Ketogenic Diets: Do They Work Or Not? SLASHING CARBS AND EATING FATS TO ENTER KETOSIS; EFFECTIVE FOR WEIGHT LOSS? Carb-haters are uniting around the keto diet, which is rooted in older therapeutic diets originally designed for purposes in neurologic medicine, like for controlling seizures in children. Studies also suggest those with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s may benefit. So what is it? Essentially, the keto diet requires ditching carbs and replacing them with fats and some proteins. Typical keto diets push daily calorie intake from fats over 70 percent. High fat and absent carbs put the body in a state of ketosis, meaning the body begins breaking down both dietary and stored body fat into substances called ketones. Typically, the body relies on sugars for energy, but the keto diet shifts energy production to be sourced from fats.
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KETOSIS: WHAT IS IT? Let’s start from the beginning. Ketosis is a natural process that the body initiates to help survive when food intake is low. During ketosis, our bodies produce ketones. Ketones are important fuel molecules formed by the breakdown of stored fat. The body stores about 40,000 calories of fat and 2,000 calories of carbohydrate glycogen. When the body uses all the stored carbs, it proceeds to the fat calories to get energy, therefore, fat becomes the body’s fuel. Most of us never fully enter ketosis because we go through a system of eating carbs, burning carbs, eating carbs and burning carbs. For example, we eat carbs for breakfast, causing the blood sugar to rise and then right as it begins to deplete we reach for our next meal. Getting your body into ketosis mode is no small task; you must restrict yourself from eating all starchy vegetables, breads, sugary drinks, pasta and basically and basically any foods that are not meat or non-starchy vegetables like spinach or kale. However, limiting yourself is not the only difficulty to the diet. When cutting yourself off from carb-heavy foods most people experience what is called a “low-carb flu.” The low-carb flu occurs during the first few weeks of the keto diet, and causes a person to feel mentally and physically weak to a point where it’s unmistakably uncomfortable. You might feel hungry even after eating, lethargic, dizzy, and low on energy. You may have experienced ketosis if you’ve ever fasted, or skipped a couple meals. By not eating for 12 hours or more the body will go into a fat burning mode. The easiest way to do this would be to eat dinner, skip breakfast and then eat your next meal at lunch.
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