The keto diet is a low carbohydrate diet, but it differs from other low-carb diets (such as Paleo) in that it deliberately manipulees the ratios of carbs, fats, and protein to change fat into the body’s primary source of fuel.
Many people allow themselves up to 50 grams of carbohydrates a day and still lose weight.
On a stricter regime, the carb intake can be between 15 and 20 grams daily.
The less carbs, the quicker the weight loss, but the diet is very flexible.
Our bodies are used to turning carbohydrates into insulin to use as fuel. That means the extra fat is stored and keeps adding on the pounds. The ketogenic diet uses fat for fuel, which means it gets used instead of stored. Thus, weight loss becomes easy.
In addition to weight loss, the ketogenic diet is known as the “healing” diet. The lack of sugar intake has been proven to help and prevent many diseases, from heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, epilepsy, and many symptoms of aging.
The manipulation of carbs, fats, and protein is called ketosis. It’s a state when the body, deprived of the usual carbohydrates and sugar, is forced to use fat as its primary fuel.
Of course, turning insulin into fat also means lowering the amount of insulin in your body. That is why the keto diet has been so successful in helping people deal with diabetes. It adjusts the sugar level naturally. The ratio of carbs, fat, and protein can vary.
Many people allow themselves up to 50 grams of carbohydrates a day and still lose weight.
On a stricter regime, the carb intake can be between 15 and 20 grams daily. The less carbs, the quicker the weight loss, but the diet is very flexible.
On the keto diet, you don’t count calories. You count carbohydrates and adjust the intake of carbs vs. fat and protein. A typical keto diet will get 60 percent of its calories from fat, 15 to 25 percent of calories from protein, and 25 percent of calories from carbohydrates.
