Tag Archive for: Ketogenic Diet Tips

Ketogenic Diets and Weight Loss and Bodybuilding

I get asked about ketogenic diets for bodybuilding or weight loss goals a lot. People always wants to know what the best diet is or what they can do to lose fat faster. Truthfully, most people have no clue what they are getting themselves into.

While a ketogenic diet may work better then a low carb diet, I don’t know if people are ready for them.

First off, a ketogenic diet is one where there are no carbs. Without carbohydrates the body turn to burn fat as the primary fuel source. Since this is happening the body can tap into stored bodyfat for energy and we can end up leaner. Well while that is possible we need to look at what may happen.

For starters your energy will be drained. Without carbohydrates your body won’t know what energy source to turn to for a few days so you may experience feelings of weakness while you train or until your body becomes adapted at using fat. While this isn’t a bad thing you must understand that you have to change your training intensity. There’s no way that you can keep training with super high volume while you use one of these diets.

The next thing that you have to understand about using a ketogenic diet for weight loss or bodybuilding is that you need to eat more protein then normal. Since you don’t have carbs, and carbs are protein sparing, you need to consume more protein so you don’t lose muscle tissue. So make sure that you are eating at least 6 meals per day with a servings of protein coming every meal.

Then you have to make sure that you are getting enough fiber. Look to consume fiber from various sources such as green vegetables and fiber powder or pills like physillum husk. Now you need to add some healthily nutritional supplements since you want to make sure that you do your best to burn fat on these keto diets for weight loss and bodybuilding. First, make sure you consume healthy fats like omega-3 fish oils, cla, and gla. These fats will help to burn more body fat. Then you want to purchase a good branch chain amino acid powder as bcaa’s help to retain muscle mass and prevent muscle breakdown.

So in conclusion, a ketogenic diet may be the best for weight loss or bodybuilding but you need to make sure you are eating enough and taking in the right nutrients or you’ll lose too much muscle mass.

Ketogenic Diet Plan

For the best diet to rapidly burn fat using the body’s natural metabolism, consider a ketogenic diet plan. Nutrition has the strongest effect on the body’s production of important hormones, which regulate metabolism and allow the body to burn fat for energy and retain muscle mass, with little need for excessive exercise.

What is a ketogenic diet plan?

Basically, it is a diet that causes the body to enter a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a natural and healthy metabolic state in which the body burns its own stored fat (producing ketones), instead of using glucose (the sugars from carbohydrates found in the Standard American Diet – SAD).

Metabolically speaking, ketogenic foods are very powerful. The amazing benefit is that these foods are also delicious, natural whole foods that are extremely healthy for you.

So what foods are encouraged?

Some of the best-tasting, most fulfilling foods are part of this plan, including lean meats like beef and chicken, healthy sources of protein and high-quality fats like eggs, butter, olive oil, coconut oil and avocado. Also, delicious leafy-green vegetables like kale, chard, and spinach, as well as cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower.

These foods can be combined with seeds, nuts, sprouts, and a wide range of other amazing foods that lead to incredible health benefits that give your body the protein, healthy fats, and nutrients it needs while providing metabolism-boosting meals for easy cooking at home or on the go.

What foods should be limited?

On a ketogenic diet plan, the main foods to avoid are those high in carbohydrates, sugars, and the wrong types of fats. These foods can be toxic to the body and create excess glucose levels that the body turns into stored fat. These foods increase the level of insulin and blood sugar in the body, and will prevent fat loss even if you are putting a lot of energy into exercise. To avoid these foods, limit your intake of grains, processed foods, vegetable oils (canola, corn, soybean, etc.), milk, margarine, and other high-carbohydrate, high-sugar foods.

But aren’t fats bad for you?

We have been told for decades that calories from fats should be reduced to encourage weight loss, but this is a vast over-simplification (still supported by government and industrial food interests) that is no longer accurate according our modern understanding of human nutrition. The reality is that certain fats are not good for you (those high in omega-6 fatty acids), because your body has a hard time processing them. Other fats, particularly medium chain triglycerides (MCTs), are extremely beneficial for weight loss, brain cell generation, and nutrients. These healthy saturated fats should be increased to give your body the energy it needs while in ketosis, while limiting the detrimental trans-fats found in many processed foods.

What are the benefits of a ketogenic diet plan?

Burn Stored Fat

By cutting out the high levels of carbohydrates in your diet that produce glucose (sugar), a ketogenic diet plan tells your body to burn stored fat by converting this fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in the liver. These ketone bodies replace the role of glucose that was being filled by carbohydrates in the diet. This leads to a rapid reduction in the amount of fat stored in the body.

Retain Muscle Mass

By including the right fats in your diet, a ketogenic diet plan provides your body with the energy it needs to convert existing fat stores into useful sugars and ketones (through gluconeogenesis), which are an essential source of energy for the brain, muscles, and heart. This has the added benefit of preserving muscle mass, because the healthy fat in the diet gives the body the energy it needs without having to tap into muscle protein to create more sugar. This creates the best of both worlds – burn fat while maintaining muscle mass!

Eliminate Excess Fat 

Even better, if your body creates too many ketone bodies by converting existing fat, it will simply eliminate those ketones as a waste product, which means you will basically pee out unwanted body fat!

Reduce Appetite

Lastly, by regulating the powerful metabolic hormones in your body, a ketogenic diet plan will actually reduce your appetite. By lowering your body’s insulin resistance and increasing ketones, you will actually feel less hungry on this diet, which is an amazing advantage over other low-calorie, carbohydrate-rich weight loss diets that come with the expectation of lingering hunger. 

Start burning fat today without more exercise! Take control of your metabolism naturally by adopting a ketogenic diet plan. Your body was designed for this style of nutrition. Your metabolic state can be optimized by consuming the (delicious) foods that our genetic forefathers thrived on, and this does not include carbohydrate-rich, processed foods loaded with sugars and bad fats. It involves a luxurious and fulfilling diet based on bountiful foods from paleolithic times, including lean meats, vegetables, nuts and seeds, and healthy fats that your body will thank you for.