The Ketogenic Diet – An Overview
In a normal diet, a person needs to consume high amounts of carbohydrates as this acts as the energy source for the body to be able to function fine and less of fat as fats are stored in the body as a reserve for when the body needs more fuel. As the body needs more carbohydrates, it processes the food first and thus one feels starve after a while which is not so in the case of breaking down meals that are high in fat content.
In the Ketogenic diet, this concept is reversed. A person will need to consume the higher amount of fats and trick the body into understanding that it has the insufficient amount of glucose so that it would break the fats first and convert these into energy. Calories are limited and fluid intake may be taken into consideration as well. The strict diet generally makes use of strict meal plans taking into consideration the dieter’s calorie and protein needs every day. These are then divided into a number of meals for the day which are intended by dieticians.
A Ketogenic diet is a low carb and high-fat diet that is beneficial for those looking to lose weight and increase metabolic rate. The Ketogenic diet involves significantly reducing carbohydrate intake while increasing protein to the levels necessary to maintain muscle mass with the calorie ratios approximating 50% protein, 20% low glycemic index carbohydrates and 30% therapeutic fats.
What is a ketogenic diet plan?
Basically, Keto Diet Plan is a diet that causes the body to enter a state of ketosis. Ketosis is the well metabolic state in which the body cut its stored fat, instead of using glucose (the sugars from carbohydrates found in the Standard Diet.
Metabolically speaking, ketogenic foods are very strong. The wonderful benefit is that these foods are also delicious, natural whole foods that are extremely healthy for you.
A typical example of the Ketogenic diet may be as follows —
- Breakfast – Scrambled eggs/tofu with parsley, spinach, scallions and tomato OR
Protein powder mixed together with fresh or frozen berries
- Lunch – Salad with eggs/tuna/salmon/cottage cheese
- Dinner – Chicken, Fish turkey, tofu or meat with steamed or blend fried low carbohydrate vegetables
- Snacks – (2-3 daily) Protein drink or Handful of nuts or seeds or Hard boiled egg.
An Indian example of Ketogenic diet may be as follows—
- Breakfast – Cheese omelette with vegetables/ Paneer Bhurji/ Egg Bhurji with veggies
- Lunch – Spinach soup mix together button mushrooms and a dab of white butter
- Dinner – Green vegetable salad with cheese/mix fried Paneer with vegetables
What are the advantages of Ketogenic diet plan for beginners?
- Reduce Excess Fat – If your body makes many ketone bodies by changing existing fat, it will simply reduce those ketones as a waste product, which means you will basically pee out unwanted body fat!
- Reduce Obese – By cutting out the over carbohydrates in the diet that build glucose, a keto diet plan tells your body to burn stored fat by changing this fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in the liver. These ketone bodies replace the role of glucose that was being filled with carbohydrates in the diet. This leads to a fast reduction in the amount of fat stored in the body.
- Decrease hunger – By maintaining the metabolic hormones in the body, a keto diet plan will actually decrease your appetite reduces body’s insulin resistance and increase ketones thus you actually feel less starve, which is the wonderful benefit over other, carbohydrate-rich, low-calorie weight loss diets that come with the expectation of persistent hunger.
- Retain Muscle Mass – By including the good fats in your diet, a ketogenic diet plan gives your body with the energy it needs to convert existing fat stores into useful sugars and ketones, which are a vital source of energy for the heart, brain and muscles. This has the added advantage of preserving muscle mass because the healthy fat in the diet provides the body with the energy it needs without having to tap into muscle protein to produce more sugar. This makes the best of both worlds – burn fat while maintaining muscle mass!
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Conclusion
The Ketogenic diet produces very good results when followed consistently. Long-term success is more likely if a holistic attitude is adopted that addresses diet, nutritional supplements, exercise and psychological factors as well as any definite health challenges that are unique to the humans.If you still have questions regarding to what is a Ketogenic diet plan is, then please ask them in the comments section below.
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