What Is a Ketogenic Diet? Is It Healthy for Weight Loss?

A ketogenic diet is the most common weight loss plan, emphasizing taking calories from protein and fat instead of carbohydrates. The idea of the keto diet is to cut the easily digestive carbs such as sugar, white bread, cakes, pastries, and sodas from your diet. It is the most effective weight loss and fat-burning diet with enormous health benefits. A ketogenic diet can help you in weight loss and improved health. Despite its benefits, many people still ask about its side effects. People usually ask: is keto healthy? Should I follow this diet plan? Are there any weight loss medication side effects? Well! Throughout this diet, we have discussed ketogenic diet pros and cons. Before we move further, let’s discuss the keto diet.

What Is a Ketogenic Diet?

A ketogenic diet is a low carb and high-fat diet similar to Atkins (a low carb diet). Basically, the human body has two fuel sources: glucose and fat. Fat is energy that our body consumes, resulting in weight gain. However, adequate fat consumption for energy instead of glucose is a key to weight loss. Actually, this is the basic idea behind the ketogenic diet, which has grown significantly in the last few years. In this diet, you have to reduce the consumption of carbohydrates and replace it with fats. The reduction in the carbs level puts your body in a metabolic state called ketosis. In short, a ketogenic diet is a fat burning weight loss diet that is based on the idea to drive the body into a ketosis state to maximize fat loss.  

Types of Ketogenic Diet

There are many variants of the ketogenic diet. Here we have listed a few of the keto diet plans:

Standard Ketogenic diet:  It is a low carb, moderate protein, and high-fat diet. This diet emphasizes consuming 70% fats, 20% protein, and 10% carbs.

Targeted Ketogenic Diet: This dietallows you to consume carbs around the workouts for effective results.

Cyclical Ketogenic Diet: This diet includes periods of higher carbohydrate refeeding, such as five ketogenic days and two high carb days.

High Protein Ketogenic Diet: A high protein keto diet is similar to a standard ketogenic diet but includes more protein portions. You can consume 60% fat, 35% protein, and only 5% carbs in your meal. 

Standard keto diet and high protein diet are extensively used by people who want to lose weight. However, the cyclical and targeted keto diet is more suitable for bodybuilders and athletes. The information contained in this blog is more about the standard ketogenic diet, although many of the similar principles are also applicable for other keto versions.

What Is Ketosis?

Ketosis is a metabolic state where the human body uses fat for fuel instead of carbs. This state occurs when you significantly reduce the consumption of carbohydrates from your meal and limit your body’s supply of glucose (sugar). Ketosis is a state that occurs when the body does not have enough glucose stored for energy. So, the body resorts to burning stored fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. With this diet, an acid known as ketones develops in our body used as energy. Following a ketogenic diet for weight loss is the most effective way to get into ketosis. You generally have to limit the carb consumption to a significant level in the keto diet. Limiting your carbs consumption to 20-50 grams per day and filling up on fats such as avocado, fish, meat, nuts, eggs, and healthy oils are recommended.

Remember! Not just fats, protein can also store glucose if consumed in high amounts. That is why you have to take protein in your meal in moderation. Taking protein in a higher amount will slow down the transition into ketosis. Also, intermittent fasting helps you to enter ketosis quickly. There are many variations of intermittent fasting, but the trend of limiting your meal intake to around 8 hours and fasting for the rest of the hours is most common these days.

Is Ketogenic Diet Healthy for Weight loss?

You must have heard about the ketogenic diet’s pros and cons. Well! This diet plan has many benefits, but there is a negative impact also if you can’t do it properly.

Many people ask this question: Is keto healthy? Well! Adopting a keto diet is effective for fat loss, especially if you have diabetes and put on some extra pounds. It is an effective weight loss diet plan that helps you reduce weight and controls your blood sugar level to the certain point where you can stop taking medication. However, many studies show that you should try such diet plans for around six months to one year. The health risks are also expected if you stick to lots of saturated fats resulting in increased health risks such as heart diseases and blood pressure.

Moreover, the keto diet limits starchy vegetables such as corn, potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, and many fruits, restricting the number of nutrients and vitamins essential for the body. A keto diet is not suitable for everybody; if you have any health condition, talk to your nutritionist or doctor before starting your keto weight loss journey.

What are Weight loss Medication Side Effects?

One of the commonly known side effects of the keto diet is the keto flu. It refers to the frequently unpleasant and fatigue-inducing symptoms when the body transitions from a high-carbohydrate to a low-carbohydrate diet. The body’s glucose level begins to deplete during a keto flu, and the body begins to produce and use ketones as energy. This weight loss medication’s side effects are headache, fatigue, poor sleep, dizziness, diarrhea, and cramps. However, these side effects dissolve in around two weeks. To reduce any side effects, gradually transition to a ketogenic diet rather than abruptly changing your eating habits. By gradually reducing your carbs intake and increasing your dietary fat intake, you can transform yourself with less negative impacts and prevent keto flu.

Few Final Thoughts

 A ketogenic diet is a trend everybody is following these days. This fat loss diet plan emphasizes taking lower carbs, moderate protein, and high fat in your meal. Throughout this guide, we have discussed this effective keto diet, ketosis, and some weight loss medication side effects. In short, we will summarize by saying there is nothing wrong with following this diet plan unless you know what to consume in your portion and in what amount you should take your meals.