The ketogenic diet that many people now use for weight loss was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. Because of this, many have managed to reduce the manifestations of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget its existence.
However, 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, slim and pumped body, she has become very popular.
After all, it helps to dry the body, get rid of extra pounds while maintaining muscle mass, which not all diets succeed at. Plus, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise and further increases its effectiveness.
Basic principles of 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 the muscles, instead it takes energy from fat stores and thus reduces body fat, leading to weight loss.
Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which is the energy of our body and is often stored in reserve. From a medical point of view, ketones are breakdown products of fat. If this process is caused artificially (that is, by completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), harmful substances 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 remove these substances artificially from the body. And you can do this in several ways:
- drink plenty of fluids (toxins are simply flushed out of the body and excreted naturally);
- go in for sports (during exercise the body sweats and is released along with the sweat toxins);
- 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, that is, eat carbohydrate foods.
Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet, but reduces them to 30 grams a day. This amount is not enough to keep the glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, it is necessary to arrange, so to speak, recovery days. You should eat as follows - only 5 days protein food, 2 days carbohydrate.
Diet menu
The ketogenic diet menu consists, as you have already understood, of protein foods. That:
- a fish;
- meat;
- egg;
- cheese;
- cottage cheese;
- milk;
- kefir.
Vegetables are also allowed while this diet is maintained. But it must be remembered that they contain carbohydrates, so you should consume them too much. You can use the following menu (you can change anything, 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 permitted foods, they can be used to make an omelet for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a couple of 2 eggs without adding oil. You can eat the omelette in its pure form or you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens to it.
So let's count the carbs. Eggs contain approx. 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 by no means a diet product). Beef should be preferred. Meat can be cooked, steamed or baked in the oven without oil. Stewed vegetable stew (serving 100 grams) can serve as a side dish. You can also add a small piece of cheese (maximum 40 grams), a cucumber and fresh green salad to your lunch.
We count the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains approx. 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. There are no carbohydrates in meat and cheese. The total amount is only 11 grams.
Dinner
For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), add a few green lettuce leaves, a cucumber and a tomato to it. You can also eat a boiled egg. Such a dinner is easy and will relieve 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 approx. 0, 7 grams, a tomato is 5 grams, a fresh cucumber is 4 grams and lettuce is 1, 3 grams. The total amount is 12 grams.
And if you count the total number of carbohydrates eaten, you get 34 grams. This is very small. If you feel sleepy or notice that you quickly get tired while maintaining a diet, you will need to increase the amount of carbohydrates consumed approx. 2 times (up to 60 grams).
As this diet provokes the artificial production of ketone, which can adversely affect the state of health, it is necessary to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, you risk earning exacerbations or new illnesses as a "bonus".