Is a keto diet dangerous? 12+ keto diet side effects You need to know

If you are looking for how dangerous is a keto diet? Then you are in a right place. 

First, we have to understand the science behind the metabolism and work function of the human body to keep your body in shape. Once you know the mechanism of the human body functioning, you can calculate your calorie consumption and maintain your body weight.

According to science, the human body generates energy by breakdown of carbohydrates first, then protein is used as an energy provider, and at last, fat is used to provide energy.

A low-carb, high-fat plan promises to lose weight quickly, but health experts worry about these side effects and complications.

In this article, we take a look at keto diet side effects and how keto ruined your health?

Is a keto diet dangerous?

Restricting carbs and increasing fat intake can lead to ketosis, a metabolic state in which your body mainly depends on fat for energy instead of carbs. (*)

However, there are risks in the diet that you should be aware of.

Stick to the article for more information on long term side effects of keto diet.

What is keto diet?

Keto diet is basically a low carb and high fat-containing food. It merely focuses on making your body provide you with energy by using your stored fat.

In this way, the fat percentage of your body decreases and makes you slim. As carbohydrates are digested 1st, the keto diet provides you with low carbs which will be used by doing normal work for the day. Then the body depends upon fat provided by the keto diet to provide energy.

You will also have to keep a watch on the protein amount. It should vary from low to moderate quantity. Now you must have been aware of the working process of the keto diet.

low carb keto diet for beginners

Ketosis

It is the normal metabolic state of the human body. When we consume carbs rich food, carbs are converted to glycogen and glycogen/ sugar level increases in our blood.

In the same way, when we consume the keto diet, fat is used and broken down and converted to smaller molecules to provide you energy.

What is ketosis?

Ketosis is a normal metabolic state in which instead of breaking down carbs, the breakdown of fat occurs to provide you energy.

The smaller broken down molecules are available in the blood. The molecules are called ketones. These molecules provide you energy for the well functioning of the body. This process is called ketosis.

In this process, you have to keep your carb limits up to 50gm. Some studies also suggest maintaining carb content up to 20gm for better results of ketosis.

Read here: healthy high carb good food lists

Ketoacidosis

Don’t misinterpret ketosis as ketoacidosis. Both are different.

While ketosis is a state of the body, ketoacidosis is a serious complication of diabetic persons. In this situation insulin decreases in blood, that’s why large particles of glycogen are seen in the bloodstream. It can be fatal with severe complications.

Due to this acidity of blood increases. This is called ketoacidosis. It has several other ill effects on the body. Those are excessive thirst, frequent urination, nausea and vomiting, stomach pain, fatigue or weakness.

Is a keto diet dangerous?

➢ Is keto diet safe? Negatives of ketogenic diet

Let’s see why keto is bad?

Keto diet has initial days side effects. Besides that it has several health benefits like weight loss, reducing sugar quantity in the bloodstream. So keto diet helps in controlling diabetes. In Spite of several health benefits, the keto diet has several bad effects too. Those are keto flu, kidney and heart problems, quality of nutrients.

Keto flu:-

When you start adopting a keto diet, at first your body takes time to adapt to new food habits. During this time your body shows some side effects. Because your body is used to intake glucose and give you energy by breaking down glycogen.

When you start consuming a keto diet, then your body starts using ketone as fuel for your work. So several side effects are seen in the initial days. The side effects are constipation, nausea, vomiting, weakness, frequent urination, and dizziness etc. This state of the body is called keto flu. This is normal when you start to take keto diet.

So if you are starting a keto diet, then make up your mind for keto flu also. Keto flu may last for one week. So be prepared mentally.

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Kidney and Heart problems:-

The initial side effect of the keto diet is frequent urination.

As the level of ketone increases in the blood, our body tries to extract them from the body by frequent urination. So due to frequent urination, loads increase on both the kidneys. So this may affect the kidneys.

The initial keto diet can also affect heart rate. Your heartbeat rate may also increase in the initial days. This is due to low water and salt intake. You can avoid this by drinking more water and taking a little bit more salt.

What to eat on a keto diet?

multivitamins for Men and women on low carb keto diet

Bad breathe :-

Due to increased levels of ketone, our body tries to eliminate these ketones in different ways. Along with frequent urination, the body also tries to eliminate these ketones through breathings. The main component of ketones is acetone. So our breath smells like acetone due to the eliminated acetone from our body through breathing. This is also a side effect of the keto diet.

Muscle cramp:-

Due to low water intake, sometimes muscle cramps or soreness can be seen in our bodies. This is due to water scarcity in our bodies. This might be seen in the initial days of our diet. Due to low carb intake, the nutritional content of our body may decrease. So this is another matter for muscle cramps. So to avoid this you should consume more water. Keep your body hydrated.

Also read: Indian low carb high protein recipes

Digestive disorders:-

As in the keto diet, you have to restrain yourself from some healthy foods like fruits and vegetables due to the high carb content in those foods, deficiency occurs in your body. A significant impact on your body can be felt by digestive problems. Due to less fibre and less nutrient consumption, some useful bacterias may not function well in your guts. So this may lead to some digestive problems as their function becomes inefficient. This is another side effect of the keto diet.

Low blood sugar level:-

As you start consuming low carb food materials, the sugar level decreases in your blood. This may lead to the condition of hypoglycaemia.  

Have a look at: high protein low carb foods

In type 1 diabetes persons, it may have a severe impact. It may cause low blood sugar level conditions, which can be fatal. Whenever sugar enters our bloodstream, it becomes attached to our haemoglobin HbA1c. Increasing the level of HbA1c means a higher level of sugar in your blood. But due to keto diet, this HbA1c level decreases rapidly due to low carb intake. So this is another side effect of the keto diet.

Decrease bone density:-

As we avoid several healthy foods due to the high carb content in those foods,  it becomes difficult for us to meet our daily nutrition requirements up to the limit. Thus several beneficial elements are not provided to the body. Due to the deficiency of the materials, the density of our bones decreases gradually. Then after some time, it becomes fragile. You may see some crack and breakdown of bones. But this matter is not fully proved. There are some more studies that need to be covered about it.

Decrease muscle mass:-

When you shift your food habit from high carb foods to keto diet, in the initial days, you may see much more benefits in weight loss. The causes may not be the actual cause you think it to be. You might think that by consuming a keto diet, you may shred the fat mass of your body and become healthy. But sometimes the muscle mass may be used to provide energy instead of the fat portion of your body. This may lead to a decrease in the muscle mass of your body. So according to scientific data you should not be more dependent upon the keto diet for the long term. The time period should not be more than 90 days.

This is one of the long term harmful effects of the keto diet. So don’t be dependent on keto to replace your exercise and hard work results. Doing exercises have their own perks to serve.

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Weight regain:-

As you are aware now of the degeneration of muscle mass of your body, thus you should also be aware that muscle mass can also be regained after starting consumption of carbohydrates. So when you restart your previous food habits when you become slim by following a strict keto diet, then your body once again becomes active to make use of the carbs provided through your new high carb diets. Rather it becomes more active than the previous time. Then you start gaining your muscle mass as before. It may lead to gaining more mass right before consumption of the keto diet. This is also another one of the bad effects of the keto diet.

Reduce your performance in athletics:-

When you start consuming a keto diet, your body starts to use the fat mass to provide you energy for your work. As the amount of ketones increases in the bloodstream, our body tries more and more to eliminate it through breathing and frequent urination. Our blood becomes more acidic. So our body wants to avoid our blood being more acidic for a long time. So to eliminate the acids, our body increases our breathing rate. As a result, we start consuming more energy in eliminating the ketones from our bodies. So efficiency is hampered by this process. So the efficiency of athletes decreases. It is the initial day’s problem of the keto diet.

Keto diarrhoea:-

In the initial days of the keto diet,  the fat content increases in our diet. So to neutralise fat, bile from the gallbladder plays a major role. Due to high-fat content large amounts of bile is released into the bloodstream. But when not all the bile is used for breaking down fat, then it can not be also reabsorbed into our bloodstream from the gut. Then they turn into water and salt and are being excreted from our body in watery form. This causes diarrhoea. Once our body gets used to the daily increased fat level, such problems are not seen. This is only a problem of the initial days of keto diets.

Dehydration:-

As our body eliminates ketones through frequent urination, we will feel more thirsty than before. Due to frequent loss of water through urine, your body would need more and more water stressing your kidney. So it’s natural if you feel thirsty in the initial days of the keto diet. Don’t be so worried about being thirsty all the time. To get rid of being thirsty, consume more and more water. Drinking more water has its own perks. It purifies your blood and also makes your skin look brighter.

Is a keto diet dangerous?

Other diseases:-

Shifting to a keto diet may also bring you some other diseases like kidney stones and fatty liver. As you consume more and more fat, the unused fat is being deposited in the liver. Thus it causes fatty liver. Drink sufficient water to avoid kidney stones.

As fat is consumed more and more, sometimes unregulated saturated fat also gets absorbed into our body that causes several heart ailments. So this is also another problem of the keto diet.

Note:-

We have described all the side effects of the keto diet for your convenience. Everything has both good and bad effects. Nothing in this world is 100% right and good. Some temporary problems may give you some permanent solutions like the keto diet. So choose accordingly.

Is a keto diet dangerous? Foamy urine keto

One of the more general questions we have heard from people starting a ketogenic or low-carbohydrate diet is why they get foamy urine on the ketogenic diet. Foamy keto urine is usually caused by either increased urine stream, concentrated urine from dehydration, excess protein, or certain medications.

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What have you learned today?

While the keto diet is linked to short term weight loss and other health benefits, it can lead to overtime nutrients, digestive problems, poor bone health and other health problems.

People with kidney disease, diabetes, heart or bone disease, or other medical conditions should talk to their healthcare provider before consuming the keto diet.

To help reduce the risk of complications and nutritional deficiencies, you may want to consult your dietician to plan a balanced diet and monitor your nutritional level.

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