According to health experts and scientists, obesity and overweight are the primary risk factors for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Luckily, a diet plan might significantly help reduce the risk of developing these serious health complications. Have you ever heard of the term KETO Diet or ketosis diet? Okay, if you have never heard of the term before, I may probably tell what is running into your mind right now when you hear anything to do with a diet plan. ‘But my sugar levels are okay or even ‘But am not suffering from any hypertension or blood sugar complication.’
Here is the thing, though. You don’t have to wait until you develop a lifestyle disease to start a particular dietary plan—customized diets like the keto diet help eliminate risk factors for serious health problems. For instance, if you are already obese, keto-friendly foods might help adjust your body system to find an alternative primary energy source. This way, you get to lose weight and reduce your vulnerability to type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. This article enlightens you about the keto diet for men. So keep reading.
Why is Keto Diet Good for Men?
Grasping what we mean by ketosis might help in understanding why the keto diets suitable for men. Have you ever gone without food for some days? I remember when my friend introduced me to the keto diet; I was excited that finally, I was going to shed off some excess fat. As the diet suggests, I had to adjust to a low-carbohydrate diet with intermittent fasting. It meant that I was depriving my body of carbohydrates, which are its primary energy sources and use fat for energy instead of the carb. Now, this is what ketosis is all about.
Therefore, when your body doesn’t have adequate carbohydrates for energy, it burns stored body fat as an alternative fuel source. In the middle of burning fats, your body produces ketones. Now, this whole process is called ketosis. On that note, the keto diet is suitable for men because of multiple reasons. According to scientific evidence, the keto diet may help you build and preserve muscle if you are a male.
Additionally, if you are a man, apart from losing weight and preventing diabetes, the keto diet could help boost your testosterone levels. As you lose weight, your testosterone levels tend to increase. That’s not all, as the diet might also aid in reversing the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in men. As a man, following a keto diet could also help in reversing type 2 diabetes while being on a low-fat diet will reduce your cholesterol which is a precursor of your testosterone
Benefits of Keto Diet for Men
As mentioned above in this article, strictly adhering to the keto diet with the proper protein intake for you as a man has various benefits, from boosting your testosterone levels to building and preserving muscles. However, I know you might be wondering how the diet helps build muscles, yet your body gets limited or no carbohydrates. Don’t worry. Let me share with you the details of these benefits.
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A Keto diet for men causes weight loss.
Living a protective diet lifestyle needs a lot of commitment and dedication. That’s why weight loss is a journey and not an overnight success, as some people would assume. That is why the journey to lose excess weight may sometimes be longer for older people than young people. Usually, as you age, your body tends to store more fat while losing muscle. However, as an old keto man, you may achieve your weight loss goal by adhering to a low-carb moderate protein intake and high-fat diet in approximately 6 months.
However, in my opinion, the amount of weight to lose depends on several variable factors. These factors include stress, activity, and food choices. A harmless weight loss rate is around one to two pounds each week (1).
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A Keto diet for men may reverse non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
When your liver has some fat, you are experiencing Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). If you have pre-existing conditions like high cholesterol levels, diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, you are more prone to NAFLD. I almost forgot that smoking is also a risk factor for this liver condition. The good news is that the Keto diet for men might significantly reduce insulin resistance, the leading cause of this condition. Therefore, if you lower the carb intake to less than 20 grams of carbohydrates with moderate protein and strictly follow the other men’s fitness keto diet guidelines for six months, you might end up improving your fatty liver.
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A Keto diet for men reverses type 2 diabetes.
Did you know that nutrition for males plays a significant role in blood sugar levels? Whatever you consume has a direct or indirect effect on your blood sugar. If you eat high amounts of carbohydrate-rich foods, the chances are high that you have an above-normal blood sugar level. Therefore, the keto diet results men in maintaining a low-carb intake. With that said, your diabetic condition will not get worse or return. Through the Virta Health program, twelve patients under the keto diet for one year exhibited a significant decrease in blood sugar levels and triglycerides (2). Additionally, extra benefits included improved blood pressure and a rise in good cholesterol. Therefore, if your one of the people with diabetes type 2, following the keto diet for men may completely reverse it or prevent it from worsening.
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A Keto diet for men increases energy levels.
As I highlighted earlier in this article, you may not achieve the benefits of the keto diet overnight. This information prepares you psychologically for the keto flu fatigue you may experience during the first days into the diet. However, immediately you are past this transition stage, you will feel more energized than ever before.
Although dietary carbohydrates are the body’s preferred fuel source, especially when participating in sports and fitness activities, the keto meta training diet fuels these activities by burning fats. This way, your body gets to have a primary, sustainable and reliable source of energy. However, to make fats the primary, reliable, and sustainable energy source, you may have to introduce the men’s journal keto diet into your lifestyle. The men’s journal keto diet is a food plan that incorporates meals with low carbohydrates, moderate protein, and high fat. The plan aims at putting your body into a ketosis metabolic state and provides you with positive energy balance
Could a Keto Diet Help Treat Hypogonadism?
Did you know that for every five men diagnosed with low testosterone levels, four of them have hypogonadism (3)? Hypogonadism is a health condition that mainly affects a man’s sexual life with depression, low sex drive, erectile dysfunction, and fatigue as the primary symptoms. Health practitioners point out that hypogonadism has several causes, and obesity is one of its risks factors.
Scientific evidence suggests there is the possibility of a ketogenic diet managing the condition. In a recent single-arm uncontrolled study, metabolic hypogonadism and obesity patients were under a Very Low-calorie Ketogenic Diet (VLCKD) for twelve weeks. The study results showed that the appropriate application of VLCKD on hypogonadism and obese patients would improve insulin sensitivity and the betta-cell secretory function (4). These results indicate that if you follow the VLCKD plan, it might rescue you from betta-cell failure that results in metabolic hypogonadism.
Women’s keto vs. men’s keto
keto diet male vs. female keto diet has slight variances mainly because of the factors that affect women’s progress and results. In most cases, women tend to slowly respond to the diet than men due to the following factors;
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Female hormones
Unlike men’s hormones, women’s hormones have a significantly high sensitivity to diet change. Depending on the level of sensitivity to hormones in their bodies, some females can quickly reverse the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) while on a ketogenic diet. In other women, the ketogenic diet leads to a significant disruption of their period cycles. If you are a woman, you ought to listen to your body’s signals and how it responds to the keto diet.
Re-evaluation is a critical step towards setting and achieving your keto diet goal. First, make an effort to establish whether you are executing the keto diet according to plan. For instance, establish whether your diet incorporates whole foods that are rich in nutrients and calories. Remember that carbohydrates are not the only source of calories. The body also sources calories from healthy fats and proteins when you are on the keto diet. Also, your lifestyle may play a significant role in how your body responds to the keto diet. Therefore, if you find out that you are stressed, that might be one of the reasons you are experiencing a hormonal imbalance in your body.
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Men tend to lose weight faster than women.
From experience, I can attest that keto results men in losing weight more effortlessly than women. I observed some noticeable weight loss around twenty to twenty-five days after the onset of my keto diet. However, the case was different for my lady friend, who introduced me to the diet. As for her, it took approximately forty to forty-five days to notice some initial weight loss changes.
Why was that so? Biologically, men have more muscle mass than women. Scientific evidence points out that muscles are usually metabolically active, which means they experience higher calorie burning rates. Did you know that even when you are resting, your muscles still burn calories?
Instead of muscle mass, women have more fat stored under their skin than men. The main reason is to prepare their bodies for bearing children. However, if you are a woman, the fat issue should not discourage you from pursuing healthy eating goals. Instead, it encourages you to do more than practicing a low-carb diet lifestyle. In that case, you might want to consider practicing a healthy habits such as meta training diet that involves regular physical activities and exercises that encourage the burning of more fat.
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Men want to look bigger, leaner, and more robust.
Generally speaking, men feel pressured to look in a certain way. Men feel like they need to be stronger than women. They also feel they need to look like bodybuilders. If your aim is bodybuilding and to attain a muscular body, you may need to know the quality and quantity of anything you eat. Determine how many macro-nutrients and dietary protein intake your body needs. You may also need to experiment on the carbohydrates limits that your body can accommodate without being overwhelmed.
Conclusion
Although the keto diet discourages the intake of carbohydrates, it still recommends that you consume limited amounts. Therefore, an ideal keto diet foods should consist of approximately 5% carbohydrates, 25% dietary protein, and 70% healthy fat content . The 5 percent carbohydrates consist of around 25 to 30 grams of carbs per day it’s preferred to take it mostly from low carb vegetables especially leafy greens. For men, if you are into the keto diet for weight loss, it would help you monitor your gross and net carbohydrate intake. Net carbohydrate is the carbohydrates you get after subtracting total fibre from total dietary carbohydrates. If possible, your carbohydrate and glucose intake should be zero for better results, to keep the insulin levels as low as possible.
But suppose you find it challenging to avoid carbohydrates and glucose intake. In that case, I recommend you maintain the total dietary carbohydrate intake at 35g and net carbohydrate intake at somewhere below 20 grams per day of carbs.
