Ketogenic Diet

A high-fat, very-low-carbohydrate diet that shifts the body toward producing ketones. It is used clinically for some seizure disorders and followed for other health or weight-loss goals.

Ketosis: A metabolic state in which the body produces and uses elevated amounts of ketone bodies. Severe carbohydrate restriction is intended to induce this shift in fuel use.
Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy: A medically supervised ketogenic dietary therapy used to reduce seizures in some people with epilepsy. This is the diet's established clinical use, especially when seizures resist medication.
Carbohydrate: A class of sugars, starches, and fibers that includes major dietary sources of glucose. Restricting this macronutrient is the defining dietary change.
Low-Carbohydrate Diet: A diet that limits carbohydrate intake without necessarily aiming to induce ketosis. Not every low-carbohydrate diet is restrictive enough to produce sustained ketosis.
Nutritional Ketosis: A state of elevated ketone production caused by low carbohydrate availability, without the severe acid buildup of ketoacidosis. It is the intended metabolic state, but does not by itself guarantee health benefits.
Ketone Bodies: Water-soluble molecules produced mainly by the liver from fatty acids and used as fuel by several tissues. Their production gives the diet its name and supplies an alternative fuel.
Modified Atkins Diet: A low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that encourages ketosis without the strict calorie and protein limits of the classic ketogenic diet. It is a less restrictive clinical alternative used for epilepsy.
Dietary Fat: Fat consumed in food, supplying energy and serving structural and signaling roles in the body. It replaces much of the energy normally supplied by carbohydrate.
Atkins Diet: A low-carbohydrate diet that typically begins with severe carbohydrate restriction and later phases that increase carbohydrate intake. Its phased structure distinguishes it from consistently ketogenic plans.
Keto Flu: A colloquial name for short-term symptoms such as fatigue and headache reported by some people adapting to carbohydrate restriction. These symptoms can occur during the transition to a ketogenic eating pattern.

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