What Is the Keto Diet Anyway?

Here's a question for you. What is the Ketogenic Diet anyway? I know that when I first heard about it, I had no clue what it was or all the benefits that it can provide to your body. It seemed too good to be true, so I wanted to go home and do my research. Once I found out more information, I wanted to share with everyone so that they can decide for themselves if this is something they would like to try.

The Ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet. It burns fat instead of glucose for energy. That's great news, right? Of course, it is! This alone makes it the next biggest diet you should learn more about, especially if lowering your body fat is one of your goals. In an average diet of 1200 calories per day, 50% of what you eat is carbs. 30% of what you eat is fats. 20% of what you eat is proteins. In the Keto diet with the same amount of calories, 5% of what you eat is carbs. 70% of what you eat is fats. 25% of what you eat is proteins. See the difference?

The process in which fat is burned is called Ketosis. It does not automatically happen. Your body has to be depleted of carbs before it will start to use the stored fat as energy. This diet is very ideal for individuals who love eating meat over protein supplements. The cost is way more efficient as well.

Let’s talk about the benefits of the Ketogenic diet. It increases muscle mass and increases strength. It also decreases water weight. Who doesn't want to get rid of excess water weight right?

The Ketogenic diet is also very satisfying. This is a huge plus as one of the reasons people don't stick to diets is because they are never satisfied. For me, one cheat meal would feel better than a day off at the beach. In my opinion, having a cheeseburger should not make me feel like I haven't eaten a great meal in years. Protein also makes us feel full longer.

This diet allows you to eat meat, leafy greens, along with other vegetables and dairy. Cheese is my favorite food. Can you imagine my face when I read that I could eat high-fat dairy? I was very excited that I could eat cheese outside of cheat day. You can also eat nuts, seeds, avocado, and berries. It is still important to count calories, which means you may be eating less.

Foods to avoid with the Ketogenic diet are any fruits outside of berries, potatoes, sugar, and grains. Out of these foods, I do miss fruit and potatoes. However, not eating fruit and potatoes is a lot easier than avoiding dairy.

More benefits of the Ketogenic diet are increased mental performance, an improvement in skin health, and improvement in the proper management of insulin levels. These are all awesome reasons to give the Ketogenic diet a try. Mental performance and improved skin health were things that I desperately needed. This diet has caused me to depend on coffee a lot less as well.

In closing, it is important to always practice a diet that works best for you and the results you aim to get. If you love dairy and berries, this may be a diet that will work for you. It is so easy for me because these are the foods that I love to eat anyway. Today, for example, my job's café was serving a baked potato bar. The bar had a variety of toppings. It included ground beef, onions, mushrooms, olives, peppers, cheese, sour cream, broccoli, and salsa. I made a salad out of all of the toppings without the potato. It was delicious and even more satisfying than the potato with the toppings.

Take a closer look at the Ketogenic diet to determine if this is something that may work for you and your fitness goals.