Keto Diet Basics

You have probably heard of the term keto diet before but perhaps you are not too sure what it is all about. Who can blame you? It seems every year there is a new trendy diet circulating the media. It’s hard to tell which dietary regimes are fads and which ones are fact-based. In order to understand this diet, it would be helpful to know some nutrition facts about how food is converted into energy in the body. 

Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars so that they can be used for energy. Sugar is the main fuel for the body. Excess sugar that the body does not use for fuel is converted into fat. Hence, this is why if your diet is high in carbs, you would be more likely to gain weight. However, fat can also be used as a fuel source but this only happens when the body has run out of sugar to convert. When this happens, fat is converted into energy molecules called ketones in the liver. This process is called “ketosis”. 

Simply put, the keto diet is a supercharged low carb diet. Your food intake would be so low in carbs that the body has to resort to burning fat instead of sugar as the main source of fuel. Even people that do little or no exercise can testify about their weight loss. However, it is always encouraged to stay active for your overall health and well being. 

Now that you’ve found out that this diet could make your potbelly go away, you are probably eager to cut out all carbs and stock up on healthy natural fats. Not so fast! Before you start any diet you should always do your research and preferably seek professional advice from a dietician. A lot of people always feel hungry when starting out but this should not be the case, you should be able to eat until you are full. The point is not to starve yourself. You still need to eat food from all food groups but in different ratios. This is the general guideline for daily intake:

5% vegetables

5% carbohydrates

20% protein

70% fat

Your diet should be rich in healthy fats. It is essential to have a sound knowledge on which fats are good for you and which fats you should never consider putting into your mouth. Bad fats are saturated and trans fats. Examples are:

Butter 

Margarine

Fried food

Processed meat

Pastries

Good fats are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Here are a few examples: 

Avocado

Olive oil

Peanut butter

Fatty fish (salmon, sardines, trout)

Nuts

There are a few symptoms that you may experience at the beginning of a ketogenic diet, these have been dubbed as the “keto flu”. As your body adapts to your new eating habits you may experience headaches, fatigue, and change in bowel habits. However, these conditions are temporary and should not last more than a few days. 

The best way to make sure that you are on the right track is to measure ketone levels in your blood. You can buy ketone testing kits online. Your ketone levels should be between 0.5-3 millimoles per litre. 

If you are not able to find a kit, no worries! Your body should give you some indications when you are in full ketosis. You may want to keep some double mint chewing gum nearby because one of the key signs is bad breath. The stench may resemble rotting fruit. Although this side effect is unpleasant; look at the big picture.  Bad breath is a minor price to pay for a banging body!  You may also experience less hunger, increased energy levels, increased urination and weight loss. 

By and large,  the keto diet is a good way to lose weight, if done properly. I suggest you seek professional advice before embarking on your weight loss journey. Researching keto recipes and reading nutritional books would help make the process easier. One reason diets do not work for some individuals is the fact that many people revert to their old eating habits after a few weeks. I encourage you to not think of it as a diet but as more of a long term lifestyle.