Keto! The new kid in the block! He is supposedly good in academics, is into sports, dances and sings and above all – looks good and everybody is in awe of him. He surely has some die-hard fans too! I’m sure you get our point! 🙂 Anyway, let’s analyse what exactly is this Keto Diet and is it a magic formula for your weight gain issues
Keto is a high fat, moderate protein, and nearly zero carb diet. 70% of calories come from fat, 25% from protein and only 5% from carbs. This means the dietary options are – meat, fish, egg, oil/butter/ghee & paneer. The kind of veggies allowed are highly restricted to leafy veggies (spinach), broccoli, zucchini and the only fruit allowed is perhaps Avocado! This diet was introduced as a treatment for epilepsy
First of all – Keto as a magic weight loss solution is wrong! Any diet gives weight loss because there is a calorie deficit. You only need to make sure that (i) there is enough protein to prevent muscle loss & (ii) the calorie intake is not very low. We already know that weight loss happens based on the law of conservation of mass & energy
This means you can eat your rice, chapati and even ice cream once in a while and still become healthy!
If that is the case – why does keto give fast results? That is nothing but water loss
If you ignore this water loss, then Keto gives EXACTLY THE SAME RESULT as that of a well-rounded diet with enough carbs.
Problems with Keto –
- Keto restricts the food variety to a great extent. Where do you get your vitamins & minerals from, if you cannot include cereals, fruits and vegetables?
- Keto induces a fear of carbohydrates and creates a very unhealthy relationship with food. What is the point in living a life if you cannot enjoy a piece of cake or a cup of ice cream, once in a while?
- Keto is a high fat diet and can be even life-threatening to people who have liver issues or has gall bladder stones. There are many reported cases of such problems, after 1-2 years of doing a keto diet
- Most importantly, keto is not sustainable. We Indians need to become healthy by eating our normally available rice, chapati, dosa/idly, meat, egg, fruits, and veggies. Only then we can do this for a life time!
- Keto diet is very low in fiber and can create severe constipation and digestion issues.
- During a keto diet, the body gets into a stage called ketosis which is characterised by headache and flu
- After keto, most people regain everything (and perhaps more) they lost because they have not learned how to become healthy with a balanced eating habit
Lastly, always do everything in moderation! Keto is the baap of an extreme diet.. and anything extreme is always bad! Always remember – if something is too good to be true, then it is probably NOT true