The Keto Diet came about during the “Roaring Twenties” as an alternative to fasting.
The Keto Diet was discovered, at the Mayo Clinic, by Dr. Russell Wilder. Upon discovery, physicians prescribed it is as a cure for Epilepsy, rather than fasting. However, due to America’s emerging obsession with an hourglass figure and the diet’s effectiveness, the Keto Diet experienced a short-lived notoriety: over-exertion, ingesting tapeworms or fasting were no longer required to obtain an hourglass figure.
The Keto Diet, until recently was regarded as Twentieth Century ephemera, however, it has re-emerged and is gaining popularity among health enthusiasts, especially carnivores: eggs, poultry, and cheese are listed among the diet ’s top ten healthy foods. Essentially, the Keto Diet is a low carb high protein method of weight loss from the Twenties.
Contrary to popular belief, the Keto Diet isn’t a carb-free diet, however, consumption of carbs are restricted for practitioners. Practitioners, of the Keto Diet, are allotted a specific daily carb intake, measured in Grams. “Finding a healthy balance can be difficult,” stated Katie Hill (a practitioner of the Keto Diet), “ as things your body really needs like the nutrients from vegetables and fruits and nuts are high in carbs. You must make sure to get a bit each day without going over your ‘Carb Macro Max’ for the day.”
The Keto Diet relies on a mechanism called Ketogenesis. Ketogenesis, a naturally occurring process, produces energy from fat when there isn’t a sufficient amount of Carbohydrates to create energy. Unlike a car, which runs on fumes when low on fuel, the body produces its own energy – Ketones. Ketones derive energy from stored fat: when there is insufficient Insulin to transform sugar (Glucose) into energy the liver transforms fat into Ketones, an acid that can be used as fuel. It’s said that this diet is a way of hacking the body into a starvation-like state.
The Keto Diet may be considered the breakfast diet, not in the literal sense, but in the etymological sense - breakfast: break the fast. The Keto Diet replaced fasting, in the mainstream, as a means to lose weight, during the Twenties. Currently, the diet has gained popularity among meat and cheese connoisseurs.
From an energy producing standpoint for extreme workouts like HITT, PRAMA, and weight training - Keto purists tend to lack the energy production to keep up with the intensity when compared with their peers on more traditional workout diets.
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