How to Lose Weight With a Keto Diet

How to Lose Weight With a Keto Diet

A lot of people will have come across the keto diet in their never-ending quest for weight loss. But with so many diet plans out there, it can often be hard to pick the one that’s right for you.

 

Scientists suggest that the type of diet you pick actually doesn’t really have that much impact on whether you lose weight. The only thing that matters is whether you stick to it. Researchers followed groups of people taking part in different diets. The results were identical across the different diets, the people that followed the diet more strictly and stuck to it longer experienced more weight loss.

 

So, the question becomes, which diet are you going to enjoy enough to stick to long enough that you can see some meaningful results? Is the Keto diet the one for you?

 

Before we discuss how the keto diet can help you lose weight, we should first look at what it actually is.

 

What is the Keto Diet and How does it help you lose weight?

 

Simply, the ketogenic diet requires you to eat much fewer carbs and more fat. Sounds fun right? Reducing your intake of carbohydrates makes your body go into ketosis, which is a metabolic state. When your body is in this state it becomes very good at burning fat for energy instead of carbs. It also transforms this fat into ketones, which are great at providing your brain with much-needed energy.

 

One thing to note is that the Keto diet is likely to result in reductions to blood sugar and insulin levels. This is important to understand if you suffer from some underlying health conditions.

Top Tips!

We’ve established that the most important factor in whether any diet is successful is how long you follow it and how tightly you adhere to it. Therefore, if you want to experience weight loss with keto, you will need some tips and tricks to help you.

  • Read the food labels – If you want to lose weight with a keto diet then you should be reading the labels to keep track of your fat, carbs and protein intake. It can be annoying at first to count your calories and spend all that time reading food labels. Pay attention to the numbers at the beginning and after a while, it will become second nature to you.
  • Plan Your Meals – Constantly keeping track of your food on the go is hard, which is why it is a good idea to make an eating plan. Calculate and create all your favourite meals in advance so you don’t have to wait to enjoy them!
  • Inspiration – When sticking to a strict plan, people tend to eat a lot of the same meals which can get very boring and can eventually put you off your diet and, therefore, your goal. Follow Keto blogs and website to keep that stream of foodie inspiration flowing.
  • Eating Out – Don’t use eating out as an excuse to pause your diet for the night, this is a slippery slope. A good idea is to view the menu online before you go and commit to your meal of choice.

What Food to Eat and Avoid

 

Obviously, you want to avoid any foods that are high in carbohydrates and eat more foods that are high in fat. But, we still want to be eating a balanced diet that includes the right vitamins and minerals for our body. When clearing out high carb foods that have good minerals, you want to replace those with high fatty foods that fill that vitamin void.

Foods that should be limited on a keto diet:

  • Foods with lots of sugar: fizzy drinks, sweets, pastries etc.
  • Classic carbs: oats, pasta, rice etc.
  • Basically all fruit except some small berries
  • Beans
  • Root vegetables
  • Alcohol with high carb content such as beer

Foods that are encouraged:

  • Meat
  • Butters, cream and cheese
  • Eggs
  • Avocados
  • Extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil
  • Low carbohydrate vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and onions

 

Sample Meal Plan

The Keto diet contradicts what we think of when we are focusing on weight loss. If you were to create a diet plan for weight loss from scratch, you would probably cut down on the fats as much as possible. Because it’s counterintuitive, it’s a good idea to create a weekly meal plan to help you stay on track and make your life easier.

Here is a sample daily meal plan to give you some ideas:

Monday

  • Three egg omelette with cheese and spinach (Breakfast)
  • Grilled chicken breast with a side of avocado (Lunch)
  • Nuts (Snack)
  • Salmon with green vegetables (Dinner)

 

Now you have all the information to kick off your weight loss diet with keto! We all know the beginning is the hardest part when it comes to diet plans and weight loss, but a little bit of planning and a lot of dedication will set you on your way to achieving your goals. While a keto diet is hard to get your head around at first, the science backs up why so many people are raving about it. You get to have your cake and eat it too!