The ketogenic diet, which is now used by many to lose weight, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. As a result, many have managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some have completely forgotten about its existence.
But due to the fact that development does not stop, the ketogenic diet is very rarely used for this purpose. But it has become very popular with lovers of fit, slim and inflated bodies.
After all, it helps to dry out the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which not all diets succeed in. In addition, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise, further increasing its effectiveness.
Principles of diet
The ketogenic diet for weight loss is based on three basic concepts - protein, ketone and ketosis. Protein - their high presence in food prevents the body from drying out muscles, instead absorbing energy from fat stores, thereby reducing body fat, leading to weight loss.
Ketones are a substitute for carbohydrates, which are our body’s energy and are often stored in reserve. From a medical point of view, ketones are the breakdown products of fats. If this process is caused artificially (i. e. by completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), harmful substances begin to accumulate in the body, which is dangerous in itself.
Therefore, it is extremely important to understand that if you want to lose weight with a ketogenic diet, you need to learn to artificially remove these substances from your body. And you can do this in several ways:
- drink plenty of fluids (toxins are simply excreted from the body and excreted naturally);
- exercise (the body sweats during exercise and the toxins of sweat are released);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, that is, to consume carbohydrate-containing foods.
Keep in mind that a ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from your diet, but it reduces them to 30 grams a day. This amount is not sufficient to keep glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, so-called healing days must be arranged. You should eat as follows - 5 days of protein only food, 2 days of carbohydrates.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu, as you have already understood, consists of protein foods. It:
- a fish;
- meat;
- egg;
- cheese;
- cottage cheese;
- milk;
- kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. But don’t forget that they contain carbs, so you need to consume too much. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but it is indicated that it should be about the same).
Breakfast
As a general rule, most of us eat scrambled eggs in the morning. And since eggs are on the list of allowed foods, they can be used to make an omelette for breakfast. It is recommended to cook with 2 pairs of eggs without adding oil. You can eat the omelette in its pure form or you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens.
So let’s count the carbs. Eggs contain about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs contain 5 grams each. Overall, it turned out that such a breakfast contained only 11 grams of carbohydrates. Not bad.
Dinner
For lunch, you can cook any meat of your choice (100 grams) (except pork, because it is by no means a dietary product). Beef and veal should be preferred. Meat can be cooked, steamed or baked in the oven without oil. Steamed vegetable stew (100 gram serving) can serve as a side dish. You can add a small piece of cheese (up to 40 grams), a cucumber and fresh lettuce to your lunch.
Count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumbers - 4 grams. There is no carbohydrate in meat and cheese. A total of only 11 grams.
Dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), you can add a couple of green lettuce leaves, cucumbers and tomatoes. You can also eat a boiled egg. Such a dinner is light and relieves the difficulty of the stomach.
Calculate the amount of carbs for dinner. Fish - in it, as in meat, no carbohydrates, eggs about 0, 7 grams, tomatoes 5 grams, fresh cucumbers 4 grams, and lettuce 1, 3 grams. A total of 12 grams.
And if we count all the carbs we consume, we get 34 grams. This is very small. If you feel drowsy while maintaining your diet, or notice that you get tired quickly, you should increase the amount of carbohydrates you consume by about twice (up to 60 grams).
Because this diet provokes the artificial production of ketones, which can negatively affect your health, you should consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, there is a risk of looking for aggravation or new illnesses as a "bonus".