Every year on Jan. 5, foodies and dieters around the world celebrate National Keto Day. The ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that forces the body to burn fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. While it’s not exactly Atkins, the ketogenic diet requires its adherents to stick to foods that are low in carbohydrates but high in fat — mostly meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Wine is also allowed in moderation.
Trying to live a ketogenic lifestyle can be challenging, but there are plenty of people who swear by it. Here’s what you should know before trying it yourself.
What is a ketogenic diet?
The ketogenic diet has been mentioned more often since the 1920s, when doctors started prescribing it to help control epileptic seizures — the brain doesn’t use much energy while sleeping or while in a coma. It didn’t take long for people to catch on that fasting made them feel better, so they began using it as a way to lose weight.
Today, the ketogenic diet is used primarily for losing weight. It involves drastically reducing carbohydrate intake and replacing it with fat and protein. This causes the body to switch from burning sugar (or glucose) for fuel to burning stored fat (or ketones).
How will I feel?
Since this is a relatively high-fat diet, you may experience some mild side effects like loose stools or greasy hair. If you’re producing ketones at an accelerated rate, you may also experience more severe symptoms like more frequent urination, gastrointestinal issues and dizziness. All of these side effects should go away within about one week.
Difference Between Keto and Regular Day
The biggest difference between a ketogenic day and regular day is that on a ketogenic day, you should ideally only be consuming fats and proteins. On a regular day, you can consume both carbs and fats (or proteins), but on a ketogenic day, it’s important that you only consume fats and proteins. The reason for this is that on a normal day, your body relies primarily on glucose for its energy source. However, on a ketogenic diet, your body switches from using glucose to using fat for its energy source. It does this because of the high amount of fat that you consume when following the keto diet.
