#What Has The Keto Diet Taught You? The Definitive Keto Guide

It’s very important to learn from your experiences, especially when it comes to nutrition and health.

What Can The Keto Diet Teach You?

Extreme diets and the results are usually temporary as they are difficult to maintain for long-term. The key is to find a balanced way of eating all the food groups so that this plan can become a lifestyle.

Fats Are Essential For Better Health

One of biggest realizations you’ll learn from a keto diet is that healthy fats are a very crucial nutrient in your diet for weight-loss.

The fear of fats is irrational and it stems from all the misinformation the health community has put out over the past many years.

Marketing of low-fat and reduced-fat products in the health industry has been going on for a long time now, and it’s basically a health scam to sell more products.

Low-fat and fat-free foods are much higher in carbohydrates than the whole versions. Once fat is removed from food a lot of the nutrition is also removed and replaced with some form of carbohydrate.

Healthy fats are very important for a balanced diet and include;

• Monounsaturated Fatty Acids (found in plant foods such as nuts and avocados).
• Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (found in fatty fish like salmon and mackerel).
• Saturated Fats (studies have found there’s no correlation between saturated fats and rising cholesterol).

These essential fats are important for making necessary hormones and are vital for absorbing fat soluble vitamins. Therefore, following a low-fat diet can result in a lowered immune system as well as bone health, skin, hair, and nails.

How Do Carbohydrates Really Effect The Body?

Carbohydrates cause an increase in insulin and store glucose as glycogen in the liver and muscle cells.

Refined carbohydrates are typically high in sugar and low in fiber, which results in an even greater insulin spike and can result in filling up all your glycogen stores and therefore some fat cells.

Every gram of carbohydrate stored in the body as glycogen results in 2–3 grams of water being retained in the body as well. This is why significant water retention occurs after a large quantity of carbs are consumed, as well as the water retention that comes with the high amount of sodium in many refined carbohydrates.

However, complex carbohydrates are an important part of a balanced diet and provide significant energy for physical activity and concentration. Complex carbohydrates are also high in fiber, which aids in digestion and also promotes feeling full for a longer amount of time.

Removing refined and simple carbohydrates is definitely beneficial for health and weight-loss success, but severly limiting complex carbohydrates too can cause lethargy and a decrease in physical and mental performance.

Not all carbohydrates are evil, just the ones that have a ton of added sugar, no fiber, and all the other gibberish ingredients on the packaging.

The greatest thing you can learn from all your years of excessive dieting is to love and accept yourself for who you are and not how you look. Let go of perfectionism and allow yourself to find balance and moderation with food and exercise.

What Is A Keto Diet & What Are The Benefits?

The ketogenic diet has gained a lot of popularity in the present and recent past.

“Keto” is short for Ketogenic.

The idea behind this diet is to get your body into a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a metabolic state that happens when your body switches to burning fat for fuel instead of carbs or sugar.

Studies have proven that ketosis can be beneficial for everything from weight loss to people fighting disease.

We don’t want to sugar coat things – if keto is not for you, it’s not for you. Many people find it very helpful and to be an amazing solution for their health goals.

What Keto Long-Term Will Teach You?

• Potassium, magnesium, and especially sodium is very helpful when handling the keto flu as well as carb-cravings. Emergen-C makes something called electro mix, which is a powdered sports drink that doesn’t have carbs – no issues with muscle cramps.
• Calories in, calories out is indisputable about losing weight. Cutting out most of the high-carb food and replacing it with smaller portions of moderate protein and high-fat foods allows to consume less calories and still feel satiated. Plus, the hunger pangs won’t return quickly like when consuming junk food.
• Cravings don’t simply disappear. You must find some sort of a keto dessert to help satiate sweet cravings. There are many.
• “You can’t maintain the keto diet forever,” is a false statement. You can go from keto-weightloss to keto-maintainable fairly easily.
• Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see quick results. What you get quickly, you lose quickly. A slow, stable weight-loss is what you’re looking for.
• Don’t create false beliefs around your keto diet. Achieving your goal weight and returning to your prior eating habits will normally lead to gaining your weight back (if not more).
• Use the tools you have at your disposal. It is not easy to change your lifestyle, let alone absorb all the information regarding the keto diet. Make it easier on you and use something to ease the learning process. KetoCycle has an app where you can track your calories, process, meals, have all the recipes and weekly grocery lists. It can take some of the unnecessary daily headaches.

Make the change. You need to have this mindset to succeed with this diet.

Don’t half-ass it, because you’ll get discouraged, won’t hold up to your expectations and write it off as something that “doesn’t work for me.”

What To Expect While Starting Your Keto Diet?

The first 3 days… expect a lot of potty breaks, and be sure to drink a lot of water so you don’t become dehydrated. Many people may experience bad headaches during this time and feel tired. Increasing salt intake can help feelings of lethargy.

After the first 3 days… you may notice an increased amount of energy that lasts throughout the entire day. Despite how busy you are or how much you move around, you won’t feel overwhelmed.

Your body may also start to appear slimmer because it’s no longer retaining as much water. Stiffness and brain fog in the morning may stop, and flexibility may also increase.

At this point, you may not have cravings for carbs or anything sweet and won’t experience any crazy hunger levels.

During the 2nd week… strength and endurance improvements may slow, but you should be able to see slight changes in performance.

Normally after the first 10-14 days, your will finally adapt to the keto diet and start to feel amazing. The fat in your body will be the primary energy generator for your brain and muscle activity.

After the first few weeks… mental clarity should be at its peak throughout the entire day. Women may stop experiencing painful cramps from their period.

By now, you should have a firm grasp on the rigidity of the Keto diet and things shouldn’t be as hard to maintain.

During the first six months… you may start experimenting with different quantities of carbs. A few people can handle less than 20 grams/day easily, while others struggle to keep their counts low.

Depending on your starting weight, you should lose weight quickly within the first few months and start to plateau the longer you go. Losing weight too fast, continuously, may mean that you need to add more good fats to your diet like avocado, coconut oil, raw nuts, and/or seeds.

How Often Should You Test Your Urine For Ketones?

Keto Dieters usually test their urine for ketones daily with strips. You can find them at the drugstore for a few dollars, totally worth it.

Eventually, you will know what foods keep you in ketosis and what foods knock you out.

Blood can also be tested for ketones, but this is not a community favorite.

Everything You Need To Know About The Keto Diet

Sleep

Improvement in sleep is one BIG plus in your keto diet. Keto can help you resolve sleeping disorders, and fall into a deep sleep in half the time. Plus, when you wake up, you feel fresh, full of energy, and ready to attack the day.

The keto diet is known as being responsible for sleep problems such as insomnia, but this only happens during the adjustment period.

As long as your body becomes fat adapted, your sleep quality will get better.

Dreams

If you’ve never dreamed before, get ready to dream a lot on keto. You will be able to notice the transition between being awake and falling asleep.

You might experience nightmares rather than sweet dreams in a keto diet. Keto can lead to increased consciousness and concentration – almost like mediation.

Mood

You may experience greater feelings of calm, optimism, happiness, and kindness as your keto journey moves forward. Anger, anxiety, and nervousness will fade away as you feel better and look better. nervous.

Mood changes happen because of the change in glucose. When levels of glucose drop you feel sad, angry, and crave sugary foods. This doesn’t happen on a keto diet because you consume fewer carbs and your glucose remains stable.

Mental Clarity

• Keto diet turns off the “noise” in your head;
• You will gain greater focus on the task at hand;
• Transitioning between tasks should become easier;
• You will be able to study, read, and learn efficiently;

Ketones are an efficient source of energy that improve clarity, focus, and learning abilities.

Memory

You may notice a huge improvement in short-term memory because of your newfound focus, clear mind, and concentration.

Satiety

You won’t feel hungry when sitting through long lecture in class or outdoor activities because eating becomes a pleasure, instead of a chore. Satiation makes you more productive because you can work, and study, without listening to your stomach growl and the endless thoughts of what you’re eating next.

Water

People who “don’t like water” may not like keto because water is an inevitable necessity. You will feel thirsty most of the time, but would you rather feel a little parched or starved.

Euphoria

On the first days of keto diet, you’ll usually feel euphoric. It’s just different.

You laugh more, feel a great sense of well-being, and everything seems perfect. However, sometimes this can lead to insomnia. Especially if you’ve had too much coffee.

Energy

The energy you discover on a ketogenic diet is unlike anything else. Chugging caffeine beverages can’t even compare.

Burning ketones ensures you have plenty of fuel to burn when you need it. Long shifts and nights of studying won’t require Redbulls and Monsters to keep you going.

Skin

The pimples I used to have on my face have gone. My skin is now cleaner and softer than before.

Keto diet doesn’t do any wonders for you. In fact, what happens is that since now you are not eating all the junk food you were eating before, no damage will happen to your skin.

Electrolytes

You will have to supplement your electrolytes throughout the entire year and especially during summer when you sweat more.

Reducing carbs makes your body crave more magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Ketosis reduces your liquid retention and when the water leaves the body, so do the electrolytes.

If you don’t supplement the minerals you lose, you will have symptoms of the keto flu:

• Muscle Cramps
• Anxiety
• Headache
• Confusion
• Heart Palpitations

Cravings

Craving carbs frequently is natural because of the changes in your insulin and glucose levels.

Hypoglycemia happens to even non-diabetic people. The more carbs you eat, the more insulin you release. The more insulin you release, the more resistant you become.

It’s a domino effect. This condition makes you crave for carbs — usually industrialized ones that are rich in processed grains and sugar.

Opinions

Many people still believe that a healthy diet means less meat, less fats, and more grains. I mean, a few years ago, that’s what you were taught every day in school.

With keto, you usually don’t eat grains while meat and fat consumption go through the roof. People will bother you about your new diet so be prepared.

New Tastes

Following a strict keto diet can be very restricting on what you consume, so getting creative with your meals is a must.

Initially, you may not hav many options, but there are keto recipe books out there that will help you discover news tastes that get the job done.

Over time you will find a lot of new foods that you didn’t eat in the past.

Coffee

Before keto, you may be able to chug coffee endlessly without feeling its effects. Drinking a cup of coffee before bed probably didn’t even hinder your sleep. However, after keto, you WILL feel coffee.

The keto diet cleanses your body from all that trash you’ve been eating, and you notice the changes when using a good source of fuel. With a bad diet, your body is so polluted that coffee doesn’t even work well.

The Cons Of Keto

The keto diet has its drawbacks:

• You feel so euphoric that it’s hard to relax or sleep.
• You’re often thirsty and needing to supplement electrolytes.
• You might need to carry a bottle of magnesium, potassium, and sodium to dilute in water.
• Bad breath is almost inevitable because you will exhale ketones.

Now, this isn’t a full list of negatives, but a few of the most prominent ones that many people experience.

Conclusion

This is a very strict diet and you should check with your health professional before beginning just to make sure you are good to go.

Many others have a very positive experience with the keto diet, and I am sure YOU will have too.

We wish you a happy and healthy Keto journey!