Keto for Women over 40
Once women turn 40 they begin to notice changes in their body. This means that a woman wishing to follow the keto diet needs to make some tweaks to the diet so that it doesn’t increase health issues that she is already facing. So what does she need to know?
One thing that middle-aged women have to deal with is the onset of the menopause. This starts with the perimenopause as the body starts to wind down their reproductive system. During the menopause, hormone levels start to decline; especially estrogen. This change in estrogen can cause hot flashes, needing to pass urine urgently, trouble sleeping and depression and mood swings.
Obesity puts women at a higher risk of dying from heart problems. This is why women over 40 start to think about losing weight, in particular the keto diet.
The keto diet is high fat and low carbohydrate and forces the body to burn fat for energy. This helps with weight loss by helping to balance insulin levels.
As a woman over 40, you are probably holding down a job, raising children and running a home. So the last thing you need is to feel tired, bad tempered, nauseous, and constipated; all symptoms of keto flu.
A way to overcome this is to make sure that the food being eaten is not just meat, fish and dairy products. The body needs lots of vitamins and minerals to fight off these symptoms.
The next thing that women over 40 need to do differently to their younger counterparts is to include collagen in the keto diet. As mentioned, collagen is found in the joints, but is broken down in arthritic joints. Collagen is a protein so can be eaten in the keto diet. The best way to get it in the diet is by boiling up animal bones and making a broth.
This is because women tend to be more likely to develop sarcopenia (loss of muscle).
Fasting involves not eating for a few hours. This gives the body time to digest food and for the hormones and enzymes involved in digestion to be eliminated. It also means that when food is not being eaten the body burns stored fat for energy. Fasting also enables a very complicated process in cells that means DNA can rejuvenate. This slows down the aging process. Oxidative stress also causes aging but can be slowed down by the keto diet. This is because ketones (produced by breaking down fat) reduce oxidative stress