Dieting is a process of consuming food in a balanced and proper manner to reduce, to keep going or gain body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases. A strict diet is often followed by those who are over-weight and want to reduce weight, they also combine their diet plans with physical exercise to reduce body weight. It can also be done to maintain a stable body weight and improve health.
Many of the doctors, nutritionists suggest Ketogenic diet these days but before starting the ketones diet, you should know everything about Keto Diet. Let’s start to break down the keto diet.
Table of Contents
- Starting with what is ketogenic diet?
- Ketosis? Umm What is this?
- How to start a Keto Diet?
- We break down simple steps on how to start a ketones diet:
- There are some rules while following Keto Diet:
- Food you can eat during the diet
- Foods you can not or must avoid during diet
- A Sample Keto Meal Plan for a week
- Benefits of Keto diet:
- 1. Keto diet helps in Weight Loss
- 2. Appetite can be in Control
- 3.It keeps your cholesterol & blood pressure in check
- 4. You’ll have a better mental focus:
- 5. Fights with Type II Diabetes:
- Negatives of ketogenic diet
Starting with what is ketogenic diet?
A Ketogenic diet is a low carb, moderate protein, and high fat diet which puts the body into a metabolic state is known as ketosis. The ketogenic diet is also known as kept diet, low carb diet and low carb high fat.
Ketosis? Umm What is this?
Ketosis is a normal metabolic process. In this process, when the body does not have enough glucose for energy, it burns stored fats instead; this results in a build up of acids called ketones within the body. It is natural process and makes perfect sense when you think about human body.
How to start a Keto Diet?
Starting any diet is hard and starting keto diet is little harder. You’ll have to say goodbye to those yummy pizzas, donuts, burgers etc etc. So before starting the ketogenic diet research properly on what to eat and what not to eat (mentioned below). Before following the ketogenic diet, please recommend a doctor regarding the diet.
We break down simple steps on how to start a ketones diet:
- Clear your schedule for diet or make commitment : Just clear your schedule. Tell your family and friends to get them help you because if someone motivates you, you feel the urge to complete what you started.
- Set your goal: We usually don’t do things until we have a goal to achieve so to have a healthy and fit body set your goals right. Make sure that it is realistic and can be achieved.
- Make way for healthy food: Trash every non-ketogenic food from your pantry because this where you take a step to saying no to carbs.
- Stack up your fridge or pantry with ketogenic foods: Fill up your pantry or refrigerator with ketogenic foods.
- Skip a meal: You may skip one meal of the day to induce extra time of fasting. Usually people choose to skip breakfast but some prefer to skip lunch.
- Set your goal to intake only 25gm of carbs : Try to intake carbs under 25gm everyday.
- Start every morning with the super short ketone boosting routine: Drink a large glass of water. Take 2 teaspoons of coconut oil.
- Keep your ketone level in check.
There are some rules while following Keto Diet:
Keto diet is hard and it’s difficult to get many nutrients the body needs.
- Pay closer attention to carbs: During the ketogenic diet, we cut down on carbs while eating healthy like whole grains, brown rice and oats. Even if you’re not on ketogenic diet, you should keep your carbs on check. A diet like low-carb diet or ketogenic diet encourages you to cut out certain foods especially carbs that in a long run will lower your weight and improve your health.
- Eat more of the right kinds of fats: Fats actually make you feel fuller faster and for a longer period of time. Try to eat noun-saturated fats more rather than saturated. The non-saturated fats can be found in plant-based foods like avocados and olive oil. Doctors also recommend swapping snacks like chips and desserts with nuts and use avocados to make desserts and sauces.
- Pile on the non-starchy veggies: The dieticians or nutritionists add non-starchy vegetables like broccoli, asparagus and spinach in the ketones diet so that the people who are following the keto diet must get the proper nutrition required for the body. The veggies also help in supplying the fibre required by the body.
- Start cooking at home more often: Almost every food you relish is off limits when you start with ketones diet. So eventually the only option you’re left with is cooking at home. When you cook at home you know your dish perfectly and can always play with the recipes according to you.
- Intake fermented foods more: One of the beauty of fermentation process is that it actually lowers the carbohydrate count of the food you’re fermenting. By adding the fermented food in your diet you can limit the intake of your sugar as these foods help in adjusting your tastebuds into more bitter and sour flavour rather than sweet. So fill your diet with highly fermented foods like kombucha, water kefir, yogurt etc to keep that diet on low-carbs.
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Food you can eat during the diet
Below you will find an overview of what you can eat during your ketogenic diet.Being on diet is harder than you think and when you don’t know what exactly to eat, it becomes even more harder than usual. We’ve put together a list of things that you can consume during the diet.
- Eggs — 0% Carb
- Meat, Poultry and Seafood
- High Fat Dairy
- Dark chocolate
- Berries
- Garlic, Onion and other Allium Vegetables
- Broccoli, Kale and other cruciferous vegetables
- Coconut oil
- Nuts and seeds –4% Carb
- Avocado — 2% Carb
Oh wait. Can I have beer?
Foods you can not or must avoid during diet
If you are keeping in check of what to eat during the ketones diet, make sure you you have a list of what not to eat during the diet.
- Sugar
- Starch
- Alcohol
- Fruits
- Milk and low-fat dairy
- Factory Farmed Animal Products
- Processed/ Packaged foods
- Artificial sweeteners
- Condiments
- Grains
A Sample Keto Meal Plan for a week
(This is just a sample diet to make you understand what to eat and when. Please consult a doctor or a dietician before following the diet.)
| Days | Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner |
| Monday | Bacon eggs and tomatoes | Chicken salad with olive oil and feta cheese | Salmon with asparagus cooked in butter |
| Tuesday | Egg, tomato, basil and goat cheese omelet | almond milk, peanut butter, cocoa powder and stevia milkshake | Meatballs, Cheddar cheese and vegetables |
| Wednesday | egg, cheddar, pepper “breakfast mini muffins” | grilled cheese on keto bread with salad | Tofu stir-fried in sesame oil with vegetables |
| Thursday | Keto smoothie (with an avocado base, and then a combo of greens, nuts, seeds, berries, and a little heavy cream) | tuna salad with celery stalks | sausage- and veggie-topped pizza on cauliflower pizza crust |
| Friday | eggs scrambled with cheddar and tomatoes | chicken salad lettuce wrap | steak cooked in butter with asparagus |
| Saturday | vanilla chia pudding | crust-less bacon, mushroom, Swiss quiche | lamb chops with Brussels sprouts |
| Sunday | fried eggs with bacon and avocado slices | roast chicken with roasted broccoli and cauliflower | taco salad with ground beef, guacamole, and sour cream |
Benefits of Keto diet:
If you feel like people who are on ketones diet exaggerate about it then you’re wrong. Keto diet is a completely new lifestyle that offers numerous benefits. Keto diet has many advantages due to how it changes your body’s chemistry. Your body is much more efficient when it has ketones as fuel source.
1. Keto diet helps in Weight Loss
This is the basic benefit that people can think of when they hear ketones diet. Because it the fat the becomes a source of energy when your body need more energy, it actively burns fat instead of looking for glucose. When your body enters ketosis, both your blood sugar and insulin level drops. The fat stored in the body releases the water they’ve been retaining and the release of the water is the reason people loose weight.
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2. Appetite can be in Control
When you’re having a diet that is heavy in carbs, you realise that you often get hungry a lot sooner than you expect after eating a meal. Because fats end up leaving our bodies in a satiated state for much longer. That means no random cravings.
3.It keeps your cholesterol & blood pressure in check
Keto diet is high in fats and low on carbs which may change the way your body stores and uses energy. The diet converts fats into energy. When you restrict your carbs and get majority of your calories from animal fats, coconut oil, fish, nuts etc will improve your cholesterol levels as well. Some blood pressure issues are associated with excess weight, and with this diet you naturally loose weight hence, improvement in blood pressure too.
4. You’ll have a better mental focus:
When you’re in process of ketosis, your brain uses ketones as fuel, it has a consistent fuel source that it can rely on which means you can focus for a longer periods of time.
5. Fights with Type II Diabetes:
People that suffer from Type II Diabetes suffer from an increased production of insulin. Because the ketogenic diet removes sugars from diet, it helps to lower the HbA1c count and can effectively reverse Type II diabetes.
Negatives of ketogenic diet
When you start a diet whether it’s a normal diet or ketegenic diet, it is normal to experience one or more side effects or negative effects as your body is just getting a new way of eating. When following Ketogenic diet, the body switches its fuel source from the glucose to using its own fat strokes. This new way of eating may cause some side-effects to
- Fatigue: You’ll experience fatigue during the whole ketogenic diet process. Make sure to consume a lot of water and salts during diet.
- You may sometimes have a really Bad Breathe: When your body create ketones, it excretes them in a variety of ways. One way is through lungs, the most readily excreted ketone is acetone, which has a “fruity” taste and is the main reason for bad breathe on a very low-carb diet.
- You may suffer from headaches and anxiety: After adapting the ketogenic diet, there are chances that you might feel headaches in the starting of the diet. You’ll also feel anxious and find it difficult to concentrate as your mind and body is just trying to adjust with the new eating style.
- You’ll feel hungry and constipated: You’ll be skipping the fibre food like grains, beans, legumes which also contains carbohydrates. Where fibre is the main component of your diet which keeps you full and helps in proper bowel movement. Skipping the main component might make you feel hungry consistently and you might suffer from constipation.
- Leg Cramps: The lack of minerals from your ketogenic diet might cause leg cramps.
- Body might be dehydrated: During the ketogenic diet, there will be excess of sodium in your body, which is removed through urine just like the excess of ketones are removed. Excess urination can cause dehydration and further deplete you of essential minerals.
- Problem in menstrual cycle aka periods: Loosing a significant amount of weight might disrupt your menstrual cycle.
Which book to check out on Keto Diet?
There are various books and blogs where you can read about the keto diet. Sometimes reading about things help you in ways you cannot think.
Books:
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| The Essential Keto Cookbook | Dr. Colbert’s Keto Zone Diet | The Keto Diet: The complete guide to a high-fat diet |
Conclusion: In general, the more the “real food” the better it is for your body. Eating the write kind and amount of food should be the goal of your life. Staying healthy and fit. Keto diet helps in maintaining your body in the right kinda way. Drink lots of water and don’t cut calories immediately but slowly. Stay healthy and stay happy.
