water that was tied to those carbs.
Once you're fully in ketosis, your weight loss will probably slow down, but you'll likely lose more fat than water.
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