According to Statista, questions like ‘how to lose weight fast?’ are among the most commonly asked questions on Google. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because a large chunk of the population is looking to lose weight by ketosis. Sedentary lifestyles brought about by work-from-home schedules during the pandemic, coupled with the closure of fitness centers and gyms, led to higher rates of weight gain. Now, as people try to get back into their routines, they’re trying different strategies to shed those extra pounds.
One of those strategies involves diets, specifically the keto diet. Many fitness enthusiasts are touting it as an effective way to lose weight without practicing excessive portion control. No more skipping meals because it’s one diet that allows you to enjoy scrumptious meals every day if you opt for this diet. Read on to understand want foods you can include and which ones you can avoid to get successful outcomes.
What is Ketosis?
Ketosis is a process that your body activates when it doesn’t have any carbs to burn as a source of energy. Therefore, its starts burning the stored fat in your body and produces ketones, which your body uses as fuel.
It’s currently one of the most popular weight loss, low-carb programs, also known as the keto diet. Not only does it help you cut down on some extra calories, but it also controls your cravings and hunger.
Dos of Ketosis
Although the keto diet is the best option to lose weight, it can offer far better and surprising results if you follow the right path. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to lose weight.
- Start Eating Leafy Greens
Green veggies like spinach, jade, arugula, and cabbage can offer a variety of benefits. Not only this, but they are great to eat on a keto diet since they’re low on carbohydrates. Another important thing is that they offer you more energy than packaged and processed food. Note that you need to limit your carb consumption to 5% of your overall diet. Out of the rest, 75% percent needs to be a healthy fat, and 20% should be protein. You can achieve this target by incorporating a large number of leafy greens into your daily diet.
- Eat More Seeds
Seeds are a great ingredient to build up healthy fats. Consuming these in large amounts will support your body and help you reach a ketogenic state, which is essential to burning fat. The best part is that you can enjoy a variety of options when it comes to seeds. These include sesame seeds, chia seeds, and flaxseeds. You can also add these to your dishes to give your meals more variety.
- Do Incorporate Nuts in Your Daily Diet
We all know that nuts are a great source of fats for the diet. Whether you eat pecans, almonds, walnuts, or others, they offer plenty of energy, can satisfy your cravings, control your hunger, and improve your skin and hair with their Omega 3 fatty acids. Because of their snackable size, they work great if you’re feeling a little hungry and need a quick fix while on the keto diet.
- Do Consume Lean Protein
On a keto diet, your meals need to be 20% lean protein. They are low in unhealthy fats but offer you amazing health benefits. Some basic sources of lean protein include eggs, fish, and white flesh meat. You can alternate between different foods to get some variety in your keto meals while making sure you meet the 20 percent requirement.
- Use High-Fat Oils
To get your body to enter ketosis, you need to prepare your food using high-fat oils. This includes olive oil, coconut oil, or any oil with high-fat content. Not only do these oils have plenty of healthy fats to help you enter ketosis, but they also add a boost of flavor to your meals as well. However, be careful to avoid seed and vegetable oils, as they contain unhealthy fats that can prove detrimental to your heart health.
- Do Go for The Low Sugar and Low-Calorie Beverages
The best part of the keto diet is you don’t have to avoid your favorite beverages like tea, coffee, and sparkling water. They’re safe to drink at different times of the day, as long as you make sure to avoid taking them with added sugar. This way, you will stay hydrated and enjoy the taste but don’t have to worry about consuming extra carbs.
Don’ts of Keto Diet
If you are planning to go on a keto diet, you’ll need to avoid a few things. After all, you don’t want to make the effort of changing your meal plan only to get no results because you’re doing something wrong. So, if you want to lose some weight, try to avoid the following.
- Don’t Eat Carbs
Of course, you need to stay away from carbs as much as possible. Keto is a high-fat diet, so you need to add fat to your daily meals in large quantities. You need to avoid ingredients like black beans, lentils, and chickpeas that are rich in fats. Also, stay away from any type of legumes and packaged food that are high in carbs.
- Don’t Consume Low-Fat Veggies
Eating any food that’s high in carbs will prevent you from losing weight on the keto diet. No matter how much you love potatoes, carrots, and corn, you need to stay away from them. Since these are low on fats and high in carbs, eating them will be counterproductive for your weight loss effort.
- Don’t Drink Excessive Alcohol
Yep, it looks like you’ll have to cut down on having ice-cold beers every Friday evening because alcohol can kick you out of ketosis. Of course, you don’t have to worry about cutting out all alcohol since you can still enjoy the occasional glass of gin, whiskeys, rum, and vodka since they’re considered pure alcohol. Nevertheless, try to put a limit on how much you take, whether you’re at home or out with friends.
- Don’t Eat Every Type of Fruit
Many fruits like bananas, citrus, pineapples, and mangoes are rich in carbohydrates. Since you need to cut down on carbs during ketosis, opt for low-carb fruits like berries.
- Don’t Add Baked Goods to Your Diet
While it’s true that baked items like whole-wheat bread, white bread, cookies, crackers, and doughnuts taste amazing, you’ll have to avoid them while on the keto diet. Sure, they were once a staple in your diet, it’s time to replace them with some leafy low-carb greens instead.
- Can’t Consume Natural or Processed Sugar
Whether it is chocolates, processed food, natural sugar, cookies, and other things, you can’t eat them. It’s important to cut down on all sorts of carbs from your diet. This will help your body use stored fat as fuel instead.
Bottom Line
If you’ve tried going on a diet before but failed because of cravings, the keto diet can help. Eating more healthy fats, so your body enters ketosis will help you burn more fats without compromising on taste.
