If you are a fitness enthusiast, you must have heard about the keto diet. The keto diet or ketogenic diet has been gaining popularity for a while for all the right reasons.
The diet is one of the most strict diet routines and takes a lot of discipline to be followed. Though it is mainly used for the purpose of losing weight, it provides many other awesome health benefits. However, our topic is weight loss and how it works so let’s focus on that and see what it does to your system.
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How Does It Work?
What you usually eat contains loads of carbs and very less amount of fat. With the ketogenic diet, that’s not the case. Your carbohydrate intake is limited to just 5% of your daily calorie consumption. It’s restricted carbs consumption that works in your favor. Let’s see how.
Your body usually uses carbs as its source of energy. But when you restrict carbs, and start consuming lots of fats, it makes a switch from carbs to fats. This state is known as ketosis. In this state, your liver starts producing ketones and extract energy from fats.
To reduce carbs, you have to increase your fat consumption to 70-80% of your diet. That’s how you can make a complete switch from carbohydrates. Protein is kept moderate during the process which is around 20% of your daily calorie intake.
There are several ways in which the keto diet adds to your weight loss. Though more studies should be done, this is what experts have been able to figure out so far:
Read More: Follow Our Keto Diet Plan To Maintain Healthy Weight
Reduces Hunger
One of the most prominent features of the keto diet is the appetite suppressing mechanism it is known for. It is its ability to suppress hunger that helps achieve results at a rapider rate.
As per the studies, the ketogenic diet reduces the levels of a hormone named ghrelin that regulates hunger levels in the body. The diet is also known to reduce alcohol cravings at the same time which helps lose weight.
The diet is rich in healthy fats and proteins and makes you feel full throughout the day. You tend to eat less and get to maintain a healthy body weight soon after.
Promotes Loss Of Water Weight
Another potential mechanism is the diet routine is the loss of water weight which makes you feel light. As you reduce your carbs intake to 20-40g a day, it promotes weight loss by reducing the water weight.
This happens because your body holds water when it stores carbs. But if you reduce your carbs intake, your body releases stored carbs with the additional fluid. However, this phenomena is observed in the beginning when you start following a keto diet.
Balances Calories
You lose weight when you burn more than you eat, right? Your daily calorie consumption plays an integral role in the process. So, in order to figure out how keto diet works, you must understand the basics of traditional weight loss methods.
It’s simple. Eat less calories than you burn, and you will start losing weight. The process is known as calorie deficit and is very effective in maintaining a healthy body weight.
As per a recent study, the keto diet causes a small boost in the calories burnt by the body. At the same time, it helps your body to enter ketosis where it completely depends on fat for its energy requirements. In this way, the diet promotes weight loss naturally.
However, one must keep in mind that being consistent and disciplined while following the keto diet is important. That’s how you can achieve great results.