Foods that are made from macronutrients – carbs, protein, and fat. While meat and most dairy mainly provide protein or fat, vegetables contain mostly carbs. On a strict ketogenic diet, with fewer than 5% of calories from carbs, it’s important to understand which veggies are rock bottom in carbs, particularly if your goal is to consume fewer than 20 grams carbs per day.
You could also eat vegetables with but 5 grams of net carbs relatively freely. It’s hard to over eat spinach, zucchini, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, asparagus, and kale on a keto diet. These are considered keto vegetables.
WHAT IS A KETOGENIC DIET?
Ketogenic diet is a form of dieting with high fats, moderate protein and low carbs are consumed or eating. Its purpose is to deplete the body’s glycogen reserves so that it relies on fat and protein for energy. The body then undergoes ketosis, which is a metabolic state in which your liver produces a high number of ketones as an alternative fuel source for the brain.
This kind of dieting is quite popular, with dozens of pictures showing before and after results circulating all over social media. Ketogenic Diet is a very good diet. This diet is the best diet in the world. This diet is an excellent diet for everyone but with special preference for Diabetics and Pre-Diabetics to be on this diet to manage their blood sugar levels.
Losing weight and keeping it off is all about controlling the types of food you eat. If you consume more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. And if you consume fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. No matter how “clean” you eat and how much you exercise, you’ll never lose weight if you’re not in a calorie deficit.
If an energy deficit of 400 calories a day will get you lean, an 800 calorie deficit should slim you down three times as fast. Note; severe calorie deficit will not lead to superior fat loss but actually hurts your progress for three reasons:
- It slows down the rate of your metabolism, which means you will burn fewer calories a day. This sets you up for regaining all the lost pounds once you go off the diet
- Severe dieting causes excessive muscle loss, which hampers metabolism
Furthermore, been on ketogenic diet, there are no cheat week-ends or cheat days and not even cheat meals. You must have highly discipline and the Willpower and confidence in yourself. If you go off of the diet you will only be cheating yourself and nobody else. If you cheat and want to get back on the Keto diet, then it will take a few days to reset the body’s metabolism.
- It wreaks havoc on your hormonal health. For example, it spikes the “stress hormone” cortisol, which stimulates muscle wasting and reduces fat burning.
List of foods that are recommended for consumption when on a keto diet for weight loss
Vegetables: such as tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants, green beans, mushroom, onion, asparagus, and broccoli, are an essential part of a healthy diet.
Seafood: fatty seafood such as Salmon, Tuna, Catfish, Scallops, and more in your diet.
Shellfish: Such as clam, crab, mussels, lobsters, prawns and oysters.
Nuts: are very nutritious and they include macadamia nuts, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecan nuts etc.
Fruits: Berries (Strawberries raspberries, blueberries etc.) and avocado
High-fat dairy: They include hard cheese, sour cream, cream cheese sour cream among others.
Beverages to include: Herbal tea Black tea, or unsweetened coffee, Bone Broth. Hard liquor, champagne and dry wine should be taken occasionally.
Foods to avoid
Starches: Corn, granola, pizza, crackers, oatmeal, pasta, rice and others
Grains: Barley, millet, corn oats, rice
Legumes: Soybeans, peas, chickpeas, black beans, navy beans, kidney beans etc.
Fruits: Mangos, pineapples, apples, grapes, oranges, bananas, plums, cherries etc.
Sweetener: sugar and sweet foods: Corn syrup, sugar cane, honey, ice cream, cakes, pudding, candy chocolates and many more should be avoided.
Alcohol: Alcoholic drinks, sweet wines, beer, sweet wines etc.
Low-fat dairy: Low-fat cheese, cream cheese, skim mozzarella, fat free yoghurt etc.
The Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet
Weight loss
Weight loss is the primary reasons for the keto diet. It works because it makes the body look to its fat reserves to power its metabolism. It can be interesting to go deeper into the process, however. When the body is deprived of carbs, it enters a state of ketosis. Blood sugar and insulin levels fall when that happens.
As the body taps the energy in fat cells, they release considerable quantities of water, making for some great weight loss. The fat cells are then able to enter the bloodstream and make their way to the liver, where they are turned into ketones for energy processing. As long as your diet allows you to stay in a caloric deficit, you get to enjoy the weight loss benefits of the keto diet.
5 Efficient Intermittent Fasting methods to lose weight fast
The keto diet may prevent and fight some types of cancer
Most cancer cells rely on glucose as fuel, which is why keto diets may help prevent and fight the disease.
For example, when in-vitro cancer cells only receive ketones and fat for energy, they often die. Various studies show the keto diet helps fight brain cancer.
It helps you fight diabetes
Many studies show reducing carb intake benefits people with diabetes. When you suffer from Type II diabetes, your body experiences high levels of insulin. Since the keto diet takes excess sugar from your diet, it helps step down HbA1c counts, and reverse Type II diabetes.
You get improved levels of good cholesterol
HDL cholesterol helps get rid of the body’s bad cholesterol reserves. When you are on keto, your body’s triglyceride levels fall and your HDL cholesterol levels rise.
