Governments may have forced us to stay inside to avoid a virus that has the same mortality rate as previous flu seasons, but that doesn’t mean you should let yourself go. The worst thing to do before summer is to indulge yourself in binge-watching and binge-eating.
In fact, you don’t even need to go to the gym to lose weight. Instead, there is one thing that can effortlessly melt your excess weight, and it involves switching your body’s fuel, from carb to fat. You may have heard of it under the name ketogenic diet.
Not Another Diet!
In the very introduction, we stated that with it, you could “effortlessly melt your excess weight.” That sounds like you have heard it hundreds of times before, doesn’t it? The thing is, the ketogenic diet is not a fad or a diet in the ordinary sense. Something that you do it to get results, and then revert to your old habits.
The best way to understand the ketogenic diet is to frame it as a correction of the modern characteristics of living. One that relies on frequent eating of processed carbs. Very tasty carbs indeed, but this type of modern living has caused unprecedented levels of obesity in the United States and across the world. Obesity puts people in a highly vulnerable state, easily exploited by viruses. Not to mention, it is inevitable that obese people develop a variety of life-threatening chronic conditions like diabetes, cancer, heart problems, etc.
One doesn’t have to be a nutritionist to understand how deeply flawed our food culture is. You only need to accept the scientific theory of evolution and consider if less than a hundred years is enough to adapt to modern nutritional habits completely.
The astonishing rate of obesity clearly says no. Not only does obesity destroy an individual’s health, but it also severely drains productivity and the healthcare system. In the end, obesity is a voluntary condition, but it is difficult to blame people for succumbing to endless marketing campaigns for carb snacks.
We Know Why Ketogenic Diet Always Works
When it comes to nutrition, we rarely have mechanical, molecule-level knowledge of why something works. Usually, we can infer some conclusions from epidemiological studies and surveys. But not with keto. Both mechanistically and epidemiologically, it is abundantly clear why keto dieting is so widely successful, no matter who decides to take advantage of it.
Any essay writer specialized in nutrition could tell you that, even if you are not obese per se, you can gain great benefits from the ketogenic diet.
First, What Is It?
Simply put, the ketogenic diet is shifting your food intake from a carb-laden diet to a fat-laden diet. In terms of macronutrient profile, a ketogenic diet usually looks like this:
- 5% calories from carbs.
- 25% calories from protein.
- 70% calories from fats.
If your diet consists of that macronutrient profile, over 3-5 days, your body enters a ketogenic state – ketosis. In this state, the fuel your cells use switches from glycogen/glucagon (carbs) to ketones (fats).
- Ketones are vastly superior as a fuel compared to glycogen:
- The brain prefers ketones so you will feel drastically increased mental clarity, which will immensely aid your studies and work.
- We were all born in a ketogenic state.
- Your energy levels will be even throughout the day, meaning no more sugar crashes and no more an overwhelming desire to crawl in bed in the middle of the day.
- Instead of glycogen, your body will now start to use fat reserves on your body. On non-keto diets, your body uses glycogen reserves first, which is why all non-keto diets are so ineffective! Once you exhaust your glycogen reserves, you start to feel ravening hunger, which is exceedingly difficult to manage.
- Ketones suppress hunger.
Carbs Are Optional
Although carbs are officially listed as essential nutrients, this is not technically true. We do list the triumvirate of nutrients like carbs, protein, and fats, but we can live perfectly healthy without carbs. Some of our body parts do need glycogen to function normally, but our liver produces as much glycogen as the body needs through the process called gluconeogenesis.
Effectively, all foods contain some amount of carbs, so it is not practical to avoid them. As long as you keep the carb intake under 6% of total daily caloric intake, you will experience rapid weight loss, mood improvement, mental clarity, and even energy.
It takes about one to two weeks to become fat-adapted. During that adaptation period, it is paramount to intake potassium and sodium. These vital electrolytes work in unison to keep you going, and because of elevated need to urinate, they will deplete faster.
