Ketogenic Diet in Weight Management Mechanisms, Efficacy, and Safety

College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, 712199, China

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Abstract

The ketogenic diet (KD) is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet, which enters the body in the state of fasting, transitioning body energy needs to ketones instead of glucose, and therefore contributes to weight loss. Its usage in weight loss has received considerable concern in the recent years. This paper explores the mechanism involving ketogenic diet in controlling weight as related to metabolism, synthesizing scientifically the mechanism behind a ketogenic diet and exploring its effects through various pathways in defining ketogenic diets, such as ketone-derived metabolites on the central nervous system, ketones in relation to appetite-related signaling molecules, and alteration of microbiota structure and function in the Within clinical practice, research has revealed the diet ketogenic diet has considerable short term weight loss effects that are more effective than the traditional dietary methods as well as having positive effect on a range of metabolite parameters. At present, there is still no high-quality research on the long-term dangers and advantages of the ketogenic diet in non-obese healthy populations. This article conducts a review of the current evidence on the effectiveness of the ketogenic diet in weight management in three aspects, namely, mechanisms of action, clinical efficacy, and safety.