Ketogenic diet: a simple and effective way to lose weight
The ketogenic diet (also called the keto diet) is the most effective way to burn fat without starving or rebounding.
We will agree that being overweight has become one of the most serious problems in our society. It is not only for an aesthetic issue but for the health problems that it entails.
Excess fat is behind the 3 most important causes of death: cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, as well as being the main cause of type II diabetes.
Faced with such a great failure of traditional diets, a revolutionary movement has emerged from science that is transforming the world of nutrition: the ketogenic diet.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about the ketogenic diet.
In this article you will find:
1. What is the ketogenic diet?
1.1.
Carbohydrate
metabolism
1.2.
Fat
Metabolism – ketosis
1.3.
Ketosis
and the brain
1.4. What happens when we start to constantly gives carbohydrates to our body
2. Ketogenic diet- allowed foods
3. Ketogenic diet benefits
3.1 The Ketogenic diet to loose weight
4. Ketogenic diet benefits
4.1 The Ketogenic diet to loose weight
4.2 The ketogenic diet and athletic performance
4.3 Inflammation
4.4 Ketogenic diet and cancer
4.5 Muscle mass
4.6 Longevity
4.7 Epilepsy
5. Ketogenic diet risks
6. Metabolic flexibility
7. Ketogenic diet menu proposal
8. Online Fitness Coach Trainer Subscription!
What is the ketogenic diet?
ketogenic diet consists of substantially reducing the consumption of carbohydrates (sugars, cereals, legumes, fruits, tubers ...) and increasing the consumption of quality fats (avocado, olive oil, coconut, etc.) in order to "force" the body to consume fat again.
The ratio of calories per macro-nutrient in the ketogenic diet is usually:
70% fat
25% protein
5% carbohydrates
In other words: You cannot consume more than 30 grams of carbohydrates a day.
Later we will see what foods you have to eat to get it.
The goal of the ketogenic diet is to re-educate your body so that it learns how to burn fat again.
We say "re-educate" because the ability to burn fat is innate in humans and the fact that we do not normally do so is the fault of the over-abundance of food in which we live.
Throughout our lives we have had abundant food and especially in the form of carbohydrates and therefore we have not had to use fat as a source of energy.
And, as with physical activity, the body gradually atrophies and loses its innate capacity.
The funny thing is that our body does not store carbohydrates as an energy reserve but fats (we will see why later). Therefore, we accumulate fat that later we do not know how to use.
This is why we get fat.
Unlike traditional "low calorie" diets, with the ketogenic diet you will not count calories or starve.
This will surely surprise you, since it has traditionally been considered that to lose weight what you need is to eat less.
In the next section we tell you why
Do you want to know everything about the keto diet?
Why does the ketogenic diet work?
For many years, nutritionists have preached that losing weight requires eating fewer calories.
His argument was that there is an energy balance in your body:
If you eat more than you spend: you accumulate fat.
If you eat less than you spend: you burn fat.
So to lose weight either you burn more energy or eat less.
Your logic is overwhelming, right?
... but something is wrong ...
Apart from the fact that eating little is really torture, practice does not correspond to theory.
Many of us have tried this type of diet and the result is that, either we do not lose the weight we wanted, or when we stop we regain it again.
The explanation is that the accumulation of fat in the body is not just a matter of energy balance, it is the result of a metabolic process that arose from millions of years of evolution.
To understand what happens we have to review evolution and basic biology:
Humans have lived millions of years in a world of scarcity.Until very recently, our ancestors suffered from famines on a recurring basis.Therefore accumulating energy was necessary to survive.
And how do we accumulate energy?
An adult has:
- Glycogen (carbohydrate) stores that allow you to survive 1 or 2 days maximum
- Reserves in the form of fat equivalent to more than 100,000 KCal or 50 days of survival.
Curious, huh?
Let's see in more detail why we accumulate fat and not carbohydrates and what this has to do with the ketogenic diet.
But before continuing, let us tell you that if you are very interested in this topic you can get an Online Fitness Coach Trainer Subscription!
Carbohydrate metabolism
The carbohydrates we eat are processed within our body to its basic molecule, glucose.
The absorption of glucose and its transport in the blood is very fast.
This is good if we are going to use it at the moment, but bad if we do not need it.
Blood glucose levels always remain in a very narrow range of 72-145 mg / dl, or about 5 g total for an adult. Higher levels are toxic.
When we eat carbohydrates the body perceives a rise in blood glucose and:
- It releases the hormone insulin that signals the body to store excess glucose within cells, in the form of glycogen or fat.
When glucose reaches our cells it is "burned" very quickly through a process called glycolysis. This process has a low energy efficiency. Glycolysis can be done both without the presence of oxygen (anaerobic metabolism) and generates 2 or 3 ATPs / glucose (the energy currency of the cell), or in the presence of oxygen (aerobic metabolism) where a total of 32 ATPs is generated.
In short: glucose is a very fast but not very efficient source of energy. It allows us to achieve a peak of energy in times of need but if we use it continuously we need to ingest it constantly and in large quantities.
So what other source of energy can we use?
Let me now tell you about the energy we get from fat.
Fat metabolism - ketosis
Our body has the ability to use fatty acids (fats) as an energy source through the beta-oxidation of fats. Unlike glucose, fatty acids are absorbed more slowly and are more difficult to 'burn'. In fact, we need mitochondria to do it. (Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells and the most surprising thing about them is that billions of years ago they were bacteria that settled inside another cell in a symbiotic relationship.) The transformation of fats into energy is called "beta oxidation" and can only be done under aerobic conditions and is a much slower process than glycolysis. Fatty acids break down to 3 basic molecules: acetyl-Co-A that enters the citric acid cycle, NADH and FADH2.
This process is so efficient that about 120 ATPs are obtained depending on the length of the fatty acid chain (remember that only 32 ATPs came out of glycolysis).
Bottom line: fats are a slower but much more efficient source of energy than carbohydrates. Each gram of carbohydrate gives us 4 KCal while 1 gram of fat gives us 9 KCal (reference). Therefore fats are a better food than carbohydrates to use continuously.
Ketosis and the brain
The brain consumes 20% of the energy in our body. Fat was long considered not a good "fuel" as it cannot be used by the brain for energy for two reasons:- They cannot cross the blood-brain barrier.
- Some brain cells do not have mitochondria
- On the contrary, the brain can consume glucose very well.
This is one of the most widely used reasons for recommending carbohydrates as the main source of energy.
Now it is known that this is only a half truth. An even better brain food has been discovered: ketone bodies.
There is quite a bit of scientific evidence behind this claim
- Ketone bodies are very effective in reaching the brain (article and article).
- They have antioxidant and free radical reduction effects via the regulation of Coenzyme Q (article)
- Increase the concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids that have a neuro-protective effect (article, article, article)
- Increase the expression of the neurotransmitter GABA (article)
Bottom line: The brain can get energy from fat through ketone bodies and this has beneficial effects.
What happens when we start to constantly give carbohydrates to our body?
Excess carbohydrates in our diet and eating too many times a day causes our body to adapt to using only glucose as an energy source. As glucose reserves are very limited and are consumed very quickly, the body can only obtain it from outside.
This creates addiction. Surely you have heard of the addiction that sugar causes. Well, it is just this. The body depends on the glucose we eat for energy, as it has "forgotten" how to use fat. Another more serious problem with eating too much sugar is that it induces too high levels of insulin in the blood, which in the worst case creates resistance and ends in diabetes.
we have a problem!
But don't worry. There is a solution!
We can re-educate our metabolism to burn more fat.
One way would be to do it by fasting (if you don't eat anything your body will be forced to burn fat). But starving is not pleasant.
The other solution is, as you have already learned, to follow the ketogenic diet.
In summary: After a lifetime of eating carbohydrates our body has forgotten how to burn fat. With the ketogenic diet you will learn it again.
Ketogenic diet - allowed foods
This list is a basic rundown on what to eat on the ketogenic diet. For a longer description you can see our article on Ketogenic diet foods
You can try the your personalised keto diet plan
The healthiest sources of fat are:
- Butter (better clarified or ghee)
- Avocado
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil (virgin and raw)
- Nuts and seeds previously soaked
You can consume vegetables with low carbohydrate content, especially leaves and sprouts (2 g carbohydrates / 100 grams especially in the form of fiber):
- Spinach
- Lettuce
- Endives
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
There are also fruits (up to 2.7 g carbohydrates / 100 grams in the form of sugars)
- Cucumber
- Zucchini
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Garlic
At the protein level, the intake of foods that are also rich in healthy fats (Omega 3) is recommended:
- Sardines and blue fish in general
- Tuna
- Salmon
- Organic meat
Ketogenic diet benefits
The ketogenic diet to lose weight
The ketogenic diet should not be considered just a weight loss diet, but rather a diet for metabolic re-education. In most cases this leads to natural weight loss. It has been seen in many studies that the weight loss effect is superior to other traditional diets, but metabolic re-education has a much longer-term effect.
The most impressive effect of the ketogenic diet is seen in the feeling of fullness that it causes due to a slower digestion of fats.
The increase in ketone bodies in the blood also has an effect on reducing the feeling of hunger, which significantly reduces the anxiety associated with weight loss diets.
The ketogenic diet and athletic performance
It has long been thought that elite athletes need to eat 4-5 times a day in order not to lose muscle mass and to recover well from workouts
With the ketogenic diet and a ketosis metabolism this is no longer necessary.
Fat metabolism is much more efficient. Therefore, by eating less we get more energy.
This implies that with just 2 meals a day we can get all the necessary energy to perform and it leaves us time to fast, which induces greater cell regeneration (article).
High concentrations of ketone bodies in the blood promote greater compaction of DNA that is more protected from oxidative damage. This affects the speed of recovery after exercising.
But ketone bodies don't do everything.
When we enter anaerobic metabolism (sprints, HIITs ...) not enough oxygen reaches the cell. Then glucose kicks in with anaerobic metabolism.
This change in metabolism does not have to worry you, on the contrary, it is very healthy for the body to adapt to different energy needs.
In summary: Training in ketosis gives us more energy, we recover faster and we need to eat less, giving the body time to regenerate better, but always within the aerobic metabolism.
Inflammation
Studies have shown that levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin 1 beta, TNF alpha, and interleukin 6 are reduced when we enter ketosis (article).
Ketogenic diet and cancer
In many types of tumors the mitochondria are degraded and therefore depend solely on glycogenesis to grow. This is called the Warburg effect. If we reduce glucose levels we can literally starve cancer (article).
Muscle mass
There are several studies that have shown that ketogenic diets not only have a minor effect on the loss of muscle mass compared to other diets, but also allow to maintain this mass with a lower consumption of protein. These cases may be anecdotal and it is not known what mechanism they follow.
Longevity
Although little is known about the effect of ketosis on longevity, a clear association has been seen between an improvement in energy performance and therefore a reduction in food consumption. Also in a state of ketosis it is easier to establish intermittent fasts.
We already know that a caloric restriction lengthens life (article, article). We are beginning to see that intermittent fasting has a similar effect (article).
Epilepsy
Ketogenic diets have long been used to mitigate neurological diseases such as epilepsy. In fact, it is considered one of the most effective interventions against this disease.
Ketogenic diet risks
The ketogenic diet doesn't have too many problems if done right.
If you do not take good care of consuming enough vegetables or other foods rich in micronutrients, a deficit of vitamins, minerals and fiber can be generated. This problem is easily avoidable if a varied diet is maintained and fat of vegetable origin is obtained, such as avocado, nuts and fiber from leafy vegetables.
In my case, I also recommend that the vegetables always maintain the highest amount of macro and micronutrients possible. Therefore, depending on the vegetable or, eat it without cooking like arugula, or cook it at a low temperature for hours.
It is common to confuse low carbohydrate intake with high protein intake. Consuming too much protein activates the gluconeogenesis pathway that transforms the amino acids in protein into glucose and therefore we do not get into ketosis.
The ketogenic diet is not advisable in people with liver or heart problems, since in some cases it has caused the development of arrhythmias. Diabetics also have to watch out for ketoacidosis, a state in which too low levels of insulin cause an accumulation of ketone bodies that lower the pH of the blood. This is fixed quickly with good insulin control and is not a problem for non-diabetics. The worst problem is the social pressure to eat carbohydrates. Surely many of those who already follow the paleo diet have experienced episodes of social rejection for not eating pasta. Imagine if we also restrict all carbohydrates!
You can get your personalised Keto meal plans
Metabolic flexibility
I hope that with this article you have convinced yourself of the benefits of the ketogenic diet.
This does not mean that now we all have to throw all the potatoes in the trash and only eat fat.
One of the great evolutionary advantages that humans have is their great adaptability and this includes our metabolism.
Being metabolically flexible will give us the ability to quickly adapt to different situations, both of consumption and energy expenditure.
Glucose is a good source of energy, which is why we like sweets and, in cases of anaerobic requirements, it is essential. Nor would it be good if we lost the ability to use it due to excess ketosis.
My proposal is that you do a metabolic re-education period of two or three weeks to start burning fat effectively. Then you can alternate cycles of intake of different macronutrients.
In the same way that our ancestors gorged themselves on fruit during the summer to spend the winters with preserves and dried meat, we have to educate our body to be flexible to different diets.
Ketogenic diet menu proposal
A ketogenic diet is strict when it comes to ingredients and macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) so it is always best to have someone guide you at the beginning until you have enough experience.
if you are very interested in this topic you can get an Online Fitness Coach Trainer Subscription!
What is your keto recipe?
In this article I have proposed a good number of keto recipes and allowed foods, but surely I have left many.
Do you have your own recipes?
What ingredients do you use?
Share it with the rest of us!
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