Ketogenic diet help and solutions to the problems that women face on keto. How to overcome keto dangers, and create a ketogenic diet that regulates your hormones, leads to keto weight loss, and more.
People fear the ketogenic diet. It’s true! And, it couldn’t be more misguided. The ketogenic diet puts your body into a state of ketosis, which ultimately allows you to use fat for energy but, many women are afraid to start themselves on a ketogenic diet. The fear of the unknown is what stops many from even trying a “keto” diet in the first place.
But you may be wondering, what is keto?
I can help answer that quick! Following a keto diet helps us reach a state of nutritional ketosis where the body burns fat as energy instead of carbohydrates. In today’s post, I’m going to be sharing how keto works, what keto is great for, and who may want to try the keto diet. Let’s get started!
Why Are Women Afraid of Keto?
For a number of reasons, including a) people have told them that keto diets are unhealthy, b) many people will verbally attack keto dieters when they learn that the dieter lost weight eating fat – this is generally because eating fat and losing weight goes against EVERYTHING that we’ve learned… and makes people feel cheated and therefore angry, and c) women fear it may cause chemical imbalances in their hormones d) women fear that the overconsumption of dietary fat will make them physically fat.
These are just a few of the reasons why we avoid the ketogenic diet, however, many of these “fears” are not founded in reality, but rather in misinformation. Throughout this piece, we seek to get some real keto help to help us understand exactly what the keto diet entails and how we can expect it to impact our future health.
In this guide, we seek to provide keto help to those who are looking to debunk some information and make sense of what they can expect if they choose to eat a ketogenic diet.
Who Should Go on a Keto Diet?
There are many women who would benefit from adopting a keto diet, including the following subgroups:
- Menopausal women
- Women who are overweight or obese
- Women who are sedentary
- Women who have epilepsy
- Women with hormone imbalances (including low estrogen, high progesterone, or cortisol irregularities)
- Women who have the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) or fibroids/endometriosis
- Women who have Type 1 or 2 diabetes
- Women who have a neurological condition such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s
- Women who have cardiovascular disease
It’s also worth noting that a keto diet IS different from a low carb diet. A low-carb diet generally limits one’s carbohydrate intake between 60-130 grams per day, whereas a keto diet limits your carbs to 25-50 grams per day.
The interesting thing, however, is that women can generally eat more carbohydrates on a daily or weekly basis and maintain a ketogenic (fat burning) state just fine! Meaning… for women: the ketogenic diet can be way more customized.
What Are the Benefits of a Keto Diet?
Women who eat a keto diet report a variety of benefits as well, including the following:
- Fewer cravings
- Lower overall caloric intake
- More self-control
- Balanced sex hormones
- Boosted libido
- Less late-night bingeing
- Better overall health
- Boosted confidence
- Less dietary stress
- More physical activity
Are There Any Dangers to a Keto Diet?
There are a lot of misconceptions about the dangers of low carb diets and because of this, a negative outlook has been casted on the ketogenic diet, too.
Many people confuse high fat/high carbohydrate diets (think: burgers and fries) with the ketogenic diet. Although this may sound ludicrous to you, people actually believe that if it’s high-fat, it must be keto! This is wrong.
Of course, high fat/high carbohydrate foods like burgers and fries are not keto. And, eating these foods WILL negatively affect your health.
Another of the keto dangers that people like to bring up is the looming keto “problem” of diabetic ketoacidosis. Diabetic ketoacidosis is s state where both ketones and glucose are very high. It affects people with diabetes or impaired liver functions and is almost impossible so long as your pancreas functions normally.
Said another way: people with “normal” body conditions will find it impossible to go into the ideal phase of ketosis (seen with moderate ketone generation) much less past it into the harmful territory.
However, it’s always best to chat with your healthcare professional before adjusting your diet.
Isn’t All This Fat Terrible for Me?
If keto fat sources were all trans fats, this would be a keto danger. However, the keto diet avoids trans fats and emphasizes healthier, higher-quality fats such as avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oils, grass-fed meats and omega-3 rich fats which help turn on genes that are involved with burning fat, while turning off the genes that store fat.
These higher-quality fats are safe and can also help keep you satiated longer which reduced hunger pains, cravings, and likeliness of someone to binge on unhealthy foods such as sugars (carbohydrates) that will bring the body out of ketosis.
On the flip side, a deficiency of dietary fat can lead to lowered overall cholesterol which has been shown to play a role in depression, anxiety, and inflammation.
Moreover, tons of studies have been done in the last 30 years that prove that a keto diet is more effective as you are consuming a higher amount of fat and a low to a negligible amount of carbs. It’s also been shown that ketogenic dieting is healthier and more effective at improving the person’s overall health than a low-fat diet would be.
The key is that the fats you consume have to be high-quality fats from whole food, natural sources that will work to lower inflammation and regulate sex hormones and fat-burning hormones.
A Ketogenic Diet is High Protein… Right?
The ketogenic diet is not a high protein diet but rather, a moderate protein diet. So we’re not chowing down on meat day in day out. However, the ketogenic diet does advocate for animal protein consumption. And, this may be a concern to you. However, it comes down to food quality here as well. Opting for grass-fed/grass-finished beef, pasture-raised pork, free range chicken, staying away from processed meats (with nitrates), and avoiding charred meats goes a long way in making your meat consumption healthful rather than harmful.
Does Keto Harm the Kidneys?
Did you know? Sugars (carbohydrates) will damage the kidneys more long-term than the meats that you are consuming will. Focusing on your potassium intake on keto will naturally support the kidneys. Long as you are eating enough greens, you should be getting the proper amount of potassium to keep your body happy.
Will Keto Increase My Cholesterol?
Actually, contrary to popular belief, the saturated fats in your diet will help you increase your HDL (good cholesterol) and lower triglycerides. Cholesterol is also useful to the body as it’s the precursor for virtually every hormone in your body. As women, ensuring we have enough cholesterol is crucial for overall health, and keto can help us maintain this. Curious about what keto can do your cholesterol as a woman?
Want to find out more about diet myths, including the truth about cholesterol from a real doctor? And, order your own blood tests (so you can know your HDL levels and more) without the hassle of visiting your doctor?
How Does the Keto Diet Make Me Lose Weight?
The keto diet forces your body to transition to burning fat stores in the absence of its preferred fuel (carbohydrates). As the body burns off fat for fuel it will burn off fat stores in the body causing weight loss for many people. The results that are obtained on the keto diet are scientifically proven to be healthier and more substantial than those following a low-fat diet. The body turns into a fat-burning machine, effectively lowering its need for insulin, maintaining a fasted-like state even though food is being consumed.
How Does A Keto Diet Control My Blood Sugar?
Keto stops the blood sugars from “spiking” after you ingest a large number of sugars (carbohydrates). Keeping the body’s sugar levels steady not only will help ward off cravings and lower your likeliness to overeat, it will also keep your blood sugars steadier which can aid someone who is Type 1 or 2 diabetic or even prediabetic in keeping their blood sugars controlled throughout the course of a day, avoiding those “crashes” between meals.
The keto diet is also much more effective at keeping blood sugars lower than low-calorie or low-fat diets are, making it a quality choice for anyone facing issues with maintaining their blood sugar levels on other types of diets. Interested in more?
What Does a Keto Diet Do to Help Control Mental Functioning?
Many people choose the ketogenic diet just to specifically help increase their mental performance. The keto diet helps increase mental performances in these three ways (and many more):
- Avoids blood sugar spikes that leave you feeling exhausted and then drained throughout a day.
- Ketones themselves are a great source of fuel for the brain, allowing your brain to operate on an entirely different fuel source for optimal function.
- An increased intake of fatty acids can have impacting benefits to our brain’s function overall.
Now, It’s Up To You
Ketogenic benefits are vast, and can continue to deliver results long after you adapt a ketogenic lifestyle. I started eating keto in 2014 and continue to see improvements in my health years later.
And for more specific help with customizing the ketogenic diet for your unique female body, take a look at Happy Keto Body – the only keto membership program designed by women for women with contributions from a Naturopathic doctor.
With over 21 hours of video content, a Facebook community for more support and encouragement, plus the option to join in on live group coaching calls, Happy Keto Body is the perfect keto membership program for women who want to live a ketogenic lifestyle for weight loss, health and healing, more energy and longevity.
The key to health, I’ve learned, is to constantly ask questions so that you can define an approach that works best for your body. There may be certain keto dangers that have freaked you out, so much so that you don’t want to try a ketogenic diet. But with a little bit of keto help, I hope that this keto guide has been helpful in highlighting some of the problems of low-carb eating in such a way that you’re willing to give it a shot!
One of the best things about a keto diet is that many people in the community love figuring things out. There’s a lot of self-experimentation and sharing of data and ideas.
Some people do better on a slightly higher fat ketogenic diet while others can eat slightly more carbohydrates. Intermittent fasting is also an area that many people on a ketogenic diet experiment with.
This is an exciting growing field that’s helping a lot of people, so if you’re ready to give it a try, keep an open mind and have fun improving your body and mind.
Especially for women!
