10 Ways the Keto Diet Can Backfire

Trouble sleeping

A keto diet (or ketogenic diet) is drastically low in carbohydrates and very high in fat—typically 75 percent of calories come from fat, 20 percent from protein, and just 5 percent from carbohydrates. That’s extreme even by other strict diets’ standards. (Paleo, for example, typically allows you to get 20 to 40 percent of your calories from carbs.)

Slashing carbs to this degree forces the body into ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body starts to rapidly break down fat for fuel. That sounds better than it feels. During the first few days—sometimes weeks—of ketosis, people often feel tired, irritable, and dizzy and have difficulty sleeping. This carbohydrate withdrawal is often called the “keto flu,” explains registered nutritionist and certified dietitian Dana Notte, MS, director of nutrition at Green Mountain at Fox Run, a healthy-weight retreat known for helping women “detox” from fad dieting. Check out the 13 things everyone gets wrong about the keto diet.

The post 10 Ways the Keto Diet Can Backfire appeared first on Reader's Digest.

from Reader's Digest https://ift.tt/2pynPCh