Ketogenic diet is perfect for people who are diabetic, overweight or who wants to improve their metabolic health. It is a low carb and high fat diet. This diet is also beneficial for patients with epilepsy, cancer and Alzheimer’s.
This diet replaces carbohydrate intake with fat which reduces carbs. This puts the body in a metabolic state called ketosis. In this state the body efficiently burns fat for energy. It also burns fats in the liver to supply energy for the brain.
Types of Ketogenic Diets
Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD)
This diet is perfect for people who want to lose weight faster. It helps to control blood glucose level and improves the health of the heart.
There are studies that show that it helps children that have epilepsy. There is a slight alteration of the diet, which includes 80% of fat, 15% protein and 5% of carb.
Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD)
This diet is also known as carb backloading. It is best for gaining muscle, improving your health and mood and boosting performance.
For cyclical keto diet to work you will have to use the stored glucose and get into ketosis before the carbs refeeding days. This is perfect for people who are in the habit of high intensity workout.
Targeted Ketogenic diet (TKD)
This diet will give your body the amount of sugar it needs to maintain glucose levels during the workout and prevents muscle breakdown.
It is a compromise between the standard ketogenic diet and the cyclical ketogenic diet that allows you to take carbs anytime during the day whenever you exercise.
The carbs consumed before and after the workout session are processed efficiently as the energy demand by the muscles is higher at that time.
This diet is perfect for exercise beginners and ultra-endurance athletes. People who follow high intensity workout sessions are not benefited much from targeted ketogenic diet.
High-Protein Ketogenic diet
The majority of people find this modified diet as an easy to follow diet because you can eat more quantity of protein and less amount of fats compared to the standard ketogenic diet.
This diet will not result in ketosis because proteins get converted into glucose which in turn gets converted into energy which is used by the body. But this diet will help to lose weight.
If you want to follow ketogenic diet, you should avoid sugary foods, grains or starches, fruits, beans or legumes, root vegetables, low-fat products, alcohol unhealthy fats and sugar-free food.
Instead of these food items you should include meat, fatty fish, eggs, butter, cream, cheese, nuts, seeds, healthy oil, avocados, low-carb veggies and condiments.
A sample Keto Meal Plan
Monday
- Breakfast: Include egg, some bacon and tomatoes
- Lunch: A perfect lunch option would be Chicken salad with olive oil and some feta cheese.
- Dinner: Cook salmon and asparagus in butter.
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Have an egg or a goat cheese omelette with tomato and basil.
- Lunch: Take a glass of Almond milk with peanut butter and cocoa powder.
- Dinner: Have meatballs and vegetables with cheddar cheese.
Wednesday
- Breakfast: A glass of peanut butter milkshake.
- Lunch: Have a bowl of shrimp salad with avocado and olive oil.
- Dinner: Eat pork chops with Parmesan cheese, broccoli and salad.
Thursday
- Breakfast: Make an omelette with avocado, salsa, onions, pepper and spices.
- Lunch: Have celery sticks with guacamole and salsa and munch on a handful of nuts.
- Dinner: Have some chicken stuffed with cream cheese, vegetables and some pesto.
Friday
- Breakfast: Have sugar-free yogurt with peanut butter, cocoa powder and stevia.
- Lunch: Have beef stir-fry with vegetables cooked in coconut oil.
- Dinner: Eat a bun-less burger with egg, bacon and cheese.
Saturday
- Breakfast: Eat Ham and cheese omelette with veggies.
- Lunch: Have ham with cheese slice and some nuts.
- Dinner: Have spinach, egg and white fish cooked in coconut oil.
Sunday
- Breakfast: Eat fried eggs with bacon and mushrooms.
- Lunch: Take a burger with cheese, some salsa and guacamole.
- Dinner: Have steak and eggs with some salad.
Keto snack options
- Fatty fish
- Nuts
- Cheese and olives
- Hard boiled eggs
- A bar of 90% dark chocolate
- Almond milk with cocoa powder and peanut butter
- Peanut butter and cocoa powder mixed in full fat yogurt
- Strawberries with cream
- Celery with some salsa and guacamole
Supplements for Keto diet
- MCT oil: It gives energy and boosts ketone levels. Add it to drinks or yogurt.
- Minerals: Add salt and other minerals to balance the water shifts and mineral imbalance.
- Caffeine: It boosts energy, reduces fat and improves performance.
- Exogenous ketones: Helps to improve ketone levels of the body.
- Creatine: This is very beneficial if you combine it with exercise.
- Whey: Add a scoop of whey protein in shakes or yogurt to increase your protein intake.
