Many of you have probably heard about low-carb or keto diet, but probably never knew exactly what it really does, and what some of its benefits are. During the past decade, this diet has become very popular in the USA and across the world. The main reason for its popularity is that it mostly works and is effective.
In this article, we will explain what a Keto diet is and whether it works or not. Also, we will include some pros and cons about it, and some delicious recipes you can try to follow in live enhanced if you decide to be on a Keto diet.
What exactly is a Keto diet?
In a nutshell, the Keto diet is a low-carb high fat diet. It basically restricts your daily carbohydrate intake to about 20 grams, while focusing heavily on fat intake. It mainly breaks down the daily food and calories from fat. The rest or about 20 percent of that comes from protein and only 10 percent from carbs.
Keto diet was discovered from 1921 by Dr. Russel Wilder, MD, of the Mayo Clinic. While you can tweak and adjust fats and proteins during the ketosis diet, the main goal here is to limit the carbs.
How does the Keto diet work?
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, the keto diet is used to deprive body glucose and energy source of body cells obtained carbohydrate foods and replacing with fat. This way, if you start consuming fewer carbs and more fat, the body begins to use fat as its primary fuel.
This way, the Keto diet basically forces your body into using a different type of fuel. Instead of using sugar which comes mainly from carbohydrates, it heavily relies on fat, a type of fuel that the liver produces. In this context, you will start to burn fat, because the body will start to consume mainly fat as its primary source of energy.
Should you try Keto?
That totally depends on you, your body, and your overall health goal. As a general recommendation, one should at least try to follow, or incorporate the Keto diet from time to time. This diet is more beneficial for people with various conditions such as diabetes or obesity. However, it is important to always consult with your primary doctor prior to starting a diet.
Here are some of the benefits you might gain from following a keto diet:
- Your metabolism will speed up
- Helps with diabetes
- Helps with obesity
- Increases muscle mass
- Decreases hunger
Does Keto Work? Can it promote weight loss?
Generally, it does. But again the results might differ from individual to individual. When following a keto diet, your carb intake is usually limited to about 10% of your total daily calorie intake.
Because the body starts to fuel itself from fat rather than from carbs, it naturally starts to consume fat. As a result, you start to lose weight, decrease your body fat, and increase your muscle mass.
Also, because you reduce and limit the sugar and processed sugar intake by a lot, is very beneficial for weight loss and people who suffer from diabetes. The diet will work best if it is combined with physical activities. But as with everything else, you want to balance and slowly get into a transition where your body properly adapts.
What to eat on Keto?
The most important thing to follow on a Keto diet is the carbs intake. Although it might sound like another simple diet, it is easy to go overboard when it comes to carbs. This diet is very restrictive in that regard, and hence many people fail to follow it properly.
For example, a thick slice of bread contains about 21 carbs, which is already about your daily carbs limit. Therefore, as you can see it is very restrictive, and one needs to follow a strict carbs intake to be successful.
Unsaturated fats: Some healthy unsaturated fats are allowed on the keto diet, such as nuts, avocado, tofu, olive oil.
Protein: This is a big part of a Keto diet, and you want to consume healthy proteins. Here, you can incorporate various meats, such as beef, pork, bacon, etc. If you like chicken, go for it. There are plenty of keto recipes out there. One of our favorite ones is Spicy Chicken with Zucchini Avocado.
Vegetables: In general, fruits and veggies are rich in carbs. However, this does not mean that you should exclude all of them. Some keto-friendly veggies are broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, mushrooms, cucumber, celery, and squash. You can easily incorporate them with your protein for a complete meal. A nice cauliflower keto casserole can be served the whole week.
Desserts: You will most likely crave for sweets and desserts. While you cannot consume processed sugar, there are plenty of alternatives. Believe it or not, you can have a delicious cheesecake on a ketosis diet. So, you are pretty safe here as well!
