There are many reasons for doing a ketogenic diet, such as weight loss or medical issues. Here are some other reasons that you may not even have considered;

  • Controlling blood sugars
  • reversing type 2 diabetes
  • Reversing insulin resistance
  • Epilepsy
  • Autism
  • ADHD
  • Cancer
  • Food addiction
  • Binge eating disorders
  • Autoimmune disorders
  • Leaky gut
  • Candida overgrowth
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Acne

The list goes on. Eating this way has so many benefits to our health and aids in reversing chronic health conditions. Our bodies were designed to eat healthy fresh, nutritious food, not highly processed, toxic, manufactured, genetically modified food-like stuff.

What to expect from our article

WHAT IS A KETOGENIC DIET?

A ketogenic diet is

  • High fat
  • Moderate protein
  • Low carb
  • Sugar-free
  • Grain-free

WHO DOES A KETOGENIC DIET?

Many people do a ketogenic diet, but primarily people with health issues, diabetes, insulin resistance, autoimmune diseases. Many people do keto to lose weight or generally to eat a healthier diet.

IS KETO A WEIGHT LOSS DIET?

No, although you can lose weight on keto, it really is a health first way of eating. Weight loss comes second; you could say weight loss is a side effect of eating a ketogenic diet.

WHAT ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CARBS?

The recommendations are between

20-50 carbs per day.

Many people choose to do 20 carbs per day depending on your reason for doing keto; others may be doing it at the higher end of the scale. This could be due to ill health, maintenance, or to suit their body type.

WHAT TYPES OF KETO ARE THERE?

  • Strict keto – where people eat 20g or less of carbs and track macros using a macro calculator and only eat food on the approved food list, no cheating of any kind.
  • Lazy keto – lazy keto is no different to strict keto in terms of what you eat; you do everything the same you just do not track macros. Some people track the carbs and stay at 20g, but they eyeball everything else.
  • Modified keto – keto but higher on carbs for health reasons, like lazy keto just with higher carb allowance.
  • Cyclical keto – where you eat keto food, track macros and strategically incorporate “clean” higher carbohydrate foods as well, like sprouted grains and maybe oats.
  • Dirty keto – something that people like to call IIFYM “if it fits your macros”, where you can eat anything you like as long as it fits within your macros. IIFYM is a way to eat junk food, a have your cake and eat it diet so to speak, eating this way is detrimental to health. It maintains ill health and keeps you addicted to sugar. It is not a true ketogenic diet in any way, shape or form, and while you are burning sugar, you will never become a fat burner.

WHAT IS KETO-APPROVED FOOD?

Keto-approved food promotes health and nutrition and doesn’t cause too much of a blood sugar response when you eat them. High sugar food like bread, pasta and potatoes causes insulin to spike, and when these food are consumed over a long period, they lead to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

WHO DECIDES WHAT FOOD IS KETO?

Doctors and scientists who have carried out many studies and trials to provide us with the information required to eat this way successfully.

CAN I EAT NON-KETO APPROVED FOOD?

Yes, if you want to, you can, but if you do, then you are not following a true ketogenic diet because keto doesn’t allow for processed food.

I FIND IT CHALLENGING TO STICK TO, SO KEEP EATING JUNK

Not everyone can jump straight into a keto diet and get it the first time. We have years and years of bad eating habits, bugs in our bellies that decide what they want us to eat, as well as some severe food cravings from sugar addictions, it may take you ten attempts, but the tenth one may be when it clicks for you, just keep trying.

CAN I EAT MORE THAN 20 CARBS?

A question was asked recently can you be in ketosis at 50 – 75g of carbs?  Each of us is different, and one person’s tolerance to carbs will be a lot different to another person’s tolerance of carbs, but, in short, yes, you can be in ketosis at the higher end of the scale, but the only way to know is to check your blood ketones.

SO WHAT IS KETOSIS?

Ketosis is the in-between phase of a ketogenic diet, where lowing carbohydrates tell your body to start making ketones.

WHAT ARE KETONES?

Ketones are what fuels the body when it’s depleted of sugar but not yet tapped into using fat as a fuel.

WHAT’S THE PURPOSE OF A KETOGENIC DIET?

The purpose of a ketogenic diet Is to go from burning sugar as a fuel source to using fat as a fuel source which helps to improve blood sugars, lower insulin, and fix many diet-related illnesses and diseases.

CAN I BURN FAT AND SUGAR AT THE SAME TIME?

No, your body can only burn one or the other. It chooses sugar because it’s the easiest to convert to energy. You could say that eating sugar has made our bodies lazy.

SO HOW DO I BECOME A FAT BURNER?

You burn fat by depleting the body of its glucose stores, then and only then can the body tap into using its fat stores. You will NEVER become fat-adapted if you eat sugar because the body doesn’t know how to use fat. After all, sugar is way easier to convert.

HOW DO I BECOME FAT-ADAPTED?

Deplete the body of all of its sugar stores and eat high fat. Once the sugar is burnt up and high fat is included, the body learns to use the fat for fuel.

WHY CAN’T I JUST STAY IN KETOSIS?

You can, and some people find ketones to be efficient, but then what is the purpose of eating all the fat if you don’t become a fat burner? Because remember, while your body is burning sugar, you can never burn fat. If you don’t ever burn fat, you are not doing a true ketogenic diet, and you just as well do high carb low fat because the body will never tap into its fat stores.

WHY DO YOU NEED TO STOP EATING SUGAR?

To lower insulin, insulin is the fat-storage hormone it tells the body to STORE fat and not use it.

CAN I LOWER INSULIN IF I EAT SUGAR?

No insulin is an automatic response by the body to lower blood sugar. If you eat sugar, your body will produce insulin. If you consume too much sugar, your body has to send larger and larger amounts of insulin to bring your blood sugars back to normal. Eventually, you will become resistant to insulin and become prediabetic. If you continue to eat sugar, you develop type 2 diabetes.

IS KETO DANGEROUS?

No keto is not dangerous, and it is a way of eating that is sustainable long term if done correctly.

ARE KETOSIS AND KETOACIDOSIS THE SAME THING?

No, absolutely not. They are two completely different things. Being in nutritional ketosis is harmless. Ketoacidosis, also known as diabetic ketoacidosis, occurs mainly in type one diabetics, and this is due to poorly managed insulin levels. In ordinary healthy people, insulin moves the ketones through the blood. People with type one diabetes who do not have insulin in their bodies and don’t manage their insulin correctly can see a build-up of ketones in the blood, and they become dangerously high. This can happen even when the person with diabetes isn’t on a ketogenic diet.

HERE TO HELP

I’m here to help you improve your health and well-being, to discourage food addictions. I had spent 20 years battling ill health directly due to eating processed food. Trust me when I tell you I have suffered from chronic ill health for the last 20 years,

  • Insomnia
  • Disturbed sleep
  • Depression
  • Suicidal thoughts
  • Chronic pain
  • Migraines
  • Leaky gut
  • Candida overgrowth
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Binge eating
  • Sugar cravings
  • Food addiction
  • Autoimmune diseases
  • Food Intolerances
  • Allergies
  • Eczema
  • Allergic rhinitis
  • Postnasal drip
  • Chronic fatigue
  • Chronic stress

And the list goes on. I do not recommend eating processed food f you want to be happy and healthy. The goal is to be healthy, disease-free, nutritionally balanced, and live free of food addictions. To do that, you have to be willing to put effort into changing the way you eat and the way you think and feel about food.

MAINTAINING A KETOGENIC DIET.

I understand that the prospect of living the rest of your life eating a ketogenic way may seem boring and unrealistic because of the restrictions, and that’s fine. Hundreds of other diets will allow people to eat junk food and maintain their old ways of eating, but do they work? Every diet I have ever been on has led to rebound weight gain, I have tried every pill, potion, and magic concoction available because I was desperate to lose the weight, and none of them worked.

If you concentrate on the food you cannot eat, you will inevitably set yourself up to fail. Stop thinking about what you can’t eat and accept what you can. Learn to be inventive with your ingredients, try out new recipes and don’t just try to eat bacon and eggs for the rest of your life because that will never work. It is not healthy and will result in you falling off the wagon.

The decision to change is yours. You can become a better, healthier you, or you can choose to carry on being fat and miserable. Where do you see yourself in ten or twenty years from now? Healthy, slim and happy or the same, battling chronic illness and disease, wishing you chose to change.

IS OUR NATION HEALTHY?

What you need to do is ask yourself do we have a population of healthy, slim individuals? Living long and healthy lives, or do we have a significantly overweight population riddled with diet-related diseases and taking prescription meds?

The decision is yours. You have a choice to change and become a better, healthier you, or you could be in the same place ten or twenty years from now with a chronic illness or disease wishing you chose to change.

Change isn’t easy. We all live in our own little bubble with the same routine day in day out. We feel comfortable and safe. We almost don’t want to change because it upsets the balance we have created. Once we accept that change can be a good thing, we can move forward and embrace it.

If you made it through the entire article and decided that you want to give keto a try, check out our getting started on a ketogenic guide.