Do Keto Diets Increase or Decrease Your Metabolic Rate? Leave a comment

Do Keto Diets Increase or Decrease Your Metabolic Rate?

The Ketogenic diet is created to help make your body enter the metabolic state known as ketosis. Ketosis occurs when the body turns from burning glucose as it primary source of fuel to burning fats instead. When this process occurs, the body produces ketones as a bi-product of burning fat, which then in turn is used to drive the body.

The Ketogenic diet is the most popular diet in America (as of this writing), and it shows great promise for health, cognition, longevity, fitness, and weight-loss. The keto diet is a great tool that focuses on effective weight loss. The keto diet helps in weight loss by causing the body to enter into a Ketogenic state, wherein the liver starts to break fats into ketones, which is basically breaking down fats into acid, in order to supply energy. Additionally it can also apparently help in managing other certain medical conditions, like epilepsy, improve heart conditions as it reduces cholesterol levels. It can also be recommended to cancer patients, and those suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Read more about why the  why the keto diet plan is so popular.

The Ketogenic or Keto Diet plan is a high fat, low carb diet. It works on the idea that you deprive the body of its preferred fuel source, that is carbohydrates, and use fats for energy instead. The diet works in such a manner that body will get more calories from the proteins and fats that enter the body, and less from the carbohydrates. When one reduces their carbohydrate intake, the body eventually runs out of fuel, or blood sugar, that it can use quickly; this usually happens after three to four days of minimizing your carb intake. When the body realizes that it does not have enough quick fuel, it starts to break down protein and fat for energy.

Therefore, when one reduces their carbohydrate intake, the body eventually runs out of fuel, or blood sugar, that it can use quickly; this usually happens after three to four days of minimizing your carb intake. When the body realizes that it does not have enough quick fuel, it starts to break down protein and fat for energy, which leads to weight loss. The reduction in carbs puts the body into a metabolic state known as ketosis.

Research has shown that the Keto diet is much more effective than the other recommended low fat diets out there. One of the main benefits of the Keto diet is that it is extremely satisfying and filling, despite being a diet it does not curb one’s urge to eat by low calorie intake demands, and hence it does not feel like you are starving yourself. One can lose weight without having to micromanage their calorie intake; in fact studies show that the keto diet plan helps an individual lose 2.2 times more weight than a regular restricted low fat diet. There are specific keto diet plans for men and keto diet for women, thus it is a good idea to consult an expert who can guide you towards the right keto diet plan. Last but not the least, the reason for Keto’s popularity is that it not only helps in weight loss but has been proven to help in improving health conditions and prevents metabolic diseases. 

Interestingly, the word keto actually is derived from the word ketones, which is an alternative source of fuel for the body, when there is a shortage of glucose in the body. Now typically, when we consume carbohydrates, it breaks down into sugars, which the body absorbs and uses as fuel. However, on the keto diet, the body switches its fuel supply, and runs on fat. In other words, the keto diet helps in weight loss by causing the body to enter into a Ketogenic state, wherein the liver starts to break fats into ketones, which is basically breaking down fats into acid, in order to supply energy

This is how the Keto diet works, however there is much more to this diet than just cutting carbs. Following the keto diet is a complete lifestyle change; like with any eating plan the keto diet comes with its own unique lifestyle requirements. It has its sets of advantages and disadvantages that are important to weigh in before diving into the diet plan.

All in all, the simplistic approach of the keto diet has attracted people to experiment with it, as a result of which there are multiple variations of the keto diet available. The keto diet has become one of the most tried diets, and has risen immensely in popularity in the past few years. With various celebrities vouching for it, anyone who wishes to lose weight today has definitely looked into the Ketogenic diet. Despite being immensely popular, there are several misconceptions that surround the keto diet; these range for legitimate concerns to trivial doubts.

Keto and Metabolism

One of the most common doubts is to do about keto and metabolism. It is commonly believed that the Keto diet may cause one’s metabolism to slow down or decrease. Now the keto diet is known for its amazing weight loss results, but some feel that the Ketogenic diet will cause your metabolism to slow down in the long term, which is a legitimate concern as this is the case for many other diets.

The thing is that any diet that involves restricting one’s calorific in-take can result in as lower metabolism. If one is to maintain their calorie deficit for 3 or more weeks, they will have to worry about a slow metabolism, whether or not you are consuming carbs. So this is not a keto specific problem per say.

However, on the keto diet one may actually increase their metabolism or maintain it at a steady pace but at a higher rate than what you initially started off with. An individual’s basal metabolic rate or BMR is the amount of calories one burns in a day, regardless of their activity levels. Since the BMR is tied to one’s weight, a larger person will automatically have a higher BMR by virtue of a greater energy demand to carry their own body weight.

Under usual situations, when people tend to lose weight quickly, they see a decline in their BMR too, due to lower weight. Therefore, they are more susceptible to gaining more weight as soon as they stop their diet and exercising.  However on the Keto diet, as you lose weight the metabolic rate remains the same. It is believed that this happens because ketosis preserves muscles, which in turn helps maintain more info metabolism (At any given weight, the more women erection muscle on your body, and the less fat, the higher your metabolic rate. That’s because muscle uses a lot more energy than fat while at rest)

However another common misunderstanding is that keto causes one to lose muscle due to the process of gluconeogenesis, wherein the liver converts protein into glucose as there are certain processes in our body that require glucose and cannot simply run on fats.

To know more in detail about keto metabolism read this.

Now we get onto the question about how to increase metabolism which can be done by increasing the rate at which you reach ketosis:

1. Increase Physical activity

Exercise helps a person deplete glycogen that’s stored in the body. In most cases, the glycogen gets restored by the consumption of carbs, but in a low carb diet like keto, the do not tend to replenish, thus it takes some time for the body to adjust and learn to use fats stored rather than glycogen. It is due to this one may feel fatigue, which is what happens in the first few days of keto, as one may undergo keto flu.

2. Carb Intake

Ensure that you follow the keto diet properly to get a keto metabolism, and to remain in ketosis. It is only then the body will be forced to use fat as the primary energy source.

3. Fasting for short periods

One way keto metabolism is built is through fasting. The keto diet is linked to fasting, as it the state of fasting which the keto diet aims to mimic. Fasting can help a person achieve the state of ketosis faster, and once the body is used to it, many begin to experience ketosis between meals itself.

4. Increase Healthy Fats

It is a common misconception that a lot of people have that keto is not a health alternative, mainly due to the fact that it is a fat rich diet. While the keto diet is unconventional in the sense that it allows the individual to eat items like dairy, cheese, bacon, etc. it does not limit itself solely to that. While it is alright to include these items, when one talks about including fats in the diet, it means healthy fats. Keto suggests a person to eat items like that have natural good fats on them rather than just stick to saturated fats. Some healthy fatty foods are fatty fish, avocados, nuts, etc.

5. Protein Intake

Keeping protein levels low is necessary to reach ketosis, while recommendations vary, it is by and large agreed that on the keto diet one should consume 20% of their calories as protein.

6. Manage ketone levels

One can achieve ketosis by monitoring their levels of ketones in  their body through tests of the blood, breath, and urine. This will help track one’s progress, allowing them make adjustments in their diet.