What you need to know before starting the keto diet

If the idea of eating plenty of fats sounds like your kind of meal plan, the ketogenic diet — often shortened to keto — may be worth checking out.

It’s a low-carb diet, so you’ll have to put down the potatoes and sugary foods, but it might help you lose weight. However, questions exist regarding its long-term effectiveness and safety.

Here's what you need to know about the keto diet, from the basics to its pros and cons:

The basics of the keto diet

Low-carb diets have been popular for a while, and keto is the most restrictive type of low-carb diet.

The ketogenic diet calls for reducing the number of calories you get from carbohydrates (bread, sugar and fruits) and greatly increasing the calories you get from fats. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, popular ketogenic resources suggest an average of 70-80% fat from total daily calories, 5-10% carbohydrate and 10-20% protein. For a 2000-calorie diet, this translates to about 165 grams fat, 40 grams carbohydrate and 75 grams protein.. For most people, that’s a big adjustment, since the average American gets close to half of his or her calories from carbs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The idea behind the diet is that when your body doesn't get enough carbohydrates to use for energy, it quickly turns to stored fat and protein to supplement what you're eating. This process, called ketosis, gives the diet its name.

Although the keto diet has become very popular in the past few years as a weight loss diet, its history goes back to the 1920s, when it was introduced as a treatment for epilepsy.

Potential benefits of keto

The ketogenic diet can be an effective way to lose weight. It can help you lose more weight in the first few months than some other types of diets, according to WebMD. This may be because you feel more satisfied when you’re following this type of diet, and end up eating less overall, or it could be that it takes more calories to convert fat into energy than it does carbohydrates.

In addition, the keto diet may yield the following health benefits:

Potential health risks of a keto diet

Ideally, a weight loss diet is a plan you can follow for the long term — even for a lifetime of healthy eating — but the keto diet can be hard to maintain over time, as you may start to crave carbs. And although it’s thought to cause weight loss in the short term, the long-term effects of following this type of diet aren’t completely understood.

A keto diet can also cause the following side effects:

The process of ketosis can go too far, causing your blood to become acidic. This condition, called ketoacidosis, can cause bad breath, headaches, dizziness and muscle cramps. In extreme instances, it can even lead to coma or death.

As with any diet, you should check with your doctor before starting keto, especially if you have a preexisting medical condition.

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