The Ketogenic or ‘Keto’ diet is surely gaining mainstream popularity. An increasing number of people are recognizing the many benefits the diet has to offer. The diet itself is an extremely low-carbohydrate diet designed to put your body in an extreme state of fat burning. Essentially, it transforms your body into a fat burning machine by altering your body’s mechanism for generating energy. Once in a ketogenic state, your body goes from easily looking for glucose for energy to burning fat for energy. Not only does it offer weight loss benefits, but it can improve energy levels and more. Let us over some of the tips for getting started with the diet.
Getting Started:
- Get Rid Of Carbs.
A first step and main step to get started with the Ketogenic diet is to get rid of all carbohydrates from your kitchen. Yes, remove the delectable and readily available carbohydrates. By getting rid of the excess carbohydrates you have in your kitchen, you will be less tempted to consume foods high in carbohydrates, to begin with. Removing temptation is your best chance for success.
- Find Keto-Friendly Foods You Like.
You will then want to find all of the keto-friendly foods that you like and enjoy. There are all kinds of keto-friendly foods that can satisfy your hunger. With the keto diet, you want to look to consume more meat, fish, and vegetables. Typically, you want to stay away from fruit as fruit usually contains too many carbohydrates. Some of the best foods you can include in your keto diet would be various cheeses, other kinds of dairy, avocados, vegetables, and more.
- Count Your Carbs.
For the diet to be effective you have to get into a state of ketosis. Counting your carbs intake is a good start to achieving this. Eventually, you will get the hang of the diet without counting, but for now, start counting to avoid consuming too many carbohydrates.. Ideally, you should be keeping your carbohydrate intake per day under 20 grams. If that is too difficult, anywhere from 20 to 50 grams should be a good place to begin.
- Pay Attention Your Drinks.
Even if you are doing all of the legwork with your eating habits, you don’t want to ruin your hard work with your beverage choices. The beverages you end up choosing can completely wreck your diet. If you are looking to adhere to the keto diet, you should be drinking primarily water. Coffee and tea without sugar or anything else are also keto-friendly. Red wine is another beverage that is very low in carbohydrates.
- Plan Your Meals.
To adhere to the keto diet, effectively planning your meals out ahead of time is a good practice. Planning your meals ahead of time, enable you to consistently come up with keto-friendly meals. This is going to help you avoid giving into temptation due to being hungry or not being prepared.
- Fats.
One of the keys to sticking to the keto diet is by loading up on fats and protein. After a while, you will find it is very easy to stick to the diet because each meal is capable of leaving you fuller for longer periods of time. Because fats and proteins are so much more sustainable forms of energy for our body, you don’t end up getting hungry 30 minutes after consuming a meal like you would with a carbohydrate-filled meal.
- Eat A Good Breakfast.
This is the best way to start your metabolism off on the right foot and to really provide yourself with the energy needed for the day. It can keep you from getting hunger spikes in the mid-day which is when a lot of people make poor snacking decisions.
Overall, there is a lot that you want to know going into the keto diet. For now, implement the tips above to give yourself the best chance of success.