Keto Or Atkins: Which Low-Carb Diet Is Better For You?

Staying healthy has become an utmost necessity in today's fast-paced world. Eating a low-carb diet has therefore become a necessity in today's generation. It is an age-old belief where consumption of fat has been associated with poor health, but this no longer holds true.

Research has proved that one should not fear natural fats. In fact, in order to stay healthy, dietitians advise a low-carb and high-fat diet. To stay fit, it is essential that you minimize the intake of starch and sugar.

What Is A Low-carb Diet?

When on a low-carb diet, you would be going minimal with the intake of carbohydrates, which is highly found in sugary food products, apart from pasta and bread. In a low-carb diet, your diet mainly comprises of vegetables, natural fats and protein-rich food. A low-carb diet assures that you lose weight and stay fit.

The Two Types Of Low-carb Diets

The two popular low-carb diets are Ketogenic and Atkins. Both aim towards providing a healthy and fit body. However, they largely differ in how they are defined. Before starting to follow any one of these, it is important to know what they are and who should follow it and in what way. Understanding these two low-carb diets will give you an insight on what is suitable and better for you.

Keto And Atkins

To understand how these two low-carb diets differ, you will need to identify their origin. Keto was actually developed to prevent seizures, whereas atkins was developed to enable weight loss. For long, keto was used only in treatments, especially that of epilepsy. It has only been in the recent times that people have started observing it as a weight loss diet as well.

Keto Diet

In a keto diet, most part that is about 90 percent of the daily calories comes from fat, while the rest is primarily sourced from protein. In this form of a diet, about 2 to 5 percent of carbs is consumed. In comparison to the Atkins diet, where the carb intake varies, in the keto diet, all the carbs are counted. In the keto diet, the amount of carb intake is quite low for a long term.

Atkins Diet

In atkins diet, about 60 percent of the calories is obtained from fat, whereas about 30 percent of it is obtained from protein. In this form of a diet, about 10 percent of calories are consumed from carbs. The carbs consumption in Atkins is said to change over time. When on an Atkins diet, the induction phase allows up to 20 grams of net carbs, which is nothing but the total carbs minus the fibre. As you proceed further in this diet plan, the amount of carb intake permitted goes higher.

Choosing Your Low-carb Diet

So, now that you have decided to start following a low-carb diet, it is essential to make a decision whether you wish to go for a keto diet or an Atkins diet.

When following Atkins, for the first two weeks, you will be provided with a limited list of vegetables, from which you can have only 20 grams of carbohydrates daily. Every meal will need to contain protein-rich food such as fish, meat, cheese, eggs and poultry. Most of the fruits will need to be avoided.

You will also need to give up the consumption of breads, pastas, sugary baked cookies, nuts, grains and alcohol. However, oil and fat can be consumed as you would like it. As weeks pass by, you will slowly begin adding most of the veggies in your diet. You will also start having nuts and seeds. Finally, your diet can include fruits, whole grains and starchy veggies.

When following the Keto diet, your daily meal would be such that it would provide you 20 percent protein, 75 percent fat and 5 percent carbs. The body goes into a state called "ketosis" due to this extensive low-carb intake. In the ketosis state, the body begins to use up the body's fat and protein for energy. The liver begins to break these macronutrients to form ketones. This has been observed to promote a good amount of weight loss.

In general, low-carb diets have always been associated with successful weight loss. When results are observed over time, there is not much difference when low-carb or low-fat diet plans are compared.