You’re tired of carrying around your COVID pandemic weight. But the idea of refraining from food for an extended period of time makes you want to throw up your hands and binge on some Ding Dongs.
The good news? Losing weight and living healthy doesn’t need to be a drag. With the keto diet, you can enjoy some of your favorite foods while simultaneously watching the pounds melt off. Research shows that the market for keto diet food is expected to increase by 5.3% every year between 2019 and 2024.
With this diet, you essentially reduce your carb intake to no more than 50 grams a day and boost your protein and fat intake to induce weight loss. This allows your body to begin to use fats as fuel in place of carbs. However, before you jump into keto, you need to know exactly what to expect from the start.
No catches, no gimmicks. Get your Free Keto E-book right now.
Here’s a rundown on five things to know before switching to keto.
1. Patience Is Key
One of the most important things to realize about the keto diet is that you may not see success right away. You may indeed witness relatively immediate results if you need to lose a large amount of weight. That’s because you might end up shedding a significant number of pounds at the start. However, as a general rule of thumb, weight loss that is healthy is slow, sustainable, and steady. For this reason, it’s critical that you remain patient as you seek results from the keto diet.
2. Your Food Choices Matter
When you make the switch to keto, you’ll likely have to break up with some of your favorite foods, or at least not eat them as frequently. That’s because your food quality matters when you’re going the keto route. Nutrient-dense and high-quality foods, like cashews and pumpkin seeds, are the keto essentials to adopt as part of this diet. Other healthy choices include the following:
- Berries
- Avocados
- Healthy fats (e.g., oil, nuts, nut butter)
- Dairy that is high fat
- Green leafy vegetables
- Meat, including poultry, lamb, and fish
Use the above items to replace junk foods that are high carb or even lower carb. And watch out for the following food items:
- High-carb vegetables, including yams and potatoes
- Sugar
- Fruits (e.g., apples, oranges, mangoes, bananas)
- Grains, including cereal, corn, rice, and wheat
If you want to eat high-carb foods or junk food, do so sparingly — for example, on a special holiday or occasion.
3. Your Lifestyle Will Need to Change
As you embark on your keto journey, be prepared to stick to it for the long haul. Keto isn’t a temporary diet; it’s a lifestyle that can generate long-term results if you’re consistent in using it.
If you start keto and then quit it all of a sudden, this may cause confusion for your body and negatively impact your metabolism. As a result, you may gain weight. For the best results, plan to go low carb for a lifetime.
4. You Can Create Your Own Diet
A huge benefit of keto is that you can customize your diet.
For instance, you can allow your carb intake to fluctuate between 20 grams and 50 grams. Choose an amount that works best for your body and your cravings. Either way, try to make your carb intake make up just 5% of your daily diet. Then, dedicate 25% of your diet to protein, followed by 70% of your diet to fat.
5. You Can Avoid the Keto Flu and Workout Fatigue
Finally, as a keto newbie, be prepared to experience some of the symptoms you experience when you develop the flu, such as headaches and nausea. You might also feel dehydrated due to losing electrolytes. This occurs because when your body switches to burning fat, the brain will end up running on a low amount of energy for a period. However, you can combat this issue simply by increasing your water intake. Eventually, your body’s systems will adjust to your keto diet.
In addition, you might notice that keto will affect your workouts initially. Specifically, you might lose some endurance and strength. That’s because your body will have to adapt to not burning carbs to produce fuel for your body. It will eventually become accustomed to the burning of fat, at which time your exercising capacity will go back to normal. You might even notice an improvement in your physical performance over time.
Take Back Your Health By Switching to Keto with Confidence Today
Switching to keto can understandably be both intimidating and exciting. The idea of minimizing your carb intake may not be all that appealing, but the slimmer figure that may emerge in the mirror, as a result, will definitely be.
Consider the above-listed facts about keto as you seek to unleash your healthier, happier self by restricting your carb intake in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
Comments are closed.