The ketogenic diet
involves consuming a very low amount of carbohydrates and replacing them
with fat to help your body burn fat for energy. Health benefits can
include weight loss and lowering your risk for certain diseases.
The ketogenic diet (or keto diet, for short) is a low carb, high fat diet that offers many health benefits.
In fact, many studies show that this type of diet can help you lose weight and improve your health (1Trusted Source).
Ketogenic diets may even have benefits against diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease (2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source, 4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source).
Here is a detailed beginner’s guide to the keto diet.
The ketogenic diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low carb diets.
It
involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with
fat. This reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state
called ketosis.
When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain (6Trusted Source).
Ketogenic
diets can cause significant reductions in blood sugar and insulin
levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has some health benefits
(6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).
SUMMARYThe
keto diet is a low carb, high fat diet. It lowers blood sugar and
insulin levels and shifts the body’s metabolism away from carbs and
toward fat and ketones.
There are several versions of the ketogenic diet, and what you eat depends on the type. They include:
However,
only the standard and high protein ketogenic diets have been studied
extensively. Cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced
methods and primarily used by bodybuilders or athletes.
The
information in this article mostly applies to the standard ketogenic
diet (SKD), although many of the same principles also apply to the other
versions.
SUMMARYThere are several versions of the keto diet. The standard (SKD) version is the most researched and most recommended.
Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body uses fat for fuel instead of carbs.
It
occurs when you significantly reduce your consumption of carbohydrates,
limiting your body’s supply of glucose (sugar), which is the main
source of energy for the cells.
Following a ketogenic diet is the
most effective way to enter ketosis. Generally, this involves limiting
carb consumption to around 20 to 50 grams per day and filling up on
fats, such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and healthy oils (6Trusted Source).
It’s
also important to moderate your protein consumption. This is because
protein can be converted into glucose if consumed in high amounts, which
may slow your transition into ketosis (10Trusted Source).
Practicing intermittent fasting
could also help you enter ketosis faster. There are many different
forms of intermittent fasting, but the most common method involves
limiting food intake to around 8 hours per day and fasting for the
remaining 16 hours (11Trusted Source).
Blood, urine, and breath tests
are available, which can help determine whether you’ve entered ketosis
by measuring the amount of ketones produced by your body.
Certain symptoms
may also indicate that you’ve entered ketosis, including increased
thirst, dry mouth, frequent urination, and decreased hunger or appetite (12Trusted Source).