When it comes to staying fit, putting on weight or losing weight, diet plays an important role. Exercise or workout is just 10% while diet plays the rest 90% in making you achieve your fitness goals. There are a lot of diet plans specific to your needs and goals, if you are trying to lose weight or lose body fat percentage and gain muscle weight, keto-diet could be the best for you. Here is a guide to keto-diet and all you want to know about it:
WHAT EXACTLY IS KETO-DIET?
A keto-diet is a diet plan wherein you turn your body into a fat-burning machine due to the process that takes place internally called as ketosis. Keto-diet is actually a low carb and high fat diet where you consume very low carbs, approx. less than 50 grams a day and eat all the good fats like coconut oil, olive oil, white unsalted butter etc. You also eat moderate amounts of proteins which you get from chicken, cottage cheese etc. Ketogenic diet is also referred to as low-carb high-fat diet or simply LCFD diet. Keto-friendly, butter coffee recipe and benefits.
WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS WHEN YOU FOLLOW A KETOGENIC DIET
First off, when you start a ketogenic diet, you ought to feel more hungry than usual and crave for sweets as you suddenly go low on carbs and your body needs time to adjust to it. Gradually, you won’t feel as hungry or crave for sweets.
Basically, on a normal diet (that is usually high in carbs as the regular Indian food is high in carbs- roti, rice, beans etc.), carbs are high and therefore glucose is used as the primary source of energy. Glucose is preferred over any other energy source so fat is never used and is stored in the body. While on a low carb diet, ketones are produced that breakdown fat and use it as the primary energy source thus you lose fat!
Ketogenesis usually happens when we are starving so that we could survive by using fat as energy, in the ketogenic diet, you do not starve on calories, but on carbohydrates and that’s how it works.
WHY IS KETOGENIC DIET BETTER THAN LOW-FAT OR LOW-CALORIE DIETS?
This one sentence will make sense and clear your doubts as to why keto-diet is better- carbohydrates make you gain weight, fats do not! Since you are low in carbs, you naturally do not store fats and ketosis burns the exiting fat and that is that! What’s more? With little dedication, you can lose weight and stay fit (with moderate workouts too) without having to keeping a check n your calorie or fat intake. Since you can have good fats on a regular basis, you do not crave for cheat days as well. More importantly, it is great for diabetic patients with high insulin levels!
WHAT EXACTLY TO EAT ON A KETOGENIC DIET?
The important thing that you need to give up on is tea or coffee with added milk! Everybody’s day starts with a cup of hot tea or coffee but you need to avoid it! There is a coffee called as ‘bullet-proof’ or ‘ketogenic’ coffee that speeds up your metabolism. It is actually a black coffee with added coconut oil and white unsalted butter. Have it on an empty stomach as soon as you get up. For breakfast you can have egg omlette, scrambled eggs or boiled eggs. For lunch, have salads with lettuce, chicken and other leafy veggies. The same can be consumed for dinner. Avoid brown bread and brown rice even if it claims to be healthy as it is high in carbs which you don’t need. Also, avoid all unhealthy food completely like anything made with all-purpose flour, fruit juices, sweet fruits like grapes, mangoes, apples etc. You also need to avoid sugar completely as it is the primary source for high carbs and also alcohol as it is high in carbs. If you haven’t consumed any carbs in the entire day (50gms per day is the limit), you can eat a piece of bread at the end of the day or any other carb source you like! If you crave for tasty food, add some cheese or mayonnaise to your salads as they are high in fats and low in carbs and that’s what you need.
CHANGES YOU WILL SEE AFTER ROUTINELY FOLLOWING A KETO-DIET
Gradually you lose sweet-cravings and you certainly start losing weight after 3-4 weeks of dedicated diet. You need to eat proteins and workout regularly to put on muscular weight which totally depends on your workout routine. You also lose face-fat gradually which is usually tough with other diets. If you experience hair fall, include olive oil in your diet. If you feel you are breaking out more than usual, lower your egg consumption. With this diet, you will feel more energetic, mentally alert and less tired.
BOTTOM LINE
With little exercise, high good fats and low carbs, you can easily achieve your fitness goals. Always calculate the no. of carbs you have in a day. Download nutrition calculating apps or you can always use google. Stay fit, stay happy!