The ketogenic (keto) diet consists of low carbohydrates, high healthy fats and a weight-based calculated amount of proteins. It is similar to the Atkins Diet and the Paleo diet. The carbohydrates are replaced with fat. This will cause your body to go into ketosis. Once in ketosis your body very efficiently burns body fat into energy. Your body will then produce ketones, have lower glucose and insulin levels and can be used as fuel for your brain. By burning your own excess fat you will lose inches and weight.
The ketogenic diet is different from any other diet in that it will put your body into ketosis and sustain it in ketosis. However, the keto diet will only work for you if you correctly follow it. If you cheat and knock your body out of ketosis, you won’t lose weight. Your body will only enter into ketosis once you eliminate nearly all sugar and exogenous ketones from your diet. The cells in your body will then start burning available glucose and fat for energy. So how long does it take for you to reach ketosis? Generally about 3-4 days.
This diet gives you so much more energy and is so filling that you DO NOT need to count calories! Rather instead you will need to keep up with macros (macronutrients). These are blocks of nutritional units. The ones we will be concerned with are carbohydrates, fats and protein. This will be further explained later.
Here is the basic formula for calculating how many macros you need to consume for getting your body into ketosis: 20 grams carbs + protein.
Carbs are listed on food labels as either total carbs= ALL the carbs in a food or net carbs which= all carbs MINUS the fiber content. We will be mostly concerned with net carbs. Protein should be lean protein, NOT containing a lot of fat. You will need 1-1.5 grams protein per kg of lean body mass. Fats will consist of healthy fats and will be about 80 % of this diet. We will go into this more later on.
To calculate all of this here is the complete formula. 45 grams + 2 grams for every inch of height over 5 feet. i.e. Say you are 5 ft 6 in tall. This will be 45g + (2 x 6 in) = 45 + 12 = 57 grams of protein. To calculate fat add enough grams of healthy fat just make sure the number of grams of fat are more than the grams of protein.
Sounds very confusing, huh? Here’s the easiest way to keep up with your macros.
Download a free app to your phone. There are 2 that I would recommend. The one I like the best and I think is the easiest is Carb Manager. It keeps track of all your macros, meals, water and how many steps you take per day. It will also make it easier to keep track of net carbs or total carbs. If you would like more you can upgrade to the paid premium app which does more and has recipes you can choose from. The other app is My Fitness Pal which is similar but I thought was a little more complex. But that’s just my opinion. They are both great apps. Now for more about the types of keto.