Ketogenic Diet:Here is all You Need to Know

The Ketogenic diet or Keto diet was developed in the 1920s to treat children with epilepsy and it was suddenly accepted by the celebrities and even athletes.

Initially, Keto was designed to help people suffering from seizure disorders, but not to help people in losing weight. According to a New York-based R.D. Jessica Cording, ketones and another chemical produced by the diet called as “Decanoic acid”, help in minimizing the incidences of seizures.

People, who have started taking the keto diet noticed weight loss for a few reasons. When one eat carbs, our body holds fluid in order to store them (carbs) to generate energy. But when you’re not having much in the carb department, you lose water weight. Also, it's easy to go overboard on carbohydrates—but if you are suffering, it may help curb cravings since it keeps you satiated.

The keto diet is one of a series of smart low carb diets that include the Atkins diet, the South Beach diet, and the Zone diet. Also, there are hundreds of people selling ketogenic diet plans in the social platforms, with a huge assurance of expected results.

There is also a story behind the name of the Keto diet. Because ketones are the source of energy that the body uses when it’s burning fat, therefore, the diet was named Keto. Ketones are produced in weight loss regardless of the type of diet one follows. Apparently, anyone who is losing weight is actually on a keto diet.

It is not a matter of concern to know if the fat is burning from your existing reserves or from the high-fat meal that one just ate. Also, the production of ketones in our body doesn't necessarily mean that it is burning our body fat. Therefore, whenever the keto dieters add fat to their diet through bulletproof coffee or coconut oil, it is burnt as fuel instead of body fat. This is where exactly our body defeats the object of the diet and achieves weight loss.

With the additional fat to any diet, one’s energy balance will remain positive irrespective of the fuel, i.e. carbohydrate, fat, and protein. This will obviously help in weight gain, as is confirmed by the children on ketogenic diets when they gain weight despite the fact that their urine shows that they are producing ketones.

Thus, a keto diet works by depleting our body of its stored sugar, and it starts with breaking down of protein and fat for energy causing Ketosis or weight loss.