When your carbohydrate content is low, your body needs another source of energy to break down muscle protein. By consuming enough protein, you can prevent muscle breakdown and turn your body into burning fat.
This is the whole point of the ketogenic diet. It can give the body the illusion of hunger, even though you can actually get enough energy from protein and fat. This diet regimen can cause ketosis, where the body mainly breaks down fat as a source of energy.
There is no clear answer to the question of which diet is most effective for burning fat. Let's take a look at the pros and cons of the ketogenic diet.
Disadvantages of the ketogenic diet
The main disadvantage of the ketogenic diet is that it severely restricts nutrition. You must quit all carbohydrates, including vegetables and fruits, in order for ketosis to start quickly and lastingly.
Disadvantages include the appearance of bad breath, because the diet is rich in protein.
Pros of the keto diet
In a ketogenic diet, you will consume your usual calorie intake (or slightly less), so you will not feel hungry. Once ketosis starts, you can diversify your diet with fibrous vegetables such as broccoli, spinach, and asparagus.
More importantly, super-intensity training on a ketogenic diet is easier because the body has a fat reserve that is ready to be broken down. This is useful when preparing for the game.
Finally, the ketogenic diet produces results much faster than any other weight loss program.
Sample menu for the ketogenic diet
Before proceeding with the sample menu of the day, let us first define what can and cannot be eaten on a ketogenic diet:
- You can: Meat, fish, cheese, eggs, oil, protein products with very low carbohydrate content;
- Don't: sugar, grains, processed foods, fruits and vegetables, milk (due to lactose).
So now take the ketogenic diet as an example:
breakfast
- Bacon and Eggs
- Late breakfast
- Cheddar cheese, ham
dinner
- Salmon, avocado (or chicken with mayonnaise)
Before training
- Whey protein, creatine, branched chain amino acids, glutamine
After exercise
- Whey protein, creatine, branched chain amino acids, glutamine
dinner
- Steak, spinach and olive oil
Second dinner
- Boiled eggs, turkey breast (or casein)