The Keto ‘Ketogenic diet’ is one of Google s most searched for diets. It’s a trend that goes back decades, to those high fat no carb diets of the 70s that mum used to do. This diet is based around minimising your carb intake to less than 50 grams a day and increasing your fat intake so that your body goes into a state of Ketosis where your body starts burning fat for energy. To initiate this process you need to get:
- 60-75 % of your calories from fat
- 15 to 30 %of your calories from protein
- 5 to 10 % of your calories from carb
The origins of the keto diet come from the medical world where it was developed to help people minimise seizures. It has also been found to help diabetes and a range of other medical conditions
But people who started following the keto diet noticed weight loss for a few reasons. When you eat carbs, your body retains fluid in order to store carbs for energy. If you are not having carbs, you lose water weight. Loading up on fat instead of carbs helps curb cravings and keeps you satisfied, do you’re less tempted to eat an excessive amount of carbs.
Facts About Keto Diet
- Ketosis process encourages your body to burn fat, resulting weight loss.
- Vegan keto diet is more challenging but can be done by including tofu, nuts and nut butters, and beans and legumes.
- For extra fast results/benefits, combine the keto diet with intermittent fasting 16/8 hours or do for 5:2 eating less that 500 Keto calories on 2 days a week.
- Focus on eating healthy fats, olive oil and avocado, plenty of lean protein fish or chicken, and leafy greens or other non-starchy veggies
- Snack on almonds, cashews, cocoa butter, coconut, pea protein, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds.
- You mustn’t eat any sweet or artificial processed foods and cakes.
- Fruits are not allowed either as they have a lot of sugar.
- Meals you can eat include omelette, eggs, avocado, quiche, a range of salads, salmon, and green smoothies.
As with all diets, there can be side effects. Many people reporting they get digestion problems like IBS. They can also feel tired and have a lack of energy as the body uses up glucose stores. The keto diet, however, does show a lot of weight loss if you reduce your calories and eay only healthy fat and protein. Restricted diets like this are not recommended long term, but it is proving to be a good way to lose weight.
