Why Keto and Low Carb Diets Are Not For Everyone
People experiment with all kinds of crazy diets just to lose weight in the fastest and easiest way possible. Keto diet is the latest fad which has recently gained popularity because of celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Halle Berry, and Sonam Kapoor endorsing it.
While most celebrities have claimed keto diet has helped them reduce weight drastically, it’s important to remember that almost all celebrities have their own team of fitness trainers and dieticians. For other people, following a keto diet plan in India without the right guidance can lead to temporary results that last only for a few weeks and even serious health complications.
Table of contents
- What is the keto diet?
- The problem with keto and other low carb diets
- Three reasons why keto and low carb diets are not for everyone
- Your body needs carbs
- You can develop nutritional deficiencies
- You can gain weight just as fast as you lose it
- Final words
What is the keto diet?
Keto diet is a high-fat, low-carb diet that focuses on increasing your protein and fat intake in your diet while lowering the carbohydrate intake. The goal is to put the body into a natural metabolic state of ketosis where the body burns fat for fuel, instead of glucose (sugar that is derived from the carbohydrates) as the primary source of energy. Ideally, you start losing weight rapidly with keto diet because the body starts automatically burning fat even when you are not working out.
The problem with keto and other low carb diets
The biggest challenge with keto is that you need to maintain the right balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates to achieve the state of ketosis, especially if you will be following an Indian keto diet plan as a vegetarian.
The most common keto diet plan for beginners has the macronutrients ratio of 75% fat, 15-20% protein, and 5-10% carbohydrates. Without any dietician guiding you through with the right food quantity to eat everyday, you will end up spending most of your time calculating and weighing your food, and you might not be able to see the results that you want.
The first few days of ketosis can be difficult, as your body starts craving carbohydrates which it doesn’t have anymore. Switching from a high carb diet to low carb diet can lower the insulin levels in your body suddenly, which can in turn lead to the body excreting more sodium in the urine. With a lack of sodium in the body, you can suffer from fatigue, dizziness, headache, nausea, muscle cramps, and more.
And that’s not even the worst part. If you end up eating even one carb heavy meal, it can kick you completely off ketosis, forcing you to restart the entire process.
Three reasons why keto and low carb diets are not for everyone
Your body needs carbs
One of the main reasons why keto has become so popular is because people don’t need to starve themselves while on the diet. They can eat as many times as they want, as long as they are maintaining the ketogenic ratio and restricting their carbohydrate intake.
But, our body is used to getting 45-65 percent of calories from carbs everyday and cutting that down suddenly to just 5-10 percent can be a lot for our bodies to take in. Just like the other foods, our body needs carbohydrates too in an ideal quantity to function properly. Instead of eliminating carbs, you should be more conscious about the type of carbs that you are eating.
You can develop nutritional deficiencies
While the keto diet alone cannot deprive your body of important nutrients, if you start restricting your diet too much it can eventually lead to bigger problems. For instance, most people on keto diet do not eat enough fibre which can lead to digestive issues like constipation.
Moreover, keto diets can also decrease magnesium and vitamin D ratio in the body which can cause brittle bones and fractures in the long run.
You can gain weight just as fast as you lose it
According to research, the keto diet, or any other low carb diet, helps you lose weight faster than other low-fat diets mainly because your body starts burning fat. But at the same time, staying on keto diet for a long time, without the right expert guidance from dieticians can be immensely difficult. Once you go back to eating carbs, even if it is for a week, you can eventually gain back all the weight that you lost and you would have to start again from ground zero.
Final words
While the keto diet has shown great results and helped healthy individuals lose weight successfully, it can also lead to nutritional issues in others. Not to mention, going on the keto diet and following it in the right manner requires a lot of precision and restraint. By consulting with a dietician before starting your diet, you can ensure that the diet won’t have any side effects and you will be able to see long lasting effects from it.
At Kwina, we offer personalised and customized diet plans that are created by expert dieticians after considering your nutritional needs, medical history, and food preferences. Schedule a consultation today to know how we can help through your healthy weightloss journey.