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The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. It’s a diet that causes ketones to be produced by the liver, shifting the body’s metabolism away from glucose and towards fat utilization.

The ketogenic diet is an effective weight loss tool and has been shown to improve several health conditions such Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and even cancer. Healthy cells can use ketones for energy, but cancer cells cannot and they literally starve to death.

The mechanism of this diet depends on ketosis, which is a simple concept – Very simply said, when you eat food high in carbs, your body produces glucose and insulin. While glucose is used as the main source of energy, insulin secretion is produced to down regulate your glucose levels in the blood stream.

Insulin is also responsible for storing fat in our body and if your body produces too much of it, you put on weight. Excessive carbs, typical in modern diets, combined with lack of physical activity will likely result in weight gain.

Based on a comparison of several scientific trials, low-carb diets outperform calorie-restricted diets in terms of long-term weight loss and health effects.

A common misconception is that our body, especially our brain, needs glucose. Although glucose is known to be the primary source of energy (your body naturally prefers glucose), it’s nowhere near as efficient as ketone bodies, especially for the brain.

The Keto Diet approach is simple: It’s a low-carb diet where the focus is on eating real food. With the growing popularity of low-carb diets, the food industry introduced foods that may be low in carbs but are laden with unhealthy ingredients such as artificial sweeteners, preservatives and other additives.

Here’s how you can reach the state of ketosis- The trick here is not only to avoid all obvious sourced of carbohydrate (sweets, bread, spaghetti, rice, potatoes), but also to be careful with your protein intake.

If you eat large amounts of meat, eggs and the like, the excess protein will converted into glucose in the body. Large amounts of protein can also raise your insulin levels somewhat. This compromises optimal ketosis. The secret to getting around this is usually to eat your fill with more fat.

For example, if you have a bigger helping of herb butter to your steak, you might not feel like having a second steak, and instead feel satisfied after the first one. More fat in your food will fill you up more.

This will ensure you eat less protein, and even less carbohydrate. Your insulin will drop and, hopefully, you’ll be able to reach optimal ketosis. And that’s when many a stubborn weight plateau is overcome.