The ketogenic diet causes a ketosis state, indicating elevated blood levels of ketones. This is due to the restriction of carbohydrates, which causes the body to burn fat, and from this, ketone bodies are generated. Many people say that you don’t have to count calories on your diet. Please keep in mind that the keto friendly foods used in the ketogenic diet can be overconsumed.
What are Calories?
Because of the energy they contain, each macronutrient – carbohydrates, protein, and fat – has specific calorie contents. One gram of protein and carbohydrate each contains four calories, while one gram of fat contains nine calories, their physiological fuel value being called that.
From where are calories coming from?
Standard models of weight loss basically all use the same “quick” premise— that weight is regulated by the same calory equation in minus calories out. It is the first law of thermodynamics: total energy is constant in a system, it can not be created or destroyed, but only “forms” change.
Using this principle, the only thing you need to do in order to lose weight is consume less energy (reduce the “calories in” side of the equation) than you use (increase or hold the “calories out”). The “calories in – calories out” model, has failed to produce successful weight loss results several times.The first may have to do with “calories in”; people are pretty poor at quantifying how much they eat, and even those who are vigilant at monitoring calories will encounter big mistakes inherent in all forms of calorie counting. Simply put — we can’t tell for sure how many “calories” someone gets from a dish. The other downside of is that resting energy expenditure decreases as you reduce calories. When you eat less you start slowing down your metabolism. This is a compensatory mechanism which attempts to defend body weight by adapting metabolism (meaning, keeping weight on to protect against starvation). A decrease in metabolic rate either prevents weight loss (known as a “plateau”), or eventually leads to weight recovery, unless calories are further reduced. Which precipitates a vicious cycle.
The “calories in – calories out” model also overlooks one crucial factor — it handles all calories equally and this is not the case.
A protein calorie is not the same as a fat calorie, and isn’t the same as a carbohydrate calorie. Different foods have indirect effects on energy “intake” and “output” because different amounts of energy are needed for processing and storage. This term is known as the “Eating Thermal Effect”. As a consequence, the dietary composition will affect energy balance.
Higher energy costs for a diet low in carbohydrates while higher in protein (and fat).
How Macronutrients Affect Hormones
When it comes to weight loss the biochemical “big three” is cortisol, glucagon, and leptin. Perhaps the most well known of these is nsulin. When blood sugar rises, the pancreatic beta-cells release insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. It does this by shutting glucose into cells (such as skeletal muscle tissue) where it is either used as a source of fuel, or processed as glycogen muscle.Insulin is sometimes referred to as the “fat storage hormone,” as it facilitates fat synthesis / collection, and also suppresses fat breakdown (lipolysis). Essentially, insulin is a signal that tells the body there’s plenty of fuel around (usually glucose), so you don’t have to call fat stores.
High carbohydrate foods are a big trigger for insulin levels to rise.
Glucagon is insulin’s “counter hormone “— it is released when blood glucose levels are small (and therefore insulin is also low). The release of glucagon is a mechanism for the liver to start releasing stored glucose (glycogen) to maintain homeostasis.
Glycogen will be low on low-carbohydrate diets, and so, when glucagon is released, it “searches” for other fuel sources. In this scenario, glucagon may result in the release of triglycerides from fat tissue, which will then be broken down into free fatty acids and sent to the liver for use in ketone bodies.
Leptin is a hormone released by adipocytes (fat cells) and is commonly referred to as the “satiety hormone.” Leptin means that there is sufficient food around the body and brain, so there is no need to eat.Having enough stored fat, or even dietary fat, will make leptin highly active, contributing to satiety.
It has been shown that ketogenic diets increase serum leptin levels and retain leptin sensitivity, possibly due to a high dietary fat content
Ketogenic Diets and Weight Loss
Ketogenic diets appear to be better for long-term weight loss and weight-loss maintenance.
Research have shown that carbohydrate-restricted diets undertaken over several weeks contribute to reduced body fat mass and sustain lean body mass, or even raise it.
The Metabolic Advantage of Ketogenic Diets
When balanced for calories, low-carbohydrate diets (higher consumption of fat and protein) have a “metabolic advantage” over low-fat high-carbohydrate diets. What this means is that low-carb diets result in greater weight loss compared to high-carb diets for the same amount of calories. This is perhaps because of their thermodynamic effect.
The additional thermal effect of food means that higher energy expenditure will result in more calories being burned, and thus a longer-term weight loss.
The increased weight loss is likely due to several factors. The first is that protein has a high thermal effect. Compared to carbohydrates and fat, protein takes up more energy to metabolize.
Energy is required in the process called gluconeogenesis. When the consumption of carbohydrates is small (because glucose and glycogen are the same), the body uses amino acids (from protein breakdown) to produce glucose that certain body tissues and cells such as red blood cells and certain parts of the eye need.
Keto adaptation also improves the fat-burning rate compared to other diets. Low levels of insulin cause the degradation of triacylglycerols into free fatty acids in food. Insulin low also prevents accumulation of fat.
There’s also the well-known concept that lean mass requires more calories to “maintain” than does fat tissue.
Increasing lean body mass (in the form of a muscle) on a ketogenic or low-carb diet can also help increase the metabolic rate of resting.
Appetite Suppression
One reason many people seem to suffer with long-term weight loss and maintain weight loss when using “standard” diets with minimal calories is simple … they get hungry!
A weight loss program is only successful if you can stick to it — thus the disappointment of many strategies that leave dietitians feeling hungry and unhappy, just like dinner at an overpriced restaurant.
A typical “symptom” of ketogenic diets is that they appear superior in controlling appetite to other diets.
This is likely due to the composition of macronutrients in keto diets — they are high in fat and moderate in protein, claiming to be more satiating nutrients than carbohydrates.
It has been shown that ketosis suppresses ghrelin, also known as the “hunger hormone.” Ketones are thought to serve as signaling molecules in the body that could have several consequences, one of which is to tell the brain: we are full!
Either endogenous or exogenous ketosis can be seen to have this effect.
In addition to exogenous ketone supplements, medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs) can also be leveraged to help reduce hunger. MCTs are highly ketogenic fats, meaning that while not being ketones themselves, they are readily converted into ketones. You can blend them right into your morning coffee to help keep the hunger till late afternoon at bay.
If you’re trying to lose weight or are just looking for a way to alleviate constant food cravings all day long, eating a keto diet or using exogenous ketones could be a great place to start.
Ketogenic diets may also promote a decreased caloric intake as a result of feeling more satisfied after meals, if that’s your goal.
Should You Count Calories on Keto?
It might be a good thing to count the number of calories you consume while on a keto, just to get a general idea of how much you eat. “Keto foods” are naturally high in fat, making them very calorically dense and easy to overdo, if you’re not careful; you certainly don’t want to significantly increase your daily caloric intake by consuming more fat than required.
Overdoing it with fats, nuts, butter, and “healthy fat” sources such as olive oil and avocado — this could lead to higher calorie usage.
While it’s more complicated than it sounds, weight loss generally requires a calorie deficit rather than a calorie surplus when it comes down to it.
Strict caloric control or monitoring of calories, however, is most likely not needed. Owing to the lower-carb and higher-protein aspects of a ketogenic diet, the resting metabolic rate could also increase. High fat diets are pretty good at self-regulation by encouraging satiety, blood sugar control, reducing cravings and improving metabolism.
Make Calories Count
Feed if you feel hungry. If you don’t, then don’t eat.
Overall, keto is about giving priority to quality over quantity and the results often speak for themselves.
Related topics:
References:
en.wikipedia.org
mport.com
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