What is Ketogenic Diet? Everything you Need to Know

What is Ketogenic Diet?

It is nothing but a low carb and high fat diet which means it helps to get you more calories from protein and fat but less from carbohydrates. 

The stage at which body burns fat instead of carbs to get energy is known as Ketosis. 

At the stage of ketosis your body start burning fat at a incredibly high speed to turns fat into ketones. 

Ketogenic diet helps to reduce blood sugar and insulin levels, weight loss, reduced seizures and much more. 

What is Ketosis?

It is nothing but a process which occur when our body doesn’t have enough carbs to burn to get energy. So it burns fat instead of carbs and makes ketones which can be used as a fuel. 

The three ketones body are beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), acetoacetate, and acetone 

Your liver produces ketones on a regular basis even when eating a higher-carb diet. This happens mainly overnight while you sleep but only in tiny amounts. However, when glucose and insulin levels decrease, such as on a carb-restricted diet, the liver ramps up its production of ketones in order to provide energy for your brain. 

When the level of Ketones reaches a desired point in your blood so you are considered to be in nutritional Ketosis. 

Ketogenic diet for Weight Loss

• Keto has some traits that are remindful of the Atkins diet and other low-carb plans. The keto diet involves extremely reducing your carbohydrate consumption and substituting fat instead.

• Keto is a satisfying and filling method of dieting. In fact, you can lose weight without tracking calories something that hinder many people from cling to other diets.

Reasons why keto diet is great for weight loss:

•  Unlike with calorie restriction, keto helps you lose weight by putting your body into ketosis. When you eat minimal carbohydrates, your body produces ketones for energy.

•  Ketones are made in your liver from fatty acids found in food or your own body fat. Therefore, your liver actually burns fat to make ketones. Ketones are used for energy in lieu of carbs.

• The fat in your belly is visceral fat, which is a dangerous type of fat that lives deep inside the abdomen, encasing your internal organs. Visceral fat is linked to heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Keto can help you to get rid from this

•  Belly fat can easily become inflamed, making it incredibly stubborn to lose and dangerous to surrounding blood vessels. A well-formulated keto regimen has strong anti-inflammatory effects, making it easier to drop stubborn belly fat.

Ketogenic diet for Diabetes

A ketogenic diet may help some people with type 2 diabetes because it allows the body to maintain glucose levels at a low but healthy level. 

If you’re insulin resistant which means you have higher blood sugar levels because your body isn’t responding properly to the hormone insulin you could benefit from nutritional ketosis, because your body will need and make less insulin. 

people with type 2 who are overweight seem to get good results safely. If you have type 1 and want to try the keto diet, it’s essential that you talk to your doctor first. 

Types of Ketogenic Diet:

1. Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD):- This is a very-low carb, moderate protein and high fat diet. It typically contains 70 to 75% fat, 20% protein, and about 5 to 10% carbs. 

2. Very Low Carb Ketogenic Diet (VLCKD):- A standard ketogenic diet is very-low-carb and therefore a VLCKD will usually refer to a standard ketogenic diet.

3. MCT Ketogenic Diet:- MCT ketogenic diets have been used to treat epilepsy because the theory is that MCTs allows people to consume more carbs and protein whilst keeping in ketosis. 

4. Cyclical Ketogenic Diet:- in this diet you have to take more carbs usually 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 higher carbs days.

5. Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD):- This diet allows you to add carbs around workouts.

6. High Protein Ketogenic Diet:- This is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs. 

Other Health Benefits of keto

•  Polycystic ovary Syndrome: - keto diet helps in reduce insulin levels ehich play a great role in polycystic ovary syndrome.

•  Bipolar Disorder:- ketogenic diet is a potentially sustainable option for mood stabilization in type II bipolar illness. They also support the hypothesis that acidic plasma may stabilize mood, perhaps by reducing intracellular sodium and calcium.

• Alzheimer’s Disease:- The ketogenic diet could alleviate the effects of impaired glucose metabolism by providing ketones as alternative metabolic substrates for the brain. Besides, this diet may help to reduce the deposition of amyloid plaques by reversing the Aβ(1–42) toxicity.

•  Eplilepsy:- ketogenic diet does reduce or prevent seizures in many children whose seizures could not be controlled by medications. Over half of children who go on the diet have at least a 50% reduction in the number of their seizures.

Foods to avoid during Keto Diet

Grains:- The problem with grains is that they are filled with carbohydrates, which can                hurt your keto progress 

• Pumpernickel
• Oatmeal
• White
• Flour & corn tortillas
• Wheat
• Rye
• Sourdough

Vegetables:- Avoid vegetables with a high starch content, as they contain the most carbs. 

• Potatoes
• Sweet potatoes
• Baked potatoes
• Peas
• Corn

Foods to take in Keto Diet

Vegetables:- 

• spinach
• tomatoes
• broccoli
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• cucumber
• green beans
• eggplant

Nuts:- 

• Almonds
• Cashews
• Walnuts
• Pumpkin seeds

Berries:- 

• Blackberries
• Blueberries
•  Strawberries

Side effects and how to reduce them

• Excessive thirst
• Fatigue
• Hunger
• Confusion, anxiety and/or irritability
• Lightheadedness and shakiness
• Sweating and chills
• Poor energy
• Increased hunger
• Nausea
• Digestive discomfort
• Decreased exercise performance

To minimize this, you can try a regular low carb diet for the first few weeks. This may teach your body to burn more fat before you completely eliminate carbs. 

A ketogenic diet can also change the water and mineral balance of your body, so adding extra salt to your meals or taking mineral supplements may help. 

Hope this article helps you to getting you what you want.