If you’re considering a Keto diet, it’s probably because you’ve heard that it can help you lose weight. While healthy eating is the best way to lose weight, without actually dieting, a keto diet has some benefits. It consists of lowering the amount of calories you eat from carbohydrates to approximately 5% and increasing the amount calories of fat to approximately 70% with the last 25% coming from protein. This is just one version. Other versions include doing a cycle of keto followed by a cycle of a high carb diet, increasing the protein intake and reducing the fat intake or slightly increasing the carb intake.
The key is the type of carbs you eat.
When you think of carbs, you probably think of cake, cereal, white bread and pasta. Not all carbs are bad or high in calories. Vegetables are in the carbohydrate group, so is quinoa, dairy and nuts. However, vegetables, such as broccoli, lettuce and green beans are low in calories, so you can eat healthy and still be on a keto diet. What the diet limits is underground or root vegetables and refined carbohydrates. When you think about it, cutting out added sugar and refined carbs is the first step to a healthy diet.
What foods are on a keto diet?
Avocados may be a fruit—even though most people think of them as a vegetable—but they’re high in fat and count toward your fat intake. Fatty fish, eggs, butter, nuts, seeds, low carbohydrate vegetables and meat are included in a keto diet. Since 70% of the calories come from fat, the high fat intake may not be a good habit to form. Most of the diet includes healthy foods, which is a good habit to develop. While eating most types of fat is encouraged, trans fats are not allowed.
If a keto diet sounds too good to be true, you should know there are dangers.
If you take medication for diabetes, always talk to your health care professional. In fact, do that if you’re making any dramatic changes to your diet. Try to avoid too much saturated fat, since it isn’t heart healthy. Keto diets can also cause constipation, kidney stones, low blood pressure, nutritional deficiencies and increase your risk of heart disease. If you have a liver disease, a thyroid condition, or problems with your gallbladder or pancreas, you should avoid a keto diet for the sake of safety.
- It can be hard to stick with a keto diet, especially if you’re constantly on the run and eat out frequently, where you don’t control all the ingredients in the food.
- Be aware there’s a potential for low blood sugar, which is important for diabetics to remember, so they can monitor medication. It does offer benefits of lowering blood pressure, increasing energy and providing quicker weight loss.
- The keto diet was originally used to help control epilepsy. In the 1920s, they found that it produced similar benefits as fasting, which was used up to that point.
- Some people experience what is called the “keto flu.” It causes an upset stomach, can cause low energy, mood swings and even dizziness. It takes a while for the body to adjust to the change in diet.
For more information, contact us today at Revolution Training