Following a Keto Diet for Quick Weight Loss? Know Serious Side Effects and Complications That Could Derail Your Health

The ketogenic diet, also known as keto, is one of the many popular weight-loss eating patterns that are followed by millions across the world. While this low-carb diet is known to balance your cholesterol levels and reduce blood sugar, there are many serious side effects as well.

According to experts, some keto diet side effects and complications include diarrhoea, mineral deficiencies, or reduced athletic performance. Also, you can experience these effects as the body achieves a state of ketosis by decreasing carbohydrate intake to 50 grams or less daily.

For those following the keto diet, drastic changes in eating patterns lead to side effects that are beyond weight changes. A few of these include:

It causes many people to suffer from water loss before fat loss. As a result, one of the early side effects of ketogenic diets is dehydration, which occurs when your body loses a lot of. When you are dehydrated, a few of the signs include:

• Changes in urine, like dark-colored urine
• Dizziness
• Dryness in mouth
• Increased thirst
• Fatigue

Gastric issues

The keto diet also leads to a few common side effects, like gastrointestinal issues that can cause constipation, diarrhoea, nausea, or even vomiting. Experts say if you have been following the keto diet for a long time, you may have diarrhoea more frequently, potentially due to your body finding it difficult to absorb the high-fat content of foods part of the diet.

The keto diet can also lead to kidney stones—clusters of crystals that form from substances in your urinary tract. According to studies, kidney stones occur since the keto diet mostly focuses on animal-based and high-fat foods. However, for those who already have kidney disease, keto leads to further long-term damage to the kidney and can also worsen metabolic acidosis.

For those who have been following the keto diet for a long time, keto flu is one of the major side effects. You may have the following symptoms:

• Constipation
• Exercise tolerance difficulties
• Fatigue and headache
• Insomnia
• Nausea or vomiting

Doctors advise drinking lots of water and increasing electrolyte intake to subside these effects.

Since keto is a limited diet, you can suffer from a deficiency of many macronutrients like vitamins, calcium, fibre, iron, magnesium, and potassium—all of which lead to other health issues.

Experts say it happens since the keto diet keeps carb intake extremely low and many fruits and vegetables get limited in this. Specifically, if you are using the keto diet, you may also miss out on folate and thiamin, apart from vitamins A, B6, B12, C, E, and K—all of which are important for your body functions and development related to bones and red blood cells.

Since keto has severe diet restrictions, many people who follow it regain their lost weight when they return to their initial eating patterns. This is in part because it is extremely difficult to follow long-term and sustain.

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