Throughout its history, civilized mankind has striven to improve the quality of life, the basis of which is nutrition. Many fasting diets and diets are proof of this. They are given beautiful names, among which there are understandable ones with a familiar set of products, but there are a lot of unusual ones with an exotic accent.
Recently, the keto diet, ketogenic diet (ketone diet) or low carbohydrate diet with a high proportion of fat in the diet, is gaining more and more popularity. Its meaning is a sharp reduction in carbohydrate foods and an increase in the proportion of predominantly fatty foods and moderate protein intake. As a result of keto nutrition, fatty acids are broken down into ketone bodies which, under conditions of glucose deficiency, nourish all organs including the brain.
Until recently, athletes used ketogenic nutrition in an attempt to build muscle mass and reduce body fat to zero. However, carbohydrate-free nutrition has been inherent to mankind since the beginning of its history. From a physiological point of view, we are all hunters and getters.
The human brain has evolved due to the consumption of huge amounts of fat throughout evolutionary history. The ancients ate exclusively foods of animal origin, the components of which were only proteins and fats. According to scientists, for a relatively short period of its existence, the body of a modern person did not have time to adapt to a diet containing carbohydrates, and moreover, consisting only of carbohydrates, which make up theraw food diet.
It is quite reasonable to conclude that with the advent of carbohydrate nutrition, a process opposed to the development of human intelligence is inevitable. In order to understand the keto diet in more detail, it is necessary to learn some basic concepts related to this topic, they will help to find the answer to the question: what is the keto diet.
What is a keto diet, concept, definition
Recently, there has been a huge amount of information about the ketogenic diet. The authors interpret the essence of the keto system in their own way, pursue different goals, but the essence of keto does not change. Let's start simple.
Keto eats certain foods in certain combinations to run the body on ketones. Ketones are produced by the body when burning fat. These are alternative fuels. For the human body, this fuel is the most convenient, since the amount of "waste" is significantly reduced, this fuel is the most efficient.
If we make an analogy with automotive fuel, carbohydrate foods are the cheapest fuel with a huge amount of impurities, while zero carbohydrate or low carbohydrate foods are European fuels, premium fuels forour body because they do not contain any by-products. "Tasty" impurities, keto fuel is most effective for a living organism.
One of the main benefits of the keto diet is the absence of hunger and cravings for certain foods. You can easily follow this diet for a long time. It's not only efficient, it's comfortable and enjoyable.
Over 90% of diets fail. They cannot be tracked all the time. Carbohydrate cravings and hunger do their thing. A large number of temptations bring disruption and disastrous results. Lost weight returns and often brings friends with them - new kilograms.
Such an unpleasant feeling as hunger is absent from keto. Yes, while fasting you can enter a state of ketosis, but why, if there is a great way to achieve this without limiting yourself to food. The keto diet does not cause as much harm to the body as fasting.
By taking ketogenic food, the body continues to receive all the necessary substances and does not feel hungry. At the same time, the process of fat splitting is initiated - the body enters a state of ketosis, that is, it begins to produce ketones due to reduced consumption of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are not completely excluded from the diet (except for the period of entering ketosis, it is recommended to completely exclude carbohydrates). They must be present in the diet, but their percentage of proteins and fats must be controlled. The fewer carbs, the deeper the ketosis.
The ketogenic diet is a fat burning diet. A large number of people dream of losing weight and reducing their volume. For those who are seriously thinking about the state of their body, keto is that easy and pleasant magic pill to swallow.
Many people think that eating a lot of fat is bad. But if you drastically reduce the amount of carbohydrates, there is absolutely no threat to consuming fat. Since, when entering ketosis, the body simply switches from sugar to fat. At the moment it takes 2-3 days. And to achieve this, you need to significantly reduce the amount of carbohydrates.
For a more efficient entry into ketosis, carbohydrates are completely excluded. Such restructuring of nutrition forces the body to seek other sources of energy. And such a source is fat stores, carefully accumulated over many years.
With low calorie diets, weight loss occurs due to the loss of water reserves. It can last a week, two weeks. The euphoria comes - it worked! Weight loss in progress! But at the end of the diet, the water weight returns. The meaning of such diets is reduced to zero, if not worse, the weight returns and brings extra kilograms with soda. The fat burning process has not started. Water loss and fat loss are completely different things.
If you use physical exercises to lose weight, they give only 15% of the result, that is, very insignificant compared to the correct keto diet. In addition, constant hunger and cravings for any food do not allow you to last at least some time on a low-calorie diet.
98% of these diets end in failure, explaining the lack of willpower. When you eat carbohydrate foods, blood sugar drops due to a surge of insulin, which suppresses blood sugar. With low blood sugar there is a constant feeling of hunger, irritability.
When you follow a keto or ketogenic diet, real fat will be burned. The water weight will also decrease, but the main purpose of burning fat in the body will be achieved. And the less carbs you eat, the more efficient the fat burning process will be. Hunger and food cravings will disappear. Due to these circumstances, you can follow this diet for quite a long time.
Any restructuring of the body leads to unpleasant symptoms. To avoid transient symptoms, the use of vitamins and electrolytes is necessary.
In addition to a number of negative side effects of keto nutrition, there are also some positive ones:
- Improved memory;
- Energy boost;
- Intelligence increases;
- Mood improves.
Because ketones are the best food for the brain. As a result, inflammation and pain or tension, if any, disappear. Keto leads to an improvement in the condition of the skin, the rash disappears, if it was.
Comparing low-calorie, low-fat diets with keto shows significant advantages of keto over other diets.
Why should you use keto nutrition
Everyone who has been on a ketogenic diet has a specific goal. And the goals can be different. These can be both needs of an aesthetic nature and a desire to improve one's health, or at least to improve the condition caused by a particular disease.
Often, the transition to a keto diet is associated with a desire to reduce weight and bulk. This is the most obvious result of the keto diet. Success is guaranteed under the strict requirements of the system. The goal is achieved easily and with pleasure. The inevitability of positive weight loss results is evidenced by a large number of rave reviews.
After understanding how a low carb diet works, people often try to stick to keto rules later in life. Proper understanding of ketosis gives confidence in their actions.
But in addition to the aesthetic result, the main goal for many is the solution of health problems. After all, the purpose of being in ketosis is to lower and normalize insulin levels.
About 80% of the world's population has problems with insulin - insulin resistance, that is, a violation of insulin absorption by receptors. Following such a failure, the body is forced to produce more and more insulin to compensate for its deficiency. It causes a lot of health problems.
An increase in carbohydrate intake leads to an increase in insulin production, insulin resistance occurs. The average person with insulin resistance (prediabetes) produces 7 times more insulin than the body needs. Excess insulin leads to diabetes, metabolic disorders, obesity, high cholesterol.
The brain can burn glucose, but fats feed the brain better. The human brain is more comfortable with fat burning. This state is ketosis. To achieve this state, you need to follow a categorical diet - low in carbohydrates and high in fat. Moderate ketosis is a state to achieve.
Ketone bodies in the body come from fat. You cannot get them from sugars and carbs. Ketone bodies are used to nourish the brain and fatty acids are used to nourish the muscles.
Patients with Alzheimer's disease are known to have high blood insulin levels.
Heart and vascular problems are also a consequence of insulin resistance. As a result, it is a vasoconstriction due to the appearance of cholesterol plaques, the appearance of blood clots, calcium deposition, which can lead to a heart attack or even a stroke.
As a consequence of insulin resistance - the appearance of depression, anxiety, deterioration of emotional mood. The most serious consequences are fatty liver and cancer, because cancer cells feed on sugar.
From the above material, you can determine a whole list of reasons for a ketogenic diet. Most of the population will find motivational factors for themselves that will say why it is necessary to switch to keto.
Who is on the keto diet
Despite the relatively young leadership in the world of diets, keto nutrition has a large number of adherents with solid experience in using this nutrition system. The ketogenic diet has proven successful not only in those who want to lose weight, but also in diabetics, when the lipid profile tends to be ideal and insulin levels return to normal. The experience of American doctors is known throughout the world.
And another interesting theory. When taking drugs, there is an effect on a specific organ of the human body. When the nutritional system is changed to keto, the brain, pancreas, liver, and other organs come under the beneficial influence. And this fact already has a very solid and reliable basis.
The regular delivery of the necessary tests and their control ensure that the therapeutic nutrition system, with an increase in the proportion of fat in the diet, a moderate consumption of protein foods and, in practice, the exclusion of carbohydrate foods, for people suffering from the above diseases, is chosen correctly.
The ketogenic diet is not limited to age in those who want to lose weight or improve their health. This diet is suitable for both athletes and non-athletes, young and old.
Pregnant women successfully use the keto diet. There are no contraindications to a low-carb diet while breastfeeding.
The results will not be long in coming. All you need to do is start eating well, listen to your body and follow the instructions for beginners, which can be found on this resource.
And if the ketone diet is used for weight loss, this process will become pleasant and effective.
Reasons to go keto
The first and, perhaps, for someone, the most important thing is to get rid of food addiction, overeating, cravings for certain food groups: sweets, starches. Many people experience an irresistible craving for sweets. Who has not received sweets as a reward since childhood, in almost every family they serve cakes, cookies, sweets for the festive table?
The presence of sugar on the everyday table has become familiar. It turns out that the most beautiful moments are associated with sweets.
The amount of sweet foods in the diet of children sometimes does not scare adults. "The little ones love sweets. "And they are connected with the fact that the child takes the delicious with tenderness. The child doesn't really have a choice. What we give him is what he takes. Over time, children form a firm belief that sweets, cakes are good. In addition, the amount of sweets consumed increases, a dietary addiction to sweets appears.
With the advent of health problems, most people understand that it is necessary to adjust their diet, to introduce certain dietary restrictions. But not everyone can cope with cravings for sweets, a habit that has been ingrained since childhood and has only grown stronger over time.
In addition, eating sweet stressful situations for some is soothing and a solution to the problem, but, unfortunately, not for long. Periodic attempts to give up sugar-containing products once and for all end in failures, breakdowns.
This is where keto nutrition comes in handy. There isn't a single review that, strictly adhering to all the terms of a zero carb diet, I'd like to sit down with something sweet.
If suddenly such impulses arise, then it is necessary to reconsider, is everything done correctly within the framework of clinical nutrition?
Check the calories (KBZhU), the amount of food consumed, the "purity" of the food consumed, whether a sufficient amount of the necessary vitamins enters the body. If you approach this problem correctly, the positive results will not keep you waiting. With the transition to keto, blood sugar normalizes.
Skin condition is another important reason for going carb-free. During the first weeks, the skin of the face is transformed. It is not necessary to visit beauty salons. Over time, the use of creams of different types of orientation is minimized.
For many who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract:
- Gastritis;
- cholecystitis;
- pancreatitis;
- ZhKB.
There is a great opportunity to reduce them. Cramps, pains, bloating are a thing of the past. The intestines perfectly begin to cope with their tasks without the help of pills and other forms of drugs.
Of course, if there are serious diseases, the transition to a ketogenic diet should be carried out under the supervision of a medical specialist, monitoring the main indicators of the state of health with the help of tests.
What can you eat on a keto diet
Carbohydrates - 5% of all calories (vegetables are listed separately, since they do not contain as many calories and do not cause an insulin response). Good carbohydrates acceptable on keto do not include flour products, sugar, grains, and fruits.
Protein - 20% of all calories (86 - 175g). This group should include:
- Meat;
- fish;
- Seafood;
- Cheese;
- Eggs.
It should be noted that, as far as possible, favor products grown in a natural environment: pasture-raised meat, commercial seafood. In food it is necessary to take meat broths, offal. Among the drinks, the so-called armored coffee is very popular. Although this drink is more food than drink.
Fat accounts for 70% of all calories.
At first glance, the fat content of the diet may seem enormous. But it should be understood that the percentages given refer to calories, and not to volume or weight.
Most foods are a combination of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Pure fats include ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, low carb avocados, and animal fats.
Vegetables allowed on keto are leafy greens, broccoli, lettuce, and other green vegetables. They provide the body with vitamins, trace elements and antioxidants. Remember that they contain fiber.
World-class nutritionists have developed many recipes with the proper keto ratio of KBJU. There are soups, sides, meat and fish dishes, even desserts and pastries. Using ready-made recommendations for cooking keto foods, you can develop an approximate menu for yourself for a certain period of time, for example, for a week, a few days, and stick to it without tormenting yourself with the question: " What should be? to cook? ".
What Not to Eat on Keto
All cereal products (bread, pasta, cereals, pastries and legumes) are to be avoided.
Excluded from keto are foods that contain starch (potatoes, rice, corn), which quickly turn it into sugar.
Sugars (cane, beets, honey, fructose, all syrups and fruit juices, sugary soft drinks) are unacceptable on keto. Sugar substitutes are allowed as needed (stevia, xylitol, erythritol).
It is recommended to avoid GMO products (soya, corn, rapeseed oil).
When buying products, be sure to pay attention to the composition. This recommendation applies to meat and fish products, as well as cheeses. Semi-finished products should also be abandoned.
Fats are very important for the body, but you have to be very selective about them. Some of them are dangerous. Solid vegetable fats that have undergone multiple processing steps are industrial-scale trans fats. Keto is against this type of food processing.
Alcohol is also unacceptable on keto. Although among the abundance of strong drinks you can choose dry wines. There are circumstances when you should not advertise that you are on a keto diet. Then you should opt for drinks without sugar and without gas. At the same time, it is always necessary to adhere to the measure.
If you follow all the above recommendations when choosing products for a ketogenic diet, buying them will not seem too difficult for you, and over time these rules will become normal.
Disadvantages of Keto
Along with a whole list of positives, keto also has its downsides. Although negatives will be negatives if you pay attention to them and treat them as flaws.
It is worth paying attention to the state in which the body enters at the initial stage of the keto path. This condition is called ketoflu. It is characterized by heaviness in the stomach, slight digestive disorders. Acetone breath, headache, weakness or depression of the body are possible. But despite all the apparent severity, these unpleasant moments are temporary. And then, they do not always accompany the entry into ketosis and not necessarily a complete list.
But if you psychologically adopt the right attitude and remember that these aggravating circumstances will pass as soon as you enter ketosis, most of the disadvantages will not seem so important, especially if you use techniques to circumvent them.
Physical activity on keto
It is known that in the modern world, the first followers of keto are sportsmen, for whom the absence of fat or its minimum amount, dense muscles and endurance play an important role. And since keto nutrition sharpens memory, speed of thinking, clarity of mind, then this nutrition system becomes interesting not only for athletes and people who love physical culture.
As you know, a beautiful elastic body is not just food. An important role in building our beautiful shell is played by sports, those physical activities that a person uses due to his type of activity, hobby or sporting life.
In order to enhance the effect of keto nutrition, sports are quite acceptable.
The best time to exercise is not in the evening or in the morning, but after a long interval after eating. That is, when the level of ketones in the body is high.
It is known that during times of lack of food (starvation), the body produces more ketones than when consuming fatty foods. If you still have a pre-workout meal, it is recommended to reduce the proportion of protein in the portion. It is not necessary to change the proportion of carbohydrates before or after training.
fasting days
The concept of "fasting days" is quite acceptable with forced reinforced nutrition. Everyone knows the physical state after the holidays, when heavy parties are inevitable and physical activity is reduced to a minimum.
If you approach this problem correctly, the holiday menu can be used to benefit your body, which is to eat selectively, only what the body needs on keto. But even with selective nutrition, overeating is not excluded, and after the abundant consumption of foods rich in fatty proteins, heaviness in the body is observed. Of course, you need to control your actions and remember that a large amount of food, even without carbohydrates, will not have a positive effect.
But, if, nevertheless, there was a fact of overeating, you should apply unloading for the body. Plus, the body itself will tell you when to stop eating and when to start again. The very concept of "fasting days" for keto is not entirely applicable. Among the followers of the keto system, there is the concept of "intermittent fasting".
Intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is not a strict restriction of fuel intake in the body. It is known that high-calorie foods allow the body to go without food for a long time. The intervals between meals become longer. And if you listen to your body and don't follow the generally accepted routine of breakfast, lunch and dinner, consuming food only as needed, then this interval can increase dramatically.
It is possible that it stretches from morning until the next morning, or from noon to noon. In other words, a daily meal can become a single meal. Here you should not keep track of time, count minutes, try to break your own record. You just need to listen to your body. And that is reasonable, rather than subjecting him to forced hunger strikes, or introducing him to a state of starvation.
This is what intermittent fasting is.
It should not be done once in a while, but constantly. Our body will tell itself when refueling is needed and when the fuel supply needs to be cut off. It is enough to learn to hear it, understand it and apply the necessary actions in practice.
And so, the main reason to switch to a ketogenic diet is to improve health, to get rid of diseases, if any. Prevention of diabetes and, in some cases, its treatment. Increased energy levels and appetite control. Normalization of cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Improve memory, concentration. Getting rid of depression and any signs of its manifestation. Improve the quality of life in general.