What is Keto Diet?

Recently, the keto diet has become extremely popular for its health benefits such as weight loss and preventing disease. The keto diet can be hugely beneficial, but how does it work to provide these benefits and what is Keto Diet?

You may have heard of the high-protein, low-carbohydrate Atkins diet. The keto diet keeps carbohydrate levels low, but instead of ramping up the amount of protein in your diet, the keto diet increases the amount of fat. 

A typical keto diet aims for meals with 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate. Eating a high-fat diet can still mean eating healthy. Keto diet menu items often include seafood, meat, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and nuts. With the increased popularity of the keto diet, keto recipes are widely available.A ketogenic diet is a diet in which most of the calories come from fat. Only a small number of the calories come from carbohydrates.

The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates for energy. Normally, the carbohydrates you eat are turned into glucose in the body, which is used for energy around the body and in the brain.

But, if you don't eat enough carbohydrates, your body has a back-up system of burning fat instead. The liver can use stored fat and the fat you eat for energy. Stored fat is broken into two parts, fatty acids, and ketone bodies. Ketone bodies power the brain instead of glucose. This state of having a lot of ketone bodies in your blood is called "Ketosis."

The regular ketogenic diet has two to four times more fat by weight than protein, and very little carbohydrates every day. This means not eating foods that are made from sugar.

High-carbohydrate foods are foods like fruits, bread, pasta, grains, cookies, and ice cream. Also, you have to increase your intake of fatty foods, like oils, butter, and fatty meats. It's also important to not eat too much protein. You should only eat just enough protein so you don't lose muscles. Too much protein reduces the ketone bodies in your blood and blocks fat burning.

A ketogenic diet can be good for losing weight for most people, and is very good for treating seizures. Compared to the diet that the American government suggests we should eat, there is a lot more fat and a lot less carbohydrate. Some people think this is a healthier way to live since you are eating less sugar, and the fat you eat can be used for energy right away, instead of being stored as body fat.

A ketogenic diet helps to stop seizures (seizure happens when the nerves in a person's brain act strangely) in children and can help people lose weight.

How Does the Keto Diet Work?

It might seem counter intuitive that adding more fat to your diet can lead to weight loss. Normally, your diet is high in carbohydrates, which are broken down into glucose, or blood sugar, for use as energy. As glucose enters your bloodstream, your body releases insulin to store excess glucose as fat. The more carbohydrates, the more glucose. The more glucose, the more insulin, and the more insulin, the more fat. 

The keto diet takes advantage of the fact that when your meals are high-fat and low-carbohydrate, there is no insulin spike, and you don't add to your fat reserves. Instead, fat from diet and stored fat are broken down to ketones ("keto" is short for "ketogenic" producing ketones). Like glucose, ketones can be used for energy, keeping your body running without increasing blood sugar or putting on excess fat. The benefits of the keto diet can be huge.

  

Weight Loss

Overall, the keto diet is an excellent way to burn fat and lose weight. Eating fewer carbohydrates suppresses appetite, and studies have shown that keto diet participants eat fewer calories overall because of this. Burning fat for energy can lead to rapid weight loss.

  

Reduced Blood Sugar and Insulin

Since carbohydrate intake is limited, blood sugar and insulin levels are lowered. This is particularly important for people with type 2 diabetes, which causes a buildup of glucose in the bloodstream. The keto diet can be used to reduce or eliminate the need for diabetic insulin injections.

  

Reduced Triglycerides

Fat subunit molecules called triglycerides normally circulate in your bloodstream. High levels of triglycerides are a significant risk factor in the development of heart disease. In the keto diet, because fat is being burned for energy, the number of triglyceride molecules in the bloodstream decreases, reducing the risk of heart disease.

  

Improved Cholesterol

"Bad" (LDL) cholesterol is another risk factor for heart disease. Too much bad cholesterol in your bloodstream builds up in your arteries, narrowing them and causing atherosclerosis, a type of heart disease. The keto diet reduces bad cholesterol levels while increasing the level of "good" (HDL) cholesterol in your body.

  

Summary

The keto diet provides many health benefits. This diet can not only help you quickly lose weight, but can also improve your overall health and help prevent disease.

Gary Best from Canada said "I've struggled with my weight my whole life and it's safe to say that I've tried a lot of diets... The Keto diet is the only one I've managed to stick to and the weight is literally melting off my body. Unlike other diets where I am feeling hungry all day and food is constantly on my mind, the keto diet has completely eliminated this, I actually never feel hungry with this way of eating! I would definitely recommend anyone struggling to lose weight to try these custom keto meal plans as they really have been a godsend for me.

(sponsored)