Are you thinking of starting the Ketogenic Diet? This diet, more popularly known as the Keto Diet, has many health benefits and is a great way to shed pounds.
No matter which diet plan you undertake, sticking to it can be a challenge. There's so much to know, and it's even easier to slip up.
Diet recidivism remains a huge challenge for maintaining weight loss.
Don't let that happen to you. If you're committing to the Keto Diet for weight loss, use this Keto Diet Guide to help stick with it.
What Is the Keto Diet?
The Ketogenic Diet is a diet low in carbohydrates and high in fat. This diet seeks to replace carb intake with fat intake to induce what's known as ketosis.
Ketosis is defined as the metabolic process where your body begins to convert fat into energy rather than carbohydrates. This has two benefits for weight loss.
First, your body depletes its glycogen and water reserves resulting in the rapid loss of extra water weight. Second, it suppresses appetite so you consume fewer calories in the long-term.
To induce ketosis through the keto diet involves eliminating certain foods. Think pasta, grains, and sugar. Some food items you may not think about that you will need to eliminate are beans, potatoes, and fruit.
The elimination of these foods results in the reduction of insulin and induces the release of fatty acids from your body. These fatty acids are then used to fuel your body and your brain, and this process is thought to increase brain function.
Beginner's Guide to Keto
Now that you know the metabolic processes and some benefits of the Keto Diet, let's talk about the different paths to the Keto lifestyle.
There are a few different styles of the Keto diet, but they all involve increasing fat and removing carbs:
Plant-Based Keto
Plant-based Keto is the most challenging of all forms in that it eliminates meat as a source of fat. With this form, you get your fat from oil, nuts, avocados, and other fatty plants.
Carnivore or Meat-Based Keto
This form involves eating only animal products. This means meats of all kinds as well as eggs.
Sounds easy enough, right? Who wouldn't love a diet full of bacon and steak? Don't think it is so easy. For one thing, limiting your food choices is a challenge. With this diet, you eat zero vegetables. Say goodbye to that side of asparagus with a ribeye.
The other challenge with carnivore keto is portion control. Too much protein stops ketosis from occurring. To engage in a meat-based Keto diet, you'll have to be strict with how much you eat for every meal.
Hybrid Keto
This is a Keto diet that takes aspects of both plant and meat-based diets to increase your variety while still eliminating carbs from your diet. Many people find the limitations of a singular Keto diet too strict to maintain over a long period.
Cyclical Keto
Ask an Italian to give up spaghetti or someone of French descent to eliminate cheese and baguette. It's a hard ask, and these particular carb cravings are why Keto diets often fail.
If you find carbohydrates too hard to give up, a cyclical Keto diet might be for you. This involves alternating weeks where you stick to a strict plant or meat-based program and weeks where you include some carbs.
Other Keto Diets
Some people follow what's known as a "Dirty" Keto, which means you follow a diet high in fat, low in carbs, but where you get that fat doesn't matter so long as you're not eating carbs. This includes processed foods like fast food burgers and beef jerky.
Though people experience weight loss following this less strict form of a Keto diet, it is not a good long-term lifestyle, as it can lead to health issues.
Make a Plan
It's important when you start any form of a Keto Diet to make a Keto Diet Plan. You might find it easier to slowly eliminate carbs from your diet rather than make an abrupt change especially if your diet included large amounts of carbs and sugar.
Track your carb intake with a dietary app or sign up for a food delivery and dietary service like SuperFat Keto startup guide.
By planning your entrance into a Keto diet and a Keto lifestyle, you can find more success.
Keto Diet Meals
As with any diet plan, the Keto diet requires thoughtful meal preparation. Long gone are the days where you could whip something together or grab a quick bite. Those days will return as soon as you get used to cooking for yourself this way.
A good way to think about Keto-friendly meals is to break them down into three different parts.
Every meal you prepare should include protein, a low-carb vegetable, and fat. This could mean a lean filet of beef pan-fried with butter and cauliflower. It could mean broiled salmon with a side of sauteed Brussels sprouts.
The best way to learn how to cook for yourself is to start simple and then get more complex. If you do it long enough, cooking Keto-friendly will become as easy as a bowl of spaghetti.
Stay the Course Using a Keto Diet Guide
Adapting to the demands of a new diet can be a challenge, especially as one as strict as the Keto Diet. It doesn't have to be. There is plenty of help available to guide the new you into the new world of weight loss and better health.
It's important to remember not to punish yourself. Find a Keto Diet Guide that works for you and stick to it.
Do you need more nutritional news and diet help? Make sure to check out the rest of our articles.
