What is the keto diet?
Table of Contents
The keto diet is a low carb, high fat, low to moderate protein diet. The Keto diet has become super popular in the last few years it can also be called a strict low carb diet or gluten-free diet and which is very similar to the paleo diet and Atkins diet. Let’s say the body can run on two different fuels one is sugar from carbohydrates and the other one is fat.
Most people use sugar as a primary source like eating bread, pasta, rice, potato, etc. while the other fuel is fat. Keto diet is mainly a very low carb diet so, low in carbs that the body has to switch to use fat as a fuel for example from real foods like eggs, meat, butter, avocado, olive oil, etc.
When the body is out of sugar the fat is converted into the liver into the energy molecules called ketones that fuel the brain and the diet that results in this called ketogenic means it produces ketones and that’s why the diet is called the keto diet.
In simple words, you have to avoid carbohydrates like sugar, processed junk food, bread, pasta, rice, etc and you eat meat, eggs, vegetables, avocado, butter, etc. When the body is low in carbs and high in fat it uses the fat as a fuel called ketosis in which the body becomes a fat-burning machine, it’s perfect for weight loss and provides energy.
How to start a keto diet? What to eat?
Firstly you have to replace carb-heavy foods with keto-friendly foods this will help you to eat fewer calories and help you sustain ketosis you will need to focus on.
You need to focus on meat, high-fat dairy, healthy oils, green leafy vegetables, above-ground vegetables, nuts, seeds, avocado, etc. and you need to entirely avoid grains, sugar, fruit, and starchy vegetables. You’ll be relying a lot more on home-cooked food than packaged or processed food.
How much to eat?
Most importantly you need to eat the right amount of food.
A keto diet helps you restrict your calorie intake slowly and steadily which lead to long term weight loss but it can be hard to do this if you’re not carefully tracking what to eat one way to figure out how much you should be eating on a keto diet is to check on a progress every few weeks and adjust accordingly if you’re not seeing the results.
You also need to track your macro-nutrients or macros those are fat, carbs, and protein which need to be kept in careful balance to keep your body in ketosis.
As a general rule, you need to eat before 35grams of carbs per day and aiming to get 70% of your calories from fat and 25% from protein.
Most importantly check yourself from time to time to monitor the changes in your body composition and how you feel to be sure that the ketogenic diet is the right choice.
While on a keto diet, one should drink at least 2.5 liters of water or fluid per day to substitute the amount lost in the urine. Once you are adjusted to keto, you should still consume a minimum of two liters of water daily for preventing against dehydration and promote optimal metabolic health
Dehydration is an increased occurrence of keto. Doing a keto diet can cause changes in body fluid and electrolyte balance because of the extreme drop in carbohydrate consumption.
Be prepared for the keto flu :
When you first cut back on your carbohydrates your body will experience some changes as it adjusts to your lifestyle one possible change is the keto flu in which you may feel fatigued or mental fogginess usually these symptoms only last a short while but it is best to be prepared you will need to drink more water increase your sodium, potassium, magnesium intake and eat more fat specially MCTS.
Some supplements can help dieters reduce adverse effects of the keto flu and even enhance athletic performance when training on a low-carb diet.
Weight loss :
A keto diet or low carb diet has proven more beneficial in losing weight than a low-fat diet. Low carb diet reduces insulin level allowing us to access our stored body fat more easily.
They reduce hunger allowing us to eat less. They may even create metabolic advantage which means we simply burn more calories when we’re low carb.
The keto diet also helps to reduce water weight that accompanies the significant reduction in carb intake. This is because carbs in their stored form hold water.
As you reduce the carb intake during the initial phase of the keto diet, stored carbs are released along with additional fluid resulting in weight loss.
Regulate blood glucose :
The supply of energy from our food to our tissues is at the core of our metabolism and the regulation of blood glucose is an important part of these.
You will have fever spikes in energy on a low carb diet the insulin or sugar crash that many people experience during the day is a result of consuming high GI or highly processed carbs that results in rapid rises of blood sugar levels and the insulin response that follows reduces our blood sugar levels quickly and that often leaves us with low energy levels and when we consume fewer carbohydrates we can better regulate our blood glucose levels.
Control of blood glucose is critical for people having type2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is defined by having blood glucose level raised beyond normal and people who are affected by this disease they’re effectively intolerant to carbohydrates.
A low carb diet helps to reduce medication and can even put diabetes into remission.
So, the ketogenic diet helps to manage type2 diabetes and may lower the risk of developing type2 diabetes in the first place by avoiding carbohydrates. And people with type1 diabetes can expect to see better control of their blood sugar and use less medication.
Reduces inflammation :
The ketogenic diet reduces inflammation in the body. Excessive consumption of highly processed carbohydrates elicits an immune response in the body in the form of inflammation.
If your diet regularly consists of highly processed carbohydrates your body will remain in the state of inflammation which over time can have a detrimental effect on your immune system.
Chronic inflammation can also damage DNA leading to conditions such as cancer.
Reduce cardiovascular risk :
To maintain good health, people need to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Low carb diet improves HDL and the ketogenic diet is particularly effective in increasing good cholesterol level HDL (high-density lipoprotein).
Low carb diet reduces triglycerides, these are fat that made in the liver when too many carbohydrates are consumed and we see significant improvement in triglyceride levels on low carb diets.
High blood pressure is one of the biggest risk factors for the heart attacks and strokes but raised insulin level caused the kidneys to retain fluid which leads to higher blood pressure. So, cutting the carbs has also been found to cut blood pressure.
Skincare :
Diets that consist of high carbohydrates content mainly processed carbohydrates can cause bacteria that can result in acne.
A high number of foods associated with skin health particularly those that contain vitamin A also fit well with the ketogenic diet.
Thus, By avoiding carbohydrates in your diet, you may be able to improve the quality of your skin.
losing weight or reducing blood sugar, the necessary carb reduction for potential acne control likely varies from person to person. Keto or very low-carb diets might be more effective.
Improved sleep :
When people start on the ketogenic diet they often experience worst sleep while they becoming adapted but beyond the first few weeks there is anecdotal evidence that some people experience a higher quality of sleep which of course helps with daytime energy levels and concentration.
Improved abdominal obesity :
A low-fat diet is very useful for getting rid of that fat that is carried around our waist because this fat is actually inside our abdominal cavities around our internal organs and it’s that makes it so bad for our health.
Brain function :
Keto diet helps to improve concentration it stabilizes blood glucose level and overcomes those mid-afternoon slumps.
This in itself is going to help your concentration but beyond this being in a state of keto, sis means that your brain is using ketones as an energy source.
Fatty liver disease :
Fatty liver disease is not caused by alcohol but it’s caused by the excessive consumption of refined carbohydrates.
Studies had shown a rapid reversal of fatty liver disease with low carb ketogenic diets.
The keto diet is a low carb, high fat, low to moderate protein diet. The Keto diet has become super popular in the last few years it can also be called a strict low carb diet. Thus, there are a lot more health benefits of keto diet beyond weight loss.
Yessss, thanks beinghealthysoul! ❤️
Like!! I blog frequently and I really thank you for your content. The article has truly peaked my interest.