Keto Diet and its side effects
Keto Diet is the new silent killer. All you need to know before starting. When you eat carbs, your body uses the carbs for normal functioning and any excess of carbs is converted to fat for storage for later use. But a daily consumption of excess carbs will make body store higher amount of fat leading to overweight or obesity.This is the point where most of the people think about loosing some weight. But getting into a fad Diet from internet to solve your weight problems often come with lot of other health problems. Many people follow Internet Diets mainly because its free.But its good to understand what you are upto before starting Keto Diet.
FAT AND TYPES
There are 2 types of fat in our body
1. Subcutaneous fat and
2. Visceral fat

Subcutaneous fat - Subcutaneous fat is found directly under the skin. It's the fat that's measured to estimate your total body fat.
In terms of overall health, subcutaneous fat in the thighs and buttocks, for instance, may not be as bad and may have some potential health benefits. It may not cause as many problems as other types of fat. This fat may cause only beauty problem.
Carbs in your diet is converted to fat and is stored as Subcutaneous fat around your body.
2. Visceral or "deep" fat – It wraps around the inner organs and spells trouble for your health. If you have a large waist or belly, of course you have visceral fat. Visceral fat drives up your risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke and even Dementia.
Abdominal fat is viewed as a bigger health risk than Subcutaneous Fat. And that could mean having a worse effect on insulin resistance, boosting the risk of diabetes, and a worse effect on blood lipids, boosting heart and stroke risk.
High Fat and saturated fat from meat and animal products in your diet will increase the visceral fat or abdominal fat directly putting you at high risk for many health problems.
KETO DIET
A keto diet is a very high fat diet with low carb that typically is
· 60 to 75 percent of your calories from fat
· 15 to 30 percent of your calories from protein
· 5 to 10 percent of your calories from carbs.
That usually means eating no more than 50 grams of carbs a day (some strict keto dieters even opt for just 20 grams a day).
After about two to seven days of following the keto diet, you go into a stage called ketosis, or the state your body enters when it doesn't have enough carbs for your cells to use for energy. That's when you start making ketones, or organic compounds that your body then uses in place of those missing carbs. At this point, your body also starts burning fat for more energy.
Believe it or not, the keto diet was originally designed to help people who suffer from seizure disorders—not to help people lose weight. That's because both ketones and another chemical produced by the keto diet, called decanoic acid, may help minimize seizures.
But people who started following the keto diet noticed weight loss due to ketosis. But this is not a healthy alternative for weight loss.
As a result of the changes in dietary consumption and the body’s adaptive mechanisms to cope with the reduced carbohydrate intake, there are several changes in the blood composition of individuals following the ketogenic diet.
Everyone's body reacts and responds slightly different so after following keto diet.
There are mainly 2 types of reactions:-
1 Side-effect
2. Adverse effects
Side effects – Side effect are minor and undesirable effect as a result of something. It is reported or show the signs within short term like within 6 months of time.
Adverse reactions- it is not the same thing as side effects. An adverse reaction is an, unwanted/unexpected and dangerous reaction to a therapeutic agent. Adverse reaction are not minor. They are long term effect typically from 6 months to 2 years.
Side effects (first 6 months)
Common side effects include
· Weight loss - the fact that ketosis encourages your body to burn fat, means you can end up with pretty dramatic weight loss.
· Gastrointestinal disturbances (diarrhoea, vomiting, nausea, constipation, GER)
· Excessive thirst
· Frequent urination
· Fatigue
· Hunger
· Confusion, anxiety and/or irritability
· Light-headedness and shakiness
· Sweating and chills
Adverse reaction (from 6 months to 2yrs)
When the ketogenic diet is continued for extended periods of time, there are other adverse effects that become more evident and have a greater impact on individuals.
· Inflammation risk
· Thinning hair/hair loss
· Muscle cramps or weakness
· Hypoglycaemia – low sugar in blood, causing fainting and sometimes coma.
· Low platelet count
· Depression
· Impaired concentration/cognition
· Impaired mood
· Renal tubular acidosis
· Kidney Stones - low pH in the urine can encourage the formation of crystals and, eventually, kidney stones.
· Nutrient deficiency leading to other health problems
· Disordered mineral metabolism
· Poor growth in children- Mainly due to lack of due to reduced levels of insulin-like growth factor 1. This hormone usually plays an important role in the growth of children and is reduced as a result of the diet. For this reason, have an increased risk of stunted growth.
· Infertility in male and female due to hormone imbalance.
· Skeletal fracture or Light Bones - Acidosis due to low carb and high meat intake leads to the erosion of bone, weakening the bones and leaving them prone to fractures.
· Osteopenia/osteoporosis- due to weakening bones and erosion of bone minerals lead to low bone density and Osteoporosis.
· Increased bruising
· Sepsis, infection, bacteria overgrowth – Mainly due to high meat intake.
· Pneumonia
· Acute pancreatitis
· Long QT intervals
· Cardiomyopathy
· Atherosclerosis – ( blockage in arteries)- Shift towards atherogenic lipid profiles (including hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia)
· High blood cholesterol - More than 60% of patients have raised lipid levels and more than 30% have high levels of cholesterol.
· Heart arrhythmia
· Myocardial infarction,
· Menstrual irregularities and amenorrhea in Women leading to Infertility.
· Cancer – Increased risk of Breast, ovarian in women and prostate cancer in Men. Keto Diet increases your risk rapidly for Colon cancer.
· Sleep Death – many reports of death while sleeping have occurred in younger people after following keto diet for more than 6 months to 2 yrs.
How to protect yourself and your family from fake nutritionist promoting Keto Diet.
Educational credentials – Check their degree/ educational credentials/ certificate that proves they did the course of nutrition and dietetics in a university not from google.
An authentic personalised practice with dietary principle.
If you are doing keto diet after the recommendation or advice or seminar or following instruction from a book written by a person – you have the right to sue your injuries caused by this diet against the author or conductor of the program.
If you are following keto diet, let your family also know from when you start this and keep a copy of the registration, book and other evidence for filing a suit under Medical malpractice and Negligence.
Share to your friends or family to keep them aware of the side effects of Keto Diet.
Most of the people are doing keto diets based on fake publicity and promotions from social media. Without knowing the fact that It’s a fake bubble of reality.
Conclusion
Most of the keto programs are for fake publicity or just business idea for selling seminar tickets or book sale.
Always remember that every person is different and a diet depending to your body type and medical conditions will work better and will be a safe option for a long life.
Weight loss should be done to reduce your risk factors and increase your life span. Don’t shorten it with Keto diet.
Diet for your medical condition should always be planned by a professional Dietitian only.