What is the Ketogenic Diet?

The ketogenic diet creates a state of ketosis by primarily consuming fat. The state of ketosis produces ketones, which are an alternative fuel source for the body. There are three types of ketones, acetone, acetate, and beta hydroxybutyrate, which is the main ketone. When you consume primarily fat in the diet, it gives the body a chance to learn how to use fat for fuel, instead of just glucose. It can also be done through fasting.

Benefits of Ketosis

1. Going with out food, and not being hungry

When you get back your ability to burn fat for fuel, you can go for a long time with out getting hungry. This means you will have more energy to be productive during the day. You also probably can extend your intermittent fasting time as well.

2. Increased energy

Your energy levels can improve because ketones are a cleaner burning fuel than glucose. Burning access glucose can result in the formation of reactive oxygen species. This can cause oxidative stress and damage the mitochondria.

3. Fat loss

The ketogenic diet can help you lose weight by decreasing glucose and insulin levels. When your not consuming carbohydrates, it’s a lot harder to have high glucose levels. Insulin levels are a great predictor of body weight.

What is Metabolic Flexibility?

Metabolic flexibility is the bodies ability to utilize fat and carbohydrates as a fuel source. This is the innate ability of the body and a sign of a healthy metabolism. Most of us have lost this ability because we consume so much sugar, to the point that it’s the only thing we can burn. A sign of this is feeling the need to eat every few hours. This is because your body lost its ability to burn its own fat for fuel, and requires glucose.

How to get Into Ketosis

The ketogenic diet requires you to shift your macronutrient intake. This is a variable dependent on the individual, but a good starting point is no more than 30% carbs to 70% fat ratio. Also, protein is important. You want to eat moderate protein on this diet because access protein can lead to a process called gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is the process of turning access protein in to sugar. This will add to your over all carb intake, and possibly take you out of ketosis. This could also be your muscle if your under chronic stress.

What to Eat on the Ketogenic Diet

When we dramatically increase our fat intake, we definitely want to focus on quality. If you eat low quality fats, this diet will not work. Eliminate all processed seed oils, such as corn, canola, cottonseed, safflower, soybean, and sunflower. Add in healthy fats such as avocados, coconuts, olives, nuts, seeds, grass fed meat, and fish. Also consume the rendered fats of these foods such as coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, and butter.

Keto Mistakes

1. Eating too much fat

Yes, you can over eat carbs and protein, but sense people focus on increasing fat on this diet, sometimes people over do it. When you eat too much fat, your body is always going to have calories to burn, instead of burning your own fat for fuel.

2. Not getting enough electrolytes

People loose a lot of salt on this diet because carbohydrates hold on to water. You well loose water that you’ve been holding on to in the beginning, and thus you will loose salt. This is the cause of the keto flu that some people get the first few weeks. The keto flu is flu like symptoms in the beginning of the diet. This can be remedied by making sure your getting enough salt. Put at least a tea spoon of high quality salt in your water per day.

3. Doing keto in the long term

This diet can be great short term for many people. The problem long term is that you will eventually need more carbs for a variety of reasons. The keto diet indicates to your body that there is not an abundance of energy, and is a mild stress. Doing for the diet for about three months is a good amount of time. After that, you can cycle in to in once a year if you’d like.