Would you recommend the keto diet as a “cleanse”? Why or why not? Is there any benefit to doing keto only for a short period of time?
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By: Dr. Keith Kantor
The ketogenic diet can be thought of as a cleanse because it is an excellent way to train your body to utilize its fat stores as fuel and shed any water weight or retention that you may be experiencing. Switching over to using ketones for energy rather than glucose is how the ketogenic diet works. During the initial week of the diet you will use up all of the glycogen stores in your muscles, glycogen holds water so the water weight loss initially is typically a substantial amount of weight. The ketogenic diet will also help regulate insulin levels and your appetite, because you will not have spikes or crashes resulting in less carbohydrate and sugar cravings.
It is fine to do the ketogenic diet for a short period of time like 2-3 weeks and phase on and off of it so your metabolism and hormone levels will learn how to adapt and continue to respond. Diet phasing is when you switch up the way you eat often to trick your body into responding to the benefits of eating that way. This is often compared to the same benefits of phasing your workouts and strength or endurance programs.
Remember to drink one half your body weight in ounces of water per day, since you will lose extra water while on the keto diet. I recommend all natural Hydroxide water (Aqua OH-). This water helps eliminate acids by the OH- combining with H+ forming water. This helps eliminate inflammation. It also creates more water than you drink which helps clear the detoxification pathways.