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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
Hands-on tips and easy recipes for keto-fueled health and energy! Millions of people have already benefited from the low-carb ketogenic diet. They've lost weight, increased their energy levels, got their Type 2 diabetes under control, and so much more. And if you're looking for an easy and fun way to get started with keto, look no further than the Keto Cookbook For Dummies! In this book, you'll find 150 delicious keto recipes, from cheesy egg casserole to a keto-inspired berry cobbler. You'll also discover expert tips on meal planning and preventing common ailments with simple adjustments to your diet. You'll even learn how to use your Instant Pot and air fryer to make full-flavor, low-carb keto dishes. The book also shows you how to: * Swap in tasty keto alternatives for unhealthy ingredients * Make keto snacks and appetizers that give you a huge, long-lasting energy boost when you need it most * Prepare yummy keto sauces and staples you can make ahead of time and freeze for easy meal-prep during the week For everyone trying their best to get a handle on their health, weight, and nutrition, Keto Cookbook For Dummies is a must-have companion for busy families, professionals, and anyone else who just wants to live a healthier, more energetic life.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
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Keto Cookbook For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2023930251
ISBN 978-1-394-16877-4 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-394-16878-1 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-394-16879-8 (ebk)
Keto Cookbook For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Keto Cookbook For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Succeeding with the Keto Lifestyle
Chapter 1: Embracing Keto for Your Well-Being
Exploring the Keto Diet
Setting Realistic Expectations on Keto
Deciding Whether Keto Is Right for You
Knowing When to Stop
Chapter 2: Considering Keto’s Numerous Health Benefits
Realizing All That Keto Has to Offer
Chapter 3: Transforming Your Kitchen into a Keto Kitchen
Out with the Old
Cooking from Scratch Gives You an Advantage
Chapter 4: Choosing Keto-Appropriate Foods and Ingredients
Discovering How to Shop for Keto
Using Common Replacements for Keto
Changing Your Beverage Options
Chapter 5: Getting to Know Your Macros
Calculating Macro Targets
Personalizing Keto Goals
Chapter 6: Eating Out on Keto
Choosing Keto-Friendly Restaurants
Avoiding Unnecessary Carbs and Maximizing Healthy Fats
Making Special Requests
Opting for a Low-Sugar Beverage
Dining at a Friend’s House
Chapter 7: Maximizing Keto with Intermittent Fasting
Realizing the Benefits of Fasting
Choosing a Fasting Method
Chapter 8: Overcoming Obstacles
Entered Ketosis and Staying There
Countering Common Problems
Dealing with Undesirable Side Effects
Alleviating Social Concerns
Part 2: Creating Meals with Delicious Keto Recipes
Chapter 9: Breakfasts
Chapter 10: Appetizers
Chapter 11: Soups
Chapter 12: Salads
Chapter 13: Lunches
Chapter 14: Fish Dinners
Chapter 15: Meat Dinners
Part 3: Exploring Vegetarian Keto
Chapter 16: Vegetarian Breakfasts
Chapter 17: Vegetarian Appetizers
Chapter 18: Vegetarian Lunches
Chapter 19: Vegetarian Dinners
Part 4: Maximizing Your Meals with Air Fryers, Slow Cookers, and Meal Prep
Chapter 20: Air Fryer Recipes
Chapter 21: Instant Pot and Slow Cooker Meals
Chapter 22: Meal Prep for the Week
Part 5: Enjoying Keto Drinks, Snacks, and Desserts
Chapter 23: Drinks
Chapter 24: Snacks
Chapter 25: Desserts
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 26: Ten Health Conditions that Can Benefit from Keto
Type 2 Diabetes
Epilepsy
Obesity
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Autism
Multiple Sclerosis
Metabolic Syndrome
Traumatic Brain Injury
Alzheimer’s Disease
Migraine Headaches
Chapter 27: Ten Celebrities Who Swear by Keto
Halle Berry
Megan Fox
Vanessa Hudgens
Kourtney Kardashian
Adriana Lima
Tim Tebow
Katie Couric
Lebron James
Al Roker
Vinny Guadagnino
Chapter 28: Ten Benefits of Eating Healthy Fats
Fat Is Essential to Brain Health
Fats Boost the Immune System
Promote Skin Health
Fats Help Cholesterol
Increase Muscle Mass
Reduce Risk of Cancer
Develop Strong Bones
Rapid Weight Loss
Fats May Prevent Heart Disease
Improve Eye Health
Appendix A: Metric Conversion Guide
Index
About the Authors
Supplemental Images
Advertisement Page
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Standard keto diet percentages.
FIGURE 1-2: High-protein keto diet percentages.
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Appendix A: Metric Conversion Guide
Index
About the Authors
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Introduction
Are you looking to lose a significant amount of weight in a relatively short period? Tired of extreme diets that restrict calories to near-starvation levels, only to put back on those pounds you worked so hard to lose when you get back to eating normally? Is your doctor telling you to improve your cholesterol levels or watch your blood sugar? It may be surprising to discover that you can achieve your weight-loss goals and become healthier by changing what and how you eat. The standard American diet (which we think is very appropriately abbreviated as SAD) is based on consuming high levels of carbohydrates daily and avoiding most fats. Unfortunately for many Americans and much of the world, we’ve been led to believe that eating tons of carbs is excellent for your health while fat makes you fat. As a result, we’ve reached the highest-ever levels in history (by percentage of the population) of obesity, prediabetes, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
We’re going to show you a better approach to eating that focuses on low amounts of carbohydrates and high levels of fat. This approach is known as the ketogenic diet (or keto for short).
About This Book
We’ve written this book so you can find information quickly and easily. Each chapter focuses on a specific aspect of the ketogenic diet and outlines how to make the transition, accentuating benefits while minimizing downsides and structuring your diet and lifestyle to create your best “you.” There are specific details and practical tips, but you don’t have to read the book from front to back. Feel free to skip around, browse the sections that you find interesting, and follow where your questions take you.
Reading this entire book isn’t necessary to experience a successful keto journey. We’ve designed it as a resource you can refer to continually. Make notes in the margins, jot down additional resources or recipe adjustments, and highlight the most applicable information to your unique situation. In short, make this book a reflection of your ketogenic exploration and customize it to fit you!
Throughout the book, you’ll notice sidebars or text in gray boxes. If you’re short on time, you can skip that text — they’re interesting but not essential to understanding the topic.
In the recipes, the oven and internal meat thermometer temperatures are in Fahrenheit, but the Appendix can help you convert the temperatures to Celsius, if needed.
Finally, within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending that the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
Foolish Assumptions
As we wrote this book, we made the following assumptions about you:
You want to change your diet, lose weight, improve your fitness, or manage some medical condition.
You have control over your and your family’s food choices and want to encourage your family to enjoy a healthy, low-carb lifestyle.
You want to minimize processed and unhealthy junk foods and maximize wholesome food choices to feel younger, healthier, and happier.
You’re interested in finding out how food choices affect you physically and mentally, but you don’t want to get bogged down in all the scientific jargon. You want a summary of what you need to know in plain English.
You’re open to making lifestyle changes — avoiding certain foods, making sleep a priority, adopting a fitness program — to enhance your quality of life.
Icons Used in This Book
Throughout this book, we use icons (little pictures in the margin) to draw your attention to certain kinds of information. Here are the icons we use, and what they mean:
Whenever you see the Tip icon, you can be sure to find a nugget of information that will make your life on keto easier in some way — big or small.
This book is a reference, which means you don’t have to commit it to memory and there won’t be a test on Friday. However, sometimes we do tell you something that’s so important that you’ll want to file it away for future use, and when we do, we mark that information with the Remember icon.
When you see the Warning icon, beware! We’re letting you know about a pitfall or danger that you’ll want to avoid.
Finally, we use a little tomato icon () to highlight vegetarian recipes in the Recipes in This Chapter lists, as well as in the Recipes at a Glance at the front of this book.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the book you have in your hand, you can access some helpful extra content online. Check out the free Cheat Sheet, which includes the following:
Getting Started with Keto Checklist
Keto and Low-Carb Food List
Counting Net Carbs
Using Keto Baking and Cooking Alternatives
Fast Keto Snacks List
Keto-Friendly Alcohol List
You can access it by going to www.dummies.com and entering “Keto Cookbook For Dummies” in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here
You can read this book from beginning to end, or you can use the table of contents and index to locate the topics you’re most interested in right now. If you’re not sure where to start, you can’t go wrong with Chapter 1. If you’d rather start cooking, head to Part 2 or use the Recipes at a Glance at the start of the book to find the kind of recipe you’re looking for, from breakfasts to desserts. If you’re curious about fasting, Chapter 7 is for you. And if you’d just like a quick reminder of ten great benefits of being in ketosis, head to Chapter 26. Wherever you start, we hope the keto diet is as rewarding for you as it is for us!
Part 1
Succeeding with the Keto Lifestyle
IN THIS PART …
Discover what the keto diet is all about.
Consider the benefits of the keto diet.
Make your kitchen keto-friendly.
Understand which foods are keto.
Identify macronutrients and how they affect you.
Go out to eat while staying keto.
Try out intermittent fasting for a metabolism boost.
Get over any obstacles.
Chapter 1
Embracing Keto for Your Well-Being
IN THIS CHAPTER
Examining the different types of keto diets
Setting yourself up for success
Seeing what the keto diet can do for you
Understanding when it’s time to stop
The keto diet has exploded in popularity in the last 10 years, but other than it being a great way to lose weight, what do you really know about this popular diet? Is it really a healthy way to lose weight? Is there more to it than eating bacon and eggs? We are here to help you figure out whether the keto diet is right for you and to teach you the basic steps of safely and effectively following a keto lifestyle. In this chapter, we introduce the core concepts of the keto diet.
Exploring the Keto Diet
The ketogenic diet (also known as the keto diet) is a tried-and-true method to improve your health by working with your body through your dietary practices. The keto lifestyle can help you
Have more energy
Quickly lose weight
Improve your heart health
Improve your ability to focus
Though it has become more popular recently, the keto diet has been used for almost a hundred years to prevent disease and help the body heal. That’s an amazing track record for any diet! The benefits of the keto diet are just that good.
So, what exactly is the keto diet? The keto diet involves eating foods that are
High in fat
Moderate in protein
Very low in carbohydrates
Easily digested carbohydrates fuel weight gain and cause unhealthy spikes in blood sugar. Throughout a lifetime, this can really take a toll on your health.
The keto diet puts your body into a metabolic state called ketosis, when your body uses fats, rather than carbs, for fuel. You’ll learn everything to know about ketosis in Chapter 2!
There are many misconceptions about nutrition in general, and the keto diet especially. The keto lifestyle is much more than “bacon, eggs, and cheese” — although you can eat bacon and cheese as much as you’d like! It won’t clog your arteries or make you fat, nor will it increase your cholesterol levels if you follow a whole-food-based keto lifestyle.
For example, one of the most common misconceptions is that fat is bad for you. Fat is actually very good for you, keeps you feeling fuller longer, helps you lose weight, and improves your health over the long term.
Additionally, you don’t need to eat many carbs as part of a healthy lifestyle. For many reasons, your body stores fat — and not carbs — for energy. Fat provides 9 calories (energy) per gram, while carbs only provide 4 calories per gram! Fat is a slow, continuous energy source compared to carbs, which are glucose at the most basic level. Carbs spike blood glucose and require your body to produce insulin to then reduce blood glucose to safe levels.
Eating a whole range of low-carb foods is the key to a healthy lifestyle. The best part is that keto is a flexible diet with multiple variations to fit your lifestyle and goals! It isn’t a one-size-fits-all plan.
There are several different variations of the keto diet. Take a look at each one to see which version fits your personal goals and the way you prefer to eat.
Standard ketogenic diet
The standard ketogenic diet is the most basic, straightforward version of the keto diet. It is the most researched and has been around the longest of the various types of keto diets. It clearly breaks down the sources of your daily calorie intake so you can easily start your keto diet. Here is what to eat on the standard keto diet:
Fat:
70 percent of your daily calories
Protein:
25 percent of your daily calories
Carbohydrates:
5 percent of your daily calories
On this diet, you generally eat about 25 to 30 grams of carbohydrates per day; however, this number is flexible. This amount of carbs is about one-fifth to one-tenth of what many Americans eat per day, so you can start to see why making such a radical change from a carb-based diet to a fat-based one has a massive, positive impact on your health and energy levels.
The standard ketogenic diet’s ratio is 70:25:5 in terms of calories from fat, protein, and carbs as shown in Figure 1-1. You should aim for up to 30 grams of carbs per day.
FIGURE 1-1: Standard keto diet percentages.
Targeted ketogenic diet
The targeted keto diet is often used by athletes because it’s more flexible when it comes to carb intake. This diet allows more carbs when you know you will be especially active. The extra carbs are burned immediately during your intense workouts, allowing you to stay in ketosis but still get a bit of extra energy.
Keep in mind that this is not a free pass to eat as many carbs as you want. About 25 to 30 grams of easily digestible carbs are okay about 30 to 45 minutes before a hard workout like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), 30 minute or longer jogs, hour or longer of weight lifting. After that exercise is over, you go right back to the regular keto diet. Remember to count the total number of calories (including your pre-workout carbs) when coming up with your daily energy intake.
It is important to eat only enough carbs to fuel your workout so your body returns to burning fats after you exercise. It’s a good idea to get your body adjusted to the standard keto diet for a few months before switching to a targeted keto diet.
Cyclical ketogenic diet
The cyclical keto diet is another flexible version of keto that caters to athletes. It allows athletes to up their carb intake for a short time to “fuel” themselves for a performance. Once the big event is over, you return to the standard keto diet. Although this may kick you out of ketosis, the intense activity ensures that all those extra carbs are burned.
The cyclical keto diet is also good for people who need cheat days. You can go 5 days on the keto diet and then cheat a little on the weekends. However, it is important to remember that on those cheat days, you still shouldn’t binge on carbs. It can be tough on the body to go from no carbs to high carbs. Instead, opt for a low-carb diet on cheat days, ranging from 150 to 200 grams of carbs rather than the lower quantities typically allowed on the keto diet. You won’t be in ketosis on the cheat days, but it can sometimes help people who really miss the carbs.
Consider the cyclical keto diet if any of the following applies to you:
You are an elite bodybuilder or short-distance sprinter who has been training for years.
And you’ve noticed drops in your performance and realize that you need more carbs to fuel your intense level of activity.
You are otherwise healthy and don’t have any metabolic reasons to believe that “carb loading” will affect your health.
If you notice an improvement in blood pressure or blood sugar levels, cyclical keto is
not
for you because you may lose all your gains when you cycle out of ketosis.
You work out intensely and on a specific schedule.
Your high-carb days should coincide with the days that you’re at the gym. Also, you need to be able to cycle in and out of ketosis by completely depleting the excess carbs you consume on your workout days and then switch back into a keto diet on non-carb-loading days.
Generally, cyclical keto helps with gains for anaerobic exercises including 100-meter sprints, low-rep maximums (four to six) for weightlifters, or CrossFit circuits.
High-protein ketogenic diet
The high-protein keto diet is just as it sounds — higher in protein! Here is a quick look at the breakdown of a high-protein keto diet:
Fat:
60 percent of your daily calories
Protein:
35 percent of your daily calories
Carbohydrate:
5 percent of your daily calories
This version of the keto diet is great for anyone who is concerned about losing muscle mass or not gaining enough while working out consistently. Adding protein is a great way to help gain muscle and remain in ketosis. Keto is considered a muscle neutral diet, meaning you don’t really gain or lose muscle because your body is efficiently utilizing the fat you eat and stored fat even while at a caloric deficit. This is another benefit of keto because on high-carb diets, when in a caloric deficit, your body more readily taps into muscle protein for the remainder energy, so you lose muscle in addition to fat.
Keep in mind, it’s difficult, but possible, to get kicked out of ketosis if you go higher than the recommended 35 percent of calories from protein (see Figure 1-2). Remember to eat a range of proteins that are nutritious and filling.
FIGURE 1-2: High-protein keto diet percentages.
Setting Realistic Expectations on Keto
Before you dive into the keto diet, you should be sure that it is the right fit for you. Having realistic expectations is key to your success. While the keto diet can be adapted to fit the needs of almost everyone, you should fully understand the benefits and the few side effects of the diet (which we go over in Chapter 2). Keep reading to really assess whether keto is right for you.
Use SMART goals to set yourself up for success
It’s a good idea to set goals on any diet. We specifically like to use SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for
S
pecific
M
easurable
A
chievable
R
elevant
T
ime-based
Goals should be specific. For example, a nonspecific goal would be to “lose weight” or “get in better shape.” You could lose two pounds and technically fulfill both of those goals, but you wouldn’t really hit your goal. An example of a specific goal is this: “I want to lose 10 pounds of fat by June 1st.”
Instead of “losing some weight,” it’s better to strive for a measurable goal like losing 10 pounds. You can also strive for completing a sporting event, such as a marathon, or a defined achievement, like benching or squatting a certain weight.
Another reason we often fail to achieve our goals is because the goals we set are not attainable, at least for that moment in our lives. Every person’s body is unique; trying to achieve the body of a supermodel or bodybuilder isn’t possible for most people, and that’s totally fine! Use your goals to set yourself up for success. If last week you jogged for 10 minutes a day, next week try to jog for 12 or 15 minutes. If last week you worked out 3 days of the week, this week try to work out for 4 days. Small, attainable goals and improvements keep you motivated.
Your goals should be relevant to what’s important for you. If you’re trying to build muscle, and you set yourself a goal to run a marathon by a specific date, that most likely will not get you to the image of success you’ve painted in your mind, even if you accomplish your goal. It’s crucial to create goals that are relevant to achieving the success you really want.
Finally, make your goals time-based. Try to give yourself enough time to make them happen, but put some pressure on yourself. You may have specific goals that are well-defined and measurable; they’re attainable and very relevant to your definition of success. If you say that you’ll accomplish all of that “someday,” however, you’ll never hit the mark. You need to be pushed to meet your goals by a deadline, giving you a sense of urgency that you must keep pressing every day or you won’t make it there.
The elements of SMART work together to create goals that are well-planned, clear, and trackable. This strategy completely applies to the keto diet.
Define your weight-loss goals or maintenance targets
So, what are your goals when it comes to the keto diet? Do you want to lose weight quickly and keep it off? Are you looking to decrease your risk of diabetes? Are you trying to improve your daily energy levels? The keto diet can help with each of those goals, but you need to define your personal goals before you jump into the keto lifestyle.
Having achievable targets helps you stick to your keto diet. When you have something you are working toward, you are more likely to continue with your keto diet commitment and achieve success. If you want to get healthy and stay that way, you can with keto!
The keto diet may be for you if you are ready to commit to changing your diet and health in a positive way. Commitment and drive are essential to your success!
Measure your success
Success means something different for everyone; however, there are some telltale signs of success when you’re on the keto diet that you’ll recognize as you embark on your journey.
The first and largely most popular metric is weight loss.
In the first week, you’ll likely lose 7 to 10 pounds. It’s very important to understand that this isn’t all fat. In fact, it’s mostly water weight. It looks great and feels great on the scale and is a huge motivational boost to continue with the diet. The reason you lose so much water weight initially is due to your body burning through glycogen (glucose stored in your muscles) and dumping all the water your muscles hold. After the first week, the weight loss will slow down but will be primarily fat loss, so keep on going!
As you lose weight, sometimes you may not see it in the mirror or even on the scale! There are a variety of reasons why this could happen, including the following:
Weighing in at different times of the day
Eating right before stepping on the scale
Water weight fluctuations due to alcohol, menstrual cycles, and so on
To counteract these potential issues, try keeping tabs on the way your body looks and feels so you know exactly how well you are doing on your keto journey. Grab a tape measure and write down your waistline measurement once a week. Take photos in the same light, at the same time of day, and in the same location once a week. Pay attention to how your favorite clothes fit. Also take note of how much more energized you feel throughout the day as your body burns fat for energy.
Deciding Whether Keto Is Right for You
Keto can be adapted to fit anyone’s needs — whether they’re seeking to lose weight, reduce their risk of diabetes, or improve their energy levels. In this section, we give you a better idea of why keto may be right for you.
You want to lose weight and keep it that way
If you’ve tried other diets and felt discouraged because the weight either barely came off or didn’t stay off, the keto diet is for you. Keto has been shown in dozens of studies to help people lose weight faster than low-fat, high-carb diets. Keto turns your body into a fat-burning machine — quite literally. When in ketosis, your body readily burns fat for energy, including stored fat! Even when being on a caloric deficit, keto dieters report that they don’t really feel hungry like they do on other diets. This is a huge benefit that is not to be overlooked. On most diets, when you’re hungry, your first instinct is to go to your fridge or pantry and devour the first tasty thing you see. You don’t get that kind of hunger pang on keto, and it more often leads to your success and longevity with the diet.
You want to avoid becoming diabetic
Going keto or low-carb is the number one way of avoiding, controlling, and even reversing type 2 diabetes. Not eating carbohydrates means that you don’t get blood glucose spikes, which in turn means that your insulin doesn’t spike, and your cells don’t become resistant to insulin. When your cells become insulin resistant, the pancreas tries to make more insulin to make the cells respond. Eventually, your pancreas can’t keep up, and your blood sugar keeps rising or stays at a dangerously high level. Lowering insulin resistance is the primary method of reducing your chances of becoming diabetic. The keto diet can help reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes — a widespread problem that leads to heart disease and other major medical issues.
Please be cautious if you have type 2 diabetes. Research is showing that the keto diet may help cure type 2 diabetes and get people off medications, but diabetes can be a severe medical condition that requires a doctor’s care. It’s best to have the support of a doctor if you’ve already been diagnosed with diabetes and take insulin regularly, because the keto diet will likely reduce the insulin dosage that is necessary. It can also lower your blood sugar levels too much if you’re already taking certain medications.
You feel tired and sluggish most days
Most people who are on the keto diet for more than 3 weeks feel like they have more energy, consistent energy levels throughout the day, and better mental focus. Hunger pangs and that “hangry” feeling after not having a meal on schedule are a thing of the past. Getting sleepy after lunch just doesn’t happen on keto. The reason these symptoms are practically universal is because normally on a high-carbohydrate diet, your body relies on higher blood sugar levels to then convert into energy with insulin. On keto, you get to break free of these symptoms because your blood sugar stays relatively stable through the day. Even if you skip a meal, your body switches to burning stored fat for energy. With keto, you’re always energized and don’t feel sluggish at the end of the day.
Knowing When to Stop
Most people are able to stay on the keto diet indefinitely. However, there are a few occasions when you should stop the diet and reassess your approach. Additionally, if you have type 1 diabetes, please speak with your doctor before trying keto or making any dietary changes.
Signs of danger
Here are a few signs to look for:
You feel tired all the time.
It’s hard to sleep at night.
Your bathroom habits have ceased.
You feel weak or notice muscle loss.
You experience hair loss or rashes on your skin.
If you have any of these issues while on the keto diet, it may benefit you to speak with your doctor or take a pause to assess what is going wrong. Take stock of what you are eating and drinking and what your diet may be missing.
When you’ve achieved your goals
Keto is perfectly safe long-term, and there’s no need to stop being in ketosis if that’s not what you want. If you feel great on keto and don’t want to quit, simply don’t!
Although weight loss is achievable on any diet by being on a caloric deficit, keto has been proven to be the most effective diet in terms of speed and overall health indicators. If you’ve hit your ideal weight, you can increase your caloric intake by eating more fat and protein. Now you can enjoy more food with the same benefits.
You may choose to start eating more carbs again, and that’s totally fine. However, be prepared because once you start eating more carbs, the energy highs and lows of the day come right back, along with sugar cravings. Suddenly, you’re back to fighting with your willpower, exactly what you were able to eliminate with keto. Eating more complex carbs, lower on the glycemic index, is the best way to reintegrate and reduce blood-sugar spikes. The glycemic index is the food rating system with a scale of 1 to 100 that estimates how much a food will affect your blood-sugar levels. You'll gain a more in-depth understanding about the glycemic index in Chapter 3.
You may want to start building muscle while maintaining ketosis. If that’s the case, increasing your protein calorie ratio to 30 or 35 percent and reducing your fat calorie ratio to 60 percent is the best way to do this. This is the basis of the high-protein keto diet you read about earlier in this chapter.
Additionally, when you work out, you’ll be able to increase your total daily net carbs to around 50 grams because your body immediately burns the additional carbs, allowing you to stay in ketosis. Adding muscle mass is great for your health and makes it harder to regain fat.
You can also try experimenting with intermittent fasting. Basically, you get a specific window during the day to have your meals, but you get a lot more freedom. For example, you can try a time-restricted fast like 16 hours off food, 8 hours on. That translates to not eating 16 hours a day (sleep included) and eating during an 8-hour window. If you eat for the first time at 12 p.m., then you can eat up until 8 p.m. Reducing the eating window naturally limits the amount of food you can eat, so instead of weighing or measuring food to restrict your portions, you simply follow the clock.
The best part is you can combine intermittent fasting with any diet to reap the benefits. For more information on intermittent fasting, see Chapter 7.
Living a sustainable life on keto
Once you’ve achieved your weight loss goals, you can stop eating at a deficit by increasing your caloric intake to maintain your weight and essentially go on cruise control. As long-time keto dieters, we achieved our personal goals after about one year of being on keto. After that, we continued the keto lifestyle for more than 7 years and are still going. In our case, we stick to it because we feel great every day, have high energy levels, feel sharp and focused, and our annual physicals always come back with great results.
The keto diet became a lifestyle for us, and it can become a lifestyle for you too. Although doing it for the shorter-term can help you reap some of the benefits, the simple truth is it is very easy to fall back into old habits and reverse your progress. The bigger benefits come with sticking to it long-term. You may even find that by the time you reach your goals, you don’t want to go back to eating carbs.
Chapter 2
Considering Keto’s Numerous Health Benefits
IN THIS CHAPTER
Recognizing the many benefits of being in ketosis long-term
Defining why fat and cholesterol are not bad for you
Identifying some of the major diseases keto can help prevent
The keto diet is not only an amazing, delicious way to eat, but it has also been shown to improve your overall health. By eating high-quality, nutritious foods, you fuel your body with clean energy. This allows your body to be efficient, strong, and even resistant to many types of disease.
Switching to a low-carb, high-fat diet may seem overwhelming at first, especially if you’re a bit rusty on topics like macros and metabolism. No need to worry! We guide you through the basics, which can help you breeze through many of the questions and misunderstandings that you may encounter from curious friends and family on your keto journey.
In this chapter, you discover the many benefits of keto — but get ready, it’s not a short list! We also dive into the common misconception that fat is bad and makes you fat and how life without the real culprits — sugar and processed foods — can be so much sweeter.
Realizing All That Keto Has to Offer
The keto diet is not just a fad. It is a scientifically proven way to live a healthier life. Doctors have been aware of the benefits of ketosis since the early 1920s when they discovered ketones’ ability to heal the body of a debilitating condition like refractory epilepsy, a form of epilepsy with which medicines don't work well, or at all, to control the seizures. Since then, there have been many more studies on the keto diet’s benefits and discoveries that followed. When you recognize these benefits, you’ll probably be as eager as we were to hop on the keto diet bandwagon.
Weight loss
We want to start out by clearing up a common misconception about fats. Eating fat does not make you fat. Fats can make you healthier! In fact, sugar and eating too many calories are the true causes of weight gain and poor health.
“Fat makes you fat” is a gimmick used by mega-corporations that fueled the high-sugar, low-fat diet craze of the 1980s and 1990s, which only managed to make many of us fatter, sicker, and addicted to sugar. Unfortunately, the number of people who struggle with obesity has doubled since that era.
When you go into ketosis, your body becomes a fat-burning machine. The fats you consume are immediately used by your body as energy. The more fats you have in your system, the more energy you have! Research has shown that people on a ketogenic diet increase their resting metabolism as well. This means your body is constantly working to break down the fatty acids in your system, giving you tons of energy and helping to jump-start your weight loss.
Not only does the keto diet help you lose weight by boosting energy levels, burning fats, and improving your metabolism, it also helps you shed pounds by decreasing cravings. It’s natural to crave fatty foods when on a diet. Luckily, with keto, those foods are okay to eat! When you can satisfy your cravings and eat the high-fat foods you want, you’re much happier and more likely to stick to your diet. Lose weight and eat delicious, fatty foods? It almost sounds too good to be true!
To take it a step further, consider the appetite hormone called ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone in your body that tells you when you are hungry. Research has shown that ghrelin levels rise when you reduce calories. Therefore, you always feel hungry on certain low-calorie diets. The high ghrelin levels are telling you to eat, eat, eat! However, when in ketosis, ghrelin levels fall drastically. Your body won’t be telling you it’s hungry even when you are losing weight.
When the body feeds off fats, it utilizes all the consumed fats as fuel and then more easily transitions over to using stored fats. You feel full and satisfied longer as your body is constantly feeding (and it’s feeding off the fat you want to lose). This makes keto an easier diet to maintain and stick with.
The ketogenic diet is a natural way to boost your metabolism and turn your body into a fat-burning machine. No starvation diet tricks or harmful chemicals are needed! Just your body’s natural, already built-in metabolic process, which helps you achieve long-term weight loss.
Improved body composition
As we use our fat stores, we can whittle our waists, leading to improved cardiovascular fitness. Belly fat is strongly associated with heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. As we age, most of us lose muscle and gain fat naturally. Ketosis slows down this process. By switching to fat being the primary fuel source while providing enough protein through our diet, you maintain lean muscle mass because it’s not used as a source of energy nearly as much as it is when you’re on a high-carbohydrate diet.
Studies have shown that a keto diet versus a high-carb diet, when combined with exercise, have quite different results regarding total body fat and belly fat loss. In two studies, participants maintained the same strength-based routines. The ones on a keto diet lost more body fat and belly fat than those who ate a typical carbohydrate-rich diet (55 percent of their calories from carbohydrates, 25 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein).
Increased energy
You may have heard a common misperception: that ketosis tricks your body into believing that it’s starving. Although you do enter ketosis when you’re starving, being in ketosis from eating fats and very few carbs does not mean you’re starving. And being in ketosis is where the similarities end. Most importantly, you aren’t hypoglycemic while on a keto diet. This means you won’t have dangerously low levels of blood sugar that can leave you feeling lethargic, weak, dizzy, and “hangry.” Many people we’ve come across, including physicians who aren’t familiar with the diet, worry that ketosis will lead to a permanent state of exhaustion and lethargy or a dangerous drop in blood sugar. This simply isn’t true — your blood glucose levels will be in the low end of the normal range but will always be stable due to a process called gluconeogenesis. Gluconeogenesis is a metabolic pathway that results in the generation of glucose from the breakdown of lipids (fats).
Compared to other diets, the keto diet is more likely to improve your energy levels. In a study looking at older individuals with type 2 diabetes who successfully followed a keto diet for over two years, researchers noticed an overall improvement in their quality of life compared to those who followed a low-fat, high-carb diet. Those in the keto group
Were better equipped to complete daily activities and chores
Experienced increased energy levels
Minimized routine body aches and pains
Overall, compared to a low-fat diet, multiple studies have proven that people feel better on a keto diet.
On the keto diet, your glucose levels remain in a healthy range so you aren’t risking the dangerous roller coaster of blood glucose and insulin spikes that can leave you lethargic, irritable, and just plain unhappy. Keto gets it right by keeping both your brain and your muscles efficient and energetic.
Improved mental focus
Ketosis is a natural way to gain more focus and mental clarity. Ketones stimulate neurotrophins, proteins that increase the development of brain cells and neurons. The ketones improve the neurons’ resistance to stress and help with synaptic connections in the brain. This helps with memory and with the brain’s ability to learn.
A few studies have shown that people on a keto diet are able to process information faster, learning new facts and retaining those facts more effectively. There is also lots of new excitement over the discovery that links the keto diet to treating neurodegenerative diseases, which are typically caused by metabolic inefficiency in the brain.
The keto diet is currently being used to help those with Alzheimer’s disease and has been wildly successful. Patients have seen great improvements in memory, both short- and long-term.
Ketones are a fantastic source of fuel for your body. A keto diet can help you focus, retain information, and even reverse neurodegenerative diseases.
Better sleep
We all need a good night’s sleep to feel good, function properly, and have the energy we need to get through the day. Without rest, our brains have a hard time learning and retaining new information. Luckily, ketosis not only helps you fall asleep, but it may also help you have better-quality sleep.
The keto diet has been shown to increase the total amount of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is a deep sleep state. Participants in a study who were on a keto diet needed fewer naps and maintained longer stretches of REM. The specifics of how ketones affect sleep are not yet fully understood, but the fact is, keto helps improve sleep.
Your body may go through a short period of adjustment before you reach REM sleep. Some people may experience sleep problems when they first start the keto diet. Initially, the huge reduction in carb intake can cause changes to sleep patterns in a negative way. However, once your body adjusts, you will then transition into the deep, restful sleep you are looking for!
Stabilized blood sugar
About one-third of Americans are pre-diabetic and may not even know it. Diabetes and blood sugar issues are a huge problem but one that a keto diet can help. Ketosis is a state of perfect glucose control. Your glucose levels are never too high or too low but stable in a safe, healthy range.
Many people think that complex carbs are healthier than pure, refined sugar. However, once you eat those carbs, your body turns those carbs into glucose, although over a longer period. That glucose increases your blood-sugar levels and can increase your insulin resistance. So, even though you aren’t eating pure sugar, you’re still giving your body a huge dose of glucose.
Keto cuts back on drastic spikes in blood sugar. Without a huge dose of carbs at every meal, your blood sugar remains more stable and constant. This is much easier for your system to handle and doesn’t cause nearly as much stress on your body.
Research has shown that people with type 2 diabetes do wonderfully on a low-carb diet like keto. A ketogenic diet can even help eliminate the need for diabetic medication since blood-sugar levels and insulin levels become relatively stable when eating a keto diet.
Many doctors recommend trying a ketogenic diet for those with type 2 diabetes. It can be wildly successful and can even eliminate the need for insulin or other blood-sugar controlling medications.
Please consult with your doctor before starting keto if you’re already diagnosed with diabetes and take insulin regularly. The keto diet is likely to reduce the insulin dosage that you’re required to take. It may also lower your blood-glucose levels too much if you’re already taking certain medications.
Healthier cholesterol levels
When you think of cholesterol, you may automatically think that it is bad. But cholesterol is a vital part of your cell membranes. There are four primary categories of cholesterol:
Total cholesterol:
The total amount of cholesterol in your blood. This number on a lab report adds up all the categories of the following bullets and presents them as a single number.
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL):
Often referred to as “bad” cholesterol. LDL is commonly associated with conditions like diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks.
High-density lipoprotein (HDL):
Often referred to as “good” cholesterol. High levels of HDL are just the opposite of LDL; they tend to protect against diabetes, strokes, and heart attacks.
Triglycerides:
Fats that are freely floating in your blood. These levels should rise when you eat a fatty meal but should go down to normal when you’re fasting.
Low-carb diets, especially keto, help lower your total cholesterol levels (primarily made up of LDL) and triglycerides, while raising HDL. Keto also improves the HDL to total cholesterol ratio, another vital marker of heart health.
Another way the keto diet improves your health is by blocking an enzyme in your body called HMG-CoA reductase. This enzyme stimulates your liver, making more unhealthy cholesterol enter your blood stream. A low-carb diet prevents this enzyme from being produced which, in turn, inhibits the liver from producing too much cholesterol. When on a keto diet, many people find they don’t need traditional cholesterol medicines, like statins, to control cholesterol levels — the diet does it naturally!
In the long run, your diet affects your body more than anything else. Eating a nutritious keto diet complete with whole foods and high-quality ingredients helps you maintain healthy cholesterol levels and overall health.
