Ketogenic diet

foods for the ketogenic diet

The ketogenic diet, which many people now use for weight loss, was actually developed to treat people with epilepsy. Because of this, many have been able to reduce the incidence of this "terrible" disease in their children, and some even completely forget its existence.

But due to the fact that progress does not stop, the ketogenic diet is rarely used for this purpose. But among the fans of a fit, slim and developed body, it has become very popular.

Ultimately, it helps to dry the body, get rid of extra pounds and at the same time maintain muscle mass, which not all diets achieve. In addition, the ketogenic diet works well with exercise, further increasing its effectiveness.

Basic principles of nutrition

The ketogenic diet for weight loss is based on three basic concepts - protein, ketone and ketosis. Protein - their high presence in food prevents the body from drying out muscles, but draws energy from fat stores, thus reducing body fat, which leads to weight loss.

Ketone is a substitute for carbohydrates, which are our body's energy and are often stored in reserve. From a medical point of view, ketones are the breakdown products of fats. If this process is artificially induced (that is, completely eliminating the use of carbohydrates), then harmful substances will begin to accumulate in the body, which in itself is dangerous.

drinking water in a ketogenic diet

Therefore, it is extremely important to understand that if you want to lose weight with a ketogenic diet, you must learn to remove these substances artificially from the body. And you can do it in several ways:

  • Drink plenty of fluids (toxins will simply be flushed out of the body and excreted naturally).
  • go in for sports (during training, body sweat and along with the toxins sweat is released).
  • 1-2 times a week to replenish glycogen stores, ie to eat carbohydrates.

Note that the ketogenic diet does not completely exclude carbohydrates from the diet, but reduces them to 30 grams per day. This amount is not enough to maintain glycogen stores in the normal range. To do this, it is necessary to arrange, so to speak, days of restoration. You should eat as follows - 5 days only protein food, 2 days carbohydrates.

Diet menu

The ketogenic diet menu consists, as you already understand, of protein foods. The:

  • a fish;
  • meat;
  • eggs;
  • cheese;
  • cottage cheese?
  • milk;
  • kefir.

Vegetables are also allowed while maintaining this diet. But you should keep in mind that they contain carbohydrates, so you should consume them in excess. You can use the following menu (you can change something, but according to the indications it should be the same).

breakfast

As a rule, most of us eat omelette in the morning. And since eggs are on the list of allowed foods, they can be used to make an omelette for breakfast. It is recommended to cook it with a pair of 2 eggs, without adding oil. You can eat the omelette in pure form, or you can add 1 tomato and chopped greens.

So let's measure carbs. Eggs contain about 0. 7 grams, tomatoes and herbs contain 5 grams each. In total, it turns out that such a breakfast contains only 11 grams of carbohydrates. Not bad.

Tomato omelette in a ketogenic diet

Dinner

For lunch, you can cook any meat (100 grams) of your choice (except pork, because it is not a dietary product at all) Beef should be preferred. The meat can be boiled, steamed or baked without oil. Boiled vegetable stew (portion 100 grams) can serve as a side dish. You can also add a small piece of cheese (not more than 40 grams), a cucumber and fresh green lettuce to your meal.

We measure the amount of carbohydrates. Steamed vegetable stew contains about 7 grams, cucumber - 4 grams. There are no carbohydrates in meat and cheese. The total is only 11 grams.

Dinner

For dinner, instead of meat, you can eat a piece of fish (about 200 grams), add a few green salad leaves, a cucumber and a tomato to it. You can also eat a boiled egg. Such a dinner is light and will relieve you of the feeling of heaviness in the stomach.

Let's calculate the amount of carbs in this dinner. Fish - in it, as in meat, there are no carbohydrates, an egg is about 0. 7 grams, a tomato is 5 grams, a fresh cucumber is 4 grams and lettuce is 1. 3 grams. The total is 12 grams.

And if you count the total carbohydrates consumed, you get 34 grams. This is very small. If, while maintaining a diet, you feel drowsy or notice that you start to get tired quickly, then you should increase the amount of carbohydrates consumed by about 2 times (up to 60 grams).

As this diet causes artificial ketone production, which can adversely affect your health, it is essential to consult a doctor in advance. Otherwise, you run the risk of gaining exacerbations or new illnesses as a "bonus"