The difference between keto, paleo and low-carb and which one you should actually choose
Following a healthy diet allows you to lead a long and healthy lifestyle. Many people eat healthy snacks and follow an exercise routine to stay healthy and fit. While others do it to gain or lose a few pounds of weight. We have already taken a look at the most popular diets of today, such as the mediterranean diet, the whole30 diet, the paleo diet and even the keto diet. Now that we know the individual strengths and weaknesses of each of these diets it is time to understand how well they stack up against each other and which one is the best one for you to follow.
Understanding Keto
The keto diet uses a low-carb, high-fat formula that helps lose weight and improve overall health. The primary strategy is to drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake and increase your fat intake. Such a drastic reduction in carbs puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis. Which is where the diet gets its name. The keto diet has actually been around for a century as a treatment for epilepsy when other medicine did not work. The keto diet is all about fat-loading and carb-avoiding and actually restricts carbs more than the low-carb diet. It is a diet that is primarily used by individuals trying to lose weight.
Understanding Paleo
The paleo diet is a dietary plan consisting of food items that were available during the paleolithic era, which dates from 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago. The ideology behind it states that humans and their digestive systems adapted to gaining all the necessary nutrients from the food available back then. With the advent of farming, we moved on to more processed food items that do not sync with our biology and are thus harmful to us. People following this diet generally report an increase in energy levels, improved sleep patterns, reduced allergies and sustained weight loss.
Understanding low-carb
The idea behind the low-carb diet is to consume fewer carbs through our diet than recommended. The recommended amount of carbohydrate in our diet according to the 2015 – 2020 dietary guidelines is 40 – 45 percent of your diet. To be following the low-carb diet you simply need to ensure that the carbs in your diet are lower than the recommended amount. You get to decide whether that amount is drastically lower or not. Low-carb diets help change your eating habits, improve health conditions and even promote weight loss.
The bottom line
The first step to understanding which diet is right for you is to understand why you wish to adopt a set diet plan. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to gain weight? Do you want to feel healthier and sleep better? Your reason for wanting to diet and comparing it to all the diets we have discussed is what will help you choose which diet is right for you. If all you want to do is maintain a healthy weight then you can still buy snacks online and lead the same life without needing to count every calorie. Once you have chosen the diet which you think best fits your goal, it is time for you to consult a dietitian or a doctor before you begin. The bottom line is that when it comes to taking care of your health, there is no one size fits all solution and you will have to experiment with what works and doesn’t work for your own body to see the best results.
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