If you are interested in losing weight or following some diets. Here is the best chance for you which is keto diet.
Ketogenic diet becomes one of the most effective methods and popular one to get rid of excess weight and improve health.
What’s exactly the ketogenic diet?
The ketogenic diet is a high fat low carb diet which simply working on reducing the carbohydrates intake in your body and replacing it with some fats.
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy in our body. The ketogenic diet working on this principle.
Which is eliminating the body of any carbohydrates so forcing it to use the other source of energy which is fats.
Forcing the body to use fats as its only source of energy promotes burning a lot of fats and so maximize losing weight.
Usually, after consuming some foods that contain carbohydrates, our body transfers those carbohydrates into glucose or blood sugar.
That’s because it’s simply the primary source of energy before your body turns into the other source which is fats.
In the ketogenic diet after forcing the body to follow this other source which is fats. The body must break down those fats to use it as a fuel.
Types of ketogenic diets
There are several types and versions of the ketogenic diet:
- The standard ketogenic diet (SKD): this type is a high-fat low carb and moderate protein diet which contains exactly 75% fat, 20%protein, and 5% carb.
- The targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): by this type, you can add more carbs around the workouts.
- High protein ketogenic diet: this types is similar to the first one (SKD), but contains more protein to typically include 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carb.
- The cyclical ketogenic diet( CKD)
Only two types have been studied well with more details which are the standard ketogenic diet and the high protein ketogenic diet.
The other two types of diets are more advanced ways and used only by bodybuilders or athletes.
Keto diet and losing weight
The ketogenic diet is one of the most effective ways of losing weight and also reduce some risk factors for another disease.
Some researchers have been made show that the ketogenic diet is superior to the often other recommended low-fat diets.
One study shows that people who following the ketogenic diet lose 2.2 times more weight than those people who follow other low-fat diets.
This diet has such a great benefit which is you can lose weight without counting your calories or even tracking your food intake.
Health benefits of the ketogenic diet
Actually, this diet is considered as a tool for treating a lot of diseases and also have
several different health benefits:
Heart disease: the keto diet has the ability to improve body fat, cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and blood pressure.
Cancer: ketogenic diet is currently being used as a tool for treating different types of cancer and slow its growth.
Alzheimer’s disease: the keto diet plays an important role in reducing the Alzheimer disease.
Epilepsy: researches have been made to show that the keto diet may reduce the seizures of epilepsy in children.
Acne: lowering your processed and sugary foods and also your insulin levels may help in reducing the occurrence of acne.
Foods you should avoid on a ketogenic diet
Sugary foods: fruit juice, soda, smoothies, ice cream, and cakes.
Fruits: most fruits should be avoided except small portions of berries.
Grains: wheat-based products, rice, and pasta.
Vegetables and tubers: potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots.
Low fat or diet products: which are highly processed and also high in carbs.
Unhealthy fats: you should lower your processed vegetable oils intake.
Alcohol: alcohol contains a lot of carbs which can throw you out of ketosis.
Foods you should eat on a ketogenic diet
Meat: red meat, steak, sausage, chicken and turkey.
Fatty fish: like salmon, tuna and mackerel.
Eggs: which contains a lot of omega 3.
Cheese: unprocessed cheese (cheddar, cream, blue or mozzarella)
Nuts and seeds: flax seeds and chia seeds.
Healthy oils: coconut oil and avocado oil.
Avocados: whole fresh avocados
Low carb vegetables: green vegetables, tomatoes, onions, and peppers.
Condiments: using salt, pepper, and healthy herbs and spices.
Risks associated with ketogenic diet and how to avoid them
However the ketogenic diet is very safe and healthy for a lot of people, it contains some initial side effects.
Keto flu may lead to low energy and mental function, increase the feeling of being hungry, have some sleep issues, feeling discomfortable about the digestion process and low exercise performance.
You can minimize those risks by trying to follow a regular low carb diet for the first few weeks.
By this way, you can make your body use fats as a source of energy before completely reduce carbs and making fats the only source of energy.
You can also avoid those risks by taking some mineral supplements and adding some salt to your meals to make your body adapt with the change of water and mineral balance.
Some supplements for ketogenic diet
MCT oil: you can add it to your drinks or with a yogurt. It can support you with some energy and promotes your ketone levels.
Minerals: minerals are important when you start to change your water balance and also you can add it to your salt.
Caffeine: caffeine is beneficial for your energy, losing some fats and your exercise performance.
Exogenous ketones: this supplement has an important role in raising ketone levels in our body.
Creatine: Creatine has a lot of benefits for your body health and performance.
A keto meal plan
Breakfast
Option 1: spinach, mushroom and feta omelet with keto coffee.
Option 2: whole milk, unsweetened yogurt mixed with full-fat sour cream, a few raspberries, chia seeds, and walnuts.
Lunch
Option1: oven baked salmon with broccoli
Option 2: Stefan ski suggests a salad with nitrate free bacon, avocado, cheese, spicy pumpkin seeds, and a few grape tomatoes along with a low carb high-fat salad dressing like ranch or blue cheese.
Option3: make your own keto with cubes of grilled chicken a, a slice of nitrate free ham, cheese cubes, pickle slices, a hard boiled egg, a few raw grape tomatoes, raw veggies like cauliflower or broccoli, a few almonds or walnuts, guacamole, and ranch dressing.
Option 1: Caesar salad with romaine lettuce, chicken breast, bacon, and parmesan.
Option 2: grass-fed ground beef sautéed with onions and low carb tomato sauce.
Option 3: grilled chicken served with eggplant, yellow squash and zucchini along with a few tomatoes, sautéed with garlic in olive oil.
Summary
The ketogenic diet is a high fat low carb diet which aims to reduce the carbohydrates intake and replace it with some fats.
This could be by forcing your body to burn fats and use it as its source of energy and so lose some excess fats.
Keto diet is one of the most effective ways of losing excess fat and improve your health.
There are several types of ketogenic like Standard ketogenic diet SKD, Cyclical ketogenic diet CKD, Targeted ketogenic diet TKD, High protein ketogenic diet.
Also, there are some health benefits associated with keto diet like reduce heart disease, slow cancer growth, reduce Alzheimer disease, etc…
Foods you should avoid and foods you shouldn’t.
Finally, there are some risks associated with keto diet you should watch them out.
