I had involved in ketogenic nutrition for many years. My thesis was also about it. The ketogenic diet is a beneficial diet. Unfortunately, especially in the network many misunderstandings and misinformation circulating. That’s why I’ve summarized here the most important basics about the ketogenic diet.
In Today’s Article, We Will Discuss “The Complete Ketogenic Diet For Beginners”
Table Of Contents
- What Is Ketogenic Food
- What Is Ketose?
- What Are Ketone Bodies?
- Ketose Is A Diet?
- Eating Healthy
- Advantages Of Ketogenic Diet
- How Many Carbs Can I Eat And Stay In Ketosis
- How Much Protein Can I Eat At “Keto”?
- How Much Fat Should I Eat At “Keto”?
- Which Food Can I Eat At “Keto”?
- Keto Meal Plan
- How Can I Mean Ketose?
- Ketosis Ketoacidosis
- Keto Diet Menu For Beginners
- Where Do I Find Recipes For The Ketogenic Diet?
- Experiences With Ketogenic Nutrition
1 What Is Ketogenic Food
A ketogenic diet is a unique form of a low carbohydrate diet. This nutritional form is described by the formation of particular molecules in the body: the ketone bodies.
Critical Criteria For A Ketogenic Diet:
- Deficient carbohydrate diet
- Insulin release minimal
- Fat burning greatly increased
- liver produces ketone body from fatty acids
2 What Is Ketose?
Ketosis is the metabolic state in which an increased amount of ketone bodies is present in the blood.
At this ketone body concentration in the blood one speaks of ketosis:
<0.2 mmol / l no ketosis (= normal value)
0.2-0.5 mmol / l light ketose
0.5-3.0 mmol / l ketosis (achievable by ketogenic diet)
3.0-6.0 mmol / l ketose (obtainable by strong ketogenic Diet, fasting or addition of MCT oil)
In this article, you can read extensively on the definition of ketone bodies.
How do you recognize that the body is in ketosis?
Whether the body is in ketosis, can be measured in the blood and urine. In the pharmacy, there are Ketonteststreifen, with which one can control the ketone body concentration in the urine.
Noticeable is the lack of carbs due to difficulty concentrating, fatigue, bad breath, and constipation. “The one-sided diet brings the body in a hunger metabolism and thus in a state of emergency,” said nutritionist Wechsler.
“This causes the body to over acidulate and accumulate toxins.” And one smells this: If the body is in ketosis, the breath smells of acetone because the toxins also exhaled.
The kidneys are also heavily burdened by the diet. “Kidney damage, kidney stones, and high cholesterol levels can be the consequences,” warns the doctor.
3 What Are Ketone Bodies?
Ketone bodies are particular molecules. They are produced in the liver from fatty acids and serve as sources of energy. The brain, muscles and other tissues can break down the ketone bodies and gain strength from them.
The Three Ketone Bodies Are:
- Beta-hydroxybutyrate
- acetoacetate
- acetone
The ketone body acetone is exhaled through the breath. The other two ketone bodies serve as an energy source and can be converted into each other.
Ketone bodies are water-soluble and can, therefore, be transported very well through the blood. They can cross the blood-brain barrier via particular transporter channels and are thus absorbed into the brain where they provide energy.
The exact way to make the ketone body in the liver is to describe in this article.
In this article, you will read how they are broken down in individual tissues – for example, muscles or brain – for energy production.
4 Ketose Is A Diet?
“Ketosis” in itself is not a diet. It is “only” a metabolic state where there are more ketone bodies in the blood than normal. The “ketogenic diet” or “ketogenic diet” is, of course, a diet. The word “diet” means nothing more than a “diet.”
A diet is not always a weight loss treatment. There may also be therapeutic diets. For example, the ketogenic diet is utilized to treat childhood epilepsy. More than 100 years ago, the ketogenic diet was developed for just this purpose. In this article, you’ll read who invented the ketogenic diet.
Even if the word “diet” does not always mean “weight loss cure”: One advantage of the ketogenic diet is that it makes it very easy to lose weight.
Ketogenic Diet: You Should Know That
Many patients want to have a positive impact on their health through a diet change. The ketogenic diet, for example, is supposed to help with cancer. What is to maintain?
Why Do Some Professionals Recommend A Diet Change In Cancer?
Cancer cells are known to consume more sugar than healthy cells. “So it sounds plausible to try to avoid sugar in your diet – but it’s not that easy,” says nutritionist Dr. Tilmann Kuhn from the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
“There are no scientific or medical studies that prove the link between low-sugar diet and tumor growth,” said the head of the Nutrition Epidemiology Group.
Can A Diet Fight Cancer?
No, say the experts. “So far, there are no researches that prove a positive effect of cancer diets,” says expert. “Extreme variants such as ketogenic nutrition have so far been insufficiently studied.”
What Can A Ketogenic Diet Do – And What Not?
It uses under the supervision of doctors and dieticians in a few diseases. “There are rare, inherited metabolic diseases where this extreme diet is needed to survive,” explains Erickson. Even in childhood epilepsy, the metabolic rate in the body can reduce the frequency of seizures.
“However, the diet only indicates if drugs do not affect children,” says Erickson. As part of her scientific work, the nutritional expert has been working intensively on the ketogenic diet about cancer and has concluded.
“In the situation of cancer, I strongly advise against a low carbohydrate or even ketogenic diet But this is not true – tumor cells are very adaptable and can also feed on protein and fat. ”
5 Eating Healthy
Nutrition In Cancer:- What’s Healthy?
In the situation of cancer, the body needs a unique, balanced diet.
Nutritionist and Dietician Nicole Erickson works at the Cancer Center of the University Hospital Munich. She leads the nutritional oncology team and has found that many patients ask about the sugar-free diet.
“Most patients want to help themselves to their recovery, but a sugar-free diet is complicated to implement and, according to the study, not the right way,” says the expert.
In nutritional counseling, the dietician takes on an individual approach to the patient’s situation. “However, patients need to know that they can not increase their tumor growth with their diet,” said the nutritionist.
The goal of a good diet during frequent exhausting therapy. “Patients with a good nutritional status have a better prognosis,” explains daring.
6 Advantages Of Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet has many benefits. By eliminating many carbs, the metabolism is changed. The body learns to use fat and ketone bodies as an energy source, rather than carbohydrates and sugars.
The insulin level is shallow, which is why the fat cells are very likely to release fatty acids. These fatty acids can then be burned directly by the muscles or converted into ketone bodies in the liver.
Advantages Of The Ketogenic Diet:
- Low blood sugar fluctuations
- Consistently low insulin levels
- High fat burning
- Improved fat metabolism
- Improved endurance performance
- Ketone body as an energy source for the brain
- Fewer cravings
- Increased sense of satiety
- Fewer concentration fluctuations
These are just a few benefits of the ketogenic diet. Through various mechanisms, it supports a decrease as well as increased well-being. The ketogenic diet can be anti-inflammatory and thereby improve a bloated face and blemishes.
Ketone bodies can have a neuroprotective effect in the brain – thus protecting nerve cells – and thus positively influence the course of individual diseases.
In individual articles, we will look more closely at the mechanisms of these benefits. For example, in this article, you can read about the use of ketogenic nutrition in a particular brain disorder.
7 How Many Carbs Can I Eat And Stay In Ketosis
The amount of carbohydrate allowed in a ketogenic diet is individual. Even if it is often claimed: The amount of carbs does not define a ketogenic diet. You often read “keto, which is less than 20 g of carbohydrates” or “keto, which is less than 5% carbohydrates”.
While it is true that one must lower carbohydrate intake, this alone is not the definition of ketogenic nutrition, but the means to an end. It is a rough rule of thumb that can be very helpful in everyday life, but not carved in stone.
A diet can also be ketogenic with 30 g of carbohydrates or 50 g of carbs – as long as it stimulates the production of ketone bodies individually with you.
A good starting point is to limit the carbohydrate intake to 30 g per day and divide these 30 grams into three meals — for example 6 g in the morning, 12 g at noon and 12 g in the evening.
How Does The Body React If It Does Not Get Carbohydrates?
From carbohydrates, our metabolism can gain the fastest energy for the cells. “Sugar is the fuel for our bodies,” says Professor Johannes Wechsler, President of the Federal Association of German Nutritionists. Especially the brain is dependent on sugar: About 140 grams of glucose consume brain cells every day.
Carbohydrates are reducing to a minimum in the ketogenic diet. As a result, after a few days, the body’s glycogen stores in the muscles and the liver are usually used up.
To be able to continue supplying energy to the cells, the metabolism has to change: the liver increasingly begins to split fats into ketone bodies.
These are transmitted as an energy source to the brain, muscles and other organs. Ketosis experts call this metabolic state.
8 How Much Protein Can I Eat At “Keto”?
A ketogenic diet is never a high-protein diet. It is not comparable to a low carb high protein diet.
Protein is broken down during digestion into its constituents – the amino acids. These amino acids are then incorporated into endogenous structures, e.g., into the muscles.
If more amino acids are absorbed than the body needs, they are metabolized to energy and “burned.” These amino acids are first converted into glucose – sugar! In this way, an excess of protein also increases blood sugar and insulin levels and hinders ketosis.
15-20% protein in your diet is a good guideline – depending on how athletic you are, how high your total energy requirement is and whether you want to lose weight.
Do not go below 0.8 grams of protein per kg of body weight. You do not have to eat (and should) like a bodybuilder with every meal a 300 g turkey steak.
9 How Much Fat Should I Eat At “Keto”?
Fat is your primary energy source in a ketogenic diet. It is often claimed that more fat leads to more ketosis and higher fat burning and that you can lose even more fat with food. Not quite.
Low carbs and moderate protein intake cause ketosis. The body can now either absorb the fat through food or release it from your fat cells.
“So I can just go without fat and just take in the necessary amount of carbohydrates and protein and take off NOW faster?”. No, it’s not that simple.
Suppose you eat 30 grams of carbs per day and say you have a total energy requirement of 2000 kcal. If you take 15% protein, that’s 75g per day. 30 g of carbs and 75 g of protein together make up 420 kcal — little.
In order not to slip into a severe calorie deficit, you have to eat high-quality fats with every meal – more than you may be used. To reach the 2000 kcal, you would need to absorb 1580 kcal in the form of fat, that is 175 g per day.
Fat is an essential basis for your hormone production and necessary for the brain to realize that you are well supplied with energy. Eating only 1200, 1000 or fewer calories a day would signal a famine in your brain and slow your metabolism. Although you eat less, you lose weight.
Especially at the beginning of the conversion, the release of fatty acids from the body’s fat reserves runs very slowly. However, free fatty acids are necessary to build up stable ketosis, because fatty acids are the starting material for ketone bodies.
That is why your ketosis, especially at the beginning, benefits from the fatty acids that you eat from the outside. These are also partially converted into ketone bodies in the liver, and your body can already train the production and processing of ketone bodies before your fat burning is fully underway.
10 Which Food Can I Eat At “Keto”?
In a healthy ketogenic diet, vegetables should play the leading role. Especially green vegetables contain so little carbohydrates that you can eat large quantities without affecting your ketosis.
Root vegetables should be avoided in ketogenic diets because of the high carbohydrate content. Red and yellow vegetables like peppers and carrots should be enjoyed in moderation. In addition to vegetables, you need of course a certain amount of protein.
It promotes satiety and is crucial for the maintenance of the muscles. The ideal is a high-quality protein from animal sources – eggs, fish, meat. For stable ketosis, it is helpful in the beginning to dispense with dairy products, as they cause a higher insulin secretion than fish or chicken.
Attack fish or meat especially to more productive varieties. Because fat will be your primary source of energy, ideal are high-quality fatty acids from coconut oil, avocado, olive oil, butter (lard) – from pasture milk or nuts (especially macadamias).
An Overview Of The Best Fat Sources Can Be Found In This Article.
As a vegetarian, you should pay particular attention to the quality of dairy products, Goat’s milk products are often better tolerated than cow’s milk products.
Always grab the full-fat varieties and pay attention to the number of carbohydrates. Pure milk or even light yogurt contain relatively high levels of carbohydrates – so you can reach 30 g per day quickly.
It, therefore, makes sense to forego this directly and prefer to take the permitted carbohydrates in the form of vegetables.
As a vegan, you should resort to high-quality protein powders without additives. Almond protein, pumpkin seed protein or hemp protein are suitable, for example.
Although we generally advise against soy products, fermented soy products are a way to take enough protein as a vegan. Fermented soy products (e.g., Tempeh or Natto) do not give the same negative properties as unfermented soy products (tofu, Vienna).
You should see fruits as the sweetness of nature and only consume in moderation. Best of all in a ketogenic diet are all kinds of berries.
Not Suitable For A Ketogenic Diet:
- Cereals (pasta, oatmeal, pizza, bread)
- potatoes
- sugar
- Sugary drinks
- Juices and juice spritzers
- Sweets
11 Keto Meal Plan
3 Day Schedule For A Fast Ketose
For a super quick introduction to ketosis you can stick to this plan:
Day 1: Empty Carbohydrate Storage
⇒ Radically swap carbohydrate sources (fruits, pasta, juices)
⇒ On the plate: 2/3 green vegetables, 1/3 high-quality protein source, 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
⇒ In the evening: 60 minutes strength training until exhaustion
Day 2: Make Ketone Body
⇒ Morning: 60 minutes of endurance training, moderate
⇒ Breakfast: 3 eggs, 20 g of pasture butter, 200 g of cucumber, 1 tablespoon of MCT oil
⇒ Lunch / Dinner: 2/3 green vegetables, 1/3 high-quality protein source, 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
Day 3: Strengthen Ketosis
⇒ Morning: Butter coffee with 20 g of pasture butter, 1 tablespoon of MCT oil
4-5 hours break between meals
⇒ Lunch / Dinner: 2/3 green vegetables, 1/3 high-quality protein source, 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil
12 How Can I Mean Ketose?
In the beginning, it is recommended to measure the ketosis to get a good sense of what ketosis feels like? If you have also been in ketosis for a few months, you will notice when you are “in” even without measurement.
For Standard Measurement, There Are Three Methods:
- Analysis of ketone bodies in urine.
- Measurement of ketone bodies in the blood For Standard Measurement There Is Three Methods.
- Measurement of ketone bodies in the air.
The urine measurement is the cheapest, as the test strips are not available too expensive in the pharmacy. However, only those ketone bodies are detected in the urine, which has excreted the body.
The better the body can utilize ketone bodies for energy. The fewer ketone bodies are excreted in the urine.
With increasing keto-adaptation, the concentration in the urine decreases.
The measurement of the blood concentration is more reliable and always gives an accurate picture of how high the ketone body concentration is. Therefore, I recommend a blood ketone meter that works like a blood glucose meter.
There are combination devices for blood sugar and blood ketone concentration with individual test strips for keto measurement.
Advanced and those interested in long-term, regular measurement of ketosis can resort to a breath-ketone meter: a device that steps the concentration of acetone in the breath and thereby allows conclusions to be drawn about blood ketone body concentration. Due to the high cost, it is a device for an advanced application.
13 Ketosis Ketoacidosis
In the study of medicine or nutritional science, ketosis is only marginally addressed. Usually, just ketoacidosis is discussed. As a result, many professionals equate both. However, healthy (physiological) ketosis is by no means the same as ketoacidosis.
In healthy people with a functioning pancreas and normal insulin secretion, ketone bodies always lure a little insulin. A higher insulin level causes ketone bodies to be excreted in the urine. Thus insulin keeps the ketone body concentration in a healthy context.
Only if this natural regulatory mechanism ceases to function can the levels increase sharply. This risk exists with Type I diabetes and alcoholism – and not just with the ketogenic diet.
Type I diabetics must always pay attention to a correct ratio of sugar or carbohydrate consumption and insulin administration to avoid severe hypoglycemia and the formation of ketoacidosis.
Those who control their values and the insulin dose can also pursue a ketogenic diet as a Type I diabetic.
Ketoacidosis Is Present In This Blood Ketone Body Concentration:
14 Keto Diet Menu For Beginners
Good punk founder Marina has been involved in ketogenic nutrition for eight years and since 2019 has been offering nutritional programs at Foodpunk based on personal needs.
In the meantime, a team specializing in nutrition science, biochemistry and fitness economics supports all participants.
If you need to begin on your own, you need a kitchen scale and a food diary, as numerous apps offer. There you should enter all meals at the beginning – the app calculates the nutritional values. Over time, you get a good sense of how much food you can eat.
What Is Ketogenic Nutrition?
A ketogenic diet is understood to mean a very low-carbohydrate, but high-fat diet, which results in a change in the energy metabolism in the body.
In the classic ketogenic diet, a maximum of four percent carbohydrates or about 20 grams per day is allowed. By comparison, it is usually recommended for adults to use carbs to cover about 50 percent of their total daily energy needs.
Furthermore, the ketogenic diet allows about six to eight percent protein and just under 90 percent fat.
Pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, and sugar are taboo. For this fat fish, meat, sausage, eggs and low-carbohydrate vegetables such as zucchini, cucumber, and broccoli on the plate. Because of the high fructose content, fruit is scarce and in small quantities on the menu.
15 Where Do I Find Recipes For The Ketogenic Diet?
At keto diet recipes for beginners, you’ll find lots of tasty ideas in the Keto Recipes category. Over time you will learn very quickly how to transform your favorite dishes easily. Often it is sufficient to replace the carbohydrate side dish with vegetables.
How about vegetable pasta or lasagna with zucchini platters, for example? Even burgers succeed wonderfully without bread. Even sweet sins can be recreated with keto-compatible ingredients.
You can locate even more ideas in the book “Low Carb Typgerecht,” which was published by southwest and is also available in bookstores.
It contains 70 low carb recipes, of which 1/3 is suitable for a strict ketogenic diet with a maximum of 30 grams of carbohydrates per day.
16 Experiences With Ketogenic Nutrition
You’ve already tried the ketogenic diet and spent some time in ketosis? We look forward to your skills. Please leave us an opinion and tell us about your keto story.
Which are your favorite recipes? How do you implement keto in stressful everyday life or outside the home? Do you measure ketosis and if so, how? You can find numerous reports from our customers on the blog.
