The Ketogenic diet, or keto for short, is low carb (typically, 40 grams of carbs per day) and high fat, which puts your body in ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state when levels of the ketone bodies in the body tissues are raised. This helps people lose weight because instead of burning carbs, your body will burn fat to give your energy. The increased amount of ketones, acids produced from burning fat, from decreasing carbs can lower blood sugar levels because the body burns the ketones for energy and uses the carbs to absorb their nutrients.
Like the vegetarian diet, the ketogenic diet also has different versions. With health and nutrition, it is important to revise diets and workouts to match your needs and what you’d like to achieve!
Standard - very low carb, medium amount of protein, high fat
Clinical - this one is more of a “diet” instead of a “way of eating” because of the time frames. 5 Standard Keto days followed by 2 higher carb days
Targeted - this version allows you to eat more carbs around a workout time
High protein - this version is most similar to the Standard Keto diet but with more protein and less fat, still very low carb
What are the specific foods to avoid?
Sugary foods, grains and starches, fruit, beans, starchy vegetables (potatoes), dieting products and foods (usually processed and high in carbs and “fake” sugar), and alcohol (can mess up the ketosis process!)
What foods are good to eat a lot of?
Meat, fish, eggs (high in protein, low in calories and carbs), cheese, nuts, healthy oils, low carb veggies, and avocados (very nutritious and worth the few carbs!!)
Are there any negatives to the keto diet?
With almost every diet, there are negatives. With the keto diet, most people experience feeling sick at the beginning of ketosis because your body runs out of sugar to burn for energy and uses fat instead which can make your body feel a little different. Diarrhea can also be caused from going keto because your gallbladder is the organ that processes fat and with the increase in fat, it will feel like it has too much work to do. Ketoacidosis is when you body stores too many ketones which will change the chemical balance in your blood and it will become too acidic which will bother the brain, liver, and kidneys. Ketoacidosis is rarely found in people without diabetes but some cases have been shown with people who follow a low-carb diet. Speaking of diabetes, if it is in your family, stay away from this diet; also stay away if you have high cholesterol. Since this is a high-fat, low-carb diet, it will increase your cholesterol which can increase your risk for diabetes. It is also recommended to not follow the keto diet long-term because of how much weight some may lose. The lost weight can also be from muscle mass instead of fat and if you gain the lost weight back, it will most likely be in fat, not muscle which can decrease your metabolism.
This diet can be difficult because it is fairly strenuous and it restricts you from foods that are high in nutrients (like fruit!). The benefits offered by the Keto diet can also be reached through different methods. All of these diets are supposed to “reduce diseases” and there are a lot of ways to do this without Keto. If you live a healthy life, that is going to help you reduce the risk of diseases on its own! These diets are supposed to help you live a healthier lifestyle and that’s why they “reduce diseases,” not because of some scientific breakthrough connected to this diet.
The Keto diet can help you lose weight because of how the body reacts to a reduced amount of carbs but you have to be careful to not go into ketosis and to eat HEALTHY fats, not just any fats! Avocados (my favorite!) are a great option for healthy fats because they are a superfood but they are also high in calories. All in all, and as usual, most things are good in moderation!