I Tried The Keto Diet and Here Is Why I Stopped After Two Weeks

One of my new year’s resolution for 2019 was to lose weight and I was very serious. I wasn’t going to try the old stuff though, I wanted to try different things other than the regular protein diet and that’s when I decided to go on a keto diet.

The keto diet is very popular right now and my uncle has just lost so much weight following it, so I said why not. I tried it for exactly two weeks and I had to stop for one reason, but before I tell you what it is let me explain what a keto diet is.

Keto diet is basically eating calculated calories that consist of 70% healthy fat and 20% protein,  no sugar, no carbs.  How is that different from other diets, meaning what happens inside the body?

Your body needs the energy to perform its vital activities and that comes from food, but your cells don’t use food in its raw form, they process it and finally, your cells get glucose. Your entire body uses glucose as a united currency, when you go on a keto diet your body shifts to producing keto bodies instead of glucose. The lack of glucose production results in the body burning fat quicker and more than normal. So, what I basically did is switch to a diet where I eat healthy fats, proteins, and some vegetables.

What I experienced

The first week is the hardest because you can get stomach pain from eating too much fat but it goes away. I faced a lot of difficulties whenever I went out for food because there are limited options for what you can have. It got a bit easier with time, the symptoms went away and I also learned to make more keto recipes myself.

Why I stopped

The reason I stopped is that I started getting breakouts on my chest area which had never happened to me before. I learned that a keto diet puts your body under a great deal of stress. In other words, your body is supposed to have glucose as a source of energy, when the glucose stops and your body enters the keto phase it's like going through a state of emergency. Your body  goes through stress due to the shift that happened in its biochemical processes. After I became aware of that I stopped the diet immediately and breakouts did actually stop after that. However, this doesn't mean that you will experience the same symptoms. Your body can respond in different ways.

Results…

As for the weight loss, to my surprise, I lost about 3 kilograms in two weeks which in my case is a very good result but still, it wasn’t worth the trouble.

Keto diet was invented in the first place to treat children with epilepsy, so what it does is that it takes so much away from your energy. This is why it wouldn't be good for athletes. I recommend you ask your physician before going on such a diet and keep in mind that while it could give you great results, you should also keep I mind its risks as well.

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