The ketogenic diet, which many people now use for weight loss, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. Due to this, many have managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget its existence.
But due to the fact that progress does not stand still, the ketogenic diet is very rarely used for this purpose. But among lovers of a fit, slender and pumped body, she has become very popular.
After all, it helps to dry out the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which not all diets can achieve. Additionally, 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: proteins, ketones and ketosis. Proteins: Their high presence in food prevents the body from drying out the muscles, instead it takes energy from fat stores, thus 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, completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), then harmful substances will 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 need to learn how to artificially remove these substances from the body. And you can do this in several ways:
- drink plenty of fluids (toxins will simply be eliminated from the body and excreted naturally);
- playing sports (during training the body sweats and toxins are released together with the sweat);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, i. e. eat carbohydrate foods.
Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet, but reduces them to 30 grams per day. This amount is not enough to keep glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, it is necessary to organize, as it were, recovery days. You need to eat as follows: 5 days only protein food, 2 days carbohydrates.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu consists, as you have already understood, of protein foods. It:
- a fish;
- meat;
- eggs;
- cheese;
- milk flakes;
- milk;
- kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. But it should be borne in mind that they contain carbohydrates, so you should consume them too much. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but according to the directions it should be more or less the same).
Breakfast
As a rule, most of us eat scrambled eggs in the morning. And since eggs are on the allowed food list, they can be used to make an omelette for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a couple of 2 eggs, without adding oil. You can eat omelette in its pure form, or you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens.
So, let's count the carbohydrates. Eggs contain about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs contain 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 in no way a dietary product). Beef and veal should be preferred. The meat can be boiled, steamed or baked without oil. Stewed vegetable stew (portion 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 a fresh lettuce to your lunch.
Let's count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. There are no carbohydrates in meat and cheese. The total is only 11 grams.
Dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), add a couple of green salad leaves, a cucumber and a tomato. You can also eat a hard-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 this dinner. Fish: in it, as in meat, there are no carbohydrates, an egg is about 0. 7 grams, a tomato is 5 grams, a fresh cucumber is 4 grams, and lettuce is 1. 3 grams. The total is 12 grams.
And if you count the total carbohydrates eaten, you get 34 grams. This is very small. If, while maintaining a diet, you feel sleepy or notice that you start to tire quickly, you will need to increase the amount of carbohydrates consumed by about 2 times (up to 60 grams).
Since this diet causes the artificial production of ketones, which can adversely affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor beforehand. Otherwise you risk earning exacerbations or new diseases as a "bonus".