The Ketogenic Diet: A Detailed Beginner’s Guide to Keto 2024

 The Ketogenic Diet: A Detailed Beginner’s Guide to Keto

Click here for free ultimate keto diet recipes

What It Is

Diet types

Ketosis

Weight loss

Diabetes

Other benefits

Foods to avoid

Foods to eat

Sample plan

Snacks

Dining out

Side effects

Risks

Supplements

Bottom line

Click here for free ultimate keto diet plan

We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission Here’s our process.

How we vet brands and products

Click here for free ultimate keto diet recipes

The ketogenic diet involves consuming a very low amount of carbohydrates and replacing them with fat to help your body burn fat for energy. Health benefits can include weight loss and lowering your ko risk for certain diseases.

The ketogenic diet (or keto diet, for short) is a low carb, high fat diet that offers many health benefits.

In fact, many studies show that this type of diet can help you lose weight and improve your health (1Trusted Source).

Ketogenic diets may even have benefits against diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease 

Here is a detailed beginner’s guide to the keto diet.

What is a ketogenic diet?

Keto basics

The Keto Snacks Cookbook (Physical) - Free+Shipping ⭐

The ketogenic diet is a very low carb, high fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low carb diets.

It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction in carbs puts your bodburning faty into a metabolic state called ketosis.

When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the 

Ketogenic diets can cause significant reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has some health benefits .

 

SUMMARY

The keto diet is a low carb, high fat diet. It lowers blood sugar and insulin levels and shifts the body’s metabolism away from carbs and toward fat and ketones.

Different types of ketogenic diets

There are several versions of the ketogenic diet, including:

Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is a very low carb, moderate protein and high fat diet. It typically contains 70% fat, 20% protein, and only 10% carbs (9Trusted Source).

Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This diet involves periods of higher carb refeeds, such as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high carb days.

Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This diet allows you to add carbs around workouts.

High protein ketogenic diet: This is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbs.

However, only the standard and high protein ketogenic diets have been studied extensively. Cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced methods and primarily used by bodybuilders or athletes.

The information in this article mostly applies to the standard ketogenic diet (SKD), although many of the same principles also apply to the other versions.

The Essential Keto Cookbook (Physical) - Free + Shipping

 

SUMMARY

There are several versions of the keto diet. The standard (SKD) version is the most researched and most recommended.

ADVERTISEMENT

What is ketosis?

Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body uses fat for fuel instead of carbs.

It occurs when you significantly reduce your consumption of carbohydrates, limiting your body’s supply of glucose (sugar), which is the main source of energy for the cells.

Following a ketogenic diet is the most effective way to enter ketosis. Generally, this involves limiting carb consumption to around 20 to 50 grams per day and filling up on fats, such as meat, fish, eggs, nuts, and healthy oils 

It’s also important to moderate your protein consumption. This is because protein can be converted into glucose if consumed in high amounts, which may slow your transition into ketosis 

Practicing intermittent fasting could also help you enter ketosis faster. There are many different forms of intermittent fasting, but the most common method involves limiting food intake to around 8 hours per day and fasting for the remaining 16 hours 

Blood, urine, and breath tests are available, which can help determine whether you’ve entered ketosis by measuring the amount of ketones produced by your body.

Certain symptoms may also indicate that you’ve entered ketosis, including increased thirst, dry mouth, frequent urination, and decreased hunger or appetite 

SUMMARY

Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body uses fat for fuel instead of carbs. Modifying your diet and practicing intermittent fasting can help you enter ketosis faster. Certain tests and symptoms can also help determine whether you’ve entered ketosis.

Ketogenic diets can help you lose weight

A ketogenic diet is an effective way to lose weight and lower risk factors for disease 

In fact, research shows that the ketogenic diet may be as effective for weight loss as a low fat diet 

What’s more, the diet is so filling that you can lose weight without counting calories or tracking your food intake 

One  review of 13 studies found that following a very low carb, ketogenic diet was slightly more effective for long-term weight loss than a low fat diet. People who followed the keto diet lost an average of 2 pounds (0.9 kg) more than the group that followed a low fat diet 

What’s more, it also led to reductions in diastolic blood pressure and triglyceride levels 

Another study in 34 older adults found that those who followed a ketogenic diet for 8 weeks lost nearly five times as much total body fat as those who followed a low fat diet 

The increased ketones, lower blood sugar levels, and improved insulin sensitivity may also play a key role 

For more details on the weight loss effects of a ketogenic diet, read this article.

SUMMARY

A ketogenic diet can help you lose slightly more weight than a low fat diet. This often happens with less hunger.

Ketogenic diets for diabetes and prediabetes

Diabetes is characterized by changes in metabolism, high blood sugar, and impaired insulin function 

The ketogenic diet can help you lose excess fat, which is closely linked to type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and metabolic syndrom

One older study found that the ketogenic diet improved insulin sensitivity by a whopping 75

A small study in women with type 2 diabetes also found that following a ketogenic diet for 90 days significantly reduced levels of hemoglobin A1C, which is a measure of long-term blood sugar management 

Another study in 349 people with type 2 diabetes found that those who followed a ketogenic diet lost an average of 26.2 pounds (11.9 kg) over a 2-year period. This is an important benefit when considering the link between weight and type 2 diabetes .

What’s more, they also experienced improved blood sugar management, and the use of certain blood sugar medications decreased among participants throughout the course of the study 

For more information, check out this article on the benefits of low carb diets for people with diabetes.

SUMMARY

The ketogenic diet can boost insulin sensitivity and cause fat loss, leading to significant health benefits for people with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.

Other health benefits of keto

The ketogenic diet actually originated as a tool for treating neurological diseases such as epilepsy.

Studies have now shown that the diet can have benefits for a wide variety of different health conditions:

Heart disease. The ketogenic diet can help improve risk factors like body fat, HDL (good) cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar 

Cancer. The diet is currently being explored as an additional treatment for cancer, because it may help slow tumor growth. 

Alzheimer’s disease. The keto diet may help reduce symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and slow its progression 

Epilepsy. Research has shown that the ketogenic diet can cause significant reductions in seizures in epileptic children

Parkinson’s disease. Although more research is needed, one study found that the diet helped improve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease 

Polycystic ovary syndrome. The ketogenic diet can help reduce insulin levels, which may play a key role in polycystic ovary syndrome 

Brain injuries. Some research suggests that the diet could improve outcomes of traumatic brain injuries .

However, keep in mind that research into many of these areas is far from conclusive.

SUMMARY

A ketogenic diet may provide many health benefits, especially with metabolic, neurological, or insulin-related diseases.