In my February 28 post, Ketosis: The Silver Bullet in Weight Loss, I tried to make the case that carbohydrate-restricted diets (a.k.a. "ketotic diets") were the most effective way to bring about fat loss (which should be every diet's primary goal). In this post I will try to flesh out my description of ketosis in more detail: what the body is trying to accomplish with ketosis; what being in ketosis feels like; why not to be afraid of it; what pitfalls to watch out for; and

The heading is a red herring; I should have written "Fat Loss". Though it is less eye-catching, that phrase is closer to the truth, since fat is all any dieter should be seeking to lose, rather than water (which is what most diets are most successful at removing). For anyone who doesn't already know this, ketosis is a condition signaling that the body is burning fat rather than its usual fuel, glucose. It occurs when a dieter eats few enough carbohydrates so that the body