There’s no doubt that diet impacts fitness. Whether you are deciding what to eat to highlight your abs, trying to control post-exercise inflammation through the foods you eat, or even choosing the healthiest sweet treats available, your food choices play a role in your fitness. Read on to learn about one popular diet trend, the ketogenic diet, and the impact it can have on your fitness.
What Is the Keto Diet?
Like other low-carbohydrate diets, the ketogenic, or keto, diet aims to limit the amount of ingested carbohydrates. However, unlike the Atkins, paleo, or South Beach diets, all of which replace carbohydrates with protein, the keto diet replaces carbohydrates with fat. On the keto diet, up to 90 percent of all calories eaten per day are made up of fat.
What Is the Purpose of the Keto Diet?
Why would you want to replace carbohydrates with fat? According to Harvard Medical School, while the body typically burns carbohydrates to produce energy, when carbohydrates aren’t available, the body burns different energy sources. With the keto diet, the fat that has been consumed is turned into ketones in the liver, and these ketones are then burned for energy. Some people think this can be an effective tool for weight management.
The keto diet may sound simple, but the Harvard Medical School is careful to point out just how much work is required to achieve the right balance of fat, carbohydrates, and protein for the liver to produce the necessary ketones. Achieving this balance requires eating no more than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day (a single banana supplies about half that amount), approximately 75 grams of protein (which one dietician at the Mayo Clinic notes is considered a moderate amount), and as much as 165 grams of fat. This is a significant difference from the typical diet.
What Do You Eat on the Keto Diet?
If you want to follow the keto diet, it’s important to stick with the recommended nutritious foods. Some of these recommended foods include animal products like seafood such as shrimp, crab, and salmon; poultry or grass-fed meat; eggs; dairy products such as cheese, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, cream, half-and-half, butter, and ghee.
Recommended non-animal products include non-dairy drinks such as unsweetened soy, almond, or coconut milks; green leafy vegetables; peppers; squashes such as yellow squash, zucchini, or spaghetti squash; avocados; olives; cauliflower; jicama; and turnips.
Other foods include nuts such as almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans, or walnuts; seeds such as chia seeds or flaxseeds; berries such as raspberries and strawberries; dark chocolate; olive oil; unsweet coffee or tea; and water or unsweet sparkling water. Another less commonly known food on the list is shirataki noodles. These noodles are made from a type of fiber that is known to slow down the movement of food through the digestive tract.
When Can You See Results of the Keto Diet?
The Mayo Clinic notes that it can take several weeks if not months before the body begins to switch to burning ketones instead of carbohydrates. Therefore, it can take a long time to see and/or feel your body changing.
Are There Health Risks to the Keto Diet?
There are several risks involved in trying the keto diet. These risks are dangerous enough that the Australian government has warned the public about them, citing side effects such as fatigue, headache, nausea, dizziness, dehydration, and poor sleep. Harvard Medical School also notes risks such as liver damage, kidney damage, constipation, difficulty thinking, and mood irregularities.
Who Should Try the Keto Diet?
As the Australian government notes in its communication to the public about the keto diet, those who can benefit from this diet are those who are obese, those with epilepsy, those with certain types of cancer, and those with type-2 diabetes. As with any diet, it is best to consult with your doctor before starting the keto diet.
The Bottom Line
Overall, the keto diet can be a good choice for those with certain health needs. Because it requires a lot of effort to stick with and has potential health risks, the keto diet is best followed under the supervision of a physician.