What You’re Doing Wrong on Keto
As you probably know, Keto is a very effective diet that not only helps with medical conditions like PCOS and diabetes but can also help you burn fat and lose weight.
It continues to become more popular and is trending in just about every health and weight loss community you can find.
Is the Keto diet safe?
The problem is that while all of the versions of the Ketogenic diet are effective, some of them are not exactly accurate or related to the original form of the diet. If you are just starting out or hitting a plateau, you might want to remind yourself of these facts about the diet.
1. Keto Myths
Among the multitudes of books, magazines, and self-proclaimed gurus, there is a lot of information that is either being misused or misapplied by the followers of these sources.
If you’ve been into the keto lifestyle, then it’s incredibly likely that you’ve either read, heard, or repeated some of these views yourself.
“I can eat all kinds of fat without any repercussions.”
If you had a diet that consisted of healing servings of trans fats, then it should be reasonably obvious that you wouldn’t be eating a safe diet. Some fats can cause a lot of problems when they are in too high of an amount. The best fats to have would be the omega-3 fatty acids that you get from some fish and plant fats. These are beneficial to the body because they can fight inflammation that reduces your quality of life.
The general consensus is that you should eat as much fat as you need to be satiated, but this doesn’t mean anything but butter and bacon and steak every day. Try to incorporate more healthy fats like olive oil, nuts, and avocado.
“I will eat nothing but meat, eggs, and cheese.”
This will be discussed more later, but while protein should be eaten in moderate amounts, you may not want to consume anything but foods with high protein content. This, combined with higher calories and lack of fiber, might make a diet heavy in meat and cheese difficult for your digestion.
Please Note – There are versions of the Keto diet called Keto Carnivore, where all you eat are animal products. This is not the traditional form of the ketogenic diet. That doesn’t mean it isn’t useful for fat loss, but be aware of the nutrients you are consuming.
“Ketogenic diets are temporary, and you just gain the weight back.”
This belief generally comes from the uninformed opinion that keto diets lack nutrition, and that you will eventually become deficient in some essential mineral or vitamin, but the reality is that proper keto diets are formulated to give people all of the nutrients that they need so they can function more efficiently.
Ketogenic diets are also a lifestyle choice that helps you to avoid eating foods that contain various toxins, preservatives, and fats that contribute to inflammation, which is one of the most common contributing factors to disease.
“Keto diets can put you at risk of CAD”
The idea that keto diets can make coronary artery disease possible is simply not accurate. This is because coronary artery disease is primarily caused by inflammation. When you’re not eating any of the unnatural foods that are essentially banned by well-balanced keto diets, you’re more likely to reduce inflammation.
This can be great for your entire circulatory system. One of the first things that happen is that you’ll notice that you have much healthier blood pressure.
2. Not Eating Enough Protein
The term “moderate protein” has been a cause for confusion many times when people are doing the keto diet. While this is not a typical low carb, high protein diet, you still need to meet your protein goals.
When your protein is too low, you risk hair loss, muscle loss, and issues with low energy. Make sure you calculate your macros to be in ketosis and keep protein as a minimum goal to reach every day.
3. Failing to Get in Enough Electrolytes
Another common mistake people make when they are on a ketogenic diet is not getting enough electrolytes. Keto is a great diet to be on when you want to lose weight and burn excess fat, but it is also a diuretic. This means you are going to lose a lot of your electrolytes, so you need to stay hydrated, while also making sure you get adequate amounts.
The 3 main electrolytes you need to focus on are sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Sodium tends to be the easiest one to get adequate numbers of since you can get it from regular table salt, bone broth, and even pickle juice.
For magnesium, try taking a magnesium supplement in addition to natural food sources. Potassium is often the most difficult, but you can get it either by eating foods like fish and avocado, or by making an electrolyte drink with water and light salt. This is a combination of potassium and sodium.
4. Restricting Yourself Too Much
On the keto diet, you must be getting enough fats. These fats serve different purposes in the body and the process of digestion. Some of them can help with inflammation, nutritional absorption, and a host of other processes. They can also be broken down into chemicals that the body needs for specific actions.
If you have been on the keto diet for a few days, and find that you are not satiated, fat is probably to blame. While you don’t want to have unlimited fats, you should eat enough healthy fats to become satiated, but not uncomfortably full.
5. Using Only the Scale to Measure Your Progress
While it’s always a good idea to have some awareness of where you are in your progress, continuously worrying about how much you weight is going to take all of the joy out of your journey. This stress can even have a very negative effect on your emotions, and additionally, your hormones.
Heaping that kind of stress onto yourself can also make it very hard to want to continue with your diet. It’s a lot better to let your health be the gauge of how you feel. Weight is influenced by water weight and muscle mass as well, so actual body shape and general health would be a better way to make an assessment.
This is especially true when you are only using a scale to measure your progress. With Keto, it is possible to lose inches without actually losing pounds, especially when you start exercising and adding weight training.
Tracking your progress includes a combination of the scale, taking measurements, seeing how your clothes fit, taking progress pictures, and of course, just seeing how you feel.
6. Eating the Wrong Fats
When you do add in more fats to your diet, make sure you are having the healthiest fats possible. You should be avoiding vegetable oil, for example. These kinds of fats can seem to sound healthy when they’re packaged in particular containers, but the typical quick glance indication that it’s not healthy is the plastic packaging. These oils can completely derail your progress and you’ll want to stay away from them at all costs.
7. Being Inconsistent
Consistency is key with the keto diet, for multiple reasons. For one thing, it not only takes several days just to get into ketosis, but it can take up to 6 weeks to reach full-fat adaptation.
If you get out of ketosis every week or so, you are never going to reach full fat-burning mode. Here are some helpful tips to keep you on track with your keto diet.
- Get involved with a health accountability project. You can make a pact with some friends to help you stay on track. The one who quits has to buy a meal for everyone.
- Make meals that you can take with you to work, school, or snacks that can hold you over until it’s mealtime at home.
- Cooking meals ahead of time can help you to always have something ready no matter what. That will help you make sure that you’re not having to cook while you’re hungry and end up cheating completely.
- Be sure to stay hydrated, because this can cause a lot of systems to work harder than they need to. Proper hydration also helps you to get rid of wastes that are leaving your body as your fat is broken down.
- Try fasting here and there. This gives your body a chance to reset itself. A fast every so often can significantly improve your weight loss efforts. Just be sure that you aren’t ever starving.
- Call restaurants ahead of time so that you know what low carb options are on their menu. This will make sure that you don’t get stuck just eating a salad without dressing.
- Know as much as you can about the keto diet. The more you know, the more freedom with food you will have. You can also look at recipes and find some go-to recipes that you can whip up effortlessly when you’re in a hurry.
- If you have bready, or cookie type items in your kitchen, you’re flirting with failure.The best thing to do would be to get rid of anything like that as soon as you know you’re going on a diet. When people come by your house, you can simply give it to someone who you know would like to take it. People rarely say no to treats unless they’re also on a diet.
8. More Tips for the Keto Diet
Stop comparing yourself to other people. Your results may never be same no matter what you do because all human bodies are different. Bone structure influences a lot of how people look, so until they can change the way bones look, your genetics have a lot more say in how you’re going to be shaped.
Spend some time learning to accept yourself, and avoid repeating negative mantras that can lock in a negative attitude about your own appearance.
Don’t Get Caught Up in Processed Foods
You’ve probably seen those pre-packaged foods at the store. They probably say something about being Keto approved or low carb, but the reality is that those kinds of foods are basically empty calories. They are also full of salt and preservatives. The main thing about Keto is that it works best when you’re eating whole foods.
That means foods that are either raw or cooked in their natural state. This guarantees that you’ll know exactly what’s in your food. Those health bars really much better. If you’re in a serious hurry, it would be better just to have a piece of fruit or a handful of nuts.
Weigh or Measure Your Food
Making sure that you’re staying with the correct healthy range of food for proper keto diet formulation can be easily achieved by using a food scale. If you don’t use one, you’re left having to guess which can lead to either having too much or too little.
That can be bad because lots of small setbacks can add up to months of lost progress. Now that the internet has become a massive marketplace for all kinds of low-cost items, you can easily find an inexpensive scale that can help you to keep track of your carb intake, and keep your protein level balanced for your dietary needs.