The ketogenic diet, now used by many people for weight loss, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. As a result, many of them have managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some of them completely forget about it.
But because progress does not stand, the ketone diet is rarely used for this purpose. But among lovers of a fit, slim and pumped body, it is very popular.
After all, it helps to dry the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which is not successful with all diets. In addition, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise, further increasing its effectiveness.
Basic principles of the diet
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, thereby reducing body fat, leading to weight loss.
Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which are the energy of our body and are often stored in reserve. From a medical point of view, ketones are fat breakdown products. If this process is done artificially (that is, by completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), then harmful substances will begin to accumulate in the body, which is dangerous in itself.
Therefore, it is extremely important to understand that if you want to lose weight with 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 will not be flushed out of the body and released naturally);
- going in for sports (during training, the body sweats, and along with it releases the toxins sweat);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, that is, eat carbohydrate foods.
Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely eliminate carbohydrates from the diet, but reduces them to 30 grams per day. This is not enough to keep glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, it is necessary to arrange recovery days, so to speak. You need to eat as follows - 5 days one protein food, 2 days carbohydrate.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu, as you have already understood, consists of protein foods. Six:
- fish;
- meat;
- eggs;
- cheese;
- house cheese;
- milk;
- kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. But it should be remembered that they contain carbohydrates, so you should eat too much. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but according to the indications it should be about the same).
Breakfast
Most of us usually 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 you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens.
So let’s count the carbohydrates. Eggs weigh about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs weigh 5 grams each. In total, 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, because it is by no means a diet product). Beef and veal should be selected. Meat can be boiled, steamed or baked in the oven without oil. Stewed vegetable stew (part 100 grams) can act as a side dish. You can add a small piece of cheese (no more than 40 grams), one cucumber and fresh green lettuce to your lunch.
We count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. Meat and cheese contain no carbohydrates. The total is only 11 grams.
Dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), add a few leaves of green salad, cucumber and tomato. You can also eat one boiled egg. Such a dinner is light and will give you relief from the feeling of heaviness in the stomach.
Let’s calculate the amount of carbohydrates in this dinner. Fish - there, as in meat, there are no carbohydrates, egg is about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes are 5 grams, fresh cucumber is 4 grams, and lettuce is 1. 3 grams. The total is 12 grams.
And if you count the total carbs you eat, you get 34 grams. This is very small. If, while dieting, you feel drowsy or notice that you start to get tired quickly, then you will need to increase the amount of carbohydrates you consume about 2 times (up to 60 grams).
Since this diet stimulates artificial production of ketones, which can negatively affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, there is a risk of getting worse or new diseases as a "bonus".