Why am I on Keto all of a sudden?

So, I am finally trying to use my over active mind at night which doesn’t let me sleep to write down everything that’s happening in my life and in my mind.

Today, I wanna share something which I came across on June 1st, 2018 and how everything has changed now (July 24th, 2018).

I was on and off Twitter and that has become my go to social media website to get my daily dose of peeping into others lives and being up to date with politics which I don’t understand but try to.

I have finally decided that I should be off Twitter for few days and spend most of my time with my parents because I would be leaving for studies again to Delhi in a month.

So, while I was away from Twitter, the only source of entertainment I encouraged was watching YouTube videos. It’s very tricky with YouTube. You watch one cute puppy/kitty video and you spend rest of your day going through each and every one of them suggested by YouTube. So, I started watching more science videos, beauty related videos cuz I finally decided to take care of my skin and follow a skin routine. In that way, I have come across many videos suggested by YouTube about Veeramachineni Ramakrishna and his diet. At first, I thought it was just another fad and didn’t even bother to check any of his videos. But I have come to know that one of my friend’s sister was following his diet and lost few kilos over the course of a month without any stressful exercises. I thought I should give it a try and watch some videos on it and I did. I immediately got bored of it and didn’t bother about him for another 2–3 days until YouTube started suggesting me videos on Keto Diet.

I always come across this particular Doctor named Eric Berg and it irritated me a lot that I decided to watch one video and just be done with my curiosity and YouTube’s constant pestering about his videos.

You believe it or not, coming across his videos has been the best thing that has ever happened in my life. I started with one video but ended up binge watching MOST of his videos !!

So now, let’s talk about Keto.

Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian, not a doctor. I’m just someone who has experimented with Keto and found that it is the best diet or should I scratch that and say Keto = being on a healthy lifestyle and not just simply a diet? So, please consult your doctor before starting Keto if you’re suffering from serious health conditions. Although, I recommend you to keep reading this post and my future posts to know more about what I know about being on Keto.

Basic thumb rule to make other people understand Keto is that the food which you eat on Keto is: Low Carbohydrates(5%), Medium Protein(20%), High Fats(75%). These are called Macro nutrients which you should take on a daily basis. There are reasons why you should take these macros in that certain ratios.

Let me go one by one.

But first, lemme tell you what’s the meaning of the word “keto/ketone”?

Our body has two sources of fuel from which it derives energy and let’s you do work which you usually do. You burn calories when you’re working out and even when you’re resting/sleeping. The two sources are: Glucose and Ketones.

The easiest available source for fuel to our body is Glucose which we get it from “Carbohydrates”. The second available source is actually Proteins which get converted into Carbohydrates if you take too much protein. This is called gluconeogenesis. I’m not going to go in detail about this because its just too much science to discuss here. The third available (also second) source for fuel is “Ketones” which is a by product of burning fat i.e., if you don’t consume too much Protein.

At this point, lemme ask you a question. Do you eat rotis/chapattis as a part of your diet and still wondering why you don’t reduce weight? You will find your answer soon. 😁

So, whenever you eat foods which have lots of carbohydrates in it, like, rice, rotis, potatoes, starchy vegetables, sugar, bread, cereal, pasta, noodles, etc., these foods get converted into glucose and you’re going to get energy through glucose and NOT from your fats. Even if you consume less quantity of fats, if you’re a fat person, then your body will never be able to access that extra fat reserve in your body if you keep eating high carb foods.

What is a ketone though?

Ketone is a by product, a fuel, which gets produced when you BURN fat! The main point of being on a keto diet is to burn FAT and NOT CARBS as a fuel to your body. In this way, you’d be burning that extra fat which is stored in your body since ages!!!

But what happens if you’re on a high protein, low carbs, low fat diet? Wouldn’t that be beneficial?

NO.

When you consume too much protein, the body will take only that much amount of protein which is required by your body and the extra protein will be AGAIN converted into Carbohydrates, thus, making you be on Glucose fuel even though you consume low carbs. That’s the reason why you should keep your protein intake as medium.

Also, if you’re on a high protein, your uric acid levels will increase and you’ll eventually get gout or kidney stones because of it.

Do you know anyone who is on high protein?

I actually do. Two people in my life. One always eats only dal/lentils in her diet and ended up getting kidney stones and the other one was on high protein diet which means he ate lots of meat, as its considered healthy by many people which is actually not and he ended up getting gout.

How is it healthy to be on Low Carbs and High fats?! Isn’t that just the opposite of what you’ve heard all these days that Fat is the most harmful and evil thing in one’s diet?

Actually, no. It’s a big fat lie and a myth. Consuming fats, let me correct that word, HEALTHY FATS has never been a cause for concern if you just look at our ancestors food eating habits. They only consumed ghee, butter, unrefined coconut oils as a source of their fats and to cook food with it. What we use for fat or for cooking all kinds of dishes is “refined” oils which is THE most harmful thing on Earth right now. Just because it’s cheap, easily available, and the advertisements say all kinds of false things to make people buy their products, doesn’t mean its healthy.

The only oils which you should be using for cooking on a daily basis is, butter, ghee, cold pressed coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, and other oils which are considered to be healthy, but NEVER EVER choose refined oils since oil is the most basic thing and the most common cause of many diseases.

So, when you make your body go low on carbs, you’ll eventually get into Ketosis. That means, your body will start adapting to this new fuel source from Fats. You’ve no idea how good you feel when your body burns fat for fuel ALL DAY! It’s the most cleanest fuel your body can get!

Believe me, this is just my second month on being Keto and there are many changes that has taken place in my body that am going to share one after another in my future posts.

But, why does our body burn carbs to get glucose as our primary energy source if burning fat is SO good to our health?

Well, wouldn’t you like to throw away the garbage out of your house first and THEN make it tidy and beautiful to be presentable?

Apply the same logic to your body. It burns carbs first because it wants to get rid of the least useful source of energy first and then use fat as your fuel. But, how can you access or tap into that fuel if you keep feeding your body more and more carbs on a daily basis, 3 times a day?

You can’t. You simply can’t. All you gotta do is reduce your carb intake as low as possible. Like really really low and no, it’s not an impossible task to achieve because if I can do this, you can too. 😊

I have been on keto for 2 months and now I clearly understand why it is called a “lifestyle” and not a “diet”.

Any diet which you’ve come across till now would most probably tell you to keep your calorie count less (they wouldn’t mention about the macros which are very vital to your diet), which usually translates to “starve yourself”. But, that’s not the case with keto. You need not starve yourself on keto, you can have as much food as you want without worrying about the number of calories you’re consuming(that doesn’t mean you should go overboard with it..it only means that you need to eat enough to satisfy yourself) and there are SO many variety of options available to you on Keto that you never run out of tasty food if you could just have some patience and creativity to make your own food. You can eat any kind of dish as long as it doesn’t have carbs and sugar in it. Just trust me on this, I would have never imagined that I would be so full and satiated without any cravings for something which I don’t cook because that’s how tasty the food is on Keto until my next meal (which is 6–7 hours time period between my two meals since I’m on Intermittent Fasting).

You might be thinking that you would definitely miss having rice or your favourite rotis/parathas…but if you just wrap your head around the fact that carbs are harmful and leads to many ailments if consumed in huge amounts, then you wouldn’t feel their absence at all because there are all kinds of healthy options to substitute your cravings for rice and rotis or cakes or chocolates!

Many people I know in my life are foodies and I bet they would be worried if I just mention the word “diet” to them because that means they don’t get to taste all kinds of different foods in the world. But, I don’t think you would miss much if you’re on Keto because I’m a foodie myself and I feel a lot better being on Keto than being off Keto and eating all kinds of nonsense in the name of being a “foodie”.

In my next post, I’m going to talk more about how you can keep your carbs low, What are healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs, How you can actually reduce the carb intake on a daily basis.

I am also going to talk about how I am curing my PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) of which I am a victim since almost 8 years now by being on Keto and how I reduced 9 kilos in two months WITHOUT exercise!

I will eventually talk about my diet plans which I am still working on to be perfect in my macro intake and calorie intake.

Do you know about Intermittent Fasting? If you don’t, you’ll soon and you’ll know many magical benefits of being on Intermittent Fasting (IF) which am already on!

Lemme know your views about Keto in comment section and feel free to ask any kind of question.

If you’re a doctor who is reading this post, please take lil' time from your busy schedule and educate us about advantages and disadvantages of being on Keto and your general opinion about Keto.