When we first learn about the amazing health benefits of the ketogenic diet, we wonder “How to properly do a ketogenic diet?” Doing it right, especially eating the right meals, allows us to get into ketosis quicker, with less side effects and actually be able to enjoy a healthy ketogenic life.
Rules of The Ketogenic Diet
What are the most basic rules to follow on the keto diet? To get into and remain in ketosis, we must follow some basic rules about what and how to eat and if weight-loss is the reason to go on keto, we need to consider intermittent fasting, sleeping and exercising enough as well.
Restricting Carbohydrates
To successfully reach and maintain ketosis, we need to restrict the consumption of our daily net carbs to 20-50 grams.
Net carbs are calculated by deducting the consumed fiber from the total carbs of food consumed in grams.
Restricting Protein
To ensure that we continuously remain in ketosis we must consume the right amount of protein. Consuming excess protein will bump us out of ketosis, thanks to gluconeogenesis. If we do not consume enough protein, the body will break down muscle tissue. How much protein we need to consume could be calculated from our weight.
To get the minimum and maximum of recommended protein for your weight in grams, you need to multiply your weight in pounds by 0.4 and by 0.9 to get the maximum. For example if you weigh 154 lbs, you should consume between 61 and 138 grams of proteins per day.
If you use the metric system, you could calculate your recommended minimum daily protein intake in grams by multiplying your weight in kilograms by 0.9 and to get the maximum, by 1.9. As an example, if you weigh 75 kgs, you are recommended to consume approximately between 67 and 142 grams of protein a day.
Consuming Enough Fat
Eating enough fat is necessary to keep us from getting hungry.
The amount of fat you should consume depends on your existing fat storage in your body.
Keto For Weight Loss
If weight-loss is your main reason for choosing the keto diet, you should also:
Avoid Snacking
Just like eating meals, snacking too triggers insulin.
Insulin is a very powerful hormone which among other things, it prohibits weight loss.
Do Intermittent Fasting
The less frequently you eat, the less often you spike insulin. The longer you can go without insulin spikes, the more time you give your body to burn fat for fuel. For most of us, skipping breakfast is the easiest way of Intermittent Fasting. This comes easy on the ketogenic diet as we consume more fat so we are almost never hungry.
An example of a common way of intermittent fasting is eating lunch at noon and dinner at 4pm, allowing the body to burn fat for about 20 hours straight.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Most of us need at least seven hours of sleep every night.
Not doing so could increase stress hormone and blood sugar levels, which would slow down weight loss.
Exercise
Getting enough exercise could greatly accelerate weight loss especially on the keto program.
Just make sure you do not over do it and that you give your body enough time to recover after each workout.
Learn more about the Ketogenic Diet: Should You Try It?
