What is a Keto Diet?
Keto diet is a popular diet often associated with weight loss in a short period of time. Keto diet involves the incorporation of a low carb, high fat diet with moderate intake of protein that apparently helps our body burn fat faster. It works on the process called Ketosis, which basically means replacing fat with carbohydrate as the primary source of energy.
As we all know our body utilizes glucose from consumed carbohydrate to generate energy and provide fuel to the body. Wherein keto diet the whole process is switched by high fat intake and fat becomes the primary fuel source with burning fat for energy in this process called Ketosis.
Keto diet has come out to be the best weight loss option for people who want to lose weight faster and not compromise in their eating routine. They adapt this diet solely to lose weight in a short time and then go back to their usual diet. Although, the diet itself is pretty good and effective and provides great results when followed religiously for a short time but it should not be continued for a long time as might have its own risks.
This type of diet isn't recommended to be followed for a long-term goal, as it has its own health hazards. As we are consuming these increased amounts of fat that our body is not used to and may not be able to handle for too long. Even after all these situations, keto diet is still getting popularised by celebrities and TV personalities that use it shortly to lose weight and endorse it religiously for other people to follow.
Advantages of Keto Diet
Keto diet includes a bunch of healthy foods that are high in protein, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, that not only provides essential nutrients but also fulfil the replacements of carbohydrates, replace saturated fats with unsaturated (healthy fats) that would help boost weight loss and build muscle mass in the body.
And so, here are a bunch of reasons that state as to why keto diet can be beneficial for you and provide various advantages,
1. Helps with weight loss: Keto diet specializes in weight loss as it provides a diet that is high in protein and unsaturated fats and low on carbs that stimulates the use of fat as the primary source of energy and not glucose which is a part of carbohydrate. This diet when followed properly can help achieve your weight loss goal in a short period of time.
2. Maintains body muscles: People tend to think that they might lose their body muscle when switching diet to keto, but keto provides more n fats and protein that ensures the maintenance of our muscles and use fat instead to generate more energy levels in the body.
3. Controls Blood sugar: Although fats are not ideally the best to choose when you are suffering from diabetes, as diabetic people tend to gain weight pretty fast and develop cholesterol that affects their blood sugar levels. But, as all the fat consumed in a keto diet gets utilized as fuel and the remaining nutrients left are solely protein, other essential nutrients that helps maintain body weight and provide more protein.
4. Promotes HDL levels: People with high cholesterol levels often find it difficult to follow a certain high fat diet that can affect our body and body weight. But fortunately, keto diet includes fat that are unsaturated (healthy fats) that promote HDL levels that are high density lipoprotein that ensures the removal of bad fat and maintain good cholesterol levels.
Remember, Keto diet is not a diet that should be taken by young or old age people as it may require supervision of a trained professional. And so, keto diet can only work as planned when the intake of this diet is measured and kept an eye on. It really is important to time your meals at certain timings to ensure to get the most out of this type of diet so as to gain more in little time.
Disadvantages of Keto Diet
Having a lot of advantages will surely involve some disadvantages that could be dangerous for life and could trigger certain health problems. Keto diet no doubt is a good option for people who know the consequences of it and are willing to use to lose weight faster, but having said that it does not keto diet an ideal diet to follow.
Unlike other kinds of diet, Keto diet does involve a lot of disadvantages regarding health issues, certain body levels and critical health problems like heart, liver and stomach issues. So, let's find out what can be some major disadvantages of consuming keto diet,
1. Trigger Cholesterol: Even though keto diet incorporates the intake of healthy fats that help with good cholesterol, but it does include the incorporation of some animal-based fat sources that are higher on saturated fats and can induce our body with increased levels of LDL levels that trigger the maintenance of bad cholesterol levels in the body. Which is why there is a need to seek professional help while following this diet and ensuring that the body follows a healthy way to lose weight.
2. Metabolic disturbance: One big problem that people often face while being on a keto diet is being constipated and having several digestion issues. This happens majorly because of lesser intake of fibre-rich food and greens that provide a smooth working of our metabolic system. Also, the excess intake of fat also triggers the proper functioning of our gut and ruin the digestive lining.
3. Vitamin Deficiency: Similarly, eating less variety of fruits and vegetables results in less vitamin intake and lead to various vitamin deficiencies that could be threat to our well-being and health. Having a high fat and protein diet does not include the intake of vitamins and minerals as there are not the part of macronutrients. Although, they are not required by the body in greater amounts but still they constitute a large number of working functions that need vitamins to function properly.
4. Weight regain: With continuous weight loss following keto diet, people tend to get more and more into following it for a longer time than what is considered to be safe. This extremity often leads to excess intake of fat and protein solely for their flavour and addictive nature that instead of decreasing weight and regaining body shape, it starts gaining weight faster than lost and counters back and causes a disadvantage.
Conclusion:
This blog suggests the purpose of keto diet and provide relevant points on their various advantages and disadvantages as well.
FAQs
Q. How long should we follow a Keto diet?
A- Keto diet is healthy and helps with weight loss, but it not recommended to be followed for more than 6-7 months of time. As we've discussed earlier in this blog that keto diet requires a professional supervision and should only carried up until 10-11 months of time under a professional and then discontinued.