The low carbohydrate, high fat Ketogenic or keto diet was originally designed to help and treat epilepsy, many people are now using it to try to lose weight.
According to research, it will provide several more advantages when compared to some other diets that are out there. Some of these advantages will include making it easier for you to burn the fat stored in your body. It can also help to improve your metabolic rate which is the calories the body burns while at rest. You will also feel more full after each meal while taking on fewer calories.
One review of 13 studies found that the keogenic diet was more effective for weight loss than a low fat diet. People that followed the keto diet lost on average 2 pounds or 0.9kg more than the people that followed a standard low fat diet.
You may start to wonder how much weight it is possible to lose while on your first week of following the keto diet. A lot of people have reported an extreme amount of weight loss within their first week of using the keto diet. Unfortunately, most of this will be attributed to water loss from the body.
Starting Ketosis
As part of the keto diet, you should stringently limit the amount of carbohydrates that you consume. This is typically 50 grams or fewer as part of your total daily carbohydrates. Similarly you can calculate this as 25 grams of net carbohydrates, which is the total carbohydrate minus the fiber.
For a lot of people carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. During the keto diet you are limited to the amount of carbohydrates you consume with meals. This means, when following the keto diet your body will start to burn the carbohydrate stores within it. These are stored in the muscles and liver, known as glycogen. Your body will start to burn this for energy and it will typically start within a few days of beginning the diet.
Once the body begins to use this glycogen, it switches to a metabolic state called ketosis. This means the body will start to use ketones, these are broken down from the dietary fat or fat that is stored in the body. Your body will then start to use this as its main source of fuel.
Shifting, during which your body will burn through its glycogen stores and switch to using ketones. This switch for most people will usual happen in approximately a week, although for others it may take a little longer.
A large portion of people following the keto diet will notice a dramatic weight loss during this period. However most of this weight loss is actually due to a change in water weight.
Water Weight Loss
Glycogen stored in your liver and muscles is bound to the body with water. This has been found to be a ratio of appoximetley 3 grams of water to every 1 gram of glycogen (3:1).
When your body begins to burn these stored carbohydrates, the water from this is then passed out of the body. The water is passed out of the body through the normal channels, of urine and sweat.
When you begin your weight loss journey using the keto diet, you may find that you have to visit the toilet more often than you used to. You may also notice that you feel more thirsty than before you stated doing the keto diet. This is perfectly normal. This is the effect of the water weight loss on your body.
The amount of water weight loss is very much dependent on your size or the amount of water weight you maybe carrying. This means that the weight loss you experience in the beginning will vary from person to person. Research has found that most people experience an initial weight loss of 1 pound to 10 pounds or 0.5kg to 5kg.
The larger the person you are, the more weight loss you will experience in the beginning of the keto diet. However, most of this weight loss in the beginning will be water weight loss. It is highly unlikely that much of this weight loss will be fatty weight loss.
Once your body enter the state of ketosis, it will become much easier for your body to fully utilize your own stored fat for energy. This is the reason why the keto diet is an advantage for most people to complete their weight loss journey and achieve their goals.
Where its Helpful
Most people using the keto diet claim great success when using this diet. A study of more than 19,000 people said that they had experienced significant and rapid weight loss with very few side effects. Most of the dieters also said that they had managed to keep the weight off after at least a year of using the keto diet.
According to the recorded results, the vast majority of people lost a total average of 10.2 kg, this is about 22 pounds. This is after about 2 and a half cycles of using the keto diet.
This has led to the conclusion that the keto diet was a successful method for obese and over weight people to lose weight. With the very few side effects of the diet being easily managed.
When It Becomes Unhealthy
Some critics will say that a keto type of diet will usually only work in the short term and can become unhealthy.
For starters, most of the weight loss that is experienced is just water weight loss.
Once the body enters ketosis, you can also experience fatigue and a loss of muscle mass. The body will enter a sort of starvation mode and this will make it harder to lose weight.
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Conclusion
Having studied all the data that I can collect for the keto diet. I believe that over all it is a good way of losing weight and helping to burn the fat stored in the body. The positives of the keto diet massively out weigh the negatives. The negative effects of the keto diet can be easily managed.
The management of the side effect of the diet can be as easy as building an effective workout routine to help maintain muscle mass. Using a well-balanced version of the initial keto diet will help to combat the effects of fatigue.
Please feel free to leave a comment and thank you for reading.
I used to be interested in Keto diet at one point but I reached the same conclusion as you mentioned in this article – that most of the weight lost it because of the water that is eliminated. I didn’t necessarily have a water retention but I wasn’t overweight either, I was only considering it for its health benefits. I also know there are a lot of Keto supplements, I’m actually curious what you believe about them.
Hi, thank you for the comment. I was actually just researching the keto supplements. I will put out a post for these soon
Hi Adam,
I came across this information doing some research on the body going into Ketosis. I feel a bit dumb admitting this but never made the connection to the name of the diet. “KETO”sis. I have been doing an exercise with short interval fasting trying to trick my body into going into this state hoping it would start to feast on the fat I have stored!
If nothing else, I am glad you shared this information so I could learn more about this diet. I have heard of it but haven’t looked into it. Makes me feel it would be a bit more healthy than just not eating.
Thanks so much!
Chad
Hi, Thank you for reading my article. To be honest from the research I did, it would seem a lot of people struggle to make that connection. I’m glad you found the information helpful.