How to Lose Weight on the Ketogenic Diet

A ketogenic diet basically eliminates carbohydrates. Instead, you consume a large amount of fat and a standard amount of protein. This causes your body to release ketones, which are waste products produced by the metabolism of fat. They are essentially an emergency measure by your body -- starved of carbs, it releases ketones from fat, which provide the fuel that the carbs did not. This diet can be done safely, but there are a number of precautions you need to follow.

Instructions

1

Consult a physician before you make any changes to your diet. The ketogenic diet is quite dramatic and is not for everyone -- you need to make sure you are able to do it safely.

2

Reduce carbohydrates until there are almost none left in your diet. This means no bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes or rice whatsoever, and few vegetables. You also need to remember that sugars break down into carbohydrates in your system. This means no fruit, soda, or candy either. Alcohol is another source of carbohydrates that you need to avoid. The vegetables you do eat should be lower-carb vegetables such as celery; carrots, on the other hand, contain too many carbs for the ketogenic diet.

3

Consume 1 g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day. This is the standard amount of protein; the ketogenic diet does not increase or decrease your protein intake.

4

Eat fat for the remainder of your diet. Fats should therefore make up around 80 percent of your dietary intake, so you should focus on butter, cream, bacon and other foods that are high in fat but low in other nutrients.

5

Take a multivitamin every day. Since you are removing so many carbs from your diet you are also removing a substantial amount of nutrients; a multivitamin is necessary to replace them.

6

Exercise every day. This doesn't need to be intense exercise, but you do need to be moving around. This is because exercise uses the ketones up; as the body needs more ketones to function, it burns fat to release them, and you lose weight.