Overview

The ketogenic diet gained massive popularity over the past few years due to its effects on weight loss and other health benefits. In fact, keto is the most popular diet in the United States by a large margin.

The primary concept behind this diet is to limit your carbohydrate intake to 20–50 grams per day, which pushes your body into a state known as ketosis.
In this article, we will briefly define ketosis and see how this metabolic state helps you lose weight.

What is ketosis?
Ketosis refers to a metabolic state where the liver converts fatty acids to generate energy. This reaction produces ketone bodies as metabolic byproducts, which is where the terminology came from.

To reach this state, you need to meet two conditions:
Your intake of sugar needs to be less than 50 grams per day.
The sugar stored in the liver and muscles needs to get depleted.
Once the body starts using fatty acids to produce energy, you will experience substantial weight loss and other health benefits.

Note that the initial weight loss (during the 1–2 weeks) mainly consists of fluids, and therefore, you should not expect to lose the same number of pounds every week.

Takeaway message
The ketogenic diet is one of the most effective ways to lose weight. It also offers other health benefits that involve the heart, brain, and digestive tract.
We hope that this article managed to highlight the potential benefits of the keto diet and how ketosis helps you lose weight.