Can A Keto Diet solve your bedroom woes?
Weight loss has been a dream for many. People tend to look for new ways with which they can cut down their fat layers.
One such method is the keto diet.
Keto diet has been an effective and trusted option for weight loss, which many people try.
But are you fully aware of what the keto diet does to your body?
Have you ever thought of what other benefits can keto diet bring to your doorstep?
Well, the Keto diet is certainly one of the best ways to lose fat layers but its effects on your sex drive are impressive too.
Surprised right?
Keto Diet is actually a combination of specific foods that boost your calorie-burning rate. But they also have a positive role to play in your sex life.
There are many changes that it brings to your life.
Thus, before you start with the diet, we highly recommend you to go through the blog below so that you get to understand the role of keto diet in your libido.
But before that let us give you a brief on what libido is!
What is libido?
Libido in other words refers to the desire for sex! There are many factors that determine your libido ranging from your testosterone levels to your fat layers.
Libido is one of the major phases of the sexual response cycle that involves – desire, arousal, orgasm, and resolution.
Your libido depends on many factors like:
- Sex hormones
- Neurotransmitters
- Age
- Overall health
- Stress levels
- Social influences
Altogether, every interference that occurs in your physiology affects your libido.
With that being said, let us now help you understand how the diet that interferes with your eating pattern and hormonal levels has a role in your dripping libido.
How does keto affect your libido?
A ketogenic diet usually involves a combination of high amounts of fat and lower amounts of carbohydrates helping you burn more calories.
You already know how it burns you fat, but it is time that you learn how it accelerates your libido.
Before we start with its effects, let us explain to you what a keto diet is.
What is the keto diet?
Keto diet denotes a diet that is rich in fats but low on carbs! The basic idea behind the diet is to orient towards foods that help you burn calories.
So here you literally cut down the fat layers.
On the off chance, if we had to describe a keto diet in simple words, it involves a diet offering 60%-80% calories from fat, 15%-40% calories from proteins, and around 5%-10% of it from carbs.
Getting back to its relationship with libido, there are many contrasting views!
On one hand, you might see your libido going down but gradually the scene changes.
Thus, it is quite important to have a wide look at the possible effects of keto on libido.
In this section, we will help you understand the connection between your keto and libido by showing the effects of your fat intake on libido.
Since keto is all about increasing dietary fat, this will help you have a wide view of the situation.
How does the keto diet boost sex drive?
The effects of the keto diet on libido have been debatable because of one group referring it to as testosterone booster and another one calling it negative for libido.
Well, we will help you clear out the confusion by first highlighting its positive effects.
#1. Dietary fat and sex hormone
You already know that sex hormones like testosterone play a vital role in regulating your libido. But what you might didn’t know was that these hormones are usually regulated by the fat you intake.
Let us show you how.
High-fat diets increase estrogen
According to a study, women who took low amounts of fat (for example deriving 20% of their calories from fats) saw a reduction in estrogen levels while women who took high amounts of fat saw the opposite result.
Now you must know that low levels of estrogen contribute to many sexual problems including low libido.
Thus, the keto diet might be beneficial for you here.
Low-fat diets decrease your testosterone and estradiol
Estradiol’s main job is to develop female sex hormones in your body, apart from this it also has a role in regulating fat layers.
In the case of testosterone, it plays a vital role in both men and women.
According to different pieces of research, it was found that taking a low diet of fat can hamper your hormonal levels leading to poor libido.
Thus, maintaining a high-fat rich diet is a healthy choice.
A high-fat diet boosts testosterone
A drop in testosterone levels leads to low sex drive and many other sexual problems like erectile dysfunction.
It also has many other negative impacts like gynecomastia.
According to a study, male participants on a higher fat diet showed higher levels of testosterone and free T-levels.
Yet, the opposite results were seen in men who chose a low-fat diet.
Another study showed that men on low diet fat showed a drip in T-levels by almost 12%.
Altogether, a low-fat diet can be risky for your T-levels while a diet like a keto diet will be really a testosterone booster.
High Intake of trans fat reduces testosterone
You already know from the above section that fat has a boosting role in your testosterone and consequently sex drive. But sticking to fatty trans fat can show you the opposite results!
In men, trans fat is responsible for deferring the quality of sperm!
Thus, the clear message is to stick to healthy monosaturated and polyunsaturated fat and avoid trans fat.
Next, we show you how your keto diet works on the hormonal shift and brings you positive effects.
#2. Weight loss brings a hormonal shift
Taking high-fat diets like the keto diets are very helpful in losing weight and helping you gain an hourglass figure.
But did you that these diets also bring in boost in libido by cutting down your fat?
According to a study, 275 overweight postmenopausal women showed a decrease in estradiol, estrogen, and free testosterone levels when they lost around 17 pounds!
Now before you raise questions like earlier we told you that low hormonal levels lower your sex drive, let us highlight some facts.
When you put on extra weight, there is an extra synthesis of these hormones which leads to a lower sex drive.
Thus, here losing weight helps in getting rid of these extra hormones and bringing back the normal hormonal levels.
And for that what could be better than a healthy keto diet?
However, many of the reviews across the internet showed that some people showed a drip in sex drive while on a keto diet.
Thus let us clear such doubts on why the keto diet can cause a dip in sex drive by showing you when your keto diet shows opposite effects.
How can a keto diet lower your libido?
If you are already on a healthy keto diet but couldn’t feel the hotness brewing up, then you might need to have a check on the following facts:
#1. You are just starting with a keto diet
When you are just starting with the keto diet, your body might witness some unwanted symptoms because of the switch to fats from glucose.
Sometimes these symptoms might be keto flu and sometimes it can be low libido.
So one of the major reasons why you see keto diet lowering your libido is just the transition phase.
During such a phase, you won’t feel like doing anything and most importantly sex.
Hence what we ask you to do is have patience, when your body adapts to the diet you will definitely see benefits.
#2. You are low on calorie
Whether on keto or not, keeping the calorie count clean is important.
It makes sure that your body gets enough fuel to run the functions.
Thus, if you are keeping your body on starvation mode, which is on low calories, all you are doing is putting on more weight and lowering your sex drive.
Moreover, this can also bring an abrupt hormonal imbalance.
Thus it is important to keep a check on your calorie count while eating.
#3. Alcohol
Combining your keto diet with alcohol is the biggest mistake you can do it!
Alcohol might be a motivation for you but researchers say that alcohol can be a bundle of sexual problems including erectile dysfunction.
Moreover, alcohol is not only harmful to men but also women as it hampers your fertility rate.
And what makes us more diligent towards not letting you drink is the intolerance of your body towards alcohol while on keto.
Thus, cut out alcohol if you really want to stay on the good side of keto.
With that being said, some of our readers might also wish to discuss how to increase sex drive.
We have that sorted too, let us help you with 10 natural tricks that can help you get that power back.
How do I increase my sex drive?
Here are a few natural ways that you can try to uplift your falling libido:
#1. Including certain fruits in your diet
Some pieces of research show that eating certain kinds of fruits can boost libido.
Thus, you can try munching on figs, bananas, and avocados as they are the best aphrodisiacs and helpful in boosting libido.
They will also provide you with rich vitamins, and minerals that will increase blood flow to your penis.
#2. Chocolate
Chocolate has the immense power to give you a hot night of desire.
It promotes the active release of phenylethylamine and serotonin that produce mood-lifting effects.
Moreover, according to a study, chocolate provides mental power and enhance your mental abilities.
#3. Herbs for sex drive
There are many herbs like basil or garlic that can help you get an A grade in your romantic dinner.
Basil releases a smell that uplifts the mood while Garlic is rich in allicin that boosts blood flow.
Altogether, these herbs will also help you treat your erectile dysfunction.
Another herb that you can go for is Ginkgo Biloba which is an active anti-depressant used to treat sexual dysfunction in men.
#4. Advice all the way from Africa
An alkaloid, called Yohimbine derived from the bark of West African evergreen has a job similar to Viagra.
Studies show that this extract is helpful in, enhancing the quality of your erection.
#5. Enhancing your self-confidence
What you feel about your body regulated how you perform on the bed. And what decides your thoughts about your body is what you eat and how your lifestyle is.
Thus, make sure that you have a healthy body image yourself to keep your libido soaring high.
#6. A glass of wine
Wine is a classy yet subtle way of boosting your desire for intimacy. But also keep an eye on how much wine you consume as alcohol is definitely not good for your libido.
Thus, keep your wine date simple with one glass of wine for better romance.
#7. Relieve stress and meditate
Stress and anxiety are enemies of libido.
Those who need to be more cautious are the women, who face more difficulty in relieving stress, while men on the other hand can use sex as a stress buster.
What you can do is meditate daily to keep the stress out.
You might also try:
Indulging in sexual activity
Taking yoga classes
#8. A healthy nap
Getting plenty of sleep is what you need for a healthy life!
It has been seen that people who balance their life with quality naps and workload tend to be better at bed with their libido flying high.
Thus, you can boost your energy by power naps and eat a healthy diet rich in protein.
#9. Relationship check
In most of the cases where people see a drop in libido, a toxic relationship forms a root cause. Thus make sure that you sort things up with your partner if you see your libido falling.
#10 consulting a doctor
When all the above methods don’t work, it’s time that you visit a doctor as the consultation will give you the best medication and treatment.
However, it is seen that most people feel embarrassed to open up about their problems.
What we believe is problems can go bigger when not treated.
Conclusion | How Does Keto Affect Your Libido
Libido or sex drive is very important to maintain a healthy and active sex life. But what we see these days in cases of poor libido because of lifestyle changes and many such factors.
However, there is nothing to worry about, as poor libido can be reversed when you follow the right diet and stick to healthy living.
In the above blog, we bring you one such life-changing diet that has been practiced by many people for cutting down fat – Keto Diet.
Earlier, the keto diet was only associated with weight loss, but now a new trend sees it as a libido booster.
Wondering how?
Well-read the above blog and find out!