How would you feel if you were asked to follow a diet that, instead of keeping you hungry and deprived all the time, boosted your energy levels and also made you lose your weight faster? This is the keto diet. Also known as the ketogenic diet, it basically involves a low-carb, high-fat eating plan, which is followed by several popular personalities from the Hollywood movie industry such as Halle Berry. Most of you may wonder how eating more fat can actually help cut down on excess fat already stored in your body. If you continue to read this article, you will be able to understand the science behind this fact and maybe, start following the keto diet yourself.
What Do You Mean by The Keto Diet?
As discussed above, the ketogenic diet is popularly known as the keto diet and it basically involves a low-carb, high-fat diet plan that can effectively change your body into a fat burning machine. Under normal circumstances, your body turns carbohydrates into glucose as its ultimate source of energy. When you start the keto diet, your body gets into a state of ketosis, which is basically a metabolic state wherein your body burns fat for fuel instead of carbs.
What Do You Mean by Ketones?
When you start the keto diet, your body fails to get the necessary amount of glucose from the foods that you eat. As a result of this, your liver switches its attention to the stored fat and also the consumed fat to turn them into molecules known as ketones. This acts as the alternative source of energy for the body and brain. The commencement of this process puts your body into the state of ketosis that helps to shed excess weight due to consumption of the stored fat by the liver for fuel.
Benefits of the Keto Diet
There are several health benefits of the keto diet that you can enjoy if you start having low carbs and high fat on a daily basis. Some of these health benefits are discussed below.
- Reduces Appetite: The ketones, generated by the liver, tends to suppress ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone in your body. It also increases the secretion of CCK or cholecystokinin that automatically makes you feel full for a long time. Once your natural tendency to feel hunger gets suppressed, you can easily carry on for hours without food, which will automatically forces your body to turn to the stored fat for energy.
- Weight Loss: When you start the keto diet, your body uses all the stored fat and the fat that you consume with food for its source of energy. As a result of this, you automatically lose your body weight and get back in shape.
- Provides Fuel to Your Brain: Unlike popular beliefs, ketones are rather powerful and are quite capable of providing adequate amount of fuel to your brain to help it function smoothly for longer hours. In fact, it is more efficient than the energy your brain used to receive from glucose. Since the human brain is made up of more than 60% fat, it takes loads of fat to keep the brain working properly.
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