How Does the Keto Diet Work?
How Does the Keto Diet Work | Entering Ketosis | Ketogenic Diet Facts | Keto Diet Carb Limit
Do you know that 70.7% of American adults age 20 years and over are considered to be overweight or obese? That’s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-National Center for Health Statistics data for 2013-2014. It has increased significantly from their 2009-2010 data of 68.8 %.
This is very alarming considering the health risks of being overweight or obese.
- high blood pressure
- stroke
- type 2 diabetes
- heart disease
- fatty liver disease
- osteoarthritis
- cancer
America needs to do something about it especially when our children are also getting overweight. It’s like an epidemic. If you are among this group, wake up honey. Stop damaging your body and get on a diet that will work for you. If you know someone who is (a family member, a friend, or a colleague), encourage them to live a healthy lifestyle. A lifestyle in which they can still enjoy eating foods they love, modifying the proportion and lose weight in the process. How’s that?
Not a Fad Diet
The ketogenic diet is recently in the headlines because of celebrities attesting its effectiveness. They are on the cover of different magazines showing off the “new” and improved body caused by a significant weight loss. Ordinary people like us are excited to know what kind of diet was used. Can it be adopted by mere mortals like us? Is it affordable?
So many questions. But, what we really wanted to know was “How is it done?”
The keto diet is not a fad diet, mind you. This is not a quick fix when you want to lose weight so you’ll look good in an upcoming reunion or a wedding you’ll attend in a couple of weeks. Sure, you’ll lose pounds on a keto diet but you’ll probably gain them back as soon as you start eating fast food again.
If you’re serious about getting healthier, welcome aboard! Adopt the keto diet and stick to it.
How it Works
You’re maybe wondering, “how does the keto diet work?”
Keto diet works by increasing the amount of high fat consumed. Do you love bacon? I sure do. The good news is, you don’t have to give that up. How about butter? Don’t you love its milky taste, making almost every food creamier by adding butter to it? No need to avoid that too. Nor eggs, nor beef, nor cheese!
Keto diet works by restricting yourself from eating too much carbohydrates. This means you need to cut on bread, rice, pasta and other carbs. Carbohydrates supply the body with energy by converting it into glucose. Glucose is our power supply of energy.
Maybe you’re now confused. How does the keto diet work by eating a high amount of fats and still lose weight? How does the keto diet work by restricting carb intake when it’s where we get our energy from?
The body converts carbs into glucose while fats are converted into ketones. Ketones raise our metabolism, better source of energy than glucose, making you a fat-burning machine.
What to Eat
Remember these numbers—70:25:5. The total is 100 if you add them up. Because that’s the ideal proportion of foods in the keto diet. 70% fats:25% protein:5% carbohydrates. Fats, protein and carbohydrates are called “macros”. We’re fond of making long words short. “Macros” is short for macronutrients, like “keto” is for ketogenic and “you” is for awesome. Yup! You will be awesome in the state of ketosis.
Here’s the thing though, you can’t gobble all the fats you want. Please be choosy and go for healthy fats. Yes, there’s such a thing—healthy fats. These are saturated fats (found in butter and cream), monounsaturated fats (found in avocados), polyunsaturated fats (found in fatty fish) and medium-chain triglycerides oils (found in cheese and other kinds of dairy) Consume high amount of healthy fats.
Eat a moderate amount of protein. We’re all for grass-fed meats like beef and lamb. Fatty, wild-caught fish like salmon and sardines. And free-range whole eggs from the farm or your local market. Choose organic ones too.
Then, go easy on carbohydrates. Set it to less than 20g net carbs daily.
Bottom Line
Go for the ketogenic diet because it will make you more satisfied, crave less, lose weight, perform better, and reduce the risks of chronic diseases.
When on a keto diet, eat high amounts of healthy fats, moderate protein, and low carbohydrates. Don’t worry about the fats you’re getting into your body. Above all, the objective of the ketogenic diet is to optimize your health.
How Does the Keto Diet Work | Entering Ketosis | Ketogenic Diet Facts | Keto Diet Carb Limit
