The ketogenic diet works. It’s been proven to work, and most people will see the benefits of it if they gave it a try.
Unlike the Atkins and paleo diets, it is not stringent and tiring to follow. At the same time, it’s not as lax as the Mediterranean diet. The keto diet falls somewhere in between. It has rules to follow, but compliance will not be a nightmare.
Very often, people who don’t see results with the keto diet are making mistakes they’re unaware of. It’s easy to overlook the errors and blame the diet if one wants to make excuses instead of taking ownership of his/her progress.
In this article, we’ll look at 4 reasons why people don’t lose weight with the keto diet.
- Are you in ketosis?
The most important part of the ketogenic diet is that you need to be in ketosis. So many people get this fundamental principle wrong. You’re not on a keto diet if your body is not in ketosis.
Your body has to be using ketones for fuel, if you wish to see rapid weight loss. If you’re not in ketosis and your body is still using glucose for fuel, the results you were hoping to achieve will not come, or they won’t be as rewarding.
It can take anywhere from 4 to 7 days for your body to be in ketosis. You’ll need to be patient and do a urine test or use a breathalyzer to ascertain if you’re in ketosis. - You must be at a caloric deficit
The foundation of all fat loss depends on a caloric deficit. Even if you’re on the keto diet and in ketosis, if you’re not consuming more calories than you’re burning, your weight will remain the same or it may go up.
Check your calorie numbers here: https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator
Then aim for a daily deficit of 500 calories. Since you’re on a keto diet, your body will more readily burn its fat stores and you’ll lose the weight much quicker. Being at a caloric deficit sets the stage for ketosis to work miracles. - Are you compliant?
Compliance with the diet is another cornerstone that must be in place. 70 to 75 percent of your calories must come from fat. 20 to 25 percent from protein, and your carb intake should be anywhere from 20 to 50 grams and NOT a gram more.
Most people are addicted to carbs without realizing it. Making the switch from a carb-based diet to a fat-based one will be a challenge because the body is accustomed to using glucose for fuel – and glucose comes from carbs.
So, in the initial stages of the ketogenic diet, if you give in to temptation and sneak in more than 50 grams of carbs, you’ll make it very difficult for the body to achieve ketosis. Carbs will hamper your progress.
You MUST be compliant with the macronutrient requirements to reach ketosis. Slip up here and there and you’ll not be in ketosis and your weight loss progress will be hampered. - Leptin resistance
Patience is required when adapting to the keto diet. Get sufficient sleep, do not engage in hard exercise and just rest for the first week. You may go for a light walk every now and then.
Keeping things easy will reduce cortisol levels and your leptin sensitivity will be restored. Once your hormones are balanced, the body will know how much food it needs, when to get hungry and just how much fat to burn.
Leptin resistance will impede your progress. The only way to overcome it is to give the body time to adjust. As long as you stay on track and comply with the keto guidelines, you will go into ketosis and your body will burn fat at an accelerated rate and make up for lost time.
Any time you feel like you’re not seeing results, it’ll probably be due to one of the 4 reasons above. So, be compliant and track your food portions, macros and check if you’re in ketosis. That’s it in a nutshell.
One of the best parts about the keto diet is that you can eat all the bacon you want. Unlike the paleo or Atkins diet which are highly stringent and require you to eat foods that may seem bland or what you don’t particularly like, the keto diet is actually much easier.
Since about 75% to 80% of your calories will be fatty foods, your taste buds will not need to suffer. You must note that fatty foods such as bacon are fine, but donuts are not. Processed foods are not a part of the keto diet.
In fact, you’re only allowed 20 to 50 grams of carbs a day. This restriction limits the amount of glucose in your blood and maintains the body in fat burning mode.
You’re only allowed to consume 20 to 25 percent of your calories as protein. Your entire focus should be on a fat-rich diet.
Most people often wonder, “But, what are good fats?”
Extra virgin olive oil and cold-pressed coconut oil are fantastic examples of good fats. You should consume these and avoid fats like margarine and hydrogenated vegetables oils that have been refined.
Here’s a list of some good fats
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
- Cocoa butter
- Ghee
- Lard
- Butter
- Full fat cottage cheese
- Bacon
- Cured meats
- Salmon, sardines, and other oily fish
- Almost all types of vegetables (avoid white potatoes)
- Peas
- Most meats
While some of the foods mentioned contain both protein and carbs, all you need to do is consume them in the quantities mentioned earlier. Your portion sizes may vary, but the rules of the keto diet remain the same.
For example, even if you’re eating vegetables such as peas or broccoli, you shouldn’t have more than 50 grams of them. Yes, you will have to weigh them initially, just to be sure.
After a while, you’ll roughly know what the portion sizes should be. The same goes for the protein foods you’re consuming. Always weigh and measure your carbs though. You MUST be very strict with your carb consumption.
It may seem like a chore to track the calories, watch the portion sizes, see if you’re using the right fats and all the other little things that make up the keto diet. The best way to get around this problem will be to use an easy shortcut.
Get a few keto cookbooks that have all the calories and ingredients listed. Whip up dishes according to the recipes and you’ll be roughly on the mark. You could hire a nutritionist to create a keto meal plan for you, if you really wanted to.
Take the guesswork out of it so that you can just mindlessly follow the rules. Initially, when you’re getting used to a new diet, it’s easier if it’s all planned out for you.
Always research and know the diet well before you start. Be familiar with the keto recipes. Know what foods you like and dislike. It would be good to start your keto diet at a time when you have a few days off from work (for example, from Thursday to Sunday).
This will give you time to recover from symptoms of the keto flu. Usually, the first 4 days are the hardest. Once you get through those, you’ll slowly ease into the diet and lose weight in no time at all.
Be prepared before you start… and once you start, keep going till you see your weight come off and you reach your ideal weight. The keto diet is so powerful that you’ll see amazing results in about 4 weeks, if you’re consistent and compliant with the diet. Do give it a try today.
The keto diet has been around for ages. It has been used by bodybuilders all over the world to get lean and shredded during contest time.
The main principle of the keto diet is to consume a diet that’s very high in fat. You’ll be required to consume 75 to 80 percent of your daily calories in the form of fat.
Fats that are recommended in the keto diet are:
- Avocado
- Avocado Oil
- Cheese
- Chia Seeds
- Coconut Oil.
- Cream
- Eggs
- Fatty fish (Mackerel, salmon, sardines, halibut, etc.)
- Flaxseed
- Greek Yoghurt
- Nut Butter
- Nuts a
- Olive Oil
There are many other foods besides the ones listed above. You’ll need to do your research and see what they are. What matters is that your diet is comprised of these foods and that you follow the macronutrient guidelines religiously.
20 to 25 percent of your calories will come from protein.
In the keto diet, you’re only allowed about 20 to 50 grams of carbohydrates daily.
Most people will not be able to wrap their heads around the fact that they need to consume so much fat. They’ve been led to believe that eating fatty foods makes you fat and raises your cholesterol levels.
However, just by observing the obesity epidemic plaguing the US, we can tell that most people don’t have a clue about fat loss. Eating fat actually encourages the body to lose fat.
The real culprits for weight gain are sugar, processed foods, junk food and excessive starchy carb consumption. The keto diet puts an end to all of these causes of weight gain.
When most of your diet is fat, two things will happen. Firstly, your body starts adapting and realizes that it needs to use fat for fuel, instead of the glucose that it is used to consuming. So, it get’s it’s calories from fat.
Secondly, it realizes that since it’s getting ample amounts of fat, it doesn’t need to stubbornly cling on to its fat stores for future use. It will then be more willing to shed the stubborn pounds.
So now, you have a body that burns fat for fuel… and it sheds the excess fat much faster. This is the best place to be if you want fast and effective weight loss.
The reason so many people struggle to lose weight is because they’re battling their bodies. The body is burning glucose for fuel, instead of fat… and it doesn’t want to let go of the fat it’s holding on to.
The keto diet solves these problems very swiftly.
Do note that while the keto diet works wonders, the principles of weight loss remain the same. You’ll need to be at a caloric deficit of 500 calories a day. You can check your calorie numbers here: https://www.freedieting.com/calorie-calculator
Even on a keto diet, if you consume more calories than you burn, you’ll gain weight. So, you must be at a caloric deficit.
Once you’re expending more calories than you consume, your weight will come off much more easily, and it will mostly be fat. You’ll lose a good deal of water weight too, because carbs hold on to water.
Your body will become leaner, more vascular and turn into a fat burning machine. It will take anywhere from 4 to 7 days to reach ketosis, depending on the individual and their compliance to the diet.
Once you reach ketosis, combine your diet with intermittent fasting and a regular exercise program and you’ll shed all your excess fat in no time at all.
There’s no denying the fact that the keto diet works. Thousands of people have used it to achieve weight loss and better health. Many of them swear by it and say that it’s the most effective protocol for weight loss.
That said, despite the efficacy of the keto diet, it will take time to shed your stubborn fat stores. Since the diet forces your body to burn fat for fuel, it has better results than other diets which rely solely on calorie or carb restriction.
However, you will NOT lose all your weight overnight or even in a week. In fact, it can take about 4 to 7 days for your body to get keto-adapted. Only then will the body start burning fat. So, you have to be patient.
In this article, we’ll look at 5 ways to burn off your stubborn fat while on the keto diet. You want to assist the diet anyway you can to speed up your results.
- Do not consume exogenous ketone supplements
Less is more. Your body needs to reach a state of ketosis on its own. There are many supplements on the market claiming to induce ketosis in your body quickly.
Most of these are just hype designed to get you to part with your money. You don’t need these supplements when you’re starting off.
Do it naturally. Once your body is keto-adapted, occasionally you may slip out of ketosis if you eat too much carbs or your diet is not on point. During times like these, you may take some ketone supplements as an added boost to get yourself back on track quickly. It should only be used as a short-term solution for when you slip up. - HIIT
High intensity interval training should be avoided until you’re in a state of ketosis. Initially, when your body is adjusting to the keto diet, you’ll be experiencing symptoms such as the keto flu and so on.
It’s best to just take things easy since you won’t be feeling too good. However, once your body is in ketosis, you should engage in high intensity training twice a week to boost your metabolism.
You’ll be burning calories at an accelerated rate and the fat will melt off your body. This is unbelievably powerful. - Fasting
Fasting is a wonderful method to complement the keto diet. You can either practice intermittent fasting where you fast for 16 hours a day and only eat during an 8-hour window… or you can try 24-hour fasts twice a week or on alternate days.
The longer your fasting duration is, the better your results will be. Fasting also helps to put your body in a state of ketosis. - Zero carb policy
While the keto diet recommends 20 to 50 grams of carbs daily, you can choose not to eat carbs at all for 3 or 4 days a week. This will accelerate your weight loss even further and the glucose levels in your body will be low. - Cardio after resistance training
Adding 15 minutes of cardio after a resistance training session will be very effective at burning off the stubborn fat. Since you’ve depleted your glycogen during your weight training, the body will have no choice but to burn fat for fuel during your cardio.
Your workout will literally be a fat burning process.
These 4 tips will help you to get the best from your keto diet and make the whole journey faster and smoother. At the end of the day, it just comes down to following the guidelines and staying true to the keto diet. Have patience and you’ll see unbelievable results in 3 to 4 weeks.
The goal of the ketogenic diet is to put your body in a state of ketosis. What that really means is that your body is burning fat for fuel. Most people struggle to shed the excess pounds because their bodies are using glucose as fuel, instead of fat.
So, the fat never comes off and they wonder why it’s so stubborn.
Ketosis needs to be monitored so that you know if you’re on track. You can do this using urine strips or a breathalyzer. Do note that you should consult your doctor first before embarking on this diet.
If you want to turn your body into a fat-burning machine, you’ll need to get it used to tapping into its fat stores for fuel. In order to do that, you’ll have to consume most of your calories in the form of fat.
About 70 – 75% of your daily calories should be comprised of fat. About 20 – 25% should be protein, and your carb intake should be around 20 to 50 grams. You should NOT exceed 50 grams of carbs.
It may seem strange that you need to eat fat to lose fat. Yet, that’s exactly what you need to do. When the body gets more than enough fats from the diet, it realizes that it doesn’t need to cling on to its fat stores.
So, it burns off the excess fat much more readily. This is the biggest benefit of the ketogenic diet. With many other calorie-restriction diets, the moment you reduce your calories, the body stubbornly retains its fat stores for future use.
With the keto diet, this problem is overcome, and you keep burning your fat without facing opposition from the body.
- Intermittent fasting
This highly effective protocol works wonders when combined with a keto diet. You’ll achieve ketosis in a much shorter time and your fat burning progress will be accelerated.
You’ll be burning fat round the clock. Since the keto diet has trained your body to burn fat, when you’re in a fasted state for most of the day, your body will have no choice but to burn whatever fat it can get its hands on. - Exercise regularly
Initially, when you’re adapting to the keto diet, you may do slow cardio or light exercise. Brisk walking is good for getting your metabolism up and also not being too taxing on your body.
If you do a morning walk for 30 minutes daily (on an empty stomach), your body will deplete whatever glycogen is left in it. Any carbs you consume will be burned off and your body will be primed for fat burning. - Be patient
It could be anywhere from 4 days to a week before your body reaches ketosis. Most people want immediate results and your body does not work that way. Follow the principles of the keto diet closely.
Knowing what foods to eat and what not to eat is of paramount importance. You’ll also need to get the macronutrients in the correct amounts. Your diet must be comprised of at least 70% fat.
If you get the fundamentals right and combine it with intermittent fasting, you’ll reach ketosis and your fat will melt off in a couple of weeks.
This is one of the best weight loss protocols. Follow it well, use the tips here and give it time to work. You will be amazed at the results.
