Health Fitness

Keto diet and weight loss

If you have had a desire to lose a few extra pounds, then perhaps you might have come across the ketogenic diet, which is popularly known as the Keto diet. It is a popular weight loss plan that promises significant weight loss in a short time.

But far from what most people think it is, dieting is not a magical tool for losing weight. Just like any other diet, it takes time, requires a lot of adjustments and follow-through to see results.

What is the Keto diet?

The keto diet aims to put your body into ketosis. This diet plan is usually low in carbohydrates with a high intake of healthy fats, vegetables, and enough protein. This diet also emphasizes avoiding highly processed foods and sugars.

There are several types of Keto diets: standard, cyclical, targeted, and high-protein ketogenic diets. The difference in them depends on the intake of carbohydrates. The standard ketogenic diet is low carb, high fat and adequate protein is the most recommended.

Is the Keto diet safe?

Most critics of the Keto diet say that it is unsafe due to the emphasis on consuming high fat content. This is guided by the misconception that fats are bad for you. On the contrary, healthy fats are actually very good for you.

On this diet, you get plenty of fat from healthy sources like avocado, nuts, fish, butter, eggs, coconut oil, palm oil, seeds like chia, and red meat.

How does the Keto diet help in weight loss?

So how does the ketogenic diet really work and how does it help your body shed the extra pounds? When you follow a high-carbohydrate diet, your body uses glucose from carbohydrates and sugars to fuel bodily activities. When you follow a ketogenic diet, you provide your body with minimal amounts of carbohydrates and sugars.

With a reduced supply of sugar and carbohydrates, glucose levels in the body become depleted, causing the body to seek alternative energy sources. Therefore, the body turns to stored fats for energy, which is why the Keto diet leads to weight loss.

This condition where your body burns fat for energy other than carbohydrates is called ketosis. When your body goes into ketosis, it produces ketones as a fuel source instead of relying on glucose. Ketones and glucose are the only two sources of energy that fuel the brain.

Benefits of Ketosis and the Keto Diet

In addition to helping you lose weight, putting your body into ketosis also has other health benefits. Here are some of them:

  • Greater mental clarity
  • Enhanced physical energy
  • Steady blood sugar levels, making it a good remedy for epilepsy and diabetes.
  • Improved and enhanced skin tones.
  • lower cholesterol levels
  • Hormonal regulation especially in women

The ketogenic diet is one of the best diets you can follow to lose weight and improve your overall health. The diet can also be used for overweight children. There are numerous studies that support the diet showing significant results especially when combined with exe