Ketogenic Diet Explained: 7 Key Points
1 – What is ketogenic diet?
The ketogenic diet can help you lose weight without starving yourself. This type of diet is a very low carb, high-fat diet.
It shifts the energy source from glucose to fat stores in the body.
2 – How Does it Work?
Our body is primarily fueled by glucose. The primary source of this is usually carbohydrates. On a ketogenic diet, you forgo eating carbs. So your body looks for other sources to fuel the body.
Ketogenesis is a process where your liver breaks down the fat you ate into an energy source called ketones. When you're in a ketogenic diet, ketones stand in for glucose as fuel for the body.
During ketogenesis, ketone levels are high. When your body is in ketosis, your body is very efficient in burning fats for energy.
3 – How to Induce Ketosis
Fasting: When you don't eat for an extended period of time, your body speeds up fat-burning for fuel.
Increased physical activity: the more energy you use, the faster your body uses up fat stores in your body (instead of glucose)
Consuming less than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day. When there aren't enough carbohydrates in your body, it uses fats.
Increasing consumption of healthy fat
4 – Different Types of Ketogenic Diet
There are different versions of this diet:
Standard: A standard keto diet usually made up of 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% carbohydrates.
Cyclical: This allows an interval of days when you can eat more carbs. You follow a standard ketogenic diet for 5 days then enjoy a little more serving of carb-loaded food.
Targeted: You can eat a lot more than 5% carbohydrates on any day as long as it is before or after working out.
High-protein: You consume more amount of protein than you would on a standard ketogenic diet. It typically contains 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs.
5 – Health Benefits
Increased ketones bring a lot of health benefits. Numerous studies and testimonies claim that it helped improve their health.
Please note though that some of these studies are inconclusive.
- They can reduce blood sugar and insulin levels.
- Helps you lose weight
- Reduces risk for heart disease
- Can slow down tumor growth
- Reduces the symptoms and slows down the progression of Alzheimer's disease
- It can greatly reduce epileptic seizures
- Improves symptoms of Parkinson's disease
- Helps women avoid PCOS
6 – Ketogenic Diet is Not for Everyone
Despite the many health benefits, the ketogenic diet is not for everyone.
This type of diet is not for you if you're a breastfeeding mom, or if you're taking medication for diabetes or high blood pressure.
7 – Negative Side Effects to Expect
Don't expect the ketogenic diet to not give you any unpleasant experience.
When you're new to this diet, you might be alarmed with some unpleasant changes that you'll notice in your body. Here are some of them:
- Bad breath or keto breath
- Feeling weak and tired (can be felt in the first few weeks of starting the ketogenic diet)
- Suppressed appetite
- Digestive issues like constipation or diarrhea
- Insomnia
- Vitamin deficiency
- Muscle loss
- Kidney damage