Want to Lose Weight? Eat Some Fat.
Summer is here, and whether or not you want to look great in that bikini or just shed a few pounds to feel better, there is an eating program that can help you with your weight loss goal. It can be overwhelming to know where to start when deciding to lose weight, so why not try an eating program that is healthy and can also make it easy to lose some weight?
The ketogenic diet, also known as the keto diet, is an eating program that focuses on eating fat (good fats, that is!) for fuel. You may be thinking, how can that be good for you and how can it help you lose weight?
Let us explain.
History and Origin of the Ketogenic Diet
Russel Wilder first used the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy in 1921. He also coined the term “ketogenic diet.” For almost a decade, the ketogenic diet enjoyed a place in the medical world as a therapeutic diet for pediatric epilepsy and was widely used until its popularity ceased with the introduction of antiepileptic agents. The resurgence of the ketogenic diet as a rapid weight loss formula is a relatively new concept that has shown to be quite effective, at least in the short run.
Basically, carbohydrates are the primary source of energy production in body tissues. When the body is deprived of carbohydrates due to reducing intake to less than 50g per day, insulin secretion is significantly reduced and the body enters a catabolic state. Glycogen stores deplete, forcing the body to go through certain metabolic changes. Two metabolic processes come into action when there is low carbohydrate availability in body tissues: gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis.
The popular belief that high-fat diets cause obesity and several other diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, has not been observed in recent epidemiological studies. Studies carried out in animals that were fed high-fat diets did not show a specific causal relationship between dietary fat and obesity. On the contrary, very-low-carbohydrate and high-fat diets such as the ketogenic diet have shown to be beneficial to weight loss.
Despite continuous advances in the medical world, obesity continues to remain a major worldwide health hazard with adult mortality as high as 2.8 million per year. The majority of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease are largely related to obesity which is usually a product of unhealthy lifestyle and poor dietary habits. Appropriately tailored diet regimens for weight reduction can help manage the obesity epidemic to some extent. One diet regimen that has proven to be very effective for rapid weight loss is a very-low-carbohydrate and high-fat ketogenic diet. (1)
What is a Ketogenic (Keto) Diet?
Ok, so let’s make it simple. The Keto Diet is basically a high-fat diet. Here is the breakdown of what foods you eat:
A ketogenic diet primarily consists of high fats, moderate proteins, and very low carbohydrates. Food is divided into approximately 55% to 60% fat, 30% to 35% protein and 5% to 10% carbohydrates. (1)
How Does the Keto Diet Help You Lose Weight?
The keto diet switches you from burning glucose (which carbs provide) to burning ketones (which fat produces) for energy. When you do this, your metabolism speeds up, your hunger goes away, and your muscle mass increases. Your blood pressure and heart disease risk profile improve. (2)
The keto diet involves drastically cutting carb consumption and increasing good fats to put the body into a state of ketosis, which is when your body burns fat and ketones for fuel, instead of carbs and glucose. The root word “keto” is short for “ketones,” which are the organic compounds your body produces from fat to use as fuel. Instead of using carbohydrates, your body uses fat as its main source of energy.
Eating fat does not make your insulin go up, as eating carbs or protein does. So the keto diet does not spike your insulin, and you don’t store fat. Instead, you burn it, creating the ketones that give you an effective and efficient increase in metabolism. (2)
Examples of GOOD Healthy Fats on the Keto Diet
- Avocadoes
- Nuts and Seeds
- Fish Oil
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids
- Cheese
- Eggs
- Flaxseed
- Olive Oil
- Cold-Pressed Coconut Oil
- Organic Butter
- Organic Ghee
- MCT Oil
- Macadamia Oil
- Palm Fruit
What Else You Can Eat on the Keto Diet
- Grass-Fed Beef
- Poultry
- Fish
- Liver
- Cage-Free Eggs
- Non-Starchy Vegetables
- Good Fats
- Drinks
- Water
- Coffee
- Tea
- Bone Broth
High Carbohydrate Foods to AVOID on the Keto Diet
- Sugar
- Grains
- Oats
- Rice
- Corn
- Flour
- Bread
- Pasta
- Potatoes
- Sweet fruits
- Processed foods
- Soda
- Alcohol
- Fruit Juices
Tasty Keto Recipes
Do you want to try eating Keto but aren’t sure what to do next? Here are a couple of tasty Keto recipes to get you started:
Low Carb Ham, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Cupcakes
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry Recipe
Try this delicious bulletproof coffee recipe that Dr. Hotze loves:
10 Great Reasons to Drink Bulletproof Coffee
Check out the Hotze Keto Club for more recipe ideas and support!
We Can Help
We believe that you deserve to have a doctor and a team of professionals to coach you onto a path of health and wellness, naturally, without the use of pharmaceutical drugs, so you can enjoy a life-changing health transformation.
Take our symptom checker to find out if you are suffering from symptoms of hormone decline. We can help – please call our Wellness Consultants for a complimentary consultation at 281-698-8698. It would be our privilege to serve you.
Research
1. Ketogenic Diet
2. What is the Keto Diet and Should You Try It
Related Content
Discover 6 Reasons You Can’t Lose Weight
Our Doctors on Thyroid and Weight Loss
Our Doctors on the Yeast-Free Eating Program and Weight Loss
