Ok actually, it?s not magic?it?s an entirely new realm of science that researchers are discovering to be more and more beneficial for a broad range of health conditions! From Alzheimer?s to epilepsy to (our favorite) weight loss; high fat and keto diets are making a name for themselves as methods to both improve body composition and overall well-being!
So what are the must knows of the keto diet? Keto is actually short for ?ketogenic? or ?ketosis? ? it?s a state that the body enters when it burns fat for energy as a preference over carbs. The idea behind the technique is to eat fat?a lot of fat! And in doing this, you essentially train your body to burn more of your OWN fat in the times that you aren?t eating! Brilliant right?
To enter ketosis, carbs are essentially obsolete. You need to consume about 65-75% of your calories from fat and 25-35% from protein, leaving only 5% or less for carbs?and the fewer carbs you eat below that percentage, the quicker you may enter ketosis. Eating 5% carbs does not just mean avoiding breads and pasta; there are carbs in almost everything! Fruit, starchy vegetables, even marinaras and sauces may have too many carbs to be considered ?keto friendly?. The best way to go about counting carbs to make sure your effort is productive is to keep a food diary, such as on MyFitnessPal. Another important factor in reaching ketosis is the frequency in which you eat. We have been told all of our lives to eat multiple meals, but when reaching ketosis, the body needs to burn through our stored carbohydrates to activate our liver to produce ketones. This means that eating every 6 hours (or longer) is the right way to approach this. Just remember, eating less calories than you burn is an important factor so don?t overeat when you do eat!
Okay full disclosure ? to train ourselves to burn fat instead of carbs does not happen overnight. In fact, studies show that it can take weeks to do this! In this transition period, many people tend to feel very tired and have low energy levels because our bodies are basically switching gears to a much slower form of energy. Luckily, there is a way to accelerate this gear switch ? and it is something very near and dear to our hearts: Coffee. <3
Caffeine is a great thing for many reasons. First, it helps to suppress appetite by stimulating our sympathetic nervous system (this is the system that is active when we work out as well)! Here is the coolest thing: While this system is active while coffee is running through our veins, caffeine also slows down the use of the stored carbs we have in our body, forcing our bodies to use fat for energy! Now take this all to the highest level of cool and add some fat to your coffee?Now you?re fueling your body with fat while it is most likely to burn fat! (And it is making it easier for the body to transition into ketosis!)
These are the reasons why our Keto Coffee is working so well. It contains some of the most easily absorbable fats: MCTs, which not only train the body to burn fat as fuel, but also create a longer-lasting effect for the caffeine. It?s like jumping into a pool to get used to the temperature of the water instead of slowly and painfully tip-toeing into the deep end! Our KC also contains grass-fed butter. Cows who eat more grass produce butter with higher levels of anti-inflammatory omega-3s, and also vitamin K ? a nutrient that is essential for good bone health. To go the extra mile, we top it all off with collagen. This compound is found in our skin and joints, and therefore can give us better looking skin and less trouble with our joints when we consume it regularly!
It is not always fun (or fair) to think about all of the ways that the food industry has manipulated food to make us sick, but there is something we can do about it now. We can manipulate our food to work FOR us! We can use this science therefore to sculpt the bodies, minds, and lifestyles that we want for ourselves. All we have to do is take it back!! Here?s to the good things in life. Like coffee <3