Science Behind The Ketogenic Diet? Does It Actually Work?

Introduction:

Recently, a lot of people have been trying to understand the ketogenic diet. What is a ketogenic diet? How exactly does it work? Is it safe? Is it worth it?

Hundreds of questions are floating around the ketogenic diet, and despite the current overflow of curiosity regarding the diet, it is not a new concept. Keto has been around for years, and it’s being used as a part of the treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy and other brain-related diseases for hundreds of years.

Over the years, a ketogenic diet was also proposed for those who want to lose weight. Around the 1970s, Dr. Atkins popularised this concept of a low-carb diet with a ketogenic phase for efficient and faster weight loss. However, there has been a lot of stigma around the topic and people have misunderstood the concept of the keto diet as a whole. Let’s dive right into this topic and see if one should go on keto or not!

What Is The Keto Diet?

Essentially, a ketogenic diet completely changes the way your body derives energy from the food you consume. Usually, our cells use blood sugar derived from our food as a main source of energy. But in the absence of blood sugar, a ketogenic diet will cause ketones to release into your bloodstream. This happens via a process called ketosis where the stored fat molecules in your body are broken down into ketone bodies. As you progress into ketosis, most cells of your body will use these ketones as the source of energy.

This shift happens over a course of 2 to 4 days where your body stops using circulating glucose and starts breaking down fat as an energy source, and it requires you to eat less than 20–50 grams of carbs per day. However, the process is extremely subjective and one could take less or more time and less or more proportion of macronutrients to get into the state of ketosis.

How Does Keto Work?

While your body is in the state of ketosis, it will use the fat cells in your adipose tissue to synthesise ketones which in turn will be used as an energy source by the brain. Basically, the fat stored in your body is broken down into fatty acids and glycerol. Now, a lot of cells in our body readily use these molecules as their energy source but the brain doesn’t function on fatty acids and glycerol as its fuel. Reason? The brain needs a source that quickly converts to energy and these two molecules are not efficient options for that. Sugar is the primary source of energy for the brain due to the same reasons. However, when you’re on a low-carb diet, your muscles will be extremely vulnerable to wasting since there isn’t enough sugar in your system. In simple words, your muscle will be broken down to generate sugar. Ketones come to the rescue in this condition and stop your body from attacking muscle instead. The same process happens when a person is in a fasting state.

Let’s look at this process from a biochemical point of view. As mentioned before, the fat stored in your body is broken down into two components: fatty acids, and glycerol, none of which is useful to your brain as an energy source. At this stage, the glycerol from the fat undergoes gluconeogenesis to synthesise glucose from scratch and at the same time, fatty acids are broken down into ketones via the process of ketogenesis. The primary ketone body formed from this conversion is called acetoacetate which is further broken down into two other ketones called Beta-hydroxyButyrate and Acetone. Of these two, the beta-hydroxybutyrate is the efficient and preferred molecule to be used by the brain as an energy source. Meanwhile, acetone is either simply excreted or is converted into glucose. This is the acetone that is responsible for the foul smell of your breath.

Is The Keto Diet Healthy?

A keto diet is low on carbs, and hence, you’ll be consuming a lot of fats and proteins while on keto. It could include eggs, cheese, nuts, butter, oil, seafood, chicken, seeds, fibrous vegetables, etc. However, it isn’t very easy to plan your meals with that proportion of fats and proteins while cutting down on carb or abandoning them altogether. Some people tend to binge on unhealthy fats and consume too much protein during these periods due to the lack of knowledge and guidance. Some people even feel nausea, constipation, sleep issues, and bad breath while on keto.

This is the reason why keto has a bad reputation among laymen. But if you ask an expert, they’ll only suggest you go on keto if your health allows you to and that you have a professional to guide you through it. Coming back to the foods and the trouble with meal planning on keto, you could actually avoid binging on useless fats and gaining more weight even if you don’t know how to plan a keto meal. Meal replacement products are your way out in this case.

What Are Meal Replacements?

Meal replacements are low carb products in the form of shakes, smoothies, bars, or soups that come with a certain amount of nutrients and help you quantify your intake. Keto diet becomes much easier and much less risky if you incorporate low carb meal replacements in your diet.

Research has shown that you could lose weight faster than any other method while on keto. Keto beats the Mediterranean diet when you compare the time it takes to lose weight while on these two diets. And meal replacements make it even easier and faster for you to do so.

What Else Can Keto Help With?

As mentioned before, the keto diet was used to treat epilepsy in children. It helps reduce the number and intensity of seizures, especially in children. Apart from that, it helps with brain conditions such as MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, autism and even brain cancer. It could also help diabetic people control their blood sugar levels, reverse PCOS, Obesity & High Cholesterol if done under expert supervision.

Takeaway:

A keto diet is a healthy, and a comparatively faster way to lose excess body fat. But if done without any professional supervision, you might end up doing it wrong and failing. The method of diet is not to be blamed in that case. When you go on a keto diet while being medically supervised, it works wonders and helps you lose those extra kilos you’ve been waiting to shed since forever!