The ketogenic diet, which many people now use for weight loss, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. Thanks to this, many have managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget about its existence.
But because the progress does not stop, the ketogenic diet is very rarely used for this purpose. But among lovers of a fit, slender and swollen body, she has become very popular.
After all, it helps to dry the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which not all diets are successful. Additionally, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise which further increases its effectiveness.
Basics of the 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, it takes energy from fat stores, thereby reducing body fat, resulting in weight loss.
Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which are the energy of our body and are often stored in reserve. From a medical standpoint, ketones are the breakdown products of fat. If this process is caused artificially (that is, by completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), harmful substances will begin to accumulate in the body, which in itself is dangerous.
Therefore, it is extremely important to understand that if you want to lose weight on a ketogenic diet, you must learn how to artificially remove these substances from the body. And you can do this in several ways:
- drink plenty of fluids (toxins will simply be flushed out of the body and excreted naturally);
- playing sports (during training the body sweats, and with sweat toxins are released);
- Once or twice a week to replenish glycogen stores, i. e. eat carbohydrates.
Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet, but reduces them to 30 grams per day. This amount is not sufficient to maintain glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, it is necessary to organize, so to speak, days of recovery. You should eat as follows - 5 days of protein foods only, 2 days of carbohydrates.
Diet menu
The menu of the ketogenic diet consists, as you have already understood, of protein foods. He:
- a fish;
- Meat;
- eggs;
- cheese;
- Cottage cheese;
- milk;
- kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. But you have to keep in mind that they contain carbohydrates, so you have to eat them too much. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but as shown it should be pretty much 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 omelet for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a pair of 2 eggs, without adding oil. You can eat the omelet in its pure form or add 1 tomato and chopped greens to it.
So let's count the carbs. Eggs contain about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs contain 5 grams each. In total, it turns out that such a breakfast contains only 11 grams of carbohydrates. Not bad.
Having dinner
For lunch, you can cook any meat (100 grams) of your choice (except pork, since it is by no means a diet product). Beef and veal should be preferred. Meat can be boiled, steamed or baked without oil. Cooked vegetable stew (100 gram serving) can be used as a side dish. You can also add a small piece of cheese (no more than 40 grams), a cucumber and some fresh green lettuce to your lunch.
We count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. There are no carbohydrates in meat and cheese. The total is only 11 grams.
Having dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), add a few green salad leaves, a cucumber and a tomato to it. You can also eat a hard-boiled egg. Such a dinner is light and will relieve you from the feeling of heaviness in the stomach.
Let's calculate the amount of carbohydrates in this dinner. Fish - as in meat, there are no carbohydrates, an egg weighs about 0. 7 grams, a tomato 5 grams, a fresh cucumber 4 grams, and lettuce 1. 3 grams. The total is 12 grams.
And if you count the total carbohydrate consumed, you get 34 grams. It is very small. If, while maintaining a diet, you feel drowsy or notice that you start to tire quickly, you will need to increase the amount of carbohydrate consumed by about 2 times (up to 60 grams).
Since this diet causes the artificial production of ketone, which can negatively affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, you risk gaining exacerbations or new "bonus" diseases.