The low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet, or keto diet for short, has several health advantages.
In fact, a number of studies indicate that this kind of diet can aid in weight loss and health improvement.
Even the prevention of diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease may be aided by ketogenic diets.
Here is a comprehensive overview of the keto diet for beginners.
What is a ketogenic diet?
Keto basics
A very low carb, high fat diet, the ketogenic diet is comparable to the Atkins and low carb diets in many ways.
It entails significantly lowering carbohydrate consumption and substituting fat for it. Your body enters a metabolic condition known as ketosis as a result of this carbohydrate restriction.
Your body becomes highly effective at burning fat for energy when this occurs. Additionally, it causes the liver to produce ketones from fat, which the brain may use as fuel.
Blood sugar and insulin levels can be significantly reduced by ketogenic diets. This has various health advantages in addition to the elevated ketones.
SUMMARY
The keto diet is a low carb, high fat diet. It lowers blood sugar and insulin levels and shifts the body’s metabolism away from carbs and toward fat and ketones.
Different types of ketogenic diets
The ketogenic diet comes in a variety of forms, including:
- Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This diet is heavy in fat, moderate in protein, and extremely low in carbs. Typically, it has just 10% carbohydrates, 20% protein, and 70% fat.
- Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This diet calls for intervals of higher carb refeeds, such as 5 days of ketosis followed by 2 days of high carbs.
- Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This diet allows you to add carbs around workouts.
- High protein ketogenic diet: This is a ketogenic diet in the traditional sense, but with additional protein. Frequently, the breakdown is 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbohydrates.
However, only the conventional and high-protein ketogenic diets have undergone in-depth research. Bodybuilders and athletes choose to utilize cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets as these are more sophisticated approaches.
Although many of the same concepts also apply to the other variations, the majority of the material in this page focuses on the standard ketogenic diet (SKD).
SUMMARY
There are several versions of the keto diet. The standard (SKD) version is the most researched and most recommended.