The ketogenic diet uses ketosis to lose weight. The benefits include a rapid loss of initial weight, but there are also undesirable effects.
Diet ketogenic and diabetics, differences
Among the most controversial slimming regimes in recent years is the ketogenic diet, which uses ketosis to lose weight.
They are often distrustful of assonance with diabetic ketosis, better known as diabetes, a complication of diabetes due to an insulin deficiency that can occur during pregnancy. That needs to be treated appropriately to not suffer severe consequences.
In reality, however, ketogenic ketosis is not a risky proposition.
It is characterized by the production of so-called ketonic bodies. Still, in diabetic ketoacidosis, their accumulation is excessive. It leads to the dangerous phenomenon of metabolic acidosis in healthy ketonic bodies produced in small concentrations. It does not alter the blood’s pH.
What is Keto Diet
A Keto diet is a diet with a deficient carbohydrate intake.
On the other hand, diet keto stops this share to a much more limited 5-10%. This means that even assuming 2000 kcal per day, the carbohydrates’ contribution from the ketogenic diet would not exceed 50 grams per day.
In a situation like this, insulin secretion is significantly reduced. The organism is trying to get the energy from other sources that it usually gets from carbohydrates.
In particular, after having bottomed out the glycogen stocks, it operates two separate metabolic processes: gluconeogenesis and ketogenesis.
The first is glucose production; the liver’s main problem is mainly derived from lactic acid, glycerol, amino acid alanine, and glutamine.
Ketogenesis leads instead to the synthesis of ketonic bodies, which replace glucose as the primary energy source. It is activated by a further reduction in this sugar’s availability, which keeps insulin secretion low.
Here’s the first way that ketosis helps to lose weight: when insulin is low, so is the incentive to accumulate fat.
Also, several hormonal changes can contribute to the increase in fat degradation, which is used as a starting material for synthesizing ketonic bodies. The initial weight loss is pretty significant.
Some of it is a fluid loss, but not just: a ketogenic diet helps to lose fat, which saves the bulk of muscle mass.
There are also other potential positive effects, such as improved control of glycemia, pressure, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol levels (commonly known as “good cholesterol”).
The LDL cholesterol (the one considered “bad”) could increase.
Ketosis to lose weight: side effects
The short-term side effects of ketosis have been widely characterized; the most common are not dangerous and generally disappear within a few days or weeks.
In particular, there was an association between ketosis and headache, nausea, vomiting, feeling of fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, constipation, and difficulty in exercising.
Adequate fluid and mineral intake can help combat several of these symptoms.
In any case, you should avoid doing it yourself. Those who want to use ketosis to lose weight must rely on a doctor or nutritionist who is an expert in the field.
Only in this way can the benefits of nutritional ketosis be safely exploited and long-term side effects avoided.