What is the keto diet?

The keto diet is a low carbohydrate diet that forces the body to burn fat over carbohydrates and is thus in a condition called ketosis. See the advantages and disadvantages of the keto diet here.

The basic principles of the keto diet are reminiscent of other diets, such as the Atkins diet, the Dukan diet, and LCHF, which, like the keto diet, aim for a limited intake of carbohydrates. Learn more about the keto diet here.

What is ketosis?

Carbohydrates are the main fuel of muscles and especially of the brain. For the same reason, they constitute the majority of a regular diet. You get them from cereal products, potatoes, fruits, soft drinks and sweets. When you follow the keto diet you greatly reduce your carbohydrate intake. It forces the body to retrieve fuel for muscle work and the brain from other sources. In practice, this is done by converting fat substances into so-called ketone substances. These can be used by the body in the same way as the carbohydrates, but unlike the carbohydrates that we only have small layers of, you can take off the body's energy-rich fat deposits on the keto diet. The positive effects of this are:

Benefits of the keto diet

The keto diet improves your fat burning. It gives you a stable energy level in everyday life, and greater endurance when you exercise.

Lower blood sugar and thus lower risk of diabetes .

Reduction of possible stomach fat, and thus reduced risk of a variety of lifestyle diseases.

Increased mental and physical strength, as you avoid a blood sugar that goes up and down.

Better physical health as you avoid all empty calories from sugar and processed cereal products.

What are the side effects of the keto diet?

The keto diet is basically healthy, but it is important to pay attention to a number of special circumstances.

Your breath may smell like acetone. Especially in the beginning, the body will find it difficult to find the right pace to convert fat substances into ketone substances. These give a smelly scent.

The body needs to get used to the new diets. It is very different how easy the body has to adjust. While some people get energy from one day to the other by following the keto diet, others may experience muscle fatigue, concentration problems, mental fatigue and blood sugar drops for up to a couple of weeks, until the body has adjusted to the low-carbohydrate diet.

The keto diet is just as healthy as the foods you choose to eat. If you choose to freeze meatloaf, whipped cream, butter and bacon, it is just as unhealthy as everyone else's. Therefore, it is still important to make quality choices and choose foods that are as unprocessed as possible, limit additives, and make sure that the daily diet is based primarily on healthy ingredients. Coarse vegetables, healthy plant oils, as well as good quality fish, seafood and poultry should form the basis of your diet. Snail on the  basics of an anti-inflammatory diet . Then you are on the right path.

How fast do you lose weight on the keto diet?

The first week you usually lose a few pounds. However, it is not so much because you burn fat, but because you empty your body's carbohydrate deposits. These bind some water and the emptying therefore gives a noticeable weight loss.

However, there is no guarantee of further weight loss on the keto diet, since everything is about calories in and out. Still, many people find it easy to lose ½ - 1 kg of fat a week because it's easy to reduce calories when you go on the keto diet.

Once the body has learned to extract energy from the fat deposits instead of relying on constant carbohydrate supply, you can experiment with smaller portion sizes and possibly skip whole meals without feeling dissatisfied.

How long does it take for the body to achieve ketosis?

It is very different how long it takes for the body to change to the new condition, but usually it takes a few days to a week before your body is in ketosis.

What should you avoid eating and drinking on the keto diet?

The keto diet is first and foremost a very carbohydrate-limiting diet, where you eat moderate amounts of protein while the rest of the energy is taken from fat. The principle is to eat less than 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, which in practice means that carbohydrate-rich foods are virtually excluded from the diet.

Food that can be eaten in minimal amounts on the keto diet

• Pasta
• Rice
• Potato
• Bread
• Other grain products such as bulgur, quinoa, barley, corn and oats
• Dried beans and lentils
• Fruit
• Root vegetables
• Milk and yogurt
• Sugar including sweets and soft drinks

You may want to eat this on the keto diet

Food you can eat moderate amounts of on the keto diet

• Nuts
• Protein-rich yogurt such as scythe, millet and Greek yogurt, also fat varieties
• Cheese
• Butter
• Meat
• Fish and seafood
• Bird
• Egg
• Avocado
• olives

Food you can eat a lot of on the keto diet

Coarse vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, peas and green beans.

Plant and nut oils from eg olives, rapeseed, avocado and peanuts.

Looking to test the keto diet? Read this first!

Are you a fan of meat, eggs, avocado and salmon? Then maybe the keto diet might suit you.

But before you start, you might want to hear what the experts say about the pros and cons of the keto diet?

Here's everything you need to know before you decide!

Keto, or ketogenic diet, is a diet that involves eating very little carbohydrates and thus causing the body to end up in a condition called ketosis. Ketosis is a condition when the body enters a kind of starvation position. We have talked to two diet experts to find out both the benefits and disadvantages of the diet.

For the keto diet: Andreas Eenfeldt, the diet doctor

Andreas Eenfeldt, founder of Diet Doctor and author of the book "The Food Revolution" has been on the keto diet for twelve years.

- Keto is about eating very little carbohydrates so that the body is largely driven by fat, a variant of LCHF, says Andreas.

Even the brain is powered by fat. But the brain cannot burn fat directly, but what happens is that the fat in the liver is converted into something called ketones. Then the body becomes very fat-driven instead of being driven on carbohydrates. Which is very useful if you want to lose weight, then it is often fat that we want to burn.

- Ketogenic diet maximizes the body's fat burning, Andreas explains.

In addition to fat burning, according to him, there are many benefits of diet. 

- Many people experience increased mental and physical performance! For me personally, the biggest advantage is that you do not get hungry and do not need to eat as often. It saves both time and money, says Andreas.

The ketosis state - that's how it works

You reach ketosis by eating very little carbohydrates. Either through a strict low carbohydrate diet or through fasting. It takes about two days to get into ketosis.

When the body's sugar stores run out, the body begins to form ketones in the blood. They range from below 0.2 millimoles (unit of substance amount) up to between about 0.5-3 millimoles in the blood, which means that you are in ketosis (for someone who has previously eaten a regular Western diet). It is also possible to measure ketones in the urine. If you end up in ketosis via prolonged fasting or starvation, your body can slow down metabolism. But if you eat measured on the keto diet, metabolism is kept up.

- It is a natural function in the body to go into ketosis, it is not dangerous, says Andreas.

How to eat in the keto diet

According to the National Food Agency, you should get about 50 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent fat and 20 percent protein. But if you do a keto detox, the breakdown looks completely different. During the keto diet, you eat about 70 percent fat, 25 percent protein and 5 percent carbohydrates.

Carbohydrate intake is minimal, preferably below 20 grams per day. The diet becomes more effective the lower the carbohydrate intake you have. (Maximum 5 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams is a directive.) The amount of protein you should eat is about one gram per kilogram of body weight. The amount of ketones in the blood you want to maximize, therefore protein intake is sparse.

It is free to eat fatty fish, meat, poultry, eggs, natural fat and ground vegetables. What you should avoid are starchy foods (bread, pasta, potatoes ...), sugar, margarine and light products. Fruit also goes away. If you want to eat dairy products, choose the fattest option.

You can eat nuts and berries in moderate amounts, up to one fist of nuts per day. On special occasions, alcohol is okay if you stick to drinks without sugar, such as dry wine. But be prepared that alcohol can adversely affect your weight loss. You are welcome to drink water, coffee and tea.

- I recommend eating fat so that you feel satisfied and satisfied, not hungry and tired, says Andreas.

Side effects of the keto diet

Initiating a keto-detox involves a drastic dietary change and with it comes side effects.

- Especially when you start a keto diet. What is called a restructuring problem. As a headache, fatigue, dizziness and that you can feel easily irritable. This is usually transient in a few days or a week, Andreas says.

You can minimize many side effects by getting enough fluid and salt in you. Salt is especially important in the beginning of the keto diet as you will tend to squeeze out more salt than usual.

- What you can do best is take a cup of broth once or twice a day the first week. Then you get both liquid and salt. That is usually a good tip, Andreas continues.

Other side effects that you may have are bad breath and that you start to smell bad. It is individual how long the smell lasts, but it usually does not last long. If you want to get rid of it you can increase your intake of carbohydrates, then the ketosis and thereby the smell decreases.

It can also be tough to work out when you start a keto diet; it takes a few weeks for the body to use fat burning enough in the muscles.

- You probably expect to have significantly less energy when you exercise on a keto diet in the beginning, but after a few weeks you will feel as much energy as before or even more, Andreas concludes.