Ketogenic diets and their fast weight loss effects
Health Fitness admin  

Ketogenic diets and their fast weight loss effects

Virtually all weight loss diets, to a greater or lesser extent, focus on reducing calories or manipulating the intake of one of the three essential macronutrients (protein, fat or carbohydrates) to achieve their weight loss effects .

Ketogenic diets are a group of “high-fat, moderate-protein” or “high-protein, moderate-fat” but very low-carbohydrate diets. The term ketogenic basically refers to the increased production of ketone bodies caused by the high rate of lipolysis (fat breakdown). Ketones are the acidic byproducts that are formed during the intermediate breakdown of “fat” into “fatty acids” by the liver.

The first sets of ketogenic diets were developed in the early 1920s by the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center and also by Dr. RM Wilder of the Mayo Clinic to treat children with difficult-to-control seizures. The diets were designed to mimic the biochemical changes that occurred during fasting periods, namely ketosis, acidosis, and dehydration. The diets involved the consumption of about 10-15 grams of carbohydrates per day, 1 gram of protein per kilogram of the patient’s body weight and the rest of calories derived from fat.

Today, promoters of ketogenic diets strongly believe that carbohydrates, especially high-glycemic carbohydrates, are the main reasons people gain weight. Carbohydrate foods are generally metabolized to produce glucose, a form of simple sugar that is generally considered the preferred energy source for the body, as it is an energy that burns faster. Although the body can break down muscle glycogen (a mixture of glucose and water) and fat for energy, it prefers to get it from high-glycemic carbohydrates in diets.

Of the macronutrients, carbohydrates are argued to be the primary cause of weight gain. This is more because the increased intake of high glycemic index carbohydrate foods generally causes fluctuating blood sugar levels due to their rapid absorption into the bloodstream and which, in most cases, leads to insulin overproduction. This is where the problem really starts.

Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood glucose levels and thus the maintenance of the body’s energy input/output equation that governs body weight. Excessive amounts of glucose in the bloodstream cause excessive insulin secretion, which leads to storage of excess glucose in the body, either as glycogen in liver and muscle cells or as fat in fat cells.

Therefore, one of the goals of ketogenic diets is to reduce insulin production to a minimum, drastically reducing carbohydrate intake while using fat and protein to supplement the body’s energy needs.

Despite the ability of ketogenic diets to reduce insulin production, their primary goal is ultimately to induce ketosis. Ketosis can be thought of as a condition or state in which the rate of formation of ketones produced by the breakdown of “fat” into “fatty acids” by the liver is greater than the ability of the tissues to oxidize them. Ketosis is actually a secondary state of the lipolysis (fat breakdown) process and is a general side effect of low-carb diets. Therefore, ketogenic diets are favorably disposed to encourage and promote ketosis.

Prolonged periods of starvation can easily induce ketosis, but it can also be deliberately induced using a low-calorie or low-carbohydrate diet by eating large amounts of fat or protein and drastically reducing carbohydrates. Therefore, high-fat, high-protein diets are the weight loss diets used to deliberately induce ketosis.

Essentially, ketosis is a very efficient form of energy production that does not involve the production of insulin, as the body burns its fat stores for energy. Consequently, the idea of ​​reducing carbohydrate intake not only reduces insulin production, but practically forces the body to burn its fat store for energy, which is why the use of ketogenic diets is a very powerful way to achieve rapid weight loss.

Ketogenic diets are designed in such a way that they initially force the body to deplete its glucose supply and then eventually shift to burning its fat stores for energy. Subsequent food intakes after inducing ketosis are intended to keep the ketosis process going by appropriately adjusting additional carbohydrate intake to provide only the basic amount of calories needed by the body.

For example, the Atkins diet, which is obviously the most popular ketogenic diet, aims to help dieters achieve what the diet calls the individual’s Critical Carbohydrate Level for Maintenance (CCML), a level of carbohydrate intake in which the dieter no longer gains or loses weight.

In 2003, the Johns Hopkins Treatment Center introduced a modified version of the Atkins diet protocol to treat a group of 20 children with epilepsy. After treatment, two-thirds were seen to experience a significant reduction in their seizures, while 9 were able to reduce their medication doses and none developed kidney stones.

Additionally, there are ongoing scientific studies from the National Institute of Health (NIH) on the efficacy of the classic ketogenic diet and modified versions of the Atkins diet in helping people lose weight and also in treating epilepsy. It is equally interesting to note that the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is conducting studies on the effect of ketogenic diets and also formulating drugs that may produce the same effect in weight loss.

Leave A Comment