A ketogenic diet is a diet where you eat a low number of carbohydrates per day. During this diet you eat a lot of fat, a high number of proteins and few carbohydrates. In proportion, a ketogenic diet consists of 60 to 80% of your calorie intake from fat, 10 to 15% from proteins and less than 10% from carbohydrates. If you follow a ketogenic diet, you eat between 20 and 25 grams of carbohydrates per day. The ketogenic diet is similar to the Atkins diet. The difference is that the ketogenic diet is stricter with carbohydrate intake and somewhat milder with protein intake.
There are several reasons why people follow a ketogenic diet:
- To lose weight
- Better concentration
- Less hungry
- Lower blood pressure
- Better mood
- Faster fat burning
- Fuzzy or foggy feeling in your head disappears
- Lower cholesterol level
- In children, it helps to reduce epilepsy
- Remedy type 2 diabetes
- If you follow a ketogenic diet, you will end up in ketosis after a few days.
What is ketosis?
If you follow a ketogenic diet, a time will come within 24 to 48 hours when you are in ketosis. When you eat a lot of carbohydrates, your body converts this into glucose. Your body gets energy from it. It is easiest for our bodies to get energy from glucose. The fats that you eat are then stored in your body, because you don’t use them that much. If you follow a ketogenic diet, you eat little carbohydrates and your body can no longer get the energy out of carbohydrates completely. This forces your body to switch to a different fuel. The consequence of this is that your body switches to fat.
This ensures faster fat burning so you lose weight faster. These fats are converted into ketones in your liver. When your body uses these fats as fuel, you are in ketosis. Our body goes into ketosis when we have to survive because we get little food. But, of course, we are not supposed to starve ourselves. Research has shown that we can force our bodies to get into ketosis without going hungry. And this can be achieved by eating fewer carbohydrates. Before our bodies look for new energy, it can store around 600 grams of glucose.
This will get you hungry when you eat carbohydrate rich. When your body is in ketosis this asks what your body, mental strength and perseverance. The transition from many carbohydrates to a maximum of 25 grams per day can be very difficult. This is mainly because you also hardly eat any sugar anymore. This can cause withdrawal symptoms at the beginning. When you are through that phase, many people feel better and more energetic.
Many people are very positive about following a ketogenic diet and see it as a lifestyle they want to keep. They feel better and more energetic. In addition, for many people it is an easy way to get rid of the excess kilos.
