75% Diet, 25% Exercise: The Key to Successful Weight Loss - Essay Sample

Introduction

Talking about weight loss, people usually assume that being active in sports and exercising every day plays a more critical role than having the right diet. But not a lot of people know that having the proper diet is proven to be a more crucial component in the weight loss journey. According to Dr. Alia Hoyt, a contributing writer for WebMD.com (The US number one web page about medical news), the formula for a healthy weight loss process is 75% diet and 25% exercising. From here, we can see how significant an eating pattern is that finding the right one is the first step we should take while entering such a hard journey. The paper explores the essential factors that make the ketogenic diet necessary in the body.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Many people believe that reducing a specific nutrient, such as fat, protein, or carbohydrates in the diet, would be the most effective way rather than following a healthy balanced diet. The main reason behind it is remarkably apparent: nowadays' generation is in a severe lack of patience, which is the critical element of any success! Following an old-school, banal, and slow-effective eating pattern is not as favored anymore as hyped and fast-effective diets. The ketogenic diet can be listed as a great example of that category. According to Mark Evans, a professor of the Institute of Metabolic Science and Department of Medicine of University of Cambridge, a ketogenic diet is "a diet that consists of at least 70 percent of calories derived from fat, less than 10 percent from carbs and less than 20 percent from protein." We can call it a tremendously low-carb diet. The reason why this type of diet suddenly becomes well-favored is the mechanism of the ketosis process. We can understand as that usually the body consumes carbohydrates as the primary source of energy, but when we cut it out from a diet, the body is forced to go through a state of ketosis through fat metabolism, which means the body would use primarily fat for energy instead of carbohydrates. Stated, the ketogenic diet is the one way that forces the body to burn and use fat to fuel the body.There is a direct relationship between the ketogenic diet and weight loss. The various types of foods that are rich in ketogenic include seafood such as fish, shellfish among others, low-carb vegetables, fatty fruits such as avocados, coconut oil, animal products such as cheese, plain Greek yogurt, meat, poultry, and eggs. These foods are essential sources of ketogenic diets. They are high-fat nutrients with adequate-protein. They also are low-carbohydrate nutrients, a component that makes them appropriate for weight loss.

Nevertheless, these foods are vital in medicinal purposes as they help in reducing severe effects of the difficult to treat and control ailments like epilepsy primarily in children (Abbasi 215). One of the crucial characteristics of these types of foods is the ability to burn fats as opposed to carbohydrates. The ketogenic diet radically reduces the intake of sugar into the body and replace that intake with fats. As a result, the diet elevates the body to a state of metabolism known as ketosis. At this metabolic state, fats are the primary sources of energy for the body cells (Kane 22-23). Therefore, the ketosis state is essential in the reduction of weight, a characteristic that makes a ketogenic diet necessary in weight loss.

Besides weight loss, the ketogenic diet is vital in the body in numerous ways. A ketogenic diet is essential in reducing the adverse effects of type 2 diabetes. Research shows that insulin resistance is the cause of type 2 diabetes amongst some people (Abbasi 217). Additionally, studies reveal that low-carbohydrates are more effective in the control of blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes compared to the high-carbohydrates. Nonetheless, a ketogenic diet in the form of low-carbohydrates helps in reducing the insulin resistance in the body to manageable levels. As a result, it helps in reducing the rates and effects of type 2 diabetes in such people. The ketogenic diet is highly recommended to people with type 2 diabetes due to its ability to reverse the condition. It also helps in the treatment of insulin-related types of cancer (Hultin 18).

Ketogenic diets are vital in reducing the severe effects or even treating certain types of cancer in their early stages. Research on the control of cancer proves that ketogenic diet intake alongside chemotherapy as well as radiation therapy, is one of the safe ways to reduce the effects of cancer (Masino 48). Studies show that the low-carbohydrates from the ketogenic diets have the effect of increasing the oxidative stress on cancerous cells in comparison to the healthy cells of the body (Pawlicki 298). As a result, these cancer cells die much quicker than normal body cells helping in reducing the severe effect or treating specific types of cancer.

Despite the numerous advantages of a ketogenic diet, there some undesirable effects especially in the long-term intake of the ketogenic diet. One of the impacts of the long-term intake of the ketogenic diet is the risk of kidney stones associated with the diet. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, prolonged dependence of the ketogenic diet increases osteoporosis as well as kidney stones (Masino 40). A research conducted on the children depending on the ketogenic diet as a treatment and control for epilepsy revealed that 14 out of the 195 test subjects developed kidney stones as a result of the intake (Pawlicki 295-298). Nevertheless, 20 out of the children had developed increased uric acids in their blood samples. The high content of purine in the ketogenic diet increases the amount of uric acid in the blood. Chemical reactions in the body lead to the breaking down of the purine to uric acid. The 2012 studies on the dangers of ketogenic diet conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health indicates that many people encounter the risk of gout at an initial stage of ketosis in prolonged ketogenic intake as a result of the increase in the uric acid (Pawlicki 296).

Conclusion

In conclusion, a ketogenic diet is essential in the body due to various biologically proved reasons. Some of the reasons which make a ketogenic diet necessary include the role that they play in enhancing weight loss. They are also essential in reducing the adverse effect of medical conditions such as epilepsy in children, reducing the growth and spread of cancerous cells, as well as reducing the impact of type 2 diabetes. Nonetheless, prolonged reliance on a ketogenic diet can be catastrophic as it can contribute to an increase in kidney stones as well as an increase in blood uric acid.

Works Cited

Abbasi, Jennifer. "Interest in the ketogenic diet grows for weight loss and type 2 diabetes." Jama 319.3 (2018): 215-217.

Evans, Mark. "Keto Diets: Good, Bad, or Ugly?" The Journal of Physiology, vol. 596, no. 19, Oct. 2018, p. 4561. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1113/JP276703.

Hoyt, Alia. "Diet vs. Exercise: The Truth About Weight Loss." Oct. 2018, https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-vs-exercise-the-truth-about-weight-loss#1

Hultin, Ginger. "Cancer. The Keto Diet's Impact on Cancer Treatment." Today's Dietitian, vol. 21, no. 11, Nov. 2019, pp. 14-16. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=139875415&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Kane, Emily A. "Is the Keto Diet Right for You?" Better Nutrition, vol. 81, no. 7, July 2019, pp. 22-23. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=137226336&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Masino, Susan A., ed. Ketogenic Diet and Metabolic Therapies: Expanded Roles in Health and Disease. Oxford University Press, 2016.

Pawlicki, Bartlomiej, et al. "Ketogenic diet in pediatric patients with epilepsy." Journal of Education, Health and Sport 9.7 (2019): 294-298.