Recently, the ketogenic or keto diet is gaining popularity – a low-carb diet with a high intake of fat . Everyone promises a miraculous transformation of the body into a fat burning machine. Many stars write on Instagram how they lost weight on this miracle diet.
What is it? Let’s figure it out. Here you will find everything you need to know about this topic.
What is the keto diet?
The keto diet is a low-carb diet with moderate protein intake and increased fat intake. This allows the body to enter a state of ketosis, in which the liver begins to produce ketones , special organic substances that are used by the body as energy instead of glucose.
The point of the keto diet is to reduce your carbohydrate intake to a certain level, lower your blood sugar and insulin levels. Low sugar significantly reduces the risk of diabetes, oncology, fatty hepatosis, and eliminates all inflammatory processes in the body.
What is “ketosis”
What is keto ? Keto is short for ketosis and is the result of following the standard ketogenic diet or the keto diet.
Ketosis is a natural state of the body in which energy is not taken from glucose, but from processed fat, ketones. The keto diet has become widespread in medicine, where it is used to treat epilepsy and cancer and has shown very good results. At the national level, low-carb, high-fat diets have tremendous support in Sweden.
This state can also be achieved through several days of general fasting, but in this case it is not unstable and does not last long. That is why sometimes, for a beginner keto diet, it is recommended to supplement it with intermittent fasting for a greater effect of weight loss.
How to enter ketosis
To get the benefits of the keto diet, you need to put your body into a stable state of ketosis. How to achieve this and what happens during this:
- We completely exclude the consumption of any carbohydrate foods – bread, sweets, pastries, starchy vegetables, fruits, etc.
- The body spends all its stores of glucose and starts looking for an alternative source of energy – fat (for example, any oil, lard, bacon, etc.)
- Meanwhile, in the absence of glucose , the body begins to burn fat and produces ketones , which can be used by almost all cells in the body as an energy source.
- As soon as the level of ketones in the blood rises to a certain level ( more than 0.5 mmol / L ), you enter a state of ketosis.
- In this state, you begin to lose weight quickly by burning your own fat stores and by following the keto diet this state will stabilize.
The question arises, how much carbohydrates can you consume to stay in ketosis? The traditional ketogenic diet, in its original medical form, designed for people with epilepsy, recommends about 75% of calories from fat sources, 5% from carbohydrates and 20% from protein. This turns out to be about 20 grams . carbohydrates per day, excluding fiber.
The current recommendations of experts on the ketogenic (keto) diet are now about 30-50 grams. carbohydrates per day .
Who is contraindicated in a ketogenic diet?
Who shouldn’t start a keto diet without consulting a doctor:
- Type 1 diabetes (Type 2 as agreed with your doctor)
- gallbladder disease (or no gallbladder)
- kidney disease
- liver disease
- pancreas diseases
- high blood pressure (pressure control and drug dose regulation)
- people with impaired metabolism
- people with a tendency to form kidney stones (attention is needed to change the balance of fluid and salt).
Diet is not recommended:
- People who are underweight
- children under 18 years old
- people after surgery
- for pregnant or breastfeeding women
Types of ketogenic diets
1. Classic (medical) – it is calculated so that 75 percent of calories come from fat, 5 percent from carbohydrates and 20 percent from protein. Usually we are talking about 20 gr. carbohydrates per day excluding fiber (insoluble carbohydrates).
2. Modern – not such a strict version of the medical version of the diet, starts with 30 grams of carbohydrates per day, the calculation of protein is based on the weight of a person, approximately 0.7-1.1 grams of protein per 1 kg of body weight is taken.
3. Sports – similar to the previous version, but due to some difficulties in strength indicators with a minimum content of glycogen in the body, it allows, during intense sports, to add a little carbohydrates during strength exercises beyond the anaerobic threshold and increase the level of protein intake.
4. Vegetarian Keto Diet or Vegan Keto Diet: Yes, both are possible. Instead of animal products, a variety of vegetarian and / or vegetarian foods are included that are low in carbohydrates, nutrients. Nuts, seeds, low-carb fruits and vegetables, leafy greens, healthy fats, and dairy products are all great choices on a plant-based keto diet.
5. “Dirty” keto diet – a distorted version of the diet due to the rapid surge in interest in it and the emergence of a large number of “experts” on the Internet who, after reading several articles, start an account on Instagram and begin to teach people how to follow a ketogenic diet. At the same time, the correct distribution of KBZhU is even declared, but attention is completely not paid to the balance of the diet, saturation with vitamins and minerals, the quality of fats, etc.
You are allowed to eat anything, even bacon, sausage and factory-made sausages (with sugar and monosodium glutamate), there is also a diet with the consumption of one meat food (carnivore), while no attention is paid to the consumption of fiber and vegetables. Such options, of course, cannot be recommended for use, if you decide to follow this – do it at your own peril and risk, weighing all the risks and try to minimize such experiments in time.
6. “Lazy” keto diet (lazy keto). This option is often confused with dirty keto, but they are very different, as “lazy” simply means not carefully tracking the fat and protein macros and calories. In principle, this is possible, but, but you need to very strictly monitor the consumption of carbohydrates, at the beginning do not exceed 30 grams of carbohydrates per day. Sometimes this option may be easier for beginners, but you need to understand that the effects of such a diet will be much weaker.
7. Pure keto is the most complete variant of the ketogenic diet. Essentially a variation on the modern keto diet, but with an emphasis on balance and variety in the diet. In modern keto, a large number of supplements, minerals and vitamins are allowed, because It is believed that it is very difficult to balance the keto diet, in the “pure” version of the diet this problem is solved, and all the necessary vitamins and minerals are taken from the diet as much as possible.
Replace all drinks in your diet with water or special detox cocktails that you can make yourself.
