The ketogenic diet that many people are using for weight loss today was actually designed to treat people with epilepsy. Because of this, many managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget about its existence.
Due to the fact that progress does not stop, the ketogenic diet is very rarely used for this purpose. But among lovers of a healthy, slim and inflated body, she has become very popular.
After all, it helps to dry the body, shed extra pounds while maintaining muscle mass, which not all diets succeed in doing. Also, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise and further increases its effectiveness.
Basic principles of nutrition
The ketogenic diet for weight loss is based on three basic concepts - protein, ketone and ketosis. Protein - its high presence in food prevents the body from drying out muscles. Instead, it takes energy from fat stores, reducing body fat, which leads to weight loss.
Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which are our body's energy and are often stored in reserve. From a medical point of view, ketones are the breakdown products of fats. If this process is caused artificially (that is, by completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), then harmful substances 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 to artificially remove these substances from the body. And you can do this in a number of ways:
- Drink plenty of fluids (toxins are simply flushed from the body and eliminated naturally).
- Exercise (during exercise, the body sweats and is released along with the sweat poisons);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, that is, eat carbohydrate foods.
Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet, but rather reduces them to 30 grams per day. This amount is not enough to keep glycogen stores in the normal range. For this, recovery days, so to speak, must be agreed. You need to eat as follows - 5 days only protein feed, 2 days carbohydrates.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu, as you already understood, is made up of protein foods. The:
- a fish;
- Flesh;
- Eggs;
- Cheese;
- Cottage cheese;
- Milk;
- Kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. However, it should be taken into account that they contain carbohydrates so you should consume them too much. You can use the menu below (you can change something, but according to the indications it should be about the same).
breakfast
Typically, most of us eat scrambled eggs in the morning. And since eggs are on the list of allowed foods, they can be made into an omelette for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a pair of 2 eggs without adding any oil. You can eat the omelette in its pure form or add 1 tomato and chopped vegetables.
So let's count the carbohydrates. Eggs contain roughly 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs contain 5 grams each, and it turns out that such a breakfast contains only 11 grams of carbohydrates. Not bad.
dinner
For lunch, you can cook any meat (100 grams) of your choice (except pork, as it is in no way a diet product). Beef and veal should be preferred. Meat can be cooked, steamed or baked in the oven without oil. Braised vegetable stew (serving 100 grams) can serve as a side dish. You can also add a small piece of cheese (no more than 40 grams), a cucumber and fresh green salad to your lunch.
We count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. Meat and cheese do not contain carbohydrates. The total is only 11 grams.
dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams) and add a couple of green lettuce leaves, a cucumber and a tomato. You can also eat a boiled egg. Such a dinner is light and will relieve you of the feeling of heaviness in the stomach.
Let's calculate the amount of carbohydrates in that dinner. Fish - as in meat, there are no carbohydrates in it, an egg about 0. 7 grams, a tomato 5 grams, a fresh cucumber 4 grams and lettuce 1. 3 grams, totaling 12 grams.
And if you count the total carbohydrates consumed, you get 34 grams, which is very little. If, while dieting, you feel drowsy or you find yourself getting tired quickly, you need to increase the amount of carbohydrates consumed by 2 times (up to 60 grams).
Since this diet provokes the artificial production of ketones, which can negatively affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise you risk exacerbations or new diseases as a "bonus".