What Is a Keto Diet and How Do You Optimise It?

You’ve been putting in the effort at the gym, but the weight loss results aren’t quite showing? Maybe it’s time to optimise your fat burning. That’s what the keto diet is all about—we’ll show you how it works.

How Does the Ketogenic Diet Work?

The keto diet, short for ketogenic diet, focuses on altering your metabolism so that it switches from burning carbohydrates to burning fat. To achieve this, you need to get your body into a state called ketosis. This means that the concentration of acidic ketone bodies in your blood is high. These ketones—acetoacetate, acetone, and beta-hydroxybutyrate—are produced when your body lacks carbohydrates, which is exactly what you’re aiming for with this diet.

To succeed on the keto diet, you need to drastically cut your daily carbohydrate intake. Carbs should only make up about 5–10% of your calorie consumption.

The Different Phases of the Keto Diet: What You Need to Know

The Different Phases of the Keto Diet: What You Need to KnowTo get your body into ketosis and maintain it, you need to follow the four phases of the keto diet:

• Induction phase: This initial phase focuses on drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake. You’ll need to switch your meals to include fatty foods such as meat, fish, nuts, and eggs.
• Adaptation phase: Over the next 2–4 weeks, your body will fully adapt to ketosis. During this phase, you can slightly increase your carb intake. Your body will learn to use fat more efficiently as an energy source.
• Maintenance phase: This is the long-term phase, where you maintain ketosis until you reach your goals, such as weight loss.
• Exit phase: To boost your metabolism and replenish glycogen stores, you can temporarily leave ketosis for 1–2 days a month.

True Keto Diet? Only With Targeted Nutrition and Tracking

To follow the keto diet successfully, you’ll need discipline and a systematic approach, including tracking your progress. Tracking is essential as it provides feedback and allows you to make adjustments to your nutrition. Everyone’s body responds differently to this type of diet, so a one-size-fits-all meal plan won’t work.

Targeted nutrition is also crucial to avoid nutrient deficiencies. Since the keto diet eliminates many carbohydrate-rich foods, you might miss out on fibre, vitamins, and minerals. To counteract this, ensure you have a varied, balanced diet and consider adding comprehensive supplements.

Low-Carb: What Can You Eat?

You can enjoy a wide variety of foods on the keto diet as long as they’re low in carbs. Here’s an overview of keto-friendly foods:

• Fatty fish (e.g., salmon, herring, mackerel)
• Fatty meat (e.g., pork mince, bacon, neck steak)
• Dairy products (e.g., Camembert, Parmesan, mozzarella, butter)
• Meat alternatives (e.g., tofu, tempeh)
• Vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini
• Low-sugar fruits like strawberries, raspberries, watermelon
• Plant-based foods (e.g., avocados, salads, mushrooms, nuts, seeds)
• Plant-based oils and fats
• Eggs
• Water

However, you should avoid sugary soft drinks, sweets, and grain-based products like bread, pasta, rice, or muesli. Ready meals like pizza and alcohol are also off-limits.

How Does the Keto Diet Help With Weight Loss?

The keto diet aids weight loss by tapping into different physiological and metabolic mechanisms. These work together to achieve the desired weight loss, but only if you follow the diet plan strictly and avoid carb-rich foods. The key to success is understanding how ketosis and fat burning are connected.

Typically, your body uses glucose for energy. But when in ketosis, your body switches to burning fat because the liver converts fatty acids into ketones, which then replace glucose as the energy source.

One advantage of the keto diet is its effect on appetite and cravings, which also helps with weight loss. Keto foods are rich in fats and proteins, which are more filling than carbs that not only spike your blood sugar but are digested faster than proteins, fats, or fibre.

What’s also interesting is that digesting and metabolising proteins and fats requires more energy from your body. This process, known as thermogenesis, increases your base metabolic rate and causes your body to burn more energy as heat instead of storing it as fat. In several ways, the keto diet can help you shed those extra pounds.