About ketogenic diet, fasting and me
What am I doing here?
I love cooking and I’m happy to share my passion with you. I provide ketogenic recipes which I mainly created myself or from recipes I discovered and tweaked throughout my -now 1 year- of ketogenic diet.
You can cook too! So, why not doing it simple and healthy?
What is a Ketogenic Diet?
A ketogenic diet (keto) is a very low-carb diet, which turns the body
into a fat-burning machine. It is a type of LCHF (low carb, high fat) diet and has many potential benefits for weight loss, health and performance, but also some potential initial side effects, like the so-called ketoflu.
However, once the body has adapted to the ketogenic diet, most people -myself included- feel an overall boost in cognitive as well as physical performance.
These results also showed to be proven by studies.
Ketosis
There are other low carb diets, like the paleo or Atkins diet. Still, only a ketogenic diet targets the long-term goal of ketosis.
Ketosis is a state of metabolism in which the liver produces ketone bodies from fat, no matter whether the fat source is food or stored fat. These ketone bodies then act as energy fuel for most of the body cells, instead of glucose which is created by degradation of carbohydrates.
Fasting
Long fasting periods of 24 hours or longer can initiate or improve ketosis, too.
Additionally, fasting triggers a process called autophagy. While this process happens, old or damaged cells of the body get folded together, broken up into their protein molecules and can be reused for fresh, young cells.
I practice fasting
I, myself, am a big fan and practicer of intermittent fasting. There are different types of intermittent fasting. I do “warrior fasting” with a fasting period of 20 hours and an eating period of 4 hours at evening / night.
Some days, I have breakfast in form of bulletproof coffee or even -for me- ordinary breakfast like bacon&egg, burger or sausages. The latter occasion usually just happens on weekends, but not even regularly.
I practice this kind of fasting about 20+ days per month.
What about the nutrition label?
The recommended daily values and macronutrients are based on a ketogenic diet with a daily energy intake of 2000 kcal and 75% fat, 20% protein, 5% netto carbs(sugars). Your daily values or recommended macronutrients may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs and diet.
I am not a doctor, but a long term practitioner of the ketogenic diet lifestyle. Please talk to your doctor or medical professional, before starting a ketogenic or low carb high fat diet.
The thresholds for the “traffic light” indicator of macronutrients are:
- Fat:
- Green: 65% or more
- Yellow: 65% to 55%
- Red: 54% or less
- Protein:
- Green: 25% or less
- Yellow: 25% to 30%
- Red: 30% or more
- Sugars:
- Green: 9% or less
- Yellow: 10% to 15%
- Red: 15% or more
The needed amount of macronutrients and how to grade them may vary, based on your goals (e.g. pure weight loss, weight loss & mantaining muscle, mantaining body fat% and muscle gain, etc) and your health condition.