Here Is What You Need To Know About Ketogenic Diet
However, a real ketogenic diet is different. Unlike other low-carb-diets, which rely on protein, a keto diet program focuses on fat, which provides as much as 90 percent of daily calories. And it’s not the sort of diet you want to pursue as an experiment.
Where Did Keto Diet Originate?
For hundreds of years, the ketogenic diet has been used in the medical setting. According to clinical researchers, the diet was established in the 1930s to primarily to help address the frequency of neurological disorders such as epilepsy and other seizure disorders in children. Although it has been used extensively to control the said neurological disorder, so several years, the dietary value declines in the 1990s after anti-epileptic medications (AEDs) were launched.
In recent years, the role of the keto diet as a meditational method has been extended to different types of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and more. Many published reports suggest that the ketogenic diet aids in normalizing atypical metabolisms, which can cause the disorders.
The diet has also become prevalent in some athletic and weight loss of society. People have discovered that medical patients put on the diet lost weight—which led to the diet’s fame as a fast method for weight loss.
Celebrities and professional athletes have endorsed the diet as their preferred weight management plan. The mainstream attention increased the keto diet’s success even further.
5 Types of Ketogenic Diets
Standard Ketogenic Diet
The standard keto diet plan consists of a 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate intake. Like with other diets, you should bear in mind that fat intake is specific for all so that you can tailor it to your optimum level of consumption.
Fat consumed in this diet plan is a healthy fat. It is essential to fill your diet with healthy fats to stay fuel your body and keep you satiated. Fat should be 75% of your daily intake, so your meals, snacks, and food consumption will revolve around these healthy fats. When applicable, you want your fats to be Organic, Grass-Fed, or Wild Caught.
Targeted Ketogenic Diet
Targeted Keto Diets (TKD) was directed at bodybuilders. This change in the ketogenic diet allows athletes to eat high-quality carbohydrates within half an hour of training. When athletes conduct high-intensity exercises, they can burn off extra calories very quickly in a workout. They burn the extra calories before it affects their ketogenic state. If the carbohydrates are not burned entirely or in a brief amount of time, the body is released from ketosis.
The secret to the targeted keto diet is a high-intensity exercise. This type of the Keto Diet is not intended for most of the of gym-goers. If you are a runner, on a sports league, or take cardio lessons, stick with the standard keto diet. If you are a professional athlete or a bodybuilder, the targeted keto diet might be for you.
An excellent tip to burn your targeted keto diet carbs is to consume digestible carbohydrates. After the workout, it is essential to consume more lean protein foods to build muscle mass quickly.
Cyclic Ketogenic Diet
The Cyclic Keto Diet (CKD) is the answer to long-term keto diet success stories. It is one that destroys ketosis from time to time, thereby enjoying carb intake, thus restarting metabolism. You can see the cyclic keto diet used in athletes.
High Protein Ketogenic Diet
High Protein Ketogenic Diets (HPKD) is intended for people with obesity. These dieters will later switch to a standard ketogenic diet. In high protein keto diet, practitioners consume 35 percent protein,
Sixty percent fat and 5 percent carbs.
Essentially, this high protein diet is the alternating SKD with additional amounts of protein. Like carbs in CKD, you can use protein to improve your physical performance, ensure weight management, and reduce body fat percentage.
The high amount of protein intake is essential to your keto diet, but too much can slip you out of ketosis. If you regularly consume more protein that is appropriate for your diet, your body can eventually turn the protein into glucose and use the glucose for energy. That is known as gluconeogenesis, and it can help break down your lean tissues, which will improve your blood sugar level and insulin levels. It influences your ketosis, and you will have glucose fueling your body.
Restricted Ketogenic Diet
The Restricted Ketogenic Diet (RKD) is a caloric-restricted version of the standard ketogenic diet. In this type of keto diet, dieters are subjected to a strict caloric restriction and only consume 12g net carbs every day.
This type of keto diet is often applied in clinical settings. The RKD is an effective keto plan for patients fighting against cancer. According to a 2010 research study, a patient with brain cancer showed no signs of mutated brain tissue after two months of following the keto plan. Medical professionals will not only observe total calorie intake, whole carbs, and ketosis, but specific high ketone levels are required to be achieved.
How does Keto Diet work?
You can maintain your keto diet indefinitely or make it as a weight-loss plan over a short period. A high intake of fats is key to your keto lifestyle. Here are some tips to start your keto lifestyle change:
- The first step is to educate yourself about carbs and understand what constitutes as good fat.
- Before you leap in, experiment with low-carb food in the fresh ingredients aisle of the grocery store, find good protein sources such as grass-fed meat, and learn about secret sources of sugar, like the coleslaw at your local food shop.
- Sugar cravings will not disappear right away. Instead, stock up on keto desserts like dark chocolate with nut butter.
- You may experience the common side effect of carb withdrawal during the first week, such as fatigue, muscle aches, mental fogginess, and hunger. Try nibbling on high-fat snacks like bacon strips or a strawberry mayonnaise for early carvings.
As the diet continues into the second and third weeks, you’ll start to feel better. Shortly, low-carb, high-fat diet may feel more familiar as it is a habit. By week four, you should expect weight loss, mainly if you’ve been physically active and keeping a close eye on the meal plan.
For maintenance over time, you can follow the cyclic keto diet approach and go in and out of ketosis. Dieters use a variety of signs to know that they are in ketosis, some more arbitrary than others. These include keto flu symptoms such as keto breath, improvement in your physical performance, mental clarity, mental focus, and weight loss can indicate ketosis.
What To Eat On A Keto Diet
Meat
Choosing the right keto foods will get easier as you become familiar with the keto lifestyle. You’ll focus on the fattier part of the animal products like rib-eye steaks, chicken thighs, grass-fed ground beef, and more as they are excellent protein sources that can help preserve muscle mass during a low-carb diet.
Fish and Shellfish
Fish and shellfish are primary sources of Omega-3. According to studies, foods rich in Omega-3 can lower insulin levels and increase insulin resistance for overweight and obese individuals.
Vegetables
Leafy greens such as kale, spinach, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, and cucumbers, make healthy keto recipe options. It is high in nutrition, including several minerals and vitamin C.
Healthy Fats
Healthy fats and oils like olive, avocado, canola, and palm will enhance the flavor of your keto recipe salads while adding healthy unsaturated fats.
You can start your day with a tea or coffee, or have eggs and bacon as a breakfast staple. Stick with whole-fat cheese, milk, and other whole dairy products. Use stevia as a substitute for artificial sweeteners.
What Foods To Avoid On A Keto Diet
The end goal of the keto diet is to reach nutritional ketosis — a metabolic process in which the body uses processed fat for food instead of carbohydrates and sugar. Since Atkins and Paleo are keto diets, we’re here to help you meet your body weight goal with a list of foods to stop during your keto diet:
Grains
The trick to a good keto diet is simple — regulate your carb intake to get more of your calories out of fat. The trouble with grains is that they are packed with carbohydrates, which can harm the success of your keto diet. It is better to avoid foods such as white bread, rice, white flour, etc.
Fruits
Although it might sound a little shocking to see fruit appear on the list of “foods to stop keto,” a variety of fruits are high in sugar and carbs. Your best choice is to hit low-glycemic such as blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, and strawberry. Olives and avocados are both excellent sources of good fats. For keto diet, it’s best to stop fruits such as mangoes, pineapples, apples, bananas, etc.
Vegetables
When it comes to vegetables, the keto rule of thumb is to avoid any veggies that grow beneath the ground. Avoid vegetables with a high starch content, as they contain the most carbs. It is best if you aim to consume around 12-15g net carbs from vegetables per day. These restricted vegetables include potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cassava, etc.
The rule of the keto diet when it comes to vegetables is to avoid any vegetables that grow beneath the ground. Avoid vegetables with a high-starch content, as they contain most carbs. It’s best if you consume around 12-15g net carbs from vegetables daily. These dietary restrictions include potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, cassava, etc.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Keto Diet
Helps Weight Loss
The keto diet can boost weight loss, metabolism, and can act as an appetite suppressant. The keto diet contains foods that help reduce hunger-stimulating hormones and can keep a person satiated. Thus, it can increase your chances of losing tremendous weight if you do a strict calorie restriction.
Insulin Resistance
Insulin resistance can cause diabetes if left unmanaged. According to several research reports, a low carb diet or keto diet can lower insulin levels and promote insulin resistance.
If you’re physically active, you can benefit from insulin optimization on keto through consuming foods rich in omega-3.
Often, people follow the keto diet to boost their mental performance. Ketones are a great source of energy and fuel for the brain. If you reduce your carb intake, you can avoid blood sugar spikes. Thus, resulting in enhanced mental clarity and mental focus. Studies show that an increased intake of fatty acids can boost the brain’s performance.
What Are The Risks Of Keto Diet?
Ketoacidosis
For diabetic patients, ketosis can cause a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis. It happens when the body has way too many stored ketones, and the blood starts to be too acidic, which can be damaging for the brain, kidney, and liver.
Ketoacidosis can also happen to people without diabetic conditions who were doing low-carb diets, although it is rare. Symptoms of ketoacidosis include frequent urination, bad breath, nausea, dry mouth, and difficulty breathing.
Individuals who follow a strict low-carb diet changes body scent; they may experience a pungent bodily and mouth smell that is like a nail polish remover or acetone. It is due to consuming lots of fats and, in turn, creates ketone to fuel the brain, thus resulting in a ketone body.
Keto Flu
Individuals who started following the ketogenic diet may undergo signs of “keto flu,” these symptoms include nausea, fatigue, and headaches. These symptoms occur because the body is familiarizing itself with operating with fewer carbs and as it enters the ketosis state. These symptoms result from impermanent imbalances in insulin, energy sources, and minerals in the body.