# Keto Glossary: 37 Low-Carb Terms in Plain English

Source: https://theketovibe.com/learn/keto-glossary · The Keto Vibe · Updated 2026-10-25

> Plain-English definitions of the keto terms you’ll meet: net carbs, ketosis, BHB, fat-adapted, macros, MCT oil, sugar alcohols and more.

## Key takeaways

- Net carbs are total carbs minus fiber; ketosis is burning ketones made from fat.
- Macros are fat, protein and carbohydrate; keto is roughly 70 / 25 / 5 by calories.
- Every term below has its own link, so you can share a single definition.

New words come with any new way of eating. Here are the ones you’ll see most on keto, defined in a sentence or two. Every term has its own link: tap a letter to jump, or share a definition with a friend.

**Acetoacetate:** One of the three ketone bodies. It’s the ketone that urine test strips measure.

**Acetone:** The ketone you breathe out. It causes “keto breath” and is what breath ketone meters detect.

**Allulose:** A rare sugar that tastes and bakes like sugar but has very few calories and essentially no effect on blood sugar.

**Beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB):** The main ketone in the blood, and the one blood ketone meters measure. Nutritional ketosis is roughly 0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L of BHB.

**Bulletproof coffee:** Coffee blended with butter or ghee and MCT or coconut oil. A popular keto breakfast replacement.

**Carb creep:** The slow increase in daily carbs from small extras (sauces, nuts, “just one”) that can push you out of ketosis without noticing.

**Cauliflower rice:** Cauliflower pulsed into rice-sized pieces and cooked. The most common keto swap for rice.

**Cyclical keto:** A variation that adds planned higher-carb days, usually for athletes. Not recommended for beginners.

**Dirty keto:** Eating keto macros mainly from processed or fast food. It can keep you in ketosis but is low in nutrients.

**Electrolytes:** Minerals such as sodium, potassium and magnesium. Keto increases sodium loss, so topping them up prevents most keto-flu symptoms.

**Erythritol:** A sugar alcohol with almost no calories that the body excretes unchanged. It’s the most common keto baking sweetener.

**Exogenous ketones:** Ketone supplements, usually BHB salts or esters, that raise blood ketones temporarily without diet changes.

**Fat-adapted:** The state, usually reached after a few weeks of keto, where your body burns fat and ketones efficiently and energy feels steady again.

**Fat bomb:** A small, high-fat snack, often made with cocoa butter, coconut oil, nut butter or cream cheese.

**Fiber:** The part of plant carbohydrates the body can’t digest. It’s subtracted from total carbs to get net carbs.

**Glucose:** The sugar your body runs on by default, made mainly from dietary carbohydrate.

**Gluconeogenesis:** The body making its own glucose from protein and other sources. It’s why you don’t need to eat carbs to supply the parts of the body that need glucose.

**Glycemic index:** A ranking of how quickly a food raises blood sugar compared with pure glucose. Keto foods are mostly low or zero.

**Glycogen:** Stored carbohydrate in the liver and muscles, held with about three times its weight in water. Using it up is why early keto weight loss is mostly water.

**Insulin:** The hormone that moves glucose into cells and tells the body to store energy. Keto keeps it low and steady.

**Intermittent fasting:** Eating within a set window, such as eight hours a day. It pairs naturally with keto because hunger tends to drop.

**Ketoacidosis:** A dangerous condition, mostly in type 1 diabetes, where ketones rise far above nutritional levels and the blood turns acidic. It is not the same as ketosis.

**Keto flu:** Short-lived headache, fatigue and fog in the first week of keto, mostly from water and sodium loss. Usually eased by salt and fluids.

**Ketogenic diet:** A very low-carb, high-fat diet that keeps carbs low enough for the body to run on ketones, usually 20 to 50 g of net carbs a day.

**Ketones:** Molecules the liver makes from fat when carbs are scarce. The brain, heart and muscles can use them for energy.

**Ketosis:** The metabolic state in which your body uses ketones made from fat as a major fuel.

**Lazy keto:** Tracking only net carbs and not counting fat, protein or calories.

**Macros:** Short for macronutrients: fat, protein and carbohydrate. Keto is roughly 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs by calories.

**Maltitol:** A sugar alcohol common in “sugar-free” sweets. It raises blood sugar noticeably and is best avoided on keto.

**MCT oil:** Oil made of medium-chain triglycerides, fats the liver turns into ketones quickly. Usually made from coconut oil.

**Monk fruit:** A fruit whose extract is 100 to 250 times sweeter than sugar, with no carbs. Usually sold blended with erythritol or allulose.

**Net carbs:** Total carbohydrates minus fiber (and minus erythritol or allulose). The carb number most keto eaters track.

**Stevia:** A zero-carb sweetener from the leaves of the stevia plant, 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar.

**Sugar alcohols:** Sweeteners such as erythritol, xylitol and maltitol that are partly absorbed. How much they count toward net carbs depends on the type.

**TDEE:** Total daily energy expenditure: the calories you burn in a day. The macro calculator estimates it from your body and activity.

**Whoosh effect:** A popular term for a sudden drop on the scale after a plateau, usually explained by shifts in water retention.

## Keep learning

Start the Keto 101 course with [what is the keto diet](https://theketovibe.com/learn/what-is-keto), or set your numbers with the [macro calculator](https://theketovibe.com/tools/macro-calculator).