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With our lifestyles going more sedentary, the worldwide concern in regards to health has gone up. The number of people suffering from obesity is going up day by day and in such scenario working out a diet plan to cut this weight becomes a necessity.
This weight loss can be achieved through multiple ways. But a common feature in every way is proper diet. With so many diets available online, it becomes difficult to come up with the best diet to lose weight. Now diet here does not in any way means starvation, diet here commonly refers to a proper nutritious food balance to lose weight. A diet is all about the calories per day we consume.
Before going on Paleo vs keto or which is a better diet between two commonly renown diets, it’s important to know what paleo and what keto means.
The Ketogenic diet
The word keto diet comes from the word ketones. Ketones are produced to meet the glucose demand of the body in absence of glucose from outside source. In simpler language when the body has low amount of glucose than required to function, it converts fat in ketones in the liver, which then fulfil the energy requirement. The process is known as Ketosis.
In Keto diet, the intake of carbohydrate is cut down. The carbs are replaced by fat and protein. The diet turns into a high fat, high protein and low carbs diet. Cards are almost cut down to zero, though a few here and there are ohk. The major reason for this cut down is to force the body to go down in ketosis. Hence body starts utilizing the fat stored resulting into weight loss. The metabolism is rewired, and since human body has the capability to adapt, it adapts to the new regime.
Generally a keto diet is a 30 day diet. In this 30 days 70% is fat intake, 25% is protein intake and 5% is the carbohydrate intake. Here cutting carbs cuts down vegetables and fruits too, to a certain extent.
A keto diet in general consists of eating whole eggs, full fat cheese, chicken: thighs and legs, fatty fish, cream cheese, heavy creams, fatty nuts and seeds including cashew and pumpkin seeds, green leafy vegetables and others like mushroom, broccoli etc.
Keto diet also limits the intake of food but the food makes you feel full. Also it limits protein intake because even a lot of protein is harmful on a longer run.
The Paleolithic Diet
Paleolithic diet refers to as going back to the traditional caveman eating. A lot of researches believe that the increase in weight in the generations is because of our changed lifestyle. Our ancestors, the hunter and the gatherers were all healthy and fit because of the food they consumed. This included animal produce, vegetables, fruits and nuts.
In paleo diet, grains, whey, dairy product and all processed food is cut down.
In short it’s along the lines of eating what the caveman ate. They believe in the saying “If our ancestors didn’t eat it, it’s not good for us”.
In paleo diet the food allowed include meats, fish and sea food, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, healthy fats and oils.
The foods to be avoided are all processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, grains, most dairy products, legumes, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, and trans fats.
Keto vs. Paleo
Now choosing between Paleo vs Keto can be truly difficult. Both have the pros and cons. Generally it’s not that which paleo is more effective than keto or keto is more effective over the Paleo, its along the lines of which is more effective for you as a person, for some keto might work, for some paleo will work. so the chance of paleo vs keto doesn’t arrive much.
Before choosing a diet it’s more important that you know what your goal is. If it’s only weight loss then keto diet gives faster and proven results.
While Paleo diet is a better diet for a healthier lifestyle. In paleo diet it’s not about the quantity of food but rather the quality of food. The carbs are not cut down in paleo diet, you can still consume carbs in the form of vegetables and fruits. The dairy products are completely cut down in Paleo diet since most of the people are intolerant to one of the 3 main components of milk. Generally it’s lactose intolerance.
For short term weight loss Keto diet helps since it cuts down the carbs and uses the body fat, it also improves focus by removing the fog from the brain. Ketosis improves body metabolism. While it allows processed food including diet soda since it fits the low carbs high fat plan, it cuts down intake of fruits and vegetables which contain a lot of nutrients.
Paleo diet while referring to quality, allows quantity intake which leads to less weight loss if a lot of carbs are taken. Also paleo does not much affects the body metabolism. It also cuts down all form of sugar unless the sugar is in natural form like fruits, honey etc. Which improves overall health on a longer run. You can check out the best ways to reduce sugar in your diet.
A better solution is to involve a much more personalised diet where you go on ketosis for weight loss while for healthy living you continue with Paleo diet on a longer run.
Some Related Questions:
1 How is Paleo Different than Keto?
Ketogenic diet focuses on manipulating the three macro nutrients, fats, carbs and proteins. whereas, paleo focuses more on whole grains.
2 Is paleo Low-carb?
Paleo focuses more on whole grain carbs and restricts some source of carbs, but it definitely cannot be termed as a low-carb diet as it gives the person liberty to have carbs.
3 Does Paleo cause Ketosis?
No paleo cannot cause Ketosis, because it is not a low-carb diet, for ketosis to occur, Low-carb diet is necessary.
4 Is paleo better than low-carb?
Some low-carb diets can be excessive and can drain you completely, low energy shouldn’t be stopping you, paleo doesn’t let that happen.
