Is The Ketogenic Diet Good Or Bad For You?

While the ketogenic diet has been praised by celebrities across the world as being the ultimate weight loss formula, are there any adverse effects that your body experiences whilst on the diet?

Being on the diet entails that you enter a state known as ketosis, which is when the body burns fat in order to generate energy, as opposed to the glucose found in carbohydrates. You create ketosis by eating a lot of healthy fat and you limit your intake of carbohydrates, as well as consuming a moderate amount of protein.

The diet proved to be a good source of treating patients who had epilepsy. While in ketosis, patients had experienced a drastic reduction in seizures. Health experts are studying the diet to determine what other health benefits it has and if it is, indeed, possible that the diet can be used as a treatment for cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

What Are The Benefits?

Weight Loss

Since you drastically reduce the intake of carbs, your body burns fat to produce energy, thereby resulting in massive weight loss. When you reduce your carb intake, you also cut-down on the amount of sugar you consume, which results in a steady supply of energy.

Disease Prevention

Health experts have proven that patients who suffered from epilepsy had reduced the frequency of their seizure when they went on the ketogenic diet. Some patients had reported that their seizures had ceased completely. Individuals who have type 2 diabetes saw an improvement in the HbA1c levels.

What Are The Risks?

Fatigue

Since the body has been deprived of carbohydrates, it needs to adjust and go into a state of ketosis. During the adjustment, individuals who were on the ketogenic diet reported that they felt fatigued and weak. Once the body had adjusted to ketosis, the fatigue had subsided.

Bad Breath

The most common symptom of ketosis is having bad breath. Whilst on the diet, your breath will have a fruity odor, which happens when the levels of ketones have increased. The odor is caused by a ketone called acetone, which is released from the body through urine and your breath.

Digestion

The body gets used to a daily intake of carbohydrates. During ketosis when the intake is drastically reduced, your body needs to make an adjustment. Whilst the body makes the adjustment, it is normal for you to experience side effects such as constipation and diarrhea. After a week or two of consuming low-carb vegetables, your side effects should subside.

People who are on the ketogenic diet have reported that they suffered headaches, muscle cramps, as well as skin rash. All these side effects are completely normal as the body is making an adjustment by burning fat for energy instead of the glucose found in carbohydrates. The side effects should subside, at the very least alleviate, once the body adjusts to the ketosis.

While you will experience weight loss and reduction in the frequency of seizures on the ketogenic diet, you may experience serious side effects such as fatigue, digestion problems, and bad breath.

Do you want to find an effective Keto treatment? Check out our top rated Keto products

Heather Acott, MPH

As a health and medical freelance writer for a number of online publications, Heather has lived the life of a nomad for the past 12 years, soaking up different cultures and ways of life. A California native, Heather received her undergraduate degree from UCLA and went on to study at San Jose State University to obtain a Master’s in Public Health with an emphasis on health communication. Before embarking on her current career path, she used her excellent communication skills and in depth knowledge of the healthcare industry as a grant writer for many years. Heather is a member of the American Medical Writers Association and American Public Health Association. As part of her job she interprets outcomes of medical studies, reports on annual scientific meetings and regularly interviews physicians, patient advocates and other healthcare professionals. Her areas of expertise include low-carb diets, biotechnology, metabolic disease, diabetes and When Heather is not writing or researching for her latest article, she can be found meditating, exploring whichever city she’s in and religiously following the ketogenic diet.

Different Types of Keto Diets

What all of these types of the keto diet have in common is their goal to get your body into the natural metabolic state of ketosis so you can burn fat, instead of carbs, for energy.

Standard ketogenic diet (SKD)

Consuming a high-fat, moderate-protein and low-carb diet. The percentages of your daily diet should be about 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbs.

High-protein ketogenic diet

Similar to the SKD, but with added protein. The ratio is about 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs.

Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD)

Involves 5-6 days of the SKD followed by 1-2 days of refeeding days where the majority of calories come from carbohydrates.

Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD)

Eating carbohydrates around the times that you exercise. Meant for people who are regularly working out at a very high-intensity or for an extended period of time.