The ketogenic diet, or “keto” diet, changes the body’s conventional energy source from burning glucose to burning dietary fat by putting the body into a state of “ketosis”. The diet claims to work by drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake and increasing your intake of healthy fats. This causes the body to be forced into burning fat and producing ketones, which allows you to enter ketosis. In ketosis, it’s possible to experience rapid weight loss until you’re at a stable and healthy body weight.
The keto diet is based on the types of foods that can be eaten, but it might also be helpful to recognize that there are keto diet supplements that can speed up weight loss while elevating energy levels at the same time. Supplements to the diet are in no way necessary to be successful, and it’s crucial to construct a diet full of foods that supply your body with the proper nutrients. Supplements can help improve the results of ketosis but consult a doctor before making any supplements a staple choice in your lifestyle.
Essential Supplements For The Keto Diet
These eight supplements can prove helpful in maximizing the results of the keto diet while smoothing the transition into it at the same time.
Fish Oil
The keto diet includes eating a lot of fatty foods, many of which are very rich in omega-6 fatty acids. While the body does need omega-6, ingesting too much of this fatty acid can cause inflammation. On top of that, ingesting too many omega-6 fatty acids without enough omega-3 can cause systemic inflammation to occur, leading to arthritis and cardiovascular disease, among other chronic illnesses. This causes a problem, as many of the food sources that have high counts of omega-6, such as sunflower seeds, soybeans, corn oils, butter, milk, non-organic meat and poultry are common staples in a ketogenic diet.
Fish oil supplements come in handy for those on the keto diet because they provide a simple way to balance the ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s in your body. Also, they serve as a natural anti-inflammatory and add to your fat intake.
Perfect Keto
This powdered drink mix gives your body exogenous ketones, which your body burns for energy immediately, regardless of if you’re in ketosis or not. This supplement provides the same advantages as natural ketones, which include better mental focus and athletic performance in addition to the fat burning and long-lasting energy it is known to give. Perfect Keto won’t put you in ketosis, so it cannot replace the keto diet itself. It can, however, help your body get back into ketosis once your daily carb limit has been reached.
Creatine
Creatine is not only a favorite supplement among athletes and bodybuilders due to its ability to help with energy production and muscle contractions, it’s also useful to those on the keto diet who are interested in improving their performance during high-intensity exercise. As we age, our body’s natural ability to produce creatine declines, so a creatine supplement proves useful in allowing keto-dieters who are a little older to maintain effective workouts.
7 Keto DHEA
This supplement is something that is also produced naturally by the body in the adrenal glands and the brain. 7 Keto DHEA works similar to a growth hormone in that it can help increase the body’s production of other important fat-burning, lean-muscle mass building hormones. To put it simply, it boosts metabolism and speeds up weight loss in a healthier way.
Electrolytes
One of the biggest drawbacks to cutting back on carbs is that you’re likely to not get enough electrolytes. Unfortunately, some of the best ways to get electrolytes are through fruits and vegetables that contain a lot of starch, which keto-dieters can’t have.
The keto flu, characterized by fatigue, muscle cramping, dizziness, nausea and headaches, is often caused by low levels of electrolytes. Many newcomers to the keto diet experience the keto flu because they have suddenly depleted their bodies of the electrolytes they are typically used to getting naturally. To avoid this, take electrolyte supplements daily, such as potassium, calcium, sodium and magnesium. Be sure to up your dosage if you’re exercising and drink plenty of water.
Vitamin D
The supplements alone don’t always give your body what it needs because they might not be absorbed. Vitamin D is excellent for calcium absorption in addition to improving your immune system. The best source of vitamin D is the sun; however, not everyone can be out in the sun regularly. This is where taking a vitamin D3 supplement comes in. It will get you to the vitamin D levels your body needs to absorb electrolytes while also working to keep your immune system functioning at a high level.
L-Glutamine
If you’re a more active person on the keto diet, this supplement is for you. Frequent and intense exercise is linked to a depletion of the body’s natural reserves of glutamine, then leading to the production of free radicals. The carb-reduction of your keto diet can easily cause you to also cut down on foods that are rich in antioxidants. Using L-Glutamine as a supplement might help you avoid damage to your cells.
MCT Oil
MCTs are medium chain triglycerides, one of the fatty acids found in cheese and butter, coconut oil, palm oil and yogurt. They are unlike other fatty acids because they allow your body to use them immediately, which also means they can be converted to ketones and produce energy instead of going into your body’s fat storage.MCT Oil supplements can be advantageous in the keto diet as they help continuously burn fat while still providing energy. You can also get MCTs naturally by cooking with coconut oil.
