Keto: What You Need To Know

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Clean Keto. Dirty Keto. Low Carb. Net Carbs. Macros. Count Calories. Don't Count Calories. Intermittent Fast. And it goes on and on an on. Sound familiar? Confused yet? Ok- well lets see if we can clear up the basics. Don't forget to visit my blog for more valuable information!

Quite simply, the ketogenic (Keto) diet is a low carb, high fat diet. In addition to weight loss, Keto has proven to have additional health benefits for additional diseases such as diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, and Alzheimers. The Ketogenic diet allows your body to stay in a state of Ketosis- a safe and natural body condition where the body burns fat rather than sugar as the primary fuel source. 

For starters....

• You can lose weight without starving
• You don't have hunger cravings
• You have full appetite control
• Your energy level will increase
• Your memory will improve
• You will have better clarity of the mind

By now, you have probably been scouring before and after pics of people who have tried the Keto diet. You will likely have come across those stories of people losing 20lbs in the first month or 11lbs in a week. Are these truthful? Sure its possible, but how quickly you lose weight on Keto is highly dependent on your strating point.  I cannot emphasize this enough! The more fat weight you have- especially around the belly- the quicker your weight loss will be...at the beginning. At some point everyone evens out their weight loss. You cannot base your weight loss journey on anyone else's. I cannot emphasize this enough.  

On Keto You can expect to lose an average of  sustainable weight loss of 1-3lbs (1- 1.5 Kg) per week. The key word being "sustainable" and "average". Some weeks you will lose more and some weeks you lose none. It's just the way it works. The most important thing to remember is that your body is always working in the background- constantly adjusting itself to how and what your are eating and how many calories you are burning. In fact a good measurement of weight loss is not always the scale- you need to be looking at the inches you are losing as well. This is especially true for those that already have a high level of muscle mass. Even with a slower weight of loss of lbs, you are likely to see yourself shrinking in inches.

Let's set the record straight on this. Formally- there are three types of Ketogenic Diets- The Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD), The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet (CKD) and the Targeted Ketogenic Diet (TKD). Informally however, you will find multiple forms of the ketogenic diet- especially when your goal is weight loss. For our purposes, we will focus on the Standard Ketogenic Diet.

SKD is what folks are normally referring to when they say they say they are on the "Keto" Diet- very low carbs, moderate- high protein, and respectively high in fat. This is ideal for weight loss- specifically fat loss- and only engage in low to moderate intensity activities (e.g., walking, cycling, yoga, and light weightlifting). Your carb intake in restricted to a certain amount- which is based on your starting point, goal, and body composition. 

Dirty vs Clean Keto

You may have come across this, or if you haven't you will. So what's the difference?

Clean Keto is where you follow a plan in which you intake no processed foods, restrict calories and net carbs, heavily rely on vegetables and fruits for carbs, meat/ fish and eggs for protein and fat, limit dairy intake to specific types, and focus on whole foods with natural fat content such as avocados, nuts and seeds, nut butters, proteins, and hard cheeses. You also are tracking your macronutrient intake ( net carbs, protein, and fat) very closely and may or may not be tracking calories based on your personal goals. 

Dirty Keto, also known as lazy keto, allows for processed and packaged foods. If you are on dirty keto- many opt to not track anything- just be aware of what your taking in and making food choices that seem to be lower in carbs and higher in fat and protein. You likely do not know what your macronutrient goals are and you are not likely tracking to any sort of daily calorie goal. This method is what many do if they say they are on "keto" but don't know much beyond the fact they need to lower carbs and eat protein and fats. Many find early success but tend to stall and are not able to sustain their weight loss or transition to maintenance successfully.

The method I coach to- which I have termed Real Keto- lands in between Clean and Dirty. I am coaching for sustainable weight loss that can fit into the chaos of your daily life. In order to have long term sustainability, a diet needs to eventually morph into a lifestyle. And in order to transition from diet to lifestyle, you have to realistic about the plan you implement. You may want to cycle from clean to dirty and back again- many do and have success with this. Personally I find the wishy washiness to be exhausting- so my method is to create a plan that leans heavily on the foundations of clean Keto, but ensures the flexibility and ease that dirty keto provides. Which means you do eat processed foods and you do count your macros, and you do have a daily caloric intake that you need to stay under, and yes you do get to "cheat"...once in a while. The goal is however, to get you to a place where it's not cheating. That's what happens when you transition from diet to lifestyle!

Intermittent Fasting (IF) is pattern of eating that cycles your body through phases of fasting and eating. IF has proven to have several benefits for the body such as:

• Increasing the level of Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which benefits fat loss and muscle gain 
• Improves insulin sensitivity and dramatically reduces the levels of insulin which makes stored body fact more accessible to burn as fuel.
• Cellular Repair- When you fast, you initiate the cellular repair process, which is crucial for the body to be able to remove old an dysfunctional proteins that build up inside cells. 
• Gene Expression- Fasting allows for gene function to change to protect against disease.

There are three main ways to Intermittent Fast- 16:8 / 2x/ week day fast/ OMAD- One Meal A Day. The two most popular methods of IF during a Keto diet are 16:8 and OMAD. While OMAD may be a good choice for some- given the realities of life, I prefer to coach to 16:8. The 16:8 method is simply sixteen hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating in a 24 hour period. This allows for you to set your eating and fasting periods based on your schedule and what works best for you. 

IF is not required to be successful on a Keto diet. However, it does accelerate your ability to lose weight, not to mention all the great health benefits that you can't see that your body will experience. Moreover, you will find that when you are in Ketosis, you tend to not be hungry much of the day, so IF becomes an easy addition to accelerate your progress towards your goal. 

So Many that are on Keto are counting carbs the wrong way. Many count total carbs, and while its important to track to this as you transition from diet to lifestyle, what is way more important to weight loss and sustainability in the amount of "Net Carbs" you are consuming. Net carbs is a very simple calculation that is subtracts the amount of fiber and sugar alcohols (not be confused with sugar) from the total amount of carbs in a food item. So if an item has lets say 10g of total carbs, with 4g of fiber and 3g of sugar alcohols, the you are consuming 3g of net carbs. Why Net Carbs? Because Net Carbs is the amount of carbohydrates that is being absorbed into your body- fiber and sugar alcohols are not absorbed by the body. The big question is how many net carbs do you need for optimal weight loss on Keto. Well that number varies person to person and of course on your goal. As you transition from diet to lifestyle, this will be critical to know how many net carbs your body can handle for long term sustainability.

Working out is important. There is no question you benefit greatly from exercise, mentally and physically. It is no different while on Keto. Do you need to hit the gym 2 hours a day, every day? Absolutely not. But should  you take a vigorous walk 3-4x a week for 20-30 min? Absolutely. For my clients, I recommend a combination of cardio and strength training, customized to your fitness capabilities. Things that you can do at home, indoors or outdoors, or at a gym- whichever you prefer. If you already have a fitness routine- great! You're ahead of the game. We will incorporate this into your plan. What's amazing is that the combination of Ketosis and exercise will not only allow you to feel your body getting stronger and your fitness level increasing, you will be accelerating your fat loss, while at the same time building your muscle mass. While you can lose weight at the beginning without a lick of exercise on Keto- its certainly not going to sustain your weight loss or your health for that matter. Moderate exercise on Keto will avail you of the following:

• Speed up your weight loss
• Boost your energy
• Burn fat
• Increase muscle mass
• Increase your metabolic rate

In fact, the extra oxygen after one hour of cardiorespiratory therapy exercise (running, vigorous walking, cycling, swimming- anything that elevates your heart rate) will double your fat burning capabilities. Nice right?