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Recently there has been a lot of talk about the Keto Diet. I mean everyone from Jenna Jameson to Halle Berry have tried it. Whether you are testing out the waters or are convinced by family and friends to go for it, choosing a ketogenic diet could certainly help you accomplish your weight loss goals. If you are curious by this fat friendly diet, this article should give you a better understanding into what the keto diet is, how it works, and some keto diet tips to help get you on your way to successful weight loss.
So what is the ketogenic diet? Well, this is a diet which is low in carb, high in fat and encourages maintaining enough proteins. While the diet has increasingly grown in popularity, there are still a lot of misconceptions about it. Many people still don’t understand how it works and its ideal health benefits.
As compared to other dietary strategies, it’s a very easy and less complicated diet to follow. However, it also has some restrictions. Once you’ve decided to follow it, you must know how to spot the kinds of foods that you should avoid and the ones that you need to use instead.
How the Ketogenic Diet Works
The idea behind the ketogenic diet is that if you deprive your body of glucose, it will produce an alternative fuel known as ketones from stored fats.
Since the brain cannot store glucose it requires a constant supply of 120 grams daily. When very little carbohydrates is eaten or during fasting, the body will use all the stored glucose from the liver.
Once this is depleted, the level of insulin decreases and the body starts to use stored fat as its main source of energy.
The Diet
According to studies, there is no one standard ketogenic diet. This diet typically reduces the amount of carbohydrates eaten. A popular ketogenic diet suggests that you should eat approximately 70% of your diet from fat within your daily calories, 5% from carbohydrates and 10% from proteins.
This means, a 2000 calorie diet will translates to about 165 grams of fat, 75 grams of proteins and 40 grams of carbohydrates.
As compared to other low carb high proteins diets, the protein amount of keto diet must remain moderate. This is because eating a lot of it can prevent ketosis. Ketosis is the ideal state you want your body to be for fat burning.
Although there are many versions of ketogenic diets, all of them ban carb rich food. While some of these foods such as cereals, breads, rice, pasta, potatoes, and cookies may be obvious, other foods such as fruity juice and starchy vegetables may not be.
The keto diet allows foods such as processed meats, fatty cuts of meat, butter, lard as well as other healthy fat sources like avocados, seeds, nuts, oily fish and plant oils.
Keto Diet Tips to help Your Weight Loss Journey
1. Frozen veggies
Several people have a misconception about frozen veggies. They think that these veggies do not have enough nutrients hence are not fit for consumption. This is not true since frozen veggies have just as many nutrients as the fresh ones.
You can either stock them in your freezer or buy them from a local grocery store.
Since they require very little preparation time, you can instantly add them to your meal, in a smoothie recipe, or soup dish.
2. Consider eating snacks containing high fat
Are you aware that foods containing a lot of healthy fat are going to keep you satisfied for longer?
Snacking on foods such as nuts and avocados keeps you fuller for longer and also provide you with a boatload of nutrients.
If you want to strictly follow your ketogenic diet, make sure you do away with all the salty and sweet snacks and opt for a healthy full fat snack instead. This is one of the most important things to do if you want to be successful on this diet and lose weight.
3. Do not touch diet drinks
Even if they are labeled zero sugars or zero calories, you need to avoid diet drinks. This is because they still contain a lot of sugar and chemicals which is not good if you want your body to burn off the fat in ketosis.
Instead of diet drinks, you may choose water or tea. If you need a little flavor or prefer more refreshing drinks, you can add cucumber, ginger, lemon or even watermelon to your water or tea to flavor it up. These will cleanse your body and help you lose weight very fast. Lemon and water first thing in the am is ideal!
4. Have a meal plan
To assist you in following a proper keto diet, meal planning is one of the easiest things to do. By preparing a proper meal plan you will ensure that you are eating according to the diet. Many of these healthy meal prep recipes are great for those on a keto diet and are easy to plan out for the week.
Make sure you prepare a weeks work of meals that you enjoy and stick to them in order to see excellent results. Don’t grab that slice of cake in the office kitchen or indulge in potato chips cause you are stressed. This will only set you back. Once you make eating properly a habit, everything will fall into place and you will quickly see the weight drop.
5. Eat eggs
If you find yourself going through sugar detox, try preparing some eggs for breakfast instead of having sugar coated cereals and sweeteners first thing in the morning.
Due to the high content of vitamins and proteins in eggs, they will not only help you avoid unhealthy meals but also make you feel fuller for a longer time.
Best of all, they are quite affordable! You can buy them in bulk and cook whenever you want. However, if you don’t want to eat them alone you can mix them with vegetables, hot sauces, make an omelet or even a quiche.
6. Eat Real Food
The quickest and the most natural way to get into this diet is by choosing real food instead of processed junk.
When you choose healthy foods such as whole grains, fruits, meats, vegetables and nut products instead of fast food, packaged goods and pizzas, you’ll enjoy numerous health benefits.
Remember, there is nothing as good as feeding yourself and your family healthy meals. If you want to adopt a ketogenic lifestyle, then this is really the number thing to remember.
7. Dwell on Healthy Desserts
Even if you’ve started on keto diet, you can still enjoy healthy deserts provided they are made with fats and low in carb. For instance, several dessert ideas you can try out include keto mug cakes, full fat yogurt, or keto key lime jar pie.
To save time, you can prepare many treats in advance and store them or freeze them. Keto fat bombs are perfect for freezing and snacking. Once you freeze them well, you can always eat them anytime you like.
8. Make your own Condiments and Dressings
Instead of buying unhealthy store dressings and dips, prepare your own. By doing this, you’ll greatly improve your health regardless of the diet. Store bought condiments contain lots of unnatural ingredients and preservatives.
Thankfully, you can always research online on recipe platforms such as pinterest and gather some ideas for delicious ideas. Although this may sound intimidating, once you get the hang, you’ll love it!
The keto diet has been known to show outcomes within a very short time. If you are just starting out, you need to start with small steps and implement them for at least 21 days.
It’s obvious that there are many keto diet tips out there that you can apply to follow your keto diet. However, is only takes one day to change your lifestyle forever. Use these tips and tricks and give it a shot if you think this is the diet for you. Don’t forget to chat with your doctor first!
It’s also advisable to checkout other programs so as to determine what’s best for you even as you begin your life changing mission. We are big fans and have found success with intermittent fasting as well, but every body is different.
Whatever your reason for remaining in this diet, these tips will have you covered. Try them out today and let us know how you enjoy it. We love to hear all about the amazing results our readers have- or even not so amazing results! We are all here to help with the journey.