The keto diet is a low carb diet, high in fat, and offers many health benefits.
There are more than 20 studies that can show you how this type of diet can help you lose weight and improve your health (1).
Ketogenic diets may even have some benefits against diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s disease (2, 3, 4, 5).
This article is a detailed guide for beginners to the ketogenic diet. It contains everything you need to know.
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What is the ketogenic diet?
The ketogenic diet (often called keto) is a very low carb diet, high in fat, and shares many similarities with Atkins diets and low carbohydrate diets.
This diet involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat. This reduction of carbohydrates puts your body in a metabolic state called ketosis.
When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at turning fat into energy. It also converts fats into ketones in the liver, which can provide energy to the brain (6, 7).
The different types of ketogenic diets
There are several versions of the ketogenic diet, including:
- The standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This diet is very low in carbohydrates, moderate protein and high in fat. It usually contains 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% carbohydrates (1).
- Cyclic Ketogenic Diet (CKD): This diet includes higher carbohydrate periods, such as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 carbohydrate-rich days.
- Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD): This diet allows you to add carbohydrates around workouts.
High protein ketogenic diet: It looks like a
standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein, and 5% carbohydrate.
Know that only standard and high protein ketogenic diets have been extensively studied.
Cyclic or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced methods, mainly used by bodybuilders or athletes.
The information in this article applies primarily to the standard ketogenic diet (SKD).
Ketogenic diets can lead to massive reductions in blood sugar levels and insulin. This, along with the increase in ketones, has many health benefits (6, 8, 9, 10).