If you are interested in keto diet tips, you are in the right place. The first week of the keto diet can be very tough. This is because the body is switching from glucose to fat as a source of fuel. During this stage, you will experience a lot of craving, fatigue, and keto flu symptoms such as pains and aches. The first couple of weeks will need effort on your part, and this is why it is a good idea to set up yourself for success. There is nothing worse than having to regret because carvings hit and you reached for the snacks you had not thrown away.
Here are some 7 simple tips that will go a long way in helping you with the ketogenic diet.
1) Cleaning Out Your Kitchen
When making changes to your lifestyle, you will need to make adjustments to your environment so you don’t have to regularly deal with temptations. You should get rid of any foods rich in carbs that you won’t. Give them to someone. Replace the food with healthy fats such as MCT oil, grass-fed butter or ghee, olive oil, etc.
You should ensure that there are a lot of keto-friendly snacks and healthy fats in your home because it will help you succeed with the diet – especially during the first week when the glucose stores in the body are getting depleted. This is the point when you will have to deal with fatigue and cravings. Having keto-friendly foods will help with temptations.
2) Meal Prep
Just like when you clean out the kitchen, meal prepping will help you create the path of least resistance when switching from the conventional diet to keto. If your brain has to keep thinking about what you are going to eat, you will end up feeling tired at the end of the day, and this can make it easy for you to cheat by eating a sandwich. This will bring down the progress you had made.
Ensure there are staple meals in your home, like pre-cooked or pre-cut low carb vegetables, wild-caught fish such as salmon, grass-fed and pastured meat, etc. Find more about meal prep, and things will be a little easier.
3) Tracking your Macros (When getting started)
Tracking macros is as the core of the keto diet. It will be hard for you to deplete the glycogen stores in your body if you are consuming a lot of carbs and not enough fat.
There are different options when it comes to macronutrients ratio, but the most common is 5-10% carbohydrates, 15-30% proteins, and 65-80% fat. The fat is healthy fat from butter, coconut oil-derived MCTs, avocado, etc. You can make adjustments to these ratios, but one thing to always keep in mind is that you should keep your carb intake low while ensuring fat is the main source of your calories.
4) Preparing for Eating Out
If you have tried a restricted diet such as vegan or Paleo, then you know how much of a challenge eating out is. The good thing about keto is the fact that it is simple; meat and low-carb veggies and a drizzle of real butter or olive oil.
You should have a look at the menu of the restaurant ahead of time so you can confirm if the restaurant is able to accommodate your diet. See if the restaurant is accepting food substitutions. Replace fries, any potatoes, or bread with veggies like broccoli, leafy greens, or salad. A generous amount of MCT is going to make the meal truly keto.
5) Supplement Strategically
As the body is adjusting to the keto diet, you might lose electrolytes in the process. Keto is a diet that is a little lower in things like micronutrients and fiber. If you want to feel great when getting started with the keto diet, consider targeted supplementation. This will make the process of adapting to the keto diet far much easier.
6) Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting can be a very effective tool to use in losing unwanted fat, getting into the ketogenic state faster, and dealing with cravings. With IF, you create fasting/ eating windows. When you start IF, don’t start with a lot of fasting hours because it can be hard to stick to it, and you might end up failing. Start with 13 hours of fasting then add the hours until you reach 16 to 18 hours of fasting daily.
7) Exercising
In the first couple of weeks following the keto diet, the body changes on a metabolic level. This can cause a change in energy levels. There are some people who have large stores of body fat while there are those who are going to deplete their glucose stores fast.
This can result in your normal workouts not working the same way. You should try listening to the body in the first couple of weeks. If you keep finding yourself exhausted, then consider taking a break then seeing how it feels. If you notice your energy increasing, then try doing harder workouts.
