What is Ketogenic Diet & Which Apps can Help?
The ketogenic diet is becoming popular each day. People are sharing a number of success stories of their weight loss with this diet. Many of those who want to lose weight are becoming really excited, but there are some rumors that restrict people from adopting the diet. There are a lot of confusions about what to take and what to not, and half knowledge is undeniably a curse that could bring harm instead of benefits. However, the right adaptation of the ketogenic diet can really provide some outstanding health results.
How Does it Work?
A ketogenic diet is a healthy way of eating that restricts eating carb and instead focuses on consuming a high amount of fat. The increased intake of fat makes the body fat-adaptive, and so it turns into a fat-burning machine. During the process of Ketosis in the body, the body starts to help us survive in the low food intake by producing ketones. Ketones are produced from the breakdown of fats in the body.
The restriction to sugars and carbs slows down the insulin level in the body, which is the fat-storing hormone. When insulin level drops, people feel the body optimal and active. With a ketogenic diet, people can get benefits in many diseases like type-2 diabetes, PCOS, epilepsy, metabolic syndrome, cholesterol, mental focus, blood pressure, and other autoimmune diseases.
Many people are willing to adopt the diet, but there are a number of unsolved questions about ketones and ketogenic diet which hold them off to do so. A ketogenic diet restricts the intake of sugar and starch. It instead focuses on taking selective amounts of healthy fats and protein in vegetables, meat, dairy, and particular fruits. Below are the most frequently asked questions and their answers about ketones and the ketogenic diet.
What are the benefits of a ketogenic diet?
The keto diet benefits range from weight loss to therapeutic medical results. The basic and most important advantage of the keto diet is that almost anyone can easily switch to a low-carb, moderate protein, and high-fat diet. To lose weight, keto-diet uses our excess body fat as a source of energy, so the body starts losing fat. When your body is on Ketosis, insulin level drops down and contributes to fat burning. As compared to the low fat, high carb diet, the ketogenic diet has shown better results. Due to the intake of selective low-carb foods, Keto-diet contributes to regulating the blood sugar level. This diet is the most effective in preventing and managing diabetes. Pre-diabetic or type 2 diabetic people can consider switching to a ketogenic diet. Other than this, the keto diet is found very helpful for an increased mental focus. Ketones are a great energy source for brain functioning. It also has excellent benefits for epilepsy, cholesterol and blood pressure, insulin resistance, and acne. Another benefit of the keto diet is that when your body is on keto, it feels energized and satiated for longer.
Mobile Apps That Can Help You Get Into The Keto Flow
If you are planning to start the keto diet, you can download a keto assistant on your smartphone. Yes, several app development companies have developed apps to help on this journey. Below are the top 6 keto apps that can help you get on your weight loss goal.
- Keto Diet Tracker
- Carb Manager
- KetoDiet
- Total Keto Diet
- Keto diet & Ketogenic recipes
- Cronometer
How to Get Started on keto?
To get started on a ketogenic diet, it’s better first to get all the information correctly. You must understand its mechanism and how you can go with it. Other than this, keto is simple; you only need to dive in. Good food is the biggest motivation to have a good start, Go through the list of groceries you will need during keto. Get your hands on all the necessary food items and adopt a healthy lifestyle. If you want to enter into the state of Ketosis fast, you need to restrict your carb intake to below 15 grams per day. You can also start with intermittent fasting. There are different approaches to intermittent fasting, including skipped meals, eating window, and 24 hours cleanse. In the beginning, you go into an extended fasting period so that your body easily goes into the process of Ketosis.
What to Eat On Keto-Diet?
As mentioned earlier, in a ketogenic diet, you need to make your carbs intake limited by mainly eating vegetables, nuts, and dairy. Restrict yourself from eating refined carbohydrates, starch, and fruits. You are, however, allowed to take some low-car fruits like avocado, star fruit, and berries. However, they also need to be taken in moderation. Below-mentioned is a small list of foods you can eat and cannot eat.
You can eat:
- Meats: fish, beef, lamb, poultry, eggs, etc.
- Above ground vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
- Leafy Greens vegetables: – spinach, kale, etc
- Dairy products: hard cheeses, cream, butter, etc
- Fruits: raspberries, blackberries, and other low sugar berries
- Nuts and seeds: Almonds, macadamias, pistachios, sunflower seeds, walnuts, etc.
- Sweeteners: stevia, erythritol, monk fruit, and other low-carb sweeteners
- Oil and Fats: coconut oil, high-fat salad dressing, olive oil, saturated fats, etc.
You cannot eat:
- Grains: wheat, rice, oats, corn, cereal, etc.
- Tubers: potato, yams, etc.
- Sugar: honey, maple syrup, etc.
- Fruit: apples, mangoes, bananas, etc.
How to Get into Ketosis?
To achieve Ketosis, you basically need to:
- Restrict your carb intake to 20gm carbohydrates. Try not to exceed 35gms of carbohydrates in a day.
- Too much protein intake in a keto diet can disturb your results. Ideally, you can take around 0.6 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight. You can use a keto calculator to help with this.
- Fat is the primary source of energy in your body. Take a sufficient amount of fat.
- Drink a lot of water.
- Consider doing exercise for about half an hour a day.
- Use supplements to avoid any nutrients deficiency.
How to know if you are in Ketosis?
The physical symptoms that can help to know whether or not you are in Ketosis are:
- Increased Urination
- Dry Mouth
- Bad Breath
- Reduced Hunger and Increased Energy
What are the Side Effects of a Keto-Diet?
The high production of ketone in the body is known as ketoacidosis. It happens after the starvation of 3-4 days when the body produces a lot of ketones, and the body goes under ketoacidosis. However, if the keto diet is followed correctly, this doesn’t happen at all. This is a severe condition and does not happen under normal conditions.
What is Keto Flu?
Keto flu represents a transition state. The body is equipped to process high carbs under your regular diet, and due to which, in the transitional state, the brain may go low on energy, and you might feel nausea and headache. To combat this, you can choose to slow down your carb intake gradually. Also, urination is frequent during Ketosis, which can lower the level of water and electrolytes in your body. You can handle this situation by drinking more amount of water.
