A diet where you can eat 70% fat or more, sounds like a dream come true, right? Rest 20% is mostly protein and very less or no carbohydrates.
Why is that so?
How will you get in shape if you are eating that much amount of fats?
Dr. Russell Morse Wilder invented the keto diet. The basic idea of keto diet is to put your body in a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic condition where in your body uses fats instead of glucose.
Metabolism – generally, all the chemical reactions happening in the body are referred as metabolism.
Before we start talking about ketosis remember, our body loves glucose for energy generation. This is because our body easily breaks down glucose into pyruvate during glycolysis and then into acetyl coA to yield energy.
We have glucose stored in our body in the form of glycogen in liver. This is called as body’s glycogen tank. But as we stop consuming carbs these reserves run out of glycogen.
Thus, when we eat very little or no amount of carbs and a lot of fats our body has no other option but to compromise on using fats as a primary source of energy.
Body breaks down fats into their simple form by digestion, these are called as triglycerides. These triglycerides are sent to liver as acetyl coA. Now, this acetyl coA is broken down into ketone bodies.
Why is it good for weight loss ?
These ketone bodies are sent into bloodstream where other cells convert them into acetyl coA and use them to form energy.
This way body uses fat for energy. Therefore, keto is considered good for weight loss.
Because we eat 70% of fats the feeling of satiety increases and we feel full. This is a big reason behind why keto got so popular, as you don’t feel like you are dieting and feel full.
This sounds too good to be true. How can you get to eat all fatty goodies and lose weight.
Why do we get Keto fever
Remember? we said that our body loves glucose?
That is because brain is the fattiest organ and can use only glucose for energy. What happens when we stop consuming carbs and start eating a lot of fats, our brain is forced to use ketone bodies for energy production.
Body takes time to adapt to all these changes, and that’s when people experience the keto flu. This is not actually a flu. but, symptoms like headache and nausea can seen as body is shifting from using carbs for energy to using fats for energy.
Is it hard to keep up with ?
Our diet generally consists of 45-60% of carbs 20-30% of fats and 10-20% of proteins. So, most of the calories from our diet comes from carbs.
Most of our foods have a large amount of carbs. when we follow keto diet, we must follow many restrictions on a lot of food stuff which was considered healthy otherwise, such as lentils, chickpeas, wheat bread, brown rice are not keto approved.
This diet is difficult to sustain. As everything around us has a lot of carbs, restrictions become hard to follow.
Unlike other diets if you cheat a little, your body can come out of ketosis and the diet won’t work.
As a lot of healthy fats are found in red meat and dairy products so, they become a go to food for keto dieters which is not good news for vegans and vegetarians.
The more the restrictions on a diet the less sustainable it is. As we go on adding restrictions on our diet, we also get less micro nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
I talked to a friend named Omkar Patil who tried keto diet for himself. He says that, “keto is not the ethical way of losing weight, as you are eating a lot of fats, your body gets an overall greasy feeling which feels obnoxious”.
The diet can be done for a short time period to give yourself some weight lost boost. Also, it’s a debatable topic whether eating this much amount of fats is healthy or not?
Keto fever or flu is said to last for 4-5 days which appear to be very difficult for some people. It lasts longer for some individuals as everyone’s body is a little unique.
Meal preparation is difficult
Also, the meals are not easy to prepare. It is easy to say that we must eat 70% of fats but its difficult to get that much amount of healthy fats on your plate.
Because of this reason, something known as dirty keto has become popular, where people eat burgers from fast food chains and as they contain same compositions as of keto diet. it is keto approved but not in a healthy way.
Good for some diseases
Origin of keto lies in diseases like epilepsy and type 2 diabetes. Keto diet is very effective in management of type 2 diabetes as it is caused due to inability of insulin production. In keto diet we don’t eat carbs and sugar so, no insulin is to be produced. This is a very good way of managing type 2 diabetes.
Epileptic seizures were reduced in patients who followed keto diet and it is proven to be very effective in epilepsy.
Summary
keto diet has been proven good for diseases like epilepsy, diabetes. It is also good for weight loss. But, it is difficult to follow all diet restrictions. Is it good to consume 70% of fats is a debatable topic. keto flu can become difficult to manage and last longer in some indivisuals.
References
Tutu's edible logic 
Interesting! So what is better diet plan to loose weight? It will be great if you can do a blog about it.
Great question.
There is no one size fits for all diet plan everybody’s body is different and that is why you need to have a diet plan which is planned for your unique body.
Surely will do a blog about it.
Thanks for suggestion.
Nice article
Thank you 😊
Keep it up dear
Thank you dear.
Keep up with your wonderful blog too