What exactly is the keto diet?

 

What exactly is the keto diet?

Short for “ketogenic diet,” this eating plan is all about minimizing your carbs and upping your fats to get your body to use fat as a form of energy, says Scott Keatley, RD, of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy.

While everyone's body and needs are slightly different, that typically translates to:

• 60 to 75 percent of your calories from fat
• 15 to 30 percent of your calories from protein
• 5 to 10 percent of your calories from carbs

That usually means eating no more than 50 grams of carbs a day (some strict keto dieters even opt for just 20 grams a day).

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After about two to seven days of following the keto diet, you go into something called ketosis, or the state your body enters when it doesn't have enough carbs for your cells to use for energy. That's when you start making ketones, or organic compounds that your bod then uses in place of those missing carbs. At this point, your body also starts burning fat for more energy, says Beth Warren, RD, founder of Beth Warren Nutrition and author of Living A Real Life With Real Food.

Believe it or not, the keto diet was originally designed to help people who suffer from seizure disorders—not to help people lose weight, says New York-based RD Jessica Cording. That's because both ketones and another chemical produced by the diet, called beta hydroxybutyrate, may help minimize seizures.

But people who started following the keto diet noticed weight loss for a few reasons: When you eat carbs, your body retains fluid in order to store carbs for energy (you know, in case it needs it). But when you’re not having much in the carb department, you lose this water weight, says Warren. Also, it's easy to go overboard on carbohydrates—but if you're loading up on fat, it may help curb cravings since it keeps you satisfied.

That, plus the fact that ketosis encourages your body to burn fat, means you can end up with pretty dramatic weight loss.

Are there different types of ketogenic diets?

While it’s easy to think that the keto diet is one-size fits all, there are actually several different types of keto diets, and they all have different benefits, depending on what your nutritional goals are.

“They all have the same gist—super low-carb, high-fat—but they each have their own set of unique guidelines,” says Vanessa Rissetto, MS, RD, CDN. Below are the four most common variations of the keto diet.

Cyclic keto diet

“The cyclic keto diet is similar to standard keto, with the exception of one to two days per week,” explains Rissetto. “Five to six days per week, a cyclic keto dieter will eat according to standard keto guidelines. Then, for one or two days, they will have a ‘carb cycle’—also commonly known as a ‘carb refeed’ day. On this day, they will eat about 140 to 160 grams of carbohydrates.”

This type of keto diet is often followed by athletes, since they require a carb refeed day to replenish glycogen stores in their muscles. “High levels of athletic training drains nearly all glycogen from their muscle stores, so it’s necessary to replenish them,” says Rissetto.

It’s important to note, though, even if you choose to do this diet, that doesn’t mean your days off should involve tons of processed foods and desserts. Instead, look to whole grains, starchy vegetables, and fruits for your carb intake.

Targeted keto diet

“On this diet, you follow all the guidelines of the standard keto diet, with one exception—before intense workouts, you eat carbohydrates,” explains Rissetto. “Typically, targeted keto dieters will consume anywhere from 25 to 50 grams of carbohydrates about 30 minutes to an hour prior to working out. Dieters often find that this helps them feel stronger and more capable during workouts.

While this does take the body out of ketosis temporarily, it will resume within a few hours, depending on how many carbs you consumed.” Essentially, the theory behind this diet is that since the additional carbs are immediately burned off, they won’t get stored as body fat.

Vegan keto diet

“The vegan keto diet is for individuals who want to follow a high-fat, low-carb diet, but do not consume animal products,” says Rissetto. “This can be difficult to achieve, as many keto dieters rely on animal products for a large portion of their diet.

Common protein sources for vegan keto dieters include tofu, tempeh, nuts and nut butters, and beans and legumes in moderate amounts.”

Though challenging, a vegan keto diet isn’t impossible—it just takes a lot of advance planning.

I also keep seeing offshoots of keto, like lazy keto. Thoughts?

When something is popular, it’s pretty much a guarantee that people are going to come up with new or easier ways of doing it. Enter the lazy keto and dirty keto diets. With lazy keto, people try to limit their carb intake to 20 to 50 grams a day but don’t really track it; with dirty keto, people generally follow the same macronutrient breakdown as "regular" keto, but it doesn't matter where those macronutrients come from.

Keatley has some…thoughts about those. “Dirty keto is a waste of your time since good habits have not been developed and it is simply too easy to fall back into a high-calorie diet,” he says. If you’re trying to do a lazy keto diet, he recommends following the USDA’s MyPlate instead and monitoring your meals based on proportions vs. macros. “It’s easier, more flexible, and has shown, when combined with moderate exercise, to be effective over the long term,” he says.