What is the Ketogenic Diet?

In last month’s article I described how following a ketogenic diet helped me to lose 60 lbs in just over a year. But what is the keto diet anyways?

The ketogenic diet or keto (pronounced key-toe) is a way of eating. It’s low in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and high in fat.

When you follow a typical standard American diet, your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose which is then used as energy in the body. Energy would typically come from sugars found in fruit, dairy products, or starches such as rice, pasta, and bread.

When you reduce your carbohydrate intake to a very low level, your body shifts into a ketogenic state and begins using fat for energy instead of glucose. This shift happens because all the glucose in your body has been depleted. Your body needs to find an alternate source of energy. This is where your stored fat comes in handy!

This depletion of glucose in your body triggers your liver to begin converting fat stores to energy by creating glucose from triglycerides. This process produces ketones which are acids that build up in the blood and are released from your body via urine.

Just like that, your body starts using its own fat and the fat you consume for energy!

When you have ketones in your blood, it means that your body is in a state of ketosis. Ketosis happens naturally and is essentially a survival mechanism that helps humans survive when food is scarce. While you won’t be starving yourself into a state of ketosis, you will be lowering your carb intake intentionally to a level so low, that it triggers this metabolic state.

It takes the fat you ingest, as well as the fat on your body and burns it for fuel- a totally different way to fuel your body. When you don’t eat many refined sugars or carbohydrates, your blood sugar stays at a stable level. You may have noticed in the past, for example, if you ate toast in the morning it wouldn’t be long until you’d be checking your watch to see how long until lunch.

I just don’t feel hungry anymore. It’s one of my top reasons I believe I have had so much success with keto and maybe you can too.

Joanna Wilcox is Canadian Health and Fitness Influencer from Woodstock, Ontario.