Fad diets are in vogue now, and they often come with huge promises of successful weight loss and promoting optimal health. The ketogenic diet is one such type, grabbing the attention of numerous individuals and health experts. This low-carb, high-fat diet plan encourages your body to achieve a metabolic state called ketosis. This helps your body burn more fat.

However, a keto diet is a very strict plan and is extremely difficult to follow. The keto diet is considered highly controversial and can have the opposite effects, especially if done the wrong way. It comes with several complications and health risks, including adverse side-effects.

You can develop nutritional deficiencies
Know that while the keto diet alone doesn’t deprive your body of essential vitamins and minerals, overdoing it and restricting yourself too much with red meat and fats can invite trouble. Eliminating a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains in the name of dieting can rob your body of vital micronutrients. Your body will miss out on magnesium, phosphorus, and essential vitamins. A keto diet also makes you avoid a lot of fiber that leads to digestive problems, including constipation. A loss of vital nutrients promotes muscle cramps, fatigue, and brittle bones.

You’ll invite the keto flu
The keto flu is the result of your body adapting to the new low-carb state. This forces your body to use ketones to produce energy instead of burning glucose. The new state of ketosis causes adverse reactions and leads to headaches, weakness, nausea, constipation, and feeling irritable. The ketones are eliminated via frequent urination that causes dehydration, leading to dizziness, muscle soreness, and fatigue. Frequent urination also removes electrolytes from the body that worsen keto flu symptoms.

Your athletic ability can suffer
Your body needs a sufficient amount of carbs to have the energy to exercise. This is the central problem of consuming the keto diet since it’s extremely low in carbs. While deriving your body’s energy from fat is ideal for losing weight, the results largely depend on how active you are. Inadequate amounts of carbs lead to decreased energy production and severely affect your physical activity and performance. Your body fails to maintain energy while breaking down fat, and it can make you feel lethargic during workouts.

It can trigger heart and kidney problems
A keto diet leads to the severe loss of electrolytes and also a significant loss of fluid due to increased urination. Loss of sodium, potassium, and magnesium can lead to acute kidney injury since these are essential for the kidneys to break down protein. Likewise, electrolytes are required for the normal functioning of the heart. A loss of the same can increase the risk of developing cardiac arrhythmia.

Can lead to dangerously low blood sugar
Low-carb diets like the keto diet can help manage blood sugar levels in the diabetic. However, due to the significant elimination of carbs, people with type 1 diabetes are prone to dangerously low levels of blood sugar. It leads to shakiness, confusion, sweating, unconsciousness, and fatigue. Taking insulin and not consuming enough carbs can be fatal.