The ketogenic diet, which many people now use for weight loss, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. Due to it, many managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget about 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-up body, she has become very popular.
After all, it helps to dry the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which not all diets succeed in. Plus, 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 - protein, ketone, and ketosis. Protein - their high presence in food prevents the body from drying out muscles, instead, it takes energy from fat stores, thereby reducing body fat, which leads to weight loss.
Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which are the energy of our body 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, by 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 with a ketogenic diet, you must learn to artificially remove these substances from the body. And you can do this in several ways:
- drink plenty of fluids (toxins will simply be flushed out of the body and excreted naturally);
- go in for sports (during training, the body sweats, and together with the sweat toxins are released);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen reserves, that is, 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 arrange, so to speak, recovery days. You need to eat as follows - 5 days only protein food, 2 days carbohydrate.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu consists, as you already understood, of protein foods. It:
- a fish;
- meat;
- eggs;
- cheese;
- cottage cheese;
- 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 in too much. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but according to the indications it should be about the same).
Breakfast
As a rule, most of us eat scrambled eggs in the morning. And since eggs are on the list of allowed foods, they can be used to make an omelet for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a pair of 2 eggs, without adding oil. You can eat the omelet in its pure form, or you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens to it.
So, let's count the carbohydrates. Eggs contain approximately 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. Meat can be boiled, steamed or baked in the oven without oil. Stewed vegetable stew (portion 100 grams) can act as a side dish. You can also add a small piece of cheese (no more than 40 grams), one cucumber and fresh green lettuce to your lunch.
We 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 to it. You can also eat one 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 such a 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 amount of carbs eaten, you get 34 grams. This is very small. If, while maintaining a diet, you feel sleepy or notice that you start to get tired quickly, then you will need to increase the amount of carbohydrates consumed by about 2 times (up to 60 grams).
Since this diet provokes the artificial production of ketone, which can negatively affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, you risk earning exacerbations or new diseases as a "bonus".