Eat Fat Lose Fat: The Keto Diet
Affiliate disclosure: The following post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, the owner of this website may receive a commission.
Health disclaimer: The content contained in this post is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. Health related advice should always be sought from a licensed medical practitioner.
Introduction
The ketogenic or “keto” diet has become massively popular in recent years.
Originally prescribed as a treatment for epilepsy in the 1920s – and still used today for this purpose – the recent interest in the diet has been sparked by the diet’s weight loss potential.
You may be familiar with the low-carbohydrate Atkins diet.
Like Atkins, the keto diet keeps carbohydrate levels low, but instead of adding more protein to your diet, the keto diet increases the amount of fat. Typically, When on this diet, you would aim for a caloric intake made up of 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbohydrate.
A keto diet isn’t as restrictive as it sounds. It allows a wide variety of meats, seafood, dairy products, eggs, vegetables, and nuts.
And these days it’s easier to implement than it sounds. Thankfully, due to the increased popularity in the diet, the internet abounds with keto-friendly recipes.
How Keto can help you lose weight
While the Keto diet has many health benefits, this article will focus solely on the diet’s potential for weight loss. The two main ways it achieves this are ketosis, which results in the burning of body fat and, perhaps most importantly, appetite suppression.
Ketosis: Using fat for fuel
As counterintuitive as it sounds, eating more fat can result in weight loss. The metabolism is mind bogglingly complex, but the general overview of how the body deals with carbs is relatively straightforward.
Firstly, carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, for use as energy. As glucose enters your bloodstream, your body releases insulin, which stores any excess glucose as fat.
The more carbs you eat, the more glucose. The more glucose in your bloodstream, the more insulin. And the more insulin, the more fat.
When you eat very little carbs in your diet, your body produces ketones (hence the name ketogenic diet). Ketones are made in your liver from fatty acids found in food or– this is the part important for weight loss – from your own body fat.
But this isn’t the only factor contributing to weight loss. Increased satiety (feeling fuller) is likely the main factor, which is what we’ll be discussing next.
Appetite suppression: How keto can make you feel fuller from eating less
Perhaps the main reason why the keto diet can result in weight loss is because of how it affects the appetite. There are no shortage of anecdotal reports from people on the keto diet who claim that they feel more satiated, even if they’re eating less than they were before.
And there’s studies that back up these self reports. It has been found that when participants are allowed to eat as much food as they like, provided they restrict carb intake, they tend to eat less than they would on a standard diet [1].
One possible reason for this is blood glucose stabilization. When we enter ketosis, our blood glucose levels become more stable, which can inhibit hunger [2].
Another likely factor is suppressed levels of ghrelin, the hunger stimulating hormone. This hormone normally rises in response to weight loss but is inhibited by ketosis [3]
The bottom line is this: If you feel full, you’ll stop eating.
And if you’re not constantly having to deal with hunger pangs, then you’re less likely to quit your diet. This reason alone is perhaps why the keto diet is such a popular option for weight loss.
Conclusion
There is solid evidence, both anecdotal and scientific, that the keto diet can be very effective for weight loss. Furthermore, by making you feel full, even when you’re eating less, you may find it easier to stick to than other diets that just focus on calorie restriction.
But because of the strict rules of the diet, it might be a challenge to get it right. For this reason, you shouldn’t leave it to chance.
The custom diet takes care of all the details. Everything is planned out for you, from meal plans to shopping lists. This cuts out the learning curve and makes you far more likely to succeed.
References
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873405/
2.https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210412114802.htm
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23632752/