Did you know that 70 million adults in the United States are obese?
If you’re one of the 70 million adults struggling to manage a healthy weight, you may be looking into following a low carb or ketogenic diet. However, not many people understand the difference between a low carb vs keto diet.
That’s why today, we’ve created this complete guide to help you better understand how a low carb vs keto diet is different. Keep reading to learn more!
What Is a Low-Carb Diet?
A low-carb diet focuses on reducing the intake of carbohydrates. On a low-carb diet, you’ll meet me focus on eating a lot of whole and healthy foods. Foods such as eggs, lean protein, and healthy fats are what your low carb diet will mainly consist of.
You will also focus on reducing how many carb-loading foods you’re ingesting. You’ll reduce your intake of processed foods, grains, bread, and sugary beverages.
When you’re following a low-carb diet, many high carb foods will be eliminated from your diet. Foods such as bread, soda, fruit juice, chips, and other unhealthy snacks aren’t foods that you can consume on a low-carb diet. This is one of the main factors that promote weight loss with a low-carb diet.
Plus, a low carb diet is beneficial for people with diabetes. This is because a low-carb diet helps to stabilize blood sugar control. In addition, a low-carb diet also greatly reduces the risk of developing certain types of cardiovascular diseases.
What Are the Pros and Cons of a Low-Carb Diet?
Keep in mind that a low-carb diet isn’t for everyone. However, it is a great option to use if you are looking to reduce your chances of developing certain types of diseases or lose weight.
Pros of a low-carb diet include:
- Promotes weight loss
- Â Reduces how many highly processed and unhealthy foods you’re consuming
- Â It’s easily sustainable for long-term health
- Â Isn’t as extreme as the ketogenic diet
- Â Is easier to follow than a ketogenic diet because it’s less restrictive
Some of the cons of a low-carb diet include:
- When you’re first starting off the diet, you may feel weak
- Â You won’t be able to consume as many fruits that you may be used to
- Â You may struggle to meet individual macronutrient needs
Remember, before starting any diet; you must talk to your doctor first.
What Is a Keto Diet?
A ketogenic diet, or keto diet for short, is a low-carb high-fat diet. When following a ketogenic diet, you will consume around 20 grams of carbohydrates or less every day.
When you follow the ketogenic diet properly, your body will go into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body produces a source of energy that’s referred to as ketones. Ketones are produced from the fat in your liver and your body will use these ketones as a source of energy.
However, you can only get into a ketosis state when your body doesn’t have enough carbohydrates to continue converting into energy. on the keto diet, you will mainly eat foods that are high in fat such as butter, cheese, steak, and other whole and nutritious food.
Are you interested in learning more about the keto diet?
What Are the Pros and Cons of the Keto Diet?
The ketogenic diet is a great tool to use for people that are looking to lose a lot of weight quickly. Let’s take a closer look at them the pros and cons of the ketogenic diet has to offer:
Pros of the keto diet:
- Has many therapeutic benefits for several medical conditions, such as diabetes and epilepsy
- Â Can help to reduce appetite
- Â Decreases insulin sensitivity
- Improves healthy cholesterol levels
Cons of the keto diet:
- Many people suffer from constipation while following the ketogenic diet
- Â Many people also suffer from the keto flu and first starting off the ketogenic diet
- Greatly reduces the variety of food that you can ingest, which means it might be difficult for you to stick to for long periods of time
You should really consider the pros and cons of the ketogenic diet before you start off. You could always start off all in a low-carb diet before making your way into a ketogenic diet lifestyle.
Is a Low Carb vs Keto Diet Diet Better for Weight Loss?
Both a low-carb diet and a ketogenic diet are beneficial for weight loss. However, you need to know that weight loss occurs when you consume fewer calories than your body is putting out. You won’t lose any weight if you just reduce your carbohydrate intake, but don’t also prioritize a caloric restriction.
Many people find that they lose a lot of weight quickly on the ketogenic diet, but this is mainly because of the restrictive measures that must be followed to succeed on a ketogenic diet. Low-carb diets are easier to follow that a ketogenic diet because they’re more sustainable. You can eat more foods on a low-carb diet than you can with a ketogenic diet.
If you’re looking at losing weight and keep it off, you could always start off with a low-carb diet and move over to a ketogenic diet. A low-carb diet will help you to adapt to a lifestyle where you depend Less on carbohydrates for energy. Once you’ve become adapted to a low-carb lifestyle, you can switch over to a ketogenic diet if you ever hit a stall with your low carb weight loss.
Learning the Differences Between Low Carb vs Keto Diets
By understanding the difference between a low carb vs keto diet, you can help to make the best decision for your health. Remember, you should always speak to your healthcare professional before starting with any diet to make sure that you don’t have any health conditions that could impede your progress with these above-listed diets.
Are you interested in learning more about how to follow along with a ketogenic diet? We’ve got tons of information for you on our blog. Check out our website to learn more today!
