Ketogenic diet for weight loss: what you can eat - sample menu

The ketogenic, or ketone, or keto diet is one of the well-studied nutrition systems that has been shown to be beneficial in numerous experiments and clinical studies.

However, the scheme is complex. Not for everyone and has many pitfalls.

What is the keto diet

It is a type of low carb food with a high fat menu. Similar to a regular no-carb diet or the Atkins diet.

A diet in which the amount of carbohydrate is drastically reduced and fat intake is increased translates the body into ketosis.

Ketosis is a metabolic condition in which fat is the main source of energy for the body. This happens when the intake of carbohydrates, usually the main source of energy, is minimized.

Ketosis occurs during fasting, pregnancy, and infancy. It can be induced artificially in adults by switching to a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate.

In ketosis, insulin levels drop. Large amounts of fatty acids leave fatty tissue and enter the liver, where they are oxidized and converted into ketones, or ketones, which are a source of energy.

Trained:

• beta-hydroxybutyrate, the main ketone body circulating in the blood;
• acetoacetate - the main product of the liver;
Acetone
• is ​​a volatile ketone responsible for forming a specific breath odor.

Ketone bodies are able to penetrate the blood brain barrier and nourish brain cells in the absence of glucose.

The constant drop in insulin and sugar levels that occurs with a ketogenic diet has multiple beneficial effects on human health.

How ketosis differs from ketoacidosis

Ketosis that develops on a zero-carb diet is fundamentally different from diabetic ketoacidosis.

People without diabetes have normal blood sugar levels. When carbohydrate stores are depleted, the liver begins to produce glucose from other sources (pyruvate, glycerol, and amino acids).

This helps to maintain normal blood sugar levels and ensure the concentration of ketone bodies below 8 Mmole / L, which is safe for your health.

In type 1 diabetics, the ketone level reaches 20 Mmol / L. And this condition is already life threatening.

What are keto meals: options

1. Standard protocol. This means eating lots of protein and fat and minimizing carbohydrates - no more than 50g per day. The menu includes 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrate.
2. A high protein keto diet. Same as the standard diet, only more protein. 60% fat, 35% protein, 5% carbohydrate.
3. Cyclic option. With this diet, 5 days are followed by a standard diet and 2 days are high in carbohydrates. Reminiscent of the BUCH diet.
4. Targeted approach. They eat on a ketogenic pattern and consume carbohydrates before and after training.

All scientific studies performed have evaluated only the standard version.

Cyclic and targeted approaches are only used by athletes, primarily bodybuilders. These eating habits are not intended to help you lose weight or improve your health.

How the keto diet affects weight loss

Scientific evidence indicates that this is a very effective weight loss method that provides more consistent results than traditional low fat weight loss systems that require strict calorie restriction.

Those who lost weight on a ketogenic diet were shown to lose 2. 2 times more kilograms of excess weight, those volunteers who followed a low-fat diet with strict calorie restriction.

The mechanisms for losing weight on a keto diet are as follows.

1. High protein intake, necessary for healthy and stable weight loss.
2. Gluconeogenesis. Proteins and fats are converted into carbohydrates. This process can burn extra calories throughout the day.
3. Suppress your appetite. Ketogenic nutrition normalizes the levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin, which are responsible for eating behavior.
4. Increase insulin sensitivity. Insulin resistance causes weight gain. Therefore, an increased sensitivity to the hormone speeds up the metabolism and promotes the rapid breakdown of fatty deposits and a decrease in the rate of new formation.

Treatment and prevention of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes

Metabolic syndrome is a metabolic disorder that dramatically increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.

The signs that a person has metabolic syndrome are:

• blood pressure suspended;
• abdominal obesity (big belly);
• high blood sugar (even if diabetes has not yet been diagnosed);
• poor lipid profile (rules for cholesterol self-decoding analysis).

All of these indicators can be improved without medication by changing lifestyle and diet, for example, switching to a ketone diet.

1. Increased sensitivity of the body's cells to the hormone insulin plays an important role in the treatment and prevention of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. With a keto diet, insulin sensitivity increases by 75%. Some people with diabetes may even stop taking their medication.
2. Improved lipid profile indicators. The positive changes affect both cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
3. Additional support for the body is provided by ketones, which themselves have beneficial properties.

What are the other therapeutic effects of the keto diet?

1. Help in the treatment of epilepsy. An updated meta-analysis of 70 clinical studies found that the keto diet reduced the number of seizures by 50% in 46-62% of cases. The exact mechanism of dietary anticonvulsant action has not been established. Scientists believe that the positive effect may be associated with an increase in the amount of the antioxidant glutathione in the mitochondria, an increase in the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitters GABA and adenosine, etc.
2. Treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Several small studies have shown that ketone nutrition improves the condition of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. In patients with this disease, the glucose supply to the brain is impaired. And keto bodies allow the brain to be supplied with energy without the participation of glucose, while simultaneously reducing the toxic effects of glutamate.
3. Support for patients with parkinsonism. According to a few studies, a carbohydrate-free diet is beneficial for people with Parkinson's disease by preventing the death of dopaminergic neurons and mitochondrial damage.
4. Helping children with autism. There is speculation that the keto diet improves the behavior of children with autism. And it does this more effectively than the Atkins diet, which is gluten-free and casein-free. However, the data on this issue is so scarce that it cannot be considered completely reliable.
5. Cancer treatment. Tumor cells run exclusively on glucose. They cannot get energy from ketones. Therefore, the transition to ketogenic nutrition promotes cell death in malignant neoplasms. However, experts emphasize that the method can only be used in conjunction with chemotherapy treatment and with the permission of a doctor. And don't put too much hope in this approach.
6. Improves the condition of the skin. In particular, eliminate acne. Low levels of insulin and the elimination of all industrially produced foods from the diet, as required by the diet, eliminates chronic inflammation affecting the skin.
7. Treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome. The disease is associated with impaired metabolism of glucose and androgens. The ketogenic diet helps restore the insulin sensitivity that plagues women with polycystic syndrome.

Dos and Don'ts on the Keto Diet: Food List

• Sugar in all its forms. Obviously, sweet foods (candy, ice cream) and those that do not seem sweet, but which contain this ingredient in their composition, are also classified as prohibited. It could even be store-bought ketchup.
• Cereals: wheat (including spelled), rye, barley, rice, corn.
• Vegetable oils that make you fat - soybean, corn, sunflower, rapeseed. And also trans fats.
• Fruit. Except for a small amount of berries like strawberries.
• Legumes. Beans, peas, lentils, etc. Can be used in green form, for example, bean pods.
• Tubers and rhizomes. Potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips, etc.
• Any “diet” food, for example low-fat cottage cheese (in these products fat is replaced by sugar).
• Products with sweeteners in the form of sugar alcohols (xylitol, erythritol) - have a negative effect on ketone bodies.
• Dips and sauces, in the preparation of which sugar, starch, flour were used.
• Alcohol.
• All finished products manufactured by the food industry.

The Ketogenic Diet: What You Can and Should Eat

• All types of meat: beef, pork, poultry, lamb, etc.
• Fish and seafood.
• Eggs.
• Vegetables. Preferably green. Others are allowed (tomatoes, eggplants, onions, peppers) - the main thing is that there is a lot of fiber, and easily digestible carbohydrates are practically absent.
• Fatty dairy products - cream, butter, cheese.
• Nuts and seeds.
• Mushrooms.
• Good vegetable oils: olive, coconut oil, avocado.
• Fermented products: plain yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, etc.
• Spices and herbs.

Sample weekly menu for women and men ketogenic diet

Monday	Tuesday
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and tomatoes. Lunch: cauliflower and broccoli soup in chicken broth, boiled chicken with eggplant and sautéed peppers. Dinner: a piece of red fish cooked in sour cream with a vegetable salad.	Breakfast: plain fatty yogurt without sweeteners or flavorings with nuts and / or seeds. Lunch: bone broth (preferably beef) with a hard-boiled egg, a piece of boiled beef with sauerkraut (without potatoes). Dinner: Chicken stew with zucchini.
Wednesday	Thursday
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with peppers. Lunch: fish soup (without potatoes), pork chop with green bean stew. Dinner: Baked chicken breast with sour cream, cucumbers and tomatoes.	Breakfast: normal fatty cottage cheese without sugar or flavorings. Lunch: mushroom soup (without potatoes and noodles), minced meat steak with egg and vegetable salad. Dinner: fish cooked under a cheese crust with vegetables.
Friday	Saturday
Breakfast: boiled eggs with a slice of cheese. Lunch: sour cabbage soup (without potatoes), chicken liver cooked in sour cream and fried onions, with shirataki noodles. Dinner: fish and / or seafood salad (without potatoes or rice), but with green vegetables, tomatoes, etc.	Breakfast: cottage cheese with herbs. Lunch: bone broth with meatballs (without flour or bread), beef azu with cooked cabbage (fresh or sour). Dinner: boiled chicken with radish and cucumber salad.
Sunday	Go to next week
Breakfast: scrambled eggs with feta cheese. Lunch: Light vegetable soup with cauliflower and broccoli (no potatoes), whole baked chicken, with cucumber and tomato salad. Dinner: mushrooms cooked in sour cream, with vegetable salad.	Repeat the first week, trying to add as much variety to the menu as possible. There are many recipes in the world to satisfy the keto diet.

Rules to follow

1. You can and should eat your fill without counting calories.
2. Only the right fats can be eaten. This means that cooking is allowed only with oil which can withstand heat treatment. Salads should be lubricated only with the appropriate food dressings.
3. There should be a lot of fat in the diet. You can't focus on protein.
4. Tea, coffee, instant chicory and many other drinks are allowed. The main selection criterion is the absence of sugar and sweeteners in the drink.
5. You should try to put a lot of spice in your food.

Healthy snacks while losing weight on a ketogenic diet

Since the ketogenic diet does not require calorie counting, snacking is not only allowed, but even encouraged. But they must be correct.

Allowed:

• hard-boiled eggs;
• meat chips;
cheese
• ;
• nuts, seeds, and various pastes and oils prepared therefrom;
• berries, for example, creamed strawberries (however, don't get carried away by the berries);
• natural yogurt and other natural fermented dairy products;
• all vegetables allowed by the diet and their light salads.

All dairy products, whether cheese or yogurt, should have a normal fat content.

What is the “keto flu”: symptoms

The first few days of switching to a low-carb diet can be tough. Often unpleasant symptoms are observed, referred to as “keto flu”.

Can be tagged:

• Constant hunger, especially cravings for sugar;
• fatigue;
• insomnia;
• discomfort in the abdominal area, pain in the stomach;
• nausea and vomiting;
constipation or diarrhea;
• difficulty concentrating;
• headache and dizziness;
• muscle pain and cramps;
• irritability, tearing.

How long does ketoflu last

Several days to several weeks. It is associated with restructuring the body to use fat as its primary source of fuel. During adaptation, the energy may not be sufficient, resulting in the listed symptoms, which are unpleasant. But they present no danger.

Small amounts of ketone bodies are always present in the blood. After the first 2-3 days of a strict no-carb diet, the liver begins to produce ketones and their blood level rises to 2-3mM.

The adaptation is complete when the cells, placed under conditions of carbohydrate starvation, reduce the absorption of ketone bodies from the blood, increasing their concentration to 8 mM. At this point, the efficient transport of ketones across the blood brain barrier begins.

Why some people adapt easily to the ketogenic diet, while others are difficult, has not been fully established. It is assumed that a person's eating habits are important. The easier the carbohydrates it consumes to digest, the harder the transition. The genetic predisposition is of some importance.

How to Get Into Ketosis Quickly on a Keto Diet

1. Correct water regime. When carbohydrates are removed from the diet, glycogen stores are reduced in the body. Since glycogen accumulates water around itself, with a decrease in its quantity, dehydration can develop, which leads to fatigue and muscle pain.
2. Only light physical activity. During the period of adaptation of the body, only light exercises are allowed: walking, yoga, slow cycling. All kinds of exhausting physical condition must be given up.
3. Recommended intake of mineral supplements:
   • sodium - 3-4 grams per day;
   • potassium - 1 g;
   • magnesium - 0, 3 g.

Supplements containing creatine monohydrate and caffeine are also indicated.

Keto breathing and specific urine odor

The transition to a non-carbohydrate diet high in fat is often accompanied by the appearance of a specific odor from the mouth. It is often felt by the person himself as a metallic taste in the mouth. People around you generally perceive it to smell like nail polish remover. Some people think it smells like fruit. The same smell is acquired through urine.

The phenomenon is caused by the formation of volatile acetone ketone, which is often present in nail polish removers.

The smell is not a side effect. It just indicates that the body is starting to work on fat and forming ketones. It is harmless to health. But it can be unpleasant for the person themselves and for those around them, especially when it comes to breathing.

To reduce the severity of a symptom, you need:

• drink more fluids;
• eat less protein;
• use mint chewing gum;
• Increase the amount of carbohydrate slightly (only if you eat less than 50 g per day).

After 1 to 2 weeks, the smell should go away on its own.

Delayed side effects of the keto diet

In addition to ketoflu, which disappears within a few weeks, this diet may cause delayed side effects. Possible:

• problems with the digestive system caused by the ingestion of excessive amounts of fat and impaired functioning of the intestinal microflora;
• gradual increase in cholesterol levels;
• increased load on the kidneys, which may increase the risk of developing kidney failure and causing urolithiasis;
• decrease in bone density.

Potential nutritional deficiencies with a long-term ketogenic diet

Since the diet cannot be called balanced, prolonged maintenance of this diet may lead to a lack of some important components.

1. Calcium. Leaves in urine. Since with excess fat, the urine becomes too acidic and the body is forced to alkalize it with calcium. In addition, a lack of carbohydrates interferes with the absorption of this trace element.
2. Magnesium. According to the hypotheses, the gradual development of the deficiency is associated with the withdrawal from the diet of foods rich in this microelement - cereals and fruits.
3. Iron. An abundance of fat in food interferes with the absorption of iron.
4. Sodium and potassium. Due to the decrease in insulin levels, the loss through the kidneys increases. However, unlike other micronutrients, such as calcium or magnesium, which are lacking over time, potassium and sodium disappear quickly. And in many ways, their shortage is due to the symptoms of the keto flu, which gradually go away.
5. Selenium. A deficiency can be due to the lack of this trace element in foods high in fat. The exception is the Brazil nut, a piece of which gives the body 100% of the daily value of selenium.
6. Carnitine. The downside is that the compound is consumed too quickly with a fatty diet.

If you have been on a keto diet for a long time, you should regularly check the level of all these substances which can become deficient over time. It is advisable to take supplements with nutrients at risk.

Who shouldn't switch to keto food: contraindications

1. Children, pregnant and lactating women, patients with diabetes mellitus and cancer are only allowed to switch to a ketogenic diet when prescribed and supervised by their doctor.
The
2. diet is contraindicated in people with the ApoE3 and ApoE4 genotypes because it can lead to life-threatening increases in cholesterol levels.
3. Do not follow patients with epilepsy with the KCNJ11 and BAD genes.
4. Severe liver and / or kidney disease are contraindications for following this diet.

Conclusion

The keto diet is a rather difficult nutritional system that requires almost complete rejection of carbohydrates and the introduction of a significant amount of fat in the diet.

Switching to a ketogenic diet is often difficult to tolerate.

The diet has been the subject of a great deal of scientific research, much of which proves its benefits for weight loss, treatment of type 2 diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases, normalization of lipid profiles and lelimination of metabolic syndrome.

However, few studies have evaluated the health effects of prolonged diet (over a year). And, according to some assumptions, the constant presence of such a diet can adversely affect health.