New diet programs seem to crop up almost every month, so much so that at times I find it difficult to remember all of them. A new kid on the block is the Ketogenic Diet. You may or may not have heard of it because it hasn’t been able to reach the popularity levels of Atkins Diet or South Beach diet. Nonetheless, loss has little to do with the popularity of a particular diet program.
In my experience I have found that people have lost with little known diet programs, and the opposite has also happened – that of people getting disappointed with the most popular diet program! The big question is: is the Ketogenic Diet just another fad or does it really work? That is what I would be exploring in detail in this article!
To understand the Ketogenic Diet, you need to know about ketones first, since this diet is based on how ketones function in our body. In short, ketones are the enemies of fats, and the more ketones your body has, the quicker you would be able to shed the extra pounds!
Now, as a matter of fact, our body has a soft corner for fat. It would rather burn your valuable muscles for the purpose of producing energy than that ugly fat. The Ketogenic Diet burns your fat deposits and produces the readymade energy your body can use. This is a win-win situation for you: neither you would need your body’s help to burn fat as it is done artificially by the Ketogenic Diet, nor would you lose your lean muscles!
Now the important part: which foods are you allowed to eat under this diet? Since carbs turn into fat and make you over, you should reduce their intake and increase the consumption of fatty foods. This means that you should be eating more of dairy products such as butter, milk, cheese, etc., and less of cookies, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, white breads, rice, pasta, fruits, etc.
The bad part of this diet program is that just like other fad diets, this one too is not without its share of side effects. Some side effects you may suffer from as a result of using this high-fat-and-low-carb diet are abnormal behavioral changes, stomach problems such as bloating and constipation, kidney troubles, as well as high cholesterol levels!
On top of that, there is no scientific or clinical evidence of the effectiveness of this diet with regards to weight loss. So far, only epileptic patients, that too mainly children, have benefited from the use of this diet. If you decide to opt for this diet, you shouldn’t do so without consulting a doctor or nutritionist!
