What Is The Keto Diet?
Have you ever wondered what makes you fat and why your weight loss techniques are not yielding significant results?
If you ask around, you will get several responses- all of which may be wrong, one famous statement that is more a myth than a fact is the “fat makes you fat”, while many persons hold onto that statement, it isn’t that simple or even true.
First of all, you cannot survive without fat because your body and brain need healthy fat, so doesn’t that mean that you need to eat fatty foods? The secret to staying healthy while consuming fat lies in the Keto or ketogenic diet.
The keto diet is built on eating more fats and fewer carbohydrates, which is in opposition to what many people preach.
For instance, when on a regular diet, 55% of your body’s energy comes from carbs, while 35% comes from protein, and 10% from fat. However, it is a flip of the coin for the keto diet because most of the body’s energy is produced from fat while taking only 10% from carbs.
With keto being a low-carb diet, your body produces ketones in the liver, using it as an energy source for the body.
How your body produces energy
When we consume high-carb meals, our body produces glucose and insulin.
Glucose is the primary energy source as it is the easiest convertible molecule for your body to convert. Your body converts glucose into energy easily, making it the most preferred energy source.
Insulin, on the other hand, is responsible for taking glucose into the cells and providing them with the necessary energy to function.
The way this system works, glucose works as a primary energy source, making the fat unneeded and therefore stored away in the body, this stored-up fat is what leads to weight gain because it isn’t broken down.
Basically, when you consume a high carbohydrate diet, your body uses glucose as its primary energy form. However, if you lower your carb intake, your body goes into ketosis and burns fat.
What is Ketosis?
When your body has a low food intake, it goes into ketosis – a process where your body survives on stored food. In ketosis, your body produces ketones by breaking down the fats stored in the liver.
When you continue on a keto diet, your body goes into a state of metabolism, this metabolic state is achieved by starving your body of carbohydrates.
The secret to understanding the ketogenic diet is realizing that the human body is constantly adapting to whatever process you put it through, when you eat lots of carbohydrates, it will break down carbs, but when you eat lots of fats, your body burns ketones as the primary source of energy.
When your body achieves optimal ketosis, it brings about positive health results, including physical health benefits, weight loss, and other mental benefits.
How To Start A Keto Diet
We’ve explained the fundamentals of a keto diet and how much macronutrients you should consume. How to start now?
It’s important not to ditch your carbs out of the blue. Read on to learn more about whether the keto diet plan will work for you or not.
Start Slowly
To find out which keto diet offers you the maximum benefits, test out every keto style for a minimum of 30 days.
Use apps like MyFitnessPal to track your protein, fat, and carbs, this will help you control your carb and fat intake easily, thus allowing you to ditch your worries about your calorie intake. You can eat till you think you’re full – your body knows what’s best for you.
Check your body’s response to different keto diets as well. Is a full keto diet better for you or does a weekend carb refeed keto diet help you perform better at work and home? Are you unable to carry out your daily activities with a carb intake of fewer than 100 grams per day?
You’ll need to experiment with different low-carb diets to find out which one yields the best results for you. Everyone’s case is unique and what works for somebody may not always work out for you.
Consume Moderate Protein and Healthy Fats
Unlike the protein-rich Atkins Diet, the keto diet generally preaches against consuming excess protein. A higher protein intake may trigger a process known as gluconeogenesis, which turns protein into glucose and stops ketosis in your body.
