What is Keto Diet?
The Keto diet emphasizes weight loss through fat-burning. The goal is to quickly lose weight and ultimately feel fuller with fewer cravings, while boosting your mood, mental focus and energy. According to Keto proponents, by slashing the carbs you consume and instead filling up on fats, you safely enter a state of ketosis. That’s when the body breaks down both dietary and stored body fat into substances called ketones. Your fat-burning system now relies mainly on fat – instead of sugar – for energy. While similar in some ways to familiar low-carb diets, the Keto diet’s extreme carb restrictions – about 20 net carbs a day or less, depending on the version – and the deliberate shift into ketosis are what set this increasingly popular diet apart.
The Keto diet has its roots in the decades-old therapeutic ketogenic diet. Clinically, the ketogenic diet is used in neurologic medicine, most notably to reduce hard-to-control seizures in children. Studies also suggest possible benefits in other brain conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
Fairly recently, the diet was introduced as a weight-loss diet by an Italian professor of surgery, Dr. Gianfranco Cappello of Sapienza University in Rome. In his 2012 study, about 19,000 dieters received a high-fat liquid diet via a feeding tube inserted down the nose. The study showed an average weight loss of more than 20 pounds in participants, most of whom kept it off for at least a year. The researchers reported a few minor side effects, like fatigue.
Today, several versions of the Keto diet (using real food) are detailed in books, blogs and Facebook posts. The common thread is choosing high-fat foods coupled with very low daily carbs. Guidebooks include “The Complete Ketogenic Diet for Beginners” by Amy Ramos and “The Keto Diet: The Complete Guide to a High-Fat Diet” by Leanne Vogel.
How does Keto Diet work?
You can stay on the Keto diet indefinitely, do it as a weight-loss plan over a single short period or cycle in and out. Fat-rich foods are key, protein is moderate and carbs are the bad guys. Vogel offers some tips for getting started on Keto:
- Educating yourself about carbs and getting familiar with good fats is the first step.
- Before jumping in, experiment with low-carb veggies in the grocery store’s natural produce section, find sources of grass-fed meat and learn about hidden sources of sugar, like the coleslaw at your local eatery.
- Don’t assume sugar cravings will disappear right away. Instead, stock up on Keto-friendly desserts like dark chocolate with nut butter.
- During the first week of carb withdrawal, you might experience symptoms including muscle aches, headaches, fatigue and mental fogginess – and yes, hunger. For early cravings, try nibbling on a high-fat snack such as a bacon strip or some cucumber with avocado mayo.
As the diet moves into the second and third weeks, you’ll begin to feel better. Soon, low-carb, high-fat eating will seem more natural as it becomes a habit. By week four, you can expect weight loss, especially if you’ve been physically active while sticking closely to the plan.
Selecting the right food will be easier as you become accustomed to the Keto approach. Instead of lean meats, you’ll focus on skin-on poultry, fattier parts like chicken thighs, rib-eye steaks, grass-fed ground beef, fattier fish like salmon, beef brisket or pork shoulder, and bacon. Leafy greens such as spinach, kale and lettuce, along with broccoli, cauliflower and cucumbers, make healthy vegetable choices (but you’ll avoid starchy root foods like carrots, potatoes, turnips and parsnips). You can work in less-familiar veggies such as kohlrabi or daikon.
Oils like avocado, olive, canola, flaxseed and palm, as well as mayonnaise will flavor salads while fattening them up. Clarified butter, or ghee, is a fat you’ll use for cooking or as a spread.
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