All About The Keto-Diet

Part I: Introduction

The ketogenic diet is a low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins diet. The ketogenic diet involves reducing carbohydrates intake and replacing it with fat. This, in turn, puts your body into a metabolic state also known as ketosis. Thus, instead of burning carbohydrates for energy, your body ends up becoming incredibly efficient at burning fat. This process is done in the liver, where fats are turned into a chemical called ketones.

Contrary to popular belief, you can still indulge in sweet treats and bread when you’re on a keto diet. All you need is to use keto-friendly ingredients, or simply visit our keto bakery in Singapore for our range of keto desserts and diabetic-friendly cakes!

As the ketogenic diet does not include carbohydrates, it can cause significant reductions in your blood sugar and insulin levels. Combined with the increased levels of ketones, a ketogenic diet has some noteworthy health benefits such as decreasing blood sugar levels.

Part II: Understanding The Ketogenic Diet

Ketosis is a metabolic state that your body goes through to use fat for fuel instead of carbs. As mentioned earlier, this happens when your consumption of carbohydrates is significantly reduced, hence limiting your body’s supply of glucose.

While the conventional high-fat and low-carb keto diet lets you enjoy lots of butter, as well as avocado, it requires you to cut back on added sugars, processed foods, sweets, and grains - making this carb-restricted lifestyle challenging to adhere to.

Fortunately, there are a few keto variations that have developed over the years and are a little more flexible as well as easier to stick with in the long run. Modified keto diets allow your body to go in and out of ketosis whilst shedding weight and body fat.

Here, we share the four keto diet types.

1. Strict Keto Diet

Following a strict ketogenic diet is the quickest and most effective way to enter ketosis. According to Healthline, this diet limits carbohydrate consumption to approximately 20-50 grams per day. The rest of your diet should be filling up on fats such as meat, fish, eggs, starchy vegetables, and healthy oils. Aside from carbohydrates, you will also need to moderate your protein consumption since they can be converted into glucose when consumed in high amounts. As such, it can slow down your transition into ketosis.

Instead, you should be eating foods like dark, leafy vegetables, or cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. Full-fat dairy products like butter and heavy cream are some of the high-fat foods that you should also consume on a keto diet. Other healthy fats that you can incorporate are coconut oil, nut seeds, and avocado. Fruits like berries with low-sugar content and sweetener such as stevia and erythritol, though not recommended, can be consumed in moderation.

Hence, when it comes to choosing desserts on a keto diet, it is best to buy yours from keto bakeries in Singapore. We offer sugar-free cakes that taste just as good as the ones baked with sugar! Using only natural sugar substitutes that will not spike your blood sugar level, our sweet and savoury bakes are freshly baked to order - perfect for anyone on a keto diet.

2. Lazy Keto

The lazy keto diet is just as it sounds. Taking a more laid-back approach than the strict keto diet, this diet does not require you to keep track of your macronutrient intake but is also less effective at inducing ketosis. As such, it may not be ideal for those who are new to keto.

Instead, it is more suitable for people who have been following a ketogenic diet. By doing a lazy keto, they no longer need to track their food intake, allowing them to focus on just consuming a high-fat diet with limited amounts of carbohydrates.

This diet provides you with the flexibility to consume foods that may not be keto-approved. Following a lazy keto diet approach lets you eat foods that contain carbohydrates as long as you are sticking to the goal of 20-30 grams of carbs a day.

3. Dirty Keto Diet

Similar to the lazy keto diet, the dirty keto diet is another type of ketogenic diet that involves eating foods that are not necessarily deemed as keto-approved. As long as you stick to the proper macronutrient breakdown of the strict keto diet - 70% calories from fat, 25% from protein, and 5% from carbohydrates, where the macronutrients come from does not matter.

However, the downside of the dirty keto diet is that whilst consuming bacon and other fried foods do not disrupt the ketogenesis process, everyday consumption can lead to inflammation. That’s not all, sticking to the dirty keto diet also puts you at risk of missing out on important vitamins and minerals that you would be getting from a strict keto diet.

So, even though the dirty keto diet allows you to enjoy weight loss, it does not provide the other benefits that a strict keto one has to offer. Some of these benefits include improved skin health, reduction in sugar cravings, as well as better sleep. Hence, the dirty keto diet is not one that is recommended for the long term as it comes with potential health risks.

4. Low-carb Diet

Unlike a keto diet, a low-carb diet does not necessarily put your body in a state of ketosis. People on low-carb diets eat about 50-150 grams of carbs per day, which is not enough to put the body into a state of ketosis. Instead, a low-carb diet promotes weight loss simply with the reduced intake of carbohydrates.

Low-carb and keto diets also differ in protein intake. Protein intake can be high when you are on a low-carb diet unlike when on a keto diet.

Psst: If you are on a low-carb diet, you can try out our delicious low-carb bread that’s baked with your health in mind.

Between the two, the keto diet may come across as too restrictive and, hence, unsustainable for most. As such, a low-carb diet may be more suited for you, if you are not ready to embark on a ketogenic journey. Ultimately, it is still important to consult your healthcare provider before starting on any diet to minimise your risk of developing complications.

Benefits Of The Keto Diet

Even though the ketogenic diet started as somewhat of a fad, it is becoming well-known for its many health benefits too. Hence, it is important to get a clear understanding of what the ketogenic diet is best used for, and how. In this section, we will share some benefits of going keto.

• Weight Loss

Weight loss is one of the most commonly cited health benefits of the ketogenic diet. As keto helps people convert from a carb-heavy or carb-burning diet to a fat-burning one, it results in effective weight loss. Not to mention, a diet high in carbohydrates often induces bloating, weight gain, and poor health. Whereas, going on a high-fat, moderate-protein diet not only curbs your appetite, but it allows you to eat until you feel satisfied .

Whether you are obese, slightly out of shape, or even lean and fit, a ketogenic diet can do more than just maintain your ideal weight. It can also reduce your risk factors for obesity-related diseases like diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

But, the best part about going on a ketogenic diet is that unlike conventional diets, you do not have to starve yourself at all. Once your body is used to the diet and food you put in it, you will start noticing the positive changes and increased energy for physical activities again!

• Reduced Appetite

We’re all too familiar with the random carb cravings, like the occasional urge to binge on desserts even after a full meal. This results in your sugar levels peaking. However, at the same time, y