04/12/2020

Everything you need to know about keto diet for beginners: Stupid-simple guide

Everything you need to know about keto diet for beginners. What’s Keto diet – is it good for diet or health? Ketogenic diet (or keto diet, for short) is a low-carb and high-fat diet that offers many benefits.

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Table of Contents

Everything you need to know about keto diet for beginners

What’s Keto diet? Keto diet or Ketogenic diet is a very “low-carb” and ” high-fat” diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins and low-carb diet.

It drastically reduces carbohydrate intake and replacing it with healthy fats. The reduction of carbs puts your body into a metabolic state – ketosis. When this happens, your body becomes incredibly efficient at burning fat for energy.

Your body eventually moves from carbs to fat for taking the energy, and the fat never gets stored. It also turns fat into ketones in the liver, which can supply energy for the brain. Keto diet can cause massive reductions in blood sugar and insulin levels. This, along with the increased ketones, has numerous health benefits.

It’s pretty amazing, right? I’ll show you everything you need to know about Keto diet for beginners.

Who should follow Keto diet

People who want to lose weight quickly
People with metabolic, neurological or insulin-related diseases.

Who should NOT do a Keto diet

Ketogenic diet is usually pretty harmless, but under these 3 conditions, you should consult your doctor.

Diabetes
High Blood Pressure
Breastfeeding

Different Types of Keto Diet

There are several types of Keto diets. However, only the standard and high-protein ketogenic diets have been studied extensively. Cyclical or targeted ketogenic diets are more advanced methods and primarily used by bodybuilders or athletes. For Keto diet beginners, just start with the standard one (SKD) and then gradually adapt to the advanced ones.

The information in this blog mostly applies to the standard ketogenic diet (SKD), although many of the same principles also apply to the other versions.

Standard ketogenic diet (SKD): This is a very low-carb, moderate-protein and high-fat diet. It typically contains 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% carbs.
High-protein ketogenic diet: This is similar to a standard ketogenic diet, but includes more protein. The ratio is often 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs.
Cyclical ketogenic diet (CKD): This involves periods of higher-carb feeds, such as 5 ketogenic days followed by 2 high-carb days.
Targeted ketogenic diet (TKD): This allows you to add carbs around workouts.

HOW TO FIND WHICH APPROACH WORKS BEST FOR YOU

First, check with your doctor before you make any major dietary changes.
Try different styles of keto for at least a month each.
Track your carbs, fat and protein using a food tracking app like MyFitnessPal and My Macros+.
Set goals based on fat and carb intake instead of worrying about calories. Eat until you’re full, and listen to your body.

Keto Diet Benefits

Lose weight

Keto Diet brings incredible results in a quick amount of time with comparatively less effort for weight loss. Keto diet is very filling due to increased fat intake that you can lose weight without counting calories or your food intake. In fact, you do count calories in Keto diet, but not as restricted as low carb diet. There are several reasons why a keto diet is better than a low-fat diet. The increased protein intake, lower blood sugar levels, and improved insulin sensitivity may also play a key role.

Increased energy

When you exercise on a low carb diet, your body produces less insulin. So decreased insulin levels result in increased energy levels. It also increases your focus due to high fat intake.

Diabetes

Excess fat is closely linked to type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Diabetes is characterized by changes in metabolism, high blood sugar, and impaired insulin function. Since the Keto diet helps you to lose weight fast, so it’s great for people with diabetes.

Heart disease

Keto diet can help you decrease body fat, HDL cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

Cancer

The diet is currently being used to treat several types of cancer and slow tumor growth.

Alzheimer’s disease

It may reduce symptoms.

Epilepsy

Research has shown that the keto diet can cause massive reductions in seizures in epileptic children.

Polycystic ovary syndrome

Keto diet can help reduce insulin levels, which may play a key role in polycystic ovary syndrome.

Acne

Lower insulin levels and eating less sugar or processed foods may help improve acne.

Drawbacks

Although the keto diet is safe for healthy people, there may be some side effects while your body adapts it. This is called “keto flu” and is usually over within a few days. Keto flu includes poor energy and mental function, increased hunger, sleep issues, nausea, digestive discomfort, and decreased exercise performance.

To minimize this, you can try a regular low-carb diet for the first few weeks. This may teach your body to burn more fat before you completely eliminate carbs. It can also change the water and mineral balance of your body, so adding extra salt to your meals or taking mineral supplements can help.

For minerals, try taking 3,000 – 4,000 mg of sodium, 1,000 mg of potassium, and 300 mg of magnesium per day to minimize the side effects. At least, in the beginning, it is important to eat until you’re full and avoid restricting calories too much. Usually, the keto diet brings weight loss without intentional calorie restriction.

Foods to eat

To cover everything you need to know about the keto diet for beginners, you must know which foods to eat. Swap carb with healthy fats and eat whole foods.

Meat: Red meat, steak, ham, sausage, bacon, chicken and turkey.
Fatty fish: Such as salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel.
Eggs: Look for pastured or omega-3 whole eggs.
Butter and cream: Look for grass-fed when possible.
Cheese: Unprocessed cheese (cheddar, goat, cream, blue or mozzarella).
Nuts and seeds: walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, brazil nuts, hemp seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds
Healthy oils: Primarily extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil and avocado oil.
Avocados: Whole avocados or freshly made guacamole.
Coconut
Berries, lemon, lime: only small amounts
Low-carb veggies: Most green veggies, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc.
Condiments: You can use salt, pepper and various healthy herbs and spices.

Healthy Keto Snacks

Fatty meat or fish
Cheese
A handful of nuts or seeds
Cheese with olives
1–2 hard-boiled eggs
90% dark chocolate
A low-carb milkshake with almond milk, cocoa powder, nut butter
Full-fat yogurt mixed with nut butter and cocoa powder
Strawberries and cream
Celery with salsa and guacamole
Smaller portions of leftover meals
Keto-friendly snacks – cereal

High-fat, Low-protein, Zero Carb Foods

These are zero carb foods that are over 80% fat for your fat intake. Use these foods to increase your fat intake:

Animal Fats (lard)
Avocado oil
Coconut oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Grass-fed butter or ghee
Macadamia nut oil
MCT oil
Beef pemmican
Pepperoni

Low-Fat, high-protein, zero carb Foods

Getting enough protein is essential for building muscle and reducing your appetite for weight loss. Eat these foods for increasing your protein intake:

Canned fish: skinless, boneless, and canned in water for lowest fat option)
Exotic meats: ostrich, camel, emu
Game meats: venison, bison, ostrich, caribou, elk
Ground meat: turkey, chicken, beef, veal, pork, etc.
Leaner cuts of meats: skinless chicken breast, turkey breast, veal, etc.
Leaner lunch & deli meats with no carb-containing fillers: ham, turkey, chicken, etc.
Skinless canned chicken breast
Smoked fish

Skinless white meat will always be higher in protein and lower in fat than dark meat with or without the skin.

High-fat, high-protein, zero carb foods

If you need more fat for keto diet, pick foods at the top of the list. If you need more protein, pick foods at the bottom of the list.

Bacon
Canned fish (in olive oil with skin on for most fat)
Dark meat fowl with the skin on: chicken thighs, duck legs
Fattier cuts of meat: steak, ribs, lamb chops, short rib, pork belly, etc.
Hot dogs
Pork rinds
Preserved meat products: jerky, biltong, meat sticks
Salami
Salted and cured meats: corned beef
Sausages

Foods not to eat

For Keto diet, you must cut carbs drastically. And other typical unhealthy foods like sugar, trans fats, and processed foods. Remember, you can’t eat most fruits due to the sugar content on Keto diet, although fruits give you fibers and other nutrients.

Beans, peas, lentils
Grains: rice, pasta, and oatmeal
Low-fat dairy products
Added sugars and sweeteners
Sugary beverages: juice and soda
Typical snacks: potato chips, pretzels, tortilla chips, crackers
Most fruits: except for lemons, limes, tomatoes, and small portions of berries
Nuts: cashews, chestnuts, pistachios, peanuts
Starchy vegetables: corn, carrot, potatoes, sweet potato and peas
Trans fats: margarine or other hydrogentated fats
Oil: Corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil
Processed foods: cereals, bread
Most alcohols: wine, beer, and sweetened cocktails

Beverages to drink

Water
Black coffee
Bone broth
Tea (unsweetened)
Sparkling water (unsweetened & unflavored)
Almond milk (unsweetened)

Beverages not to drink

Liquid bread – juices, smoothies, lattes, milkshakes, sodas, vitamin water, and beer

Supplements

Although no supplements are required, some can be useful.

MCT oil: MCT oil provides energy and helps increase ketone levels.
Minerals: Added salt and other minerals can be important when starting out due to shifts in water and mineral balance.
Caffeine: Caffeine can have benefits for energy, fat loss and performance.
Exogenous ketones: This supplement may help raise the body’s ketone levels.
Creatine: Creatine provides numerous benefits for health and performance. This can help if you are combining a ketogenic diet with exercise.
Whey: Use half a scoop of whey protein in shakes or drink smoothies

More Resources

Diet Doctor: Keto Diet
BulletProof
Keys to Ketosis

Conclusion: Now you konw everything about Keto diet for beginners. I think Ketogenic diet is easier diet than other diets. Cutting carbs and eat healthy fats to burn more calories. Except for not eating fruits, everything else make sense - eating whole foods and avoid all the unhealthy foods. So why not to try?

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