Whether you’re looking for a new nutrition program to help you lose weight, have more energy, or simply want to feel healthier, a keto diet is often a popular choice. The word keto is short for ketogenic, and this specific diet can be an effective way to lose a few pounds, boost energy levels or ease the symptoms of various health conditions.
Let’s take a deeper look into what the keto diet is and all that comes with it!
What is the keto diet?
To keep things simple, a keto diet is a nutrition plan in which you eat high amounts of fat and low amounts of carbs. Unlike other similar diet plans, within a keto, your carb intake remains low the whole time, and protein intake is limited to 20% of your daily calories.
By putting your body into a state known as ketosis, your body breaks down fat and converts it to ketones to use as energy. Due to your body usually using the glucose in carbs for energy, if you aren’t actually eating many carbs, it uses your body’s stored fat instead. This then leads to weight loss.
What can you eat on a keto diet?
To get your body into the ketosis state, it’s generally recommended to eat less than 50 grams of carbohydrates a day. This means limiting high-carb foods such as bread, pasta, potatoes, sugary foods and alcohol!
After cutting out these food choices, you’ll focus on eating foods that are high in healthy fats. Examples include seeds, cheese, yogurt, and avocados. Foods which are also high in quality protein are just as important, so remember to keep eating eggs, poultry, fatty fish, and meat.
A staple rule to stick by when following the keto diet is : 70% fat, 20% protein and 10% carbs.
Benefits of the keto diet
Whilst the majority of people rely on the keto diet for weight loss, health experts have also discovered it provides a variety of other health benefits. Some of the benefits of eating a low-carb diet such as the keto include :
Weight loss
As this diet helps the body to use stored fat as energy, the keto diet is a way to burn fat, improve body composition, and ultimately lose weight.
Managing blood sugar to treat diabetes and prediabetes
A ketogenic diet can help with diabetes and prediabetes by improving insulin sensitivity and reducing levels of glucose in your blood.
Heart disease
As the keto diet is linked to higher HDL cholesterol levels, this ultimately lowers your risk of strokes and heart disease. This particular diet can also lower your blood pressure and body fat.
Improves brain health
Through providing a ton of energy for the brain, research shows that a keto diet can help reduce symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease.
Mature acne
Adult acne is often linked directly to your diet. Recent studies have suggested that lowering your carb intake can improve gut bacteria and reduce acne breakouts.
PCOS
PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) is a hormonal disease where women can experience symptoms such as irregular periods, body hair, and weight gain. Eating a keto diet can help ease these symptoms.
Drawbacks of a keto diet
Like many diet plans and nutrition programs, the keto diet can offer many helpful health benefits for short-term use, although this particular diet may not be the best for a long-term plan. One main thing to consider is that not one body is the same and different people can benefit from different diets. From kidney stones to limited vitamin intake, the keto diet has also been linked to the keto flu, a flu which arises at the start of the program. This fly might include symptoms such as :
- Fatigue
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Nausea or vomiting
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