Many people are having great success with the Ketogenic Diet. I have had great success myself! My reasons do differ from many, from what I gather, but the results have been astounding, to say the least. What people see is a thinner, fitter, version of my previous self. I’ve been successful before with my attempts to lose weight and become toner, only to end up losing that muscle and gaining the weight back. What’s so different this time? It’s not about how I look, but how I feel that makes this so different from all my previous attempts.
#1 reason people turn to Keto. To lose weight! Right? You see and hear about the success stories. How quickly people have dropped weight! All by eliminating bread and eating bacon! Not so fast. There’s so much more to it than that. And that brings up the #1 problem I notice with people turning to Keto. Far too often I observe people turn to Keto to lose weight without having a proper understanding of the diet itself, and more so, what kind of changes are going to occur in their body.
I like to think of it like this…would you work at a new job that didn’t give you any proper instructions or training first? You’re left sitting there guessing about what to do, asking the persons around you if they can tell you what you should be doing! Good chance that answer is “No”. You’ll either quit out of frustration, or, you’ll be let go for lack of performance. Why should this rule not apply when learning a new “Way Of Eating (WOE)”? Like I’ve said before, changes you make to your body should be for the greater good of the rest of your life, not the next couple of months to a couple years.
Before you go Keto, or any new WOE for that matter, take the time to REALLY learn the science behind it, it’s history, your body and your history! There’s a reason why we get excess fat on our bodies, and sometimes, it has a lot more to do with how our bodies are responding to certain foods vs just eating too much sugar and carbs. You may recall from my previous blogs, what turned me to Keto was the discovery of a food intolerance to lectins (refer to “Getting Started“). I went years with dealing with the side effects of this lectin intolerance without even questioning the food I was eating. Looking back, I assume I chalked it up to getting older and family history. I was prone to experience these things, just as my father, my uncle, and my grandfather had before me. Doomed to a life of antacids and antidiarrheal medicines! Even when I was maintaining a healthy weight and steady exercise program, I chalked up the bloating and terrible pain to the “protein” and “creatine” powders. Never giving a thought to what the whey in that protein was doing to my gut, or how hard my digestive system was having to work on those raw vegetables, or that the Whole Wheat & 12 Grain Bread was actually destroying the protective walls of my stomach. I was eating “healthy”, so surely it wasn’t the food at fault. It was just, me.
We’ve established that my reasonings for going Keto are mainly due to an intolerance to lectin. That lectin intolerance is certainly the influence to stay the course with this WOE, for certainly on days that I stray, I pay dearly for it…nevermind what the scale says, it’s the least of my worries. But, whatever you’re reasoning is, whether it be for weight loss, food allergy avoidance, or, treatments for joint pain, acid reflux, Type II diabetes, autoimmune disorders, etc., etc….get to know your food and get to know your body FIRST.
Where to turn for that. Well, it took me a long time to bring it up, but having that conversation with your doctor is a good place to start, especially if you aren’t feeling well on a daily basis. Ask if you can be checked for food allergies/intolerance. Be aware though, that when describing symptoms to your doctor, such as individuals with IBS or Acid Reflux, you’ll likely be prescribed the quick fix of Imodium or Nexium without much further investigation (which reek havoc on your gut, by the way). I know, because it’s exactly what happened to me. It took 6 months after having that talk with my doctor, followed by seeing a specialist that still couldn’t quite pinpoint the exact cause of my issues, before I met someone who was familiar with the topic of lectins, at a children’s party of all places! (For more information on the topic of lectins and treatments, please refer to Dr. Steven R. Gundry)
Got a good idea of what you can, or, can’t eat? Good. Next step is learning about your new WOE. As was stated earlier, take it slow and let your body adjust to changes your making. Much like the frog in a pot of boiling water, it’ll either reject it because the water is too hot! Or, it will happily sit there as the temperature is raised gradually, not noticing the subtle difference as it naturally adjusts. Same goes for your body, so, take it slow! When going Keto, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see a lot of weight come off pretty quickly. Don’t get discouraged as you see this start to slow, or even plateau, as this initial weight is going to be mostly water weight. What happens here is as you take carbohydrates away from your diet, your body adjusts by depleting your muscles of its glycogen storage. Many people feel dehydrated, or symptoms of dehydration when this happens. Be sure to up your water and salt intake when going Keto to replenish those electrolytes.
Up your fat! Time to get over everything you were told about fat. Our body needs it, and uses it as fuel! It’s the reason why we have it stored on our body, so in times that we have to fast, either intentionally or unintentionally, our body can literally eat itself! When the liver is no longer receiving carbs and sugar to turn into glucose for fuel, it adjusts to burning fat. The liver turns the fat into ketones which the body will now use as its source of energy. Fat takes much longer to burn, leaving you feeling fuller, longer! Once you have become fat adaptive and your body is in ketosis, everything becomes much easier. Cravings for food become less and less, especially sweet cravings. But, there are ways to combat those sweet cravings if you do get them (check out the “RECIPES” section of this site).
Eliminate refined carbs and sugar from the food you eat. A good rule of thumb here is it’s manufactured or highly processed, it’s likely going to contain ingredients you should definitely avoid. Foods made from wheat, grain, corn, vegetable oil, corn oil, canola oil, corn starch, sugar or sugar substitutes like dextrose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, are all foods to be avoided when doing a grain free ketogenic diet. What a lot of people don’t realize when going Keto, much of the reason for their success is due to the fact they are minimizing (if not eliminating) lectins from their diet.
Instead, opt for fattier foods that have are low in carbs and sugars. Sorry, this means no fruit, or very limited quantities of it. Berries (of all sorts) contain the fewest amount of sugars and are a safe bet for that tasty snack. Avocados and macadamia nuts are a great snack, or addition to any meal. Look for almond flour or coconut flour in place of wheat flours (check out the “RECIPES” for my favorite bread and sweet bread recipes to make at home). Beware of gluten free foods as these still contain high carb and sugar ingredients, as well as a boat load of lectins! Dairy is a good source of fat and calcium, make sure you stick with whole fat dairy, and try to go with organic grass fed/grass finished products if at all possible. I’ll touch on this at another time, but in the short, you are what you eat and what your food eats as well.
Here’s a just a simple guideline to get you started. If you have questions, hit me up in the comments or on email, and be sure to sign up for updates as new posts and recipes come available!