Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few year, you’ve no doubt herd of the “Keto Diet.” The keto diet is fairly simple, you just drop all the carbs from your diet (apart from vegetables) to keep the total intake below 50g per day. The idea is for you to get the majority of calories from protein and fat – more so fat as excess protein can be converted to blood sugar in the body. In terms of macronutrient ratios the normal breakdown looks something like this:
Fat: 60-75%
Protein: 15-30%
Carbs: 5-10%
Theres no doubt that the keto diet, when used correctly, will be successful in helping you lose weight. However unless you have some issues with blood sugar regulation I believe its most effective when used for shorter periods of time. The goal of the keto diet is to get your body into a state of ketosis where your body uses stored fat as energy as opposed to glucose. After about 2 days on the keto diet your body should reach ketosis, following this 14 more days is about all I recommend before a solid carb up! I’ve always been a big believer in lower carb diets to drop weight, the key is to know when your body needs a carb re feed day. For me its training performance – after some time on a low carb diet my endurance drops off dramatically and this when I know its time to hit the sushi restaurant for a carb up.