How The Keto Diet Works?
The keto diet is a low in carbohydrate, high in fat and moderate in protein consumption that mainly involves reducing carbs with no more than 50 grams per day and sometimes even less than 20-30 grams per day. The starvation and reducing of carbs and protein in your diet provoke the appearance of a metabolic state called ketosis in your body.
What is Ketosis?
Ketosis is the process where the body starts to produce ketones trough its liver and to using them for energy.
Without a constant supply of glucose(carbs), the body is forced to transform fats into ketones and using them as an alternative energy source to rely on.
That will make the body begin to rely on the fat instead of glucose as the primary source of energy and to start burning body fat helping you in that way to lose weight.
What are Ketones?
Ketones are molecules that are water-soluble and have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and to supply energy for the brain when glucose is missing out.
There’s a study showing that ketones can provide as much as 70% of the brain’s required energy more effectively than glucose. Moreover, during ketosis, the Insulin levels are low, which makes the keto diet effective in all conditions related to high blood sugar.
To summarize, the ketogenic diet provokes weight loss by substituting carbohydrates with high-fat foods, which makes the body turning fat in ketones using them as its primary energy source.
As a final point, the keto diet can be helpful for you if you’re struggling to stabilize blood sugar levels, but along with this, it can bring you other excellent health benefits.
How Do Keto Diet Help You Lose Weight and Burn Fat?
It may seem misleading that eating more fat can help you in losing bodyweight. It seems logical to be like this (that’s why we see so many low-fat diets).
On first look, low-fat diets appear to make sense, but from a biochemical viewpoint, it is just the opposite. After all, it is not the fat by themselves a culprit for that we are overweight.
On first look, low-fat diets appear to make sense, but from a biochemical viewpoint, it is just the opposite. After all, it is not the fat by themselves a culprit for that we are overweight.
Why Low-Fat Diets tend to be Less Effective compared with the Keto Diet?
On a low-fat diet, you do not efficiently burn the fat, and your body has adapted to use carbohydrates as its foremost fuel.
The issue with using the carbohydrates as energy, and especially the processed carbs, is that they cannot satisfy your hunger for long.
Carbohydrates make insulin sparks, which causing huge blood sugar swings leading to a state where your cells close down for blood sugar. They resist and do not allow glucose to enter them, a condition well known as insulin resistance.
Because the body cannot utilize that glucose, it starts transforming it into fat cells and storing them around the organs as visceral fat. In that way, the energy from glucose goes into your fat cells.
But worse is that your body demands further glucose from food, making you feel starving and craving for more carbs.
An enchanted circle from which, if you do not get out over time, may lead you to accumulate more belly fat and more excessive weight.
Keto Diet Forces Your Body Naturally to Burn Its Own Fat Stores
Keto is a high fat, low carb diet that can help individuals lose weight quickly and effectively. It helps one lose weight by putting their body into ketosis.
Our bodies need energy to perform all functions. Usually, this energy is got from carbohydrates. However, when carbohydrates are fewer, your body produces ketones for energy.
Ketones are produced in the liver from your body fat or fatty foods. The body uses ketones for energy when there are few or no carbs. When one’s body burns fat for energy, they’ll start losing weight.
But, one question that many people ask is whether this diet can help burn fat in specific areas such as the belly.
Belly fat, also called visceral fat, is a dangerous fat that lives inside the abdomen. Experts say that this fat can cause type II diabetes, heart diseases, and several chronic conditions. As such, many people prioritize belly fat when trying to lose weight.
However, it’s difficult to target specific areas for fat reduction. Our bodies decide which areas we will lose weight. But, keto may be effective in burning stubborn stomach fat.
Fat around your abdomen is mostly caused by consuming too much refined sugar and carbs or sometimes, it can result from a combination of genetics.
This visceral fat encourages occurs and develops any type of body inflammations hence making your weight loss efforts difficult. But as the keto dietary plan has some anti-inflammatory effects, it makes it easier for you to lose stubborn belly fat.
The Keto Diet Top Benefits
Why Keto Diet is Good For You?
There are two principal reasons why keto diets are right for you.
In the first place, they can help you to lose excess fat, especially in your belly area. These are the fat that may cause you metabolic complications such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and so on, repeatedly increasing the risks to your health and well-being.
The second is that a keto diet may improve the insulin sensitivity of your body, which appears to happen due to the effect of weight loss. When insulin sensitivity is better, the body is more productive in removing excess fat, controlling blood glucose, but also with a more active metabolism, improved hormonal balance, and muscle tone.
Foods to Eat on Keto Diet
Foods to Avoid in Keto
Any food that is high in carbohydrates has to be limited or excluded while trying to reach a ketosis state. Some of these foods include:
- Sugary foods: ice cream, candy, cakes, soda, fruit juice
- Grains or starches: bread, cereal, pasta, rice, and any wheat-based foods
- Fruit: All fruit has to be removed, except for small portions of berries.
- Beans: kidney beans, peas legumes, chickpeas, lentils
- Root vegetables: sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots
- Low-fat packaged food: These “diet” foods are extremely processed and usually full of many carbs.
- Sauces and condiments: Many condiments and sauces are full of added sugars and toxic fats. Always read the labels carefully to make the right choice!
- Unhealthy fats: Limit things like vegetable oil and mayonnaise.
- Alcohol: Alcoholic drinks contain high amounts of carbs, which will take your body out of ketosis.
Keto-Friendly foods
When you plan your keto meals, you have to rely on this type of food:
- Meat: Steak, turkey, chicken, sausage, ham, bacon,
- Fatty fish: Wild salmon, trout, tuna, mackerel,
- Eggs: Pastured eggs
- Butter and cream: If possible products of grass-fed animals
- Cheese: Unprocessed cheddar, goat, cream, and mozzarella
- Seeds and nuts: Almonds, walnuts, flax seeds, chia and pumpkin seeds
- Healthy oils: Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil Avocados
- Low-carb veggies: Greens, peppers, tomatoes, onions
- Condiments: Salt, pepper, any healthy herb
Types of Keto Diets
Standard keto:
In the Standard keto diet, is used a meager amount of carbohydrate–no more than 50 grams of net carbs per day. Even some keto followers eat fewer than 20 grams a day.
Cyclical keto:
People that following a cyclical keto diet eat a high-fat and low-carb (no more than 50 grams a day) five to six days a week. On day seven, they have a carb day in which intake of around 150 grams of net carbs.
Targeted keto:
You follow the standard keto diet but combine with a high-intensity workout. In that diet type, you can eat extra carbs 30 minutes to one hour before the workout. The intake of that glucose is meant to improve your workout performance, but after that, you need to return the ketosis state. It is very proper for people who follow some workouts regime, helping to supply them with more energy for better performance regardless of they are at keto.
Dirty keto:
It is the most attractive type of keto diet, but it has its disadvantages.
Dirty keto applies the same ratio of fats, proteins, and carbs as the standard keto diet, but with a crucial difference: It doesn’t value what kind of food the macronutrients come. It promises weight loss with the liberty to eat anything you want-bacon, pork, cheese, and even Big Mac with a Diet Pepsi and the same time it has necessary limitations: no sugar, bread, fruit, and sweets.
Dirty keto might serve you in the short-term, but in the long run, it may not seem as right. The reason is that you may undergo nutrient deficiencies because even though something is lower-carb and sugar-free, a diet abundant of processed foods won’t provide for you the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes your body wants. By adding and the extensive list of preservatives and artificial flavors that can do damage to your overall health, the picture is no good.
Moderate keto:
A diet containing high fat along with 100-150 grams of net carbs for each day. Too much restricting of carbs(with the standard Keto) can sometimes cause hormonal problems and dysfunction, especially in women. There is why the woman who experiences issues with other kinds of keto sometimes do better with this diet. Also, some athletes benefit from Moderate Keto because of the higher carbohydrate content, which they use as fuel throughout their training sessions.
Possible Side Effects of Being on a Keto
A ketogenic diet has many possible risks, and the top of the list is the fact that it is high in saturated fat. The medications advise that you need to keep saturated fats to no more than 7% of your daily calories because of their connection to heart disease. And really, the keto diet is commonly connected with an increase in “bad” LDL cholesterol, which is also linked to heart disease.
Other possible keto risks include these:
- Deficiency of essential nutrients: If you’re not eating a full variety of vegetables, fruits, and grains, you may experience gaps in micronutrients including, magnesium, selenium, phosphorus, and vitamins B and C, etc.
- Liver complications: Your liver needs to metabolize a lot of fat; thus, the keto diet could worsen your liver state.
- Kidney issues: Your kidneys help for the protein metabolism, and being in a keto diet may lead to overload them. Take into account that the popular recommendation for protein intake averages 46 grams per day for women and 56 grams for men.
- Constipation: Because the keto diet is low in fiber-rich foods like grains and legumes is a prerequisite for occurring of constipation. With little diet adjustments and support of some keto-friendly supplements, this problem can be easily solved.
- Cognitive fog and mood swings: The brain demands sugar from healthy carbohydrates to function, and the low-carb diets may cause states of irritability due to the need for adaptation to the keto.
Generally, with little specific diet adjustments and the support of some keto-friendly supplements, these kinds of problems can be easily solved, making your experience on keto more natural and comfortable.
How to Minimise Side Effects While in Ketosis
EffectsAlthough keto diets are safe for the average healthy people, it is reasonable to experience some side effects while your body adapts to this different and new eating regimen. This phase of regulation is sometimes called the “keto flu” and typically only continued a few days.
Keto flu includes symptom as low energy, sleep problems, hunger, or digestive disturbance. Some people may experience feeling nauseous in the first few days of keto.
To reduce these side effects, you need to facilitate your way into keto.
A bit of real advice: you could try a traditional low-carb diet for a few weeks before progressing to full keto. This process can prepare your body to start burning more fat before you thoroughly remove carbs from your diet.
A keto diet can also change your water levels and mineral balance. Therefore, you will need to add additional salt to your food or consider taking mineral supplements to return healthy balance in your body.
A typical and time tested example: add 3,000 milligrams of sodium, plus 1,000 mg of potassium, along with 300 mg of magnesium to your daily consumption to help avoid the side effects and revive your mineral balance.
Typically, the keto diet will result in weight loss without purposeful calorie limitation. That’s why you need to eat until the moment you feel satiety trying not to restrict your calorie intake too much, especially at the beginning of your ketogenic diet.
With the right high-quality supplements and good dietary habits, the side effects of a keto diet can be restricted to very tolerable levels.