Over the years many diets have come and gone promising miraculous weight loss and an overall improvement in body composition and wellness. But at what cost and how many have actually worked?
Most diets are designed to keep its practitioner in a caloric deficit. Meaning to consume fewer calories than their body needs to work normally and maintain its weight.
Generally speaking, the average person needs about 2,000 calories a day to function normally and maintain weight. The usual diet is designed to restrict our calorie intake to about 80% of normal, or 1,600 calories per day. These diets concentrate just on calories instead of considering the macronutrients that different food provides.
Obviously, this method of dieting works for many people. The challenge is when we run up against plateaus in our weight loss journey. People have been experimenting, for a number of years now, with high-fat diets and their possible benefits regarding weight and fat loss.
How can a diet high in fat help you lose weight?
It’s not very intuitive, but a high-fat diet can help you lose weight by putting your body into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is very effective at burning body fat.
What is ketosis?
Under everyday circumstances, our bodies can draw upon various sources of energy as needed. The primary energy source is glucose which comes from the carbohydrates that we consume. But when glucose isn’t available our bodies look for other forms of energy, these are called ketones.
So ketosis is our body’s metabolic state when there isn’t enough glucose and we’re using ketones as our energy source.
Eating a high-fat, low-carb diet can put us into the state of ketosis. While we are in ketosis our bodies convert our fat stores into ketones for energy.
Achieving ketosis
Whenever we fast for a prolonged time our bodies will enter a state of ketosis. A lot of the experts think that runners will enter ketosis during a long run, especially so when carb cycling.
Other than fasting or exercising, we can enter ketosis by consuming very few calories. By limiting the number of calories we get from carbohydrate consumption to less than 15% of our caloric intake, our bodies will start taking energy for its stored fat instead of the restricted carbohydrates.
Can ketosis help with fat loss?
There are always instances when any diet won’t work. However, the Keto diet is known for effectively stimulating fat loss and consequently weight loss.
Some recent research has shown the keto diet improves the levels of triglycerides, LDL cholesterol (“bad” cholesterol), blood sugar, and HDL cholesterol (“good” cholesterol). These effects are all beneficial to your overall health and well-being.
What are the downsides?
Nothing is perfect and diets aren’t any different. Even though we know low carb, high-fat diets are quite effective at getting rid of unwanted fat and weight they might be dangerous for people who have diabetes or a pre-existing heart condition. For that reason, you should talk to your primary health care provider before starting any diet that is a dramatic change from your normal diet.
Converting stored fat to usable energy for our bodies is much slower than readily convertible carbohydrates. So anyone on a Keto diet may find themselves lagging in high-energy activities like sports, cross fit, powerlifting, etc.
A balanced lifestyle is important
Long-term research hasn’t found any major negative health issues brought on from following a Keto diet. In fact, the opposite has been noted citing weight loss and weight control as well as internal health benefits.
Just remember, a balanced lifestyle is important no matter your diet. Don’t think just because you’re on a high fat diet you eat nothing but double bacon cheeseburgers without consequences. The Keto diet is intended to put your body in a state of ketosis by consuming whole foods, healthy oils, lean proteins, seeds, nuts, and plenty of dark leafy greens.
Undoubtedly, a healthy diet will lead to a healthy lifestyle including a healthy weight, more vitality, and deeper satisfaction with your life!
