If you love bacon, butter and eggs…and you’re willing to abandon pancakes, this could be for you.
Diets and weight loss plans come and go. One of the more recent approaches to healthy eating is called the Ketogenic diet, and while it used to be reserved for certain groups, it’s now gone mainstream.
What is it? The name refers to ketosis, a metabolic process that takes place in your body when it doesn’t have enough glucose to burn and turns instead to burning fat for fuel.
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And some swear that it really does work. A study written about on womenshealthmag.com tells the tale of participants burning 10 times the amount of fat following a ketogenic diet compared with a ‘regular’ American diet.
Of course, individual results will vary. It might not be for everyone, but it could be worth a shot if you’re searching for a new approach to eating.
The Details
Here are the basics: when you follow this diet you get between 70-80% of your fuel from fats, 5% from carbs, and a smaller amount from protein. Carbs are pretty much replaced with fats.
And yes, with that come challenges. Kristin Kirkpatrick, a manager of wellness nutrition services at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute in Cleveland, Ohio writing for Today.com says that her first week on the diet was difficult. She became irritable and keeping her protein amounts down wasn’t easy.
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But get this: after that, as her body adjusted, she began to feel fantastic. In fact, she writes that she felt the best she has in years.
What’s the diet’s history? The Ketogenic diet is actually used in medicine to treat epilepsy in children, so it’s interesting that it’s now found a new crowd of followers. Eating with this new set of rules has been found to reduce the severity of seizures for some patients. It can also have a positive impact on a person’s behavior.
Thinking of trying it out? Consult with your doctor and check out these recipes for ideas.
