You have probably heard about this kind of diet for the past few years and how it has helped people lose weight. The Keto diet is fast becoming more and more popular these days due to the promise of giving you all the health benefits without having to work too hard.
But what is the keto diet, how does it help you lose weight, and what are its many other benefits? Research has always been conflicting about the keto diet, but the best part is that there are profound health benefits to it.
You can achieve a healthy lifestyle and transform your body this year with the help of keto diet. Check out the article below to learn more about what the keto diet is all about and what the top benefits of the keto diet are.
What is a Keto Diet?
A keto diet, or ketogenic diet, is simply a diet that consists of low carbohydrates and high in fat. This allows the body to enact a process called ketosis.
People who follow a keto diet must track their carbohydrate intake to maintain their levels, as the body still needs carbohydrates to function properly.
There are several kinds of keto diets. These include the standard keto diet, which consists heavily of fat, protein, and less carbs, and the cyclical ketogenic diet, which involves cycling through a keto diet for 5 days and 2 days of a diet consisting of high carbohydrates.
There is also a high-protein keto diet that consists of more fat and protein in your food.
How Does Ketosis Happen in the Body?
The reason why people use the keto diet is to achieve the state of ketosis. Ketosis happens when the body produces compounds called ketones that replace glucose as the source of energy for the body to use.
Your body enters the state of ketosis when there is not enough glucose or carbohydrates for you to digest and uses your body's stored fat instead.
After a few days of keto diet, your body should be in a state of ketosis; hence, it will start breaking down the fat in your body and release ketones. This can be seen in your blood and urine after running a few tests to see if you are indeed in a state of ketosis.
What a Keto Diet Looks Like
For those who are still unfamiliar with the keto diet, what does it look like? Does it look like your average dinner or lunch?
A keto diet usually consists of food that is high in fat and less in carbohydrates.
Most keto diets consist of eggs, avocados, oils like olive and coconut, cheese, olives, nuts, seeds, berries, dark chocolate, and cocoa powder.
For protein, you have fish and shellfish, meat and poultry.
What You Can't Drink or Eat While You're on a Keto Diet
Most of the time, the kind of food that you eat when you're on a keto diet is very similar to what you're eating right now.
There are still some foods that you shouldn't eat or drink while you're on a keto diet. These are chicken nuggets, milk, ice cream, dried fruits, cold cuts, alcohol, and desserts.
You will need to avoid foods that are very high in carbohydrates, as this defeats the purpose of achieving ketosis in the body.
Top 6 Benefits of the Keto Diet
For many people, a keto diet can help them achieve weight loss, especially those who are struggling to lose weight without having to severely restrict their diet.
There are still so many benefits to doing a keto diet every week. Check them out below.
#1 - Weight Loss
One of the ultimate benefits of the keto diet is weight loss.
A lot of people have found it very effective at helping you lose weight without having to either starve yourself, do surgery, go to the gym every day, or make an effort to lose weight at all.
The kind of food you eat does the work for you, and your body's natural way of ketosis makes it a very effective method for losing weight.
#2 - You Feel Less Hungry
The problem with many other diets and fitness plans is that you tend to feel hungrier the more you get into it.
Since keto diets focus more on protein and fat, you often feel full without having to feel guilty about eating more since your body has very few carbohydrates. Remember that carbohydrates tend to be digested first and absorbed by the body.
If your body already uses it for your daily activities, all that's left is protein and fat, which are slowly digested, leaving you less hungry.
#3 - Controls Your Blood Sugar
As your body receives less and less carbohydrates, it will signal the other organs to adapt to what it is currently experiencing.
This leads the pancreas to secrete less and less insulin to the body, which leads to lower blood sugar.
This can be very helpful with people who are suffering from insulin resistance or are already in their prediabetes stage.
#4 - Lowers Cholesterol Level
If you think that consuming fat raises your cholesterol level, remember that there are two kinds of cholesterol.
There are low-density lipoproteins, or bad cholesterol, and high-density lipoproteins, which are good cholesterol for the body.
LDL often leads to heart problems, and the keto diet lowers LDL levels in the body and increases HDL, which keeps the body healthy.
#5 - Reduces Seizures
Long before anti-seizure medications were created, the keto diet was one of the few ways to reduce seizures in the body.
Today, it is commonly prescribed to people who have seizures to be on a keto diet in conjunction with their anti-seizure medication.
This ensures that they experience fewer and fewer seizures while maintaining their health and living a normal, healthy life.
#6 - Reduces Acne
Carbohydrate intake and a diet consisting of processed food alter the state of gut bacteria, which is linked to acne breakouts.
With a keto diet, you are actively removing carbohydrates and processed food from your body which, in turn, reduces the amount of breakouts that you experience.
A study in 2012 found that the keto diet reduced the symptoms of acne in some people.
Conclusion
Many people yearn to have a better diet and transform their bodies into healthier ones. Now, you can achieve a healthy lifestyle without making a lot of effort with the help of the keto diet. It's one of the healthier ways to eat food.
