Understanding the Dos and Don’ts of a Keto Diet
There are several types of diet plans for specific health requirements of people following a particular lifestyle. These diet plans concentrate on the core aspects of the individual’s health concerns and present thoughtfully-planned meal combinations to help achieve health and fitness goals. One of the leading favorites among a significant number of individuals is the ketogenic diet.
Commonly called a keto diet, it is a high-fat, low-carb, and moderate-protein diet that packs several health benefits. Quick and effective weight loss is the leading benefit for people switching to a keto diet. The diet encourages your body to burn fat instead of carbohydrates for energy, resulting in quick weight loss. The ketogenic diet is also believed to prevent cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and epilepsy.
To understand the dos and don’ts for a keto diet, it is important to understand this efficient diet and its types. The diet pushes you to reduce the intake of carbs drastically and encourages you to replace it with fat. This process starts a metabolic state known as ketosis in your body, encouraging it to burn fat efficiently for converting it into energy. It helps form ketones in the liver, which supply energy to the brain. This diet is also helpful in reducing blood sugar and insulin levels drastically. It is also important to know the different types of keto diets that serve different purposes:
- Standard keto diet: This is a very low-carb, high-fat, and moderate-protein diet. The composition is 75% fat, 20% protein, and only 5% carbs.
- Cyclical keto diet: It alternates between two high-carb days in the week and a low-carb keto diet for the rest of the days of the week.
- Targeted keto diet: It is a special diet plan that lets you consume carbs around workouts.
- High-protein keto diet: This resembles a standard keto diet but includes a high percentage of protein.
1. Don’t eat carbohydrates
You must cut down the intake of carbs by a significant margin.
2. Do eat meat
A wide range of meat and dairy products are excellent items to include in a keto diet plan.
3. Go for keto-approved snacks
Though there are several snack items you should avoid, there are also several healthy snack products that are keto-approved.
4. Don’t fear the keto flu
Keto diet is a very effective diet plan for people who want quick weight loss. However, there may be some side-effects initially before your body adapts to the change in your diet. Keto flu is a common side-effect, and it increases hunger and disturbs sleep. There can also be some digestive issues in the beginning, and you might also experience low exercise performance. An important part of the dos and don’ts for a keto diet is to start with a regular low-carb diet for the first couple of weeks.
5. Do hydrate
Also, the balance of water and minerals in the body can get affected, and adding a little extra salt to food can help with this.
6. Do use protein powders
Besides, adding whey protein to shakes or yogurt increases your protein intake and gives the desired results in just over two weeks. Additionally, caffeine also has fat-loss and performance benefits.