The ketogenic or keto diet is a very popular diet plan that promises impressive weight loss in a very short timeframe. The main idea of this diet is enhancing the consumption of fats, typically ‘good’ fats, and reducing the amount of carbohydrate and protein intake. This kind of diet involves eating an extremely small amount of protein as excess protein can get converted into carbs overtime, which fails the idea of having low cabs in the body. When followed correctly, the Keto Diet presents an incredible way to shed those undesirable pounds quickly while improving your overall health.
As you might be aware, the human body utilizes glucose as the fundamental source of fuel for vitality. But, when you are on a keto diet and are eating very less carbs with just a moderate amount of protein, your body switches its energy supply to run mostly on fat. The liver produces ketones, which are a kind of unsaturated fat. These ketones become a fuel source for the body. When the body starts producing ketones, it enters a metabolic state called ketosis, in which it starts burning fat for energy. That is the basic reason why people are able to achieve quick weight loss with keto diet.
Since the keto diet is very limited in sugar, it pushes your body to utilize fat as fuel rather than glucose. At the point when the body doesn’t get enough carbohydrates for fuel, the liver is compelled to transform the stored fat into ketones to be used as fuel, and hence the name “Ketogenic Diet”.
An ideal ketogenic diet has a “fat” to “combined protein and carbs” proportion of 4:1. The general per day calorie breakdown of the ketogenic diet is as follows –
- 60-80% of calories from fat
- 20-25% of calories from proteins
- 5-10% of calories from starches
The good thing about this diet is that there are many things that you can have when you are following it. Some of the things which are not restricted to be consumed in Ketogenic Diet are olive oil, nuts, chicken, cream, eggs, coconut oil, butter, cheese, grass fed meat, fish, seeds and vegetables that are low in carbs. However, most of the fruits are restricted, but you can have low sugar fruits like berries, but that too in a limited amount. This eating plan incorporates no grains of any sort, no potatoes, no desserts, no breads and cakes, and no beans and lentils. It also puts a restriction on consumption of pasta, pizza, sugar rich drinks, frozen yogurt and burgers.
The keto diet is safe for most of the people. Be that as it may, there are individuals who need to take extraordinary care before going on such a diet. If you are taking medicines for diabetes or blood pressure, then you must consult your doctor before proceeding with the Keto diet as the dosage might need to be adjusted as per your eating plan.
