Keto Diet Plan – Diet Foods, Benefits, & Side Effects
What is a Keto Diet?
Keto diets mainly involve the drastic reduction of one’s carbohydrate intake, and replacing it with fats. Reducing the carb content like this puts the body in a metabolic state known as ketosis.
In this state, your body is able to efficiently burn fat for energy. It can also convert fats in the liver into ketones. This helps supply energy for the brain.
Keto diets can have several health benefits, such as reduced blood sugar and insulin levels. However, they can also come with side effects that we will discuss later.
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5 Keto Diet Tips for Beginners
While following a keto diet, one must take special care in certain cases. The following tips can help you follow the diet a lot better:
1. Decrease Stress
The stress hormone cortisol ends up elevating the body’s blood sugar levels. Thus, this prevents the body from burning fat for energy due to the presence of excess sugar in it. Chronic stress can, therefore, severely hinder the body’s ability to enter ketosis.
2. Prioritise Sleep
Less sleep plays a major role in higher stress levels. As discussed earlier, this can prevent your body from being able to burn fat. Maintaining a proper schedule can help improve one’s quality of sleep. This, in turn, helps reduce stress and thus, make the keto diet effective.
It is ideal to get about 8-9 hours of sleep every night. Plenty of studies have found that sleeping for fewer hours can hurt one’s weight loss attempts.
3. Increase Salt Intake
While we have always been taught to reduce our sodium consumption, this is necessary only in the case of high-carb diets. High-carb diets have naturally higher levels of insulin, leading to the kidney retaining sodium.
When you reduce your carb intake as you do with a keto diet, insulin levels are a lot lower, and the body excretes a lot more salt. Therefore, you can increase your salt consumption by 3 to 5 g while in ketosis.
4. Exercise Frequently
While on a keto diet, a regular exercise schedule can help boost ketone levels, and transition into a low-carb, high-fat diet a lot faster. Getting rid of any glucose present in the body is key to the body getting into ketosis.
While exercising, the body uses different types of energy for fuel including carbs, amino acids and fats. Frequent exercises helps the body get rid of its glycogen stores quicker.
5. Drink Plenty of Water
Staying hydrated is important at all times, but it is much more so in the case of a ketogenic diet. This is because the body releases more water from the body when the carb intake is a lot lower. Ideally, one should drink more water on days where they are likely to sweat more.
5 Foods to Eat on a Keto Diet Plan
The Keto diet has several food requirements that must be met. Keto foods are normally low on carbs and high in fat. Here’s a list of foods that one can consume while on a keto diet:
1. Seafood
Although rich in B vitamins, selenium and potassium, salmon and other fish are almost carb-free. This makes them extremely keto-friendly.
The carb content varies across the various types of shellfish, however. You can always choose the low-carb variants to include in your keto diet. Two servings of seafood a week would be of great help to any individual on a keto diet.
2. Cheese
Considered both nutritious and delicious, cheese is generally low in carbs and rich in fat. Thus, they are a great fit for a ketogenic diet.
Although rich in saturated fat, cheese hasn’t been known to increase the risk of heart disease. On the contrary, some studies claim that this dairy product can in fact reduce these risks.
3. Low-carb Vegetables
Non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and lettuce, are low in calories and carbs but they are rich in several nutrients, including vitamins and minerals. Vegetables contain fiber, that your body will not digest, unlike carbs.
The antioxidants present in these vegetables help protect the body against free radicals, or unstable molecules that cause cell damage.
4. Eggs
A single large egg contains less than one gram of carbohydrates, and less than 6 grams of protein. This makes them an ideal food for the ketogenic diet.
Eggs are also known to make an individual feel full, while keeping their blood sugar levels stable. This leads to lower calorie intake for almost 24 hours.
5. Meat
Meat and poultry are considered staple food of the keto diet since they contain no carbs and are rich in B vitamins and several minerals. They are also a great source of high quality protein, helping preserve muscle mass in the absence of carbs.
It is ideal to choose grass-fed animals for meat since they consume more omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants than grain-fed animals.
Keto Diet Side Effects
Keto diets may be effective when it comes to quick weight loss. However, most nutritionists do not recommend that one follow them. One of the main reasons for this is the side effects that people on these diets experience.
1. Keto Flu
At the start of ketosis, one may experience a range of negative symptoms. Since these symptoms resemble those of flu, the condition is called keto flu.
In case of a keto flu, one may experience symptoms like headache, fatigue, lack of sleep, hunger, and nausea. These symptoms may last a few days.
2. Cramping of Leg Muscles
There’s a possibility of suffering from leg cramps in ketosis. These cramps are usually associated with dehydration and a loss of minerals.
Glycogen binds water and this gets flushed out of the body when one’s carb intake is reduced. This is also why people lose weight rapidly in the first week of the diet.
3. Digestive Problems
The reduced fiber intake leads to several digestive problems. People on ketogenic diets may suffer from constipation or diarrhea. Drastic changes to the diet in order to get into ketosis can also cause one to experience digestive trouble.
4. Elevated Heart Rate
Another possible side effect of ketosis is increased heart rate. Dehydration and low salt intake cause the heart rate to rise. If it doesn’t normalise, you may need to increase your carbohydrate consumption.
