Should You Start a Keto Diet for Weight Loss?

The ketogenic diet has been around for decades. It was first introduced in the 1920s to treat epilepsy. Bodybuilders then adopted the keto diet to cut and shred excess fat to reveal muscle.

The keto diet has seen a massive increase in popularity over the past few years. More and more people realize just how potent and effective it is to burn stubborn fat.

The keto diet is not as strict as the paleo diet, and it’s much easier to follow. With the keto diet, the focus is on eating foods rich in fat. This is very different from what we thought about fat over the years.

The keto diet debunks the theory that eating fat makes you fat. In the keto diet, 60 to 75 percent of your calories should come from fat. About 15 to 30 percent should come from protein and 5 to 10 percent from carbs.

The general rule is that you should not consume more than 50 grams of carbs a day. Whatever carbs you eat should be from natural foods like vegetables and fruits, not from refined carbohydrates.

6 Benefits of the Keto Diet

Let’s look at some of the ways you lose weight by adopting a keto diet.

1. The keto diet boosts fat burning

When you consume a lot of fat, your body realizes that it doesn’t need to cling to its stored fat for future needs. Your diet has ample amounts of fat. Since your body is highly adaptable, it will shed the fat readily. You lose weight faster than you would with a conventional diet.

2. The keto diet helps you build lean muscle

The keto diet combined with intermittent fasting will increase the human growth hormone in your body. Ideally, you should develop a training regimen with a mix of cardio and weight training.

You’ll soon discover that your body gains more muscle. Since muscle is more calorically expensive, your body will burn more calories while at rest than body fat. Burning more calories means you’ll become leaner quicker.

The protein you consume is anabolic in nature and will help to repair your muscles. Now you have a higher basal metabolic rate (BMR), and you’re a fat-burning machine around the clock.

3. Lose water weight

When you’re on a keto diet, you’ll see you’ve lost several pounds within the first week. This loss is mostly water weight, although some of it may be fat, as well.

Every gram of carbohydrates retains about 3 grams of water. The fewer carbs you consume, the less water you retain.

Since your diet is low in carbs, you will not have water retention issues. You’ll feel and look less bloated.

4. You experience fewer food cravings

Unlike typical diets that require you to avoid fatty foods, the keto diet allows you to consume fatty foods. In fact, it encourages it. You can eat foods like bacon, fatty meats, butter, cheese, Greek yogurt, coconut oil, olive oil, seafood, etc.

By eating these fatty foods, you feel satiated and less likely to crave sugary foods and carbs. You’ll avoid spiking your insulin levels and gaining weight.

5. Reduce your appetite with the keto diet

The ketogenic diet is most effective in conjunction with intermittent fasting. There are several methods of intermittent fasting. For example, when you’re on the 16/8 schedule, your body will be in a fasted state for 16 hours, and you’ll eat during an 8-hour window.

After a few days, your body will adapt to this eating style, and you’ll discover that your appetite decreases significantly. Contrary to popular belief, you won’t feel hungrier when you fast.

When your body has adapted to intermittent fasting, you won’t overeat or binge on a late-night snack. Intermittent fasting may be helpful, but it is not required when you’re on a keto diet. And, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody.

6. The keto diet improves gut health

Refined carbohydrates are highly inflammatory and will cause intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut syndrome. Undigested food and other toxins will leak through your damaged intestinal wall into your bloodstream when this occurs.

This condition will make you sick and causes a whole host of health problems. Most of your inflammation will disappear with this diet because you’re eating fats from natural sources.

Without refined carbs, the inflammatory cytokines will no longer be a problem, and your body will recover. It’s tough to lose weight when your body is inflamed. The keto diet will help reduce inflammation and accelerate your weight loss.

These 6 points alone should motivate you to start a keto diet. And there are other health benefits you’ll gain from going keto. This article is only scratching the surface.

While you don’t have to be on this diet forever, being on it for a few months will help you shed stubborn fat. You can then get back to a regular (and healthy) diet with a balanced macronutrient ratio.

As long as you avoid refined carbs and processed foods, you’ll keep the excess pounds at bay. If you notice the weight creeping back on, you can always do two or three weeks of keto and shed the extra pounds ASAP.

The keto diet is one of the best diets on the planet, so give it a try.