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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Learn about the benefits of going keto, and boost your health with a personalized diet plan
Keto Diet For Dummies is your updated guide to the low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diet. It's a great time to try this healthful approach, thanks to new research, new recipes, and new keto products on the market. In this book, you'll find easily digestible info on how the keto diet trains your body to rely on fat as its energy source, for weight loss, reduced inflammation, improved mental health, and a host of other benefits. Then, the expert authors help you create the perfect keto plan to be the healthiest version of yourself. You'll even learn how to use AI to help you plan and prep great keto meals. What a time to be alive!
- Discover the latest science on the benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet
- Get delicious keto recipes and meal planning ideas for every occasion
- Learn how to test your ketones and gently adapt to ketosis
- Find guidance for talking to your doctor about a keto lifestyle
For those who want to learn about the keto diet, get started, and reap the benefits so many others have enjoyed, Keto Diet For Dummies is the perfect place to begin.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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Keto Diet For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Keto Diet For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Part 1: Getting Started with the Keto Diet
Chapter 1: Brushing Up on the Basics
Understanding What the Keto Diet Is
Deciding Whether the Keto Diet Is Right for You
Flipping the Switch on Your Metabolism
Clearing Common Hurdles
Chapter 2: Weighing the Pros and Cons of the Keto Diet
The Numerous Benefits of a Keto Diet
Potential Drawbacks of the Keto Diet
The Lowdown on Fat and Cholesterol
Chapter 3: Understanding What Happens to Your Body in Ketosis
Exploring Your Body’s Flex-Fuel System
Following the Energy Flow along the Metabolic Pathways
Anticipating Changes in How You’ll Feel
Testing to See whether You’re in Ketosis
Chapter 4: Getting to Know Your Macros
Loading Up on Healthy Fats
Consuming Moderate Amounts of Protein
Cutting Unnecessary Carb Consumption
Chapter 5: Achieving Ketosis Step by Step
Personalizing Your Keto Goals
Calculating Your Macro Targets
Planning and Preparing Meals
Snacking without Blowing Your Diet
Replenishing Lost Fluids and Electrolytes
Part 2: Doing the Keto Diet
Chapter 6: Stocking Up on Keto-Friendly Foods
Out with the Old: Clearing Out Your Carb-Heavy Stock
In with the New: Healthy Fats, Proteins, and Carbs
Heading to the Store: A Beginner’s Shopping List
Chapter 7: Checking Out Your Beverage Options
Making Water Your Go-To Beverage
Opting for Coffee or Tea
Finding a Suitable Milk Replacement
Considering Alternatives to Fruit Juice and Soda
Drinking Alcohol on the Keto Diet
Chapter 8: Making Sure You’re Getting the Nutrition You Need
Counting Net Carbs, Not Total Carbs
Curbing Your Protein Intake
Going Full Fat, Skipping Low-Fat
Replenishing Your Electrolytes
Adding Healthy Oils to Your Diet
Getting Enough Fiber
Getting Started: A Seven-Day Meal Plan
Chapter 9: Eating Out and Loving It!
Choosing Keto-Friendly Restaurants
Steering Clear of Carbs
Loading Up on Fats and Proteins
Making Special Requests
Ordering Keto by Meal: A Few Suggestions
Opting for a Low-Sugar Beverage
Dining at the Homes of Relatives or Friends
Part 3: Overcoming Obstacles
Chapter 10: Dealing with Undesirable Side Effects
Getting Over the Hump: The Keto Flu
Watching for Signs of Ketoacidosis
Addressing More Specific Side Effects
Chapter 11: Alleviating Any Social Pressure
Staying Focused
Letting Your Social Circle in on Your Journey
Talking with Your Doctor
Part 4: Maximizing the Benefits
Chapter 12: Fasting
Recognizing the Benefits of Fasting
Sampling Different Fasting Methods
Reducing the Downside of Fasting with the Keto Diet
Chapter 13: Maintaining a Fitness Routine
Anticipating the Impact of the Keto Diet on Exercise
Adjusting Your Macros to Accommodate Exercise
Choosing the Right Style of Keto for Your Unique Goals
Adapting Your Exercise Routine
Considering Supplements That May Help
Part 5: Keto Recipes
Chapter 14: Breakfasts: Starting Your Day the Keto Way
Chapter 15: Keto Lunches
Chapter 16: Dinners: Ending the Day Strong
Chapter 17: Sides: The Perfect Keto Complements
Chapter 18: Appetizers and Snacks: Bite-Size Keto Goodness
Chapter 19: One-Pot Wonders: Easy, Fuss-Free Meals
Chapter 20: Desserts: Having Your Sweets and Eating Them, Too
Part 6: The Part of Tens
Chapter 21: Ten Benefits of Being in Ketosis
Jump-Starting Weight Loss
Stabilizing Blood Sugar
Increasing Energy
Lowering Cholesterol Levels
Lowering Blood Pressure
Getting Better Sleep
Eliminating Cravings
Looking Your Best
Lifting Your Mood
Stopping Inflammation in Its Tracks
Chapter 22: Ten Sources of Healthy Fats
Avocado/Avocado Oil
Ghee
Coconut Oil
Olive Oil
Almonds
Grass-Fed Beef
Medium-Chain Triglyceride Oils
Fatty Fish
Hemp Seeds
Nut Butters
Chapter 23: Ten Keto Resources
Diet Doctor
Total Keto Diet App
Healthline Nutrition
Tasteaholics
Peter Attia
All Day I Dream About Food
KetoConnect
Reddit’s /r/keto Subreddit
Keto Macro Calculator
Facebook Keto and Low-Carb Groups
Index
About the Authors
Supplemental Images
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Begin Reading
Index
About the Authors
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Keto Diet For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
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Introduction
Are you looking to drop a significant amount of weight in a short time? Tired of crash diets that starve you, only to watch the pounds come back as soon as you eat normally? Has your doctor warned you about cholesterol or blood sugar? You can reach your goals by changing what and how you eat. The standard American diet (SAD) loads up on carbs while skimping on fat. Although you can live this way, it’s hardly optimal. A better approach is low carbs and high fat — the ketogenic diet, or keto.
Keto isn’t magic. It’s a natural metabolic process that’s been overlooked for centuries — not because carbs are healthier, but because they’ve been easy to get. Modern diets overload us with carbs and deprive us of fats, leading to predictable health issues. Keto reverses this situation so dramatically that the results can seem miraculous, but they’re really just the body’s response to balance.
Some critics dismiss keto because of fad-diet seekers chasing quick fixes. And yes, plenty of people have misrepresented it. But that doesn’t diminish its value when done right. We agree that “crash” diets are unhealthy — they bring temporary results followed by rapid regain. Keto, for us, isn’t a short-term fix; it’s a way of living we wouldn’t trade.
Weight loss grabs headlines, but it’s not the only benefit of keto. Eating healthy fats keeps energy and focus steady, without blood sugar spikes or the “hangry” crashes. We haven’t felt those in years.
Keto isn’t a diet you hop on for two weeks before a big event and then abandon. It’s a sustainable way of eating with proven benefits. You don’t have to commit forever on day one, but after a month of fueling your body with healthy fats, you may not want to go back.
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 or minimizing downsides, and structuring your diet and lifestyle to create your best “you.” There are quite a few 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 just 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 information you find most applicable 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 text marked by the Technical Stuff icon, as well as sidebars (text in gray boxes). If you’re short on time, you can skip both of these kinds of text — they’re interesting, but not essential to understanding the topic at hand.
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, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e-book, you’ve got it easy — just 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 type of medical condition.
You have control over your and your family’s food choices, and you 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 learning 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 the idea of 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.
Sometimes we wade into the weeds and tell you something super-technical or scientific. This is the kind of stuff we thrive on, but if you’re not as geeky as we are, you can skip this without missing anything essential.
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 Keto Diet For Dummies. You can access it by going to www.dummies.com and entering Keto Diet 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 5, or use the Recipes at a Glance at the start of the book to find the kind of recipe you’re looking for, from appetizers to desserts. If you’re curious about fasting, Chapter 12 is for you. And if you’d just like a quick reminder of ten great benefits of being in ketosis, head to Chapter 21. Wherever you start, we hope the keto diet is as rewarding for you as it is for us!
Part 1
Getting Started with the Keto Diet
IN THIS PART …
Get acquainted with the foundations of keto.
Identify the positives and negatives of low-carb living.
Understand the science behind the keto diet.
Discover the keto building blocks.
Follow the low-carb road map.
Chapter 1
Brushing Up on the Basics
IN THIS CHAPTER
Getting acquainted with keto
Pondering whether you and keto are a good match
Getting to ketosis
Staying positive
Keto has become quite popular over the past several years, but what do you really know about this seemingly trendy dietary lifestyle? Is keto truly worth the hype, and is it really a healthy way to lose weight? We’re here to help you figure out if keto is right for you and the basic steps of following a keto lifestyle safely and effectively. In this chapter, we cover the nuts and bolts of the keto lifestyle and get you ready to go, with a clear sense of the benefits of making a keto choice.
Understanding What the Keto Diet Is
The ketogenic diet (or keto diet for short) is an exceptionally well-researched and proven method to start working with your body, rather than against it, to improve your health. Following the basic rules of the keto lifestyle can help you
Feel more energized.
Lose weight faster.
Improve the health of your heart.
Sharpen your mental focus.
In addition to these benefits, there are a host of other long-term benefits that will leave you jumping for joy. Though it’s become popular recently, the keto diet has been used for almost a hundred years to heal and prevent disease — that’s a long track record of benefits.
In a nutshell, the keto diet is
High fat
Moderate protein
Very low carbohydrate
Having grains and carbohydrates form the basis of every meal may seem like contemporary wisdom, but for most of human history, this wasn’t the case. Processed and easily digested carbohydrates fuel weight gain and unhealthy spikes in blood sugar with each bite; over the course of a lifetime, this destroys your health.
The keto diet puts your body into ketosis, a process where you use fats, rather than sugars from carbohydrates, to fuel your body. On the keto diet, you learn to turn nutritional powerhouses — fats — into the basis of your meals.
In this chapter, and again in Chapter 3, we allay the fears that are commonly encountered when we talk about eating fat. The truth is that fat really isn’t to blame for the increasingly common problems of obesity and being overweight that you always hear about. Fat is actually very good for you, keeps you feeling fuller longer, helps you lose weight, and improves your health over the long term.
There are a lot of misconceptions about nutrition in general, and the keto diet in particular. In this book, we wade through the incessant chatter about what you should and shouldn’t eat to get to the meat of it all (pun intended). The keto lifestyle is much more than the “bacon wrapped in cheese” memes will have you believe — although you can eat cheese and bacon. It won’t wreak havoc on your heart or blood vessels, nor will it increase your cholesterol levels if you follow a whole-food-based keto lifestyle.
Despite what many of us have been told for decades, we don’t need to eat many carbohydrates as part of a healthy lifestyle. Instead, eating a range of whole keto foods can be the key to healthy living. Keto is a flexible and adventurous lifestyle that isn’t a one-size-fits-all plan; there are several different varieties to fit with your lifestyle and goals.
In the following sections, we look at the various options available, how they’re different, and what each has to offer.
THE HISTORY OF KETO
The ketogenic diet has been around in one form or another for thousands of years; in fact, the first mention of this way of eating was found in Greek medical texts from 400 B.c. The diet was formally created and named a century ago by medical doctors who were seeking an innovative way to treat epilepsy in children. It was very successful, although the medical community didn’t completely understand how it worked — they simply knew that consuming a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet drastically reduced, and occasionally even eliminated, the number of seizures epileptic patients experienced.
The diet became less popular in the 1930s and 1940s as antiseizure drugs were invented. The primary selling point for these medications was their convenience, not necessarily their effectiveness. Keto is still so effective that it’s nearly always what doctors turn to in cases of intractable epilepsy, a version of the condition that is unaffected by medication. In these cases, keto nearly always works. The primary objection to the diet, and why it fell out of favor in the 1930s and 1940s, is that it requires quite a bit of dedication and discipline to cook in a way that’s completely different from the way the rest of society approaches food. The benefits are undeniable, but it does take effort — and if you can treat epilepsy by simply popping a pill, that’s a much more convenient approach than totally revamping your diet. For the approximately 30 percent of epileptic patients for whom medication has no effect, however, keto offers much-needed relief.
Between the 1940s and the 1990s, the ketogenic diet fell into some level of obscurity. It was still used in the medical community, but sparingly, and it didn’t generate a tremendous amount of discussion. That changed in the mid-1990s when Hollywood director Jim Abrahams discovered the diet as he desperately searched for treatments that would help his epileptic son. The Abrahams found keto to be so effective that Jim created the Charlie Foundation, named after his child, to bring the eating approach back as a mainstream treatment. Abrahams’s efforts marked a resurgence of interest in ketosis, and over the next several decades, thousands of studies were conducted on the ketogenic diet by the medical and scientific community.
As the diet’s resurgence continued, people began to notice that it had uses beyond preventing seizures. In the early 1900s, the prevalence of diabetes was roughly 3 in 100,000; a hundred years later, however, nearly 1 in 10 Americans are diabetic or prediabetic. Those who began trying ketosis were shocked by the results: Not only did it help more than 90 percent of type 2 diabetics reduce their medication, but more than half of type 2 diabetics who stuck with the low-carb, high-fat lifestyle experienced such an incredible reduction in their HbA1C levels (the primary marker of diabetes) that their condition was effectively reversed!
The diabetic community reacted with understandable excitement, and people began to notice other effects. Individuals who stayed on the ketogenic diet watched excess pounds melt away, and they naturally assumed a healthy body weight, regardless of age, gender, race, or ethnicity — it didn’t even seem to matter if someone exercised or not. Keto was conducive to maintaining ideal body fat percentages.
Weight loss is a multibillion-dollar industry, so this discovery spurred a tremendous amount of interest. New research began to discover that this way of eating lowered low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the bad kind) and raised high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good kind), which completely shocked the diet community of the 1990s. Women who suffered from polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) experienced a reduction in symptoms, and studies confirmed that aspiring mothers who struggled with fertility issues had statistically significant improved rates of conception while eating low-carb.
Stories of people beating cancer with keto began to surface, and, as you can imagine, this generated quite the buzz in the medical community. Studies found that keto wasn’t a cure for cancer, but it did have several remarkable effects. The first was that many cancerous tumors feed almost exclusively on glucose but can’t be fueled by ketones; when patients transitioned to a different way of eating, even some aggressive forms of cancer stopped growing, giving traditional medical treatments more time to work. Studies also confirmed that a ketogenic lifestyle made tumors more sensitive to radiation and chemotherapy — not only did the diet give the medical community more time to work, but it actually assisted their efforts.
Standard ketogenic diet
The standard ketogenic diet is the basic version of the keto diet. It’s been around the longest and has the most evidence and research behind it. If you’re thinking about keto, you need to be very familiar with the standard ketogenic diet. It clearly breaks down the sources of your daily calorie intake, as follows:
Fat:
70 percent
Protein:
25 percent
Carbohydrates:
5 percent
Historically, on this diet, you’ll generally eat about 25 grams of carbohydrates per day. However, we live in more flexible times, and some people eat as much as 50 grams per day. That’s okay, because most people stay in ketosis on 50 grams of carbs a day, so they don’t need to limit their carbs anymore. Over time, you’ll figure out what works best for you.
The amount of daily carbs is, at most, only a fifth of what many Americans eat. On the standard American diet, you get about 30 percent of calories from fat, 20 percent from protein, and 50 percent (or more) from carbohydrates. That means most Americans are eating about 250 grams of carbs or more per day. As you can imagine, making such a radical change from a carb-based diet to a fat-based one will have a massive impact on your health and energy levels.
On the standard ketogenic diet, the ratio is 70:25:5 in terms of calories coming from fat, protein, and carbs. You should aim for 30 grams of carbs or fewer in a day.
Targeted ketogenic diet
The targeted ketogenic diet is geared toward athletes. It’s a slightly more flexible version of the keto diet because it allows you to eat more carbs around the time of your intense workouts. When you’re burning a lot of calories, the carbs you eat are consumed as fuel immediately, so your body doesn’t get “kicked out” of ketosis in the long term. As soon as you use up all the carbs during your workout, your body goes back to fat burning because there aren’t carbs left around when you’re more sedentary.
This choice is good for very active people who are exercising at high levels regularly (for hours, not minutes) or training for an intense athletic challenge that requires a lot of energy, like a marathon. Regardless, this is not a free pass to eat as many carbohydrates as you would on a high-carb diet. You should consume about 20 or 25 grams of easily digestible carbs approximately 30 to 45 minutes before you exercise. After exercising, you’ll go back to the regular keto diet. Keep in mind the total number of calories (including your pre-workout carbs) when coming up with your daily energy intake.
It’s critical that you only eat enough carbs to fuel your workout, so your body goes back to burning fats when you’re done exercising. Generally, you should be well adjusted to the standard ketogenic diet for a couple months at least before you switch to this targeted version.
Cyclical ketogenic diet
The cyclical ketogenic diet is another more flexible keto option for highly trained athletes. We’re upping the playing field here — this is the ultramarathon runner or the professional athlete, not the weekend warrior. These athletes may increase their carb intake for a short time to “fuel” themselves for the high level of performance they’re about to commit to. The increase may be for a couple of days before a major training event — and the amount of carbs they consume is in line with the amount of physical activity they’re facing. Then they go back to the standard ketogenic diet after the major event is over. Although they may be out of ketosis during these “cheat days,” their high level of performance ensures that they’re still in the low-carb range because they’re burning so many more calories than usual.
Another group of people who follow the cyclical ketogenic diet are those who have a hard time sticking to the standard ketogenic diet and choose to have cheat days once in a while. This may involve going keto five days a week, with the weekends reserved for “cheat days.” For those who eat carbs on the weekend, or can’t stick to the standard ketogenic diet because of social pressures, it’s important not to go on carb-binging cycles. It’s quite a shift for the body to go from ketosis to high-carb so rapidly. Instead, increase your carbs to a “low-carb diet,” in the range of 150 to 200 grams on your cheat days. You won’t be in ketosis on those days — and it may take a while for your body to go back to ketosis even on your regular standard ketogenic diet days — but at least you’ll still have the benefits of cutting back on carbs.
The cyclical ketogenic diet may be helpful for athletes and those who find it difficult to commit to the keto lifestyle. Keto is very flexible and can work with any lifestyle, as long as you make a commitment to health.
High-protein ketogenic diet
In the high-protein ketogenic diet, you increase the percent of calories from protein. Commonly, this breaks down as follows:
Fat:
60 percent
Protein:
35 percent
Carbohydrate:
5 percent
This option is best for people who are concerned about losing muscle or even want to bulk up, like bodybuilders or individuals who have very low lean body muscle mass. Generally, keto is a muscle neutral diet (you don’t gain or lose it), so adding protein is a great choice for those who want to gain muscle. In this diet, you’re still in ketosis, but you don’t necessarily have as high a level of ketones as someone on the standard ketogenic diet. It’s hard, but possible, to get kicked out of ketosis if you go higher than the recommended 35 percent of calories from protein. It’s also important on this type of keto diet to remember to eat a range of protein foods that are healthy and nutritious.
Deciding Whether the Keto Diet Is Right for You
Still unsure if the keto diet is right for you? In addition to the four options we just looked at, the keto lifestyle can be adapted to fit almost everyone’s needs — from the person seeking to jump-start weight loss to the person concerned about risk of diabetes. It does take a can-do attitude and commitment because you’ll encounter some bumps in the road, but for those who press on, the keto lifestyle is well worth the effort. We dive more into the many benefits — and few side effects — of the keto lifestyle in Chapter 2, but in this section we give you a little taste of why the keto diet may be right for you.
You want to lose weight fast and keep it off
If you’ve tried multiple diets and feel discouraged because you can’t keep the weight off, the keto diet is for you. Keto turns your body into a fat-burning machine. With the right blend of exercise and a well-balanced keto diet, you can reach your weight-loss goals. The keto diet has been shown to help people lose weight faster than low-fat diets; if you stay committed, it’s a healthy and satisfying way to maintain your weight over the long term.
You’re not afraid of a little commitment
Keto is great for those who can commit to it. There is some built-in flexibility to keto, but changing your mind-set to a “fat is healthy, and carbs aren’t as necessary as we thought” mentality requires some nutritional know-how (reading this book is a great start) and a commitment to choosing keto-friendly options in a sea of high-carb treats. You need to make some thoughtful choices about what you put into your body as fuel — looking at your long-term goals, rather than what is readily available.
You may find this challenging, especially in the first few days and weeks, if you notice some telltale signs of the keto flu (the muscle cramping and general feeling of being run down as your body adjusts to ketosis). We share some tips to decrease or avoid the symptoms in Chapter 3, but going through the keto flu may make you doubt your commitment to the keto lifestyle. If you’re serious about your health and you aren’t easily swayed by a few bumps along the way, keto offers lasting benefits.
You want to decrease your risk of diabetes
If you’re concerned about your risk of getting diabetes, keto is an excellent option for you. Eating a keto diet stops the wild up and down sugar spikes associated with the standard American diet, which is loaded with carbohydrates. Keto can help reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes — a widespread problem that leads to heart disease and other major medical issues. Alarmingly, up to one-third of Americans are prediabetic and don’t even know it.
Be cautious, however, if you are diabetic. Research is showing that the keto diet may actually help cure 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 or nutritionist if you’re already diagnosed with diabetes and you want to try the keto diet. It can lower your blood sugar levels too much if you’re already taking certain medications.
You’re tired of feeling run down and sluggish
Most people on the keto diet realize they have more energy and mental focus. We’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to have the “hangry” feeling we used to get around 4 p.m. — when we’d feel justified for biting off a coworker’s head if we couldn’t eat something, anything, right that minute.
These symptoms are practically universal when your body relies on the wild swings in blood sugar level that happen when you eat carbohydrates but haven’t had a meal in several hours. The keto diet allows you to break free from these symptoms because your blood glucose levels stay stable, whether you’re in the middle of a meal or you haven’t had a bite to eat in over six hours. With stable blood sugar levels, you’re energized and don’t feel sluggish at the end of the day — or at any other time.
You want to get healthy and stay that way for a long time
The keto diet is not just good for weight loss and sugar control; it’s also an anti-inflammatory diet that can improve your health in many other areas as well. The diet was initially developed for children with incurable seizures who weren’t getting better, despite having access to the newest and best medicines.
The keto diet was able to decrease, and often completely stop, their seizures. Subsequent research suggests that the keto diet helps reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, can work to improve your cholesterol levels, and may prevent heart disease. A bonus for teenagers is that it may even be a treatment if you’re acne prone. We get into the details of the many health benefits of the keto diet in later chapters, but we can let you know now, there are quite a few.
The keto diet may be for you if you’re ready to make the commitment to changing your health for the better.
Flipping the Switch on Your Metabolism
Getting into ketosis requires a commitment to drastically cutting your carbohydrate intake. Your body is geared to using carbohydrates as fuel if they’re available, so you won’t go into ketosis until you drop to 50 grams or fewer of carbohydrates a day and maintain that level of carb intake for at least several days. If you go back to eating more carbs, you’ll be kicked out of ketosis. Learning how to get into ketosis is vital to enjoying a keto lifestyle. We’re here to help you figure it all out.
Consuming the right ratio of macronutrients: Fat, protein, and carbs
When you start a keto diet, you’ll need to be very clear on the number of calories you’re getting from the three primary macronutrients (the main groups of food that provide fuel for your body): fats, protein, and carbs. The key to keto is that you’re getting only a small amount of your nutrition from carbs. Even if you eat a high-fat and moderate-protein diet, if you go over your carb limit, you’ll be kicked out of ketosis. You’ll have to monitor your carb intake closely until you get used to being on a very low-carb diet and have a good sense of the amount of carbs in different foods. This will mean understanding the ratio of macros in a serving size when you eat fresh foods and always, always checking the nutrition labels when you eat anything from a package.
As you start looking more closely at nutrition labels, you’ll be surprised at how many foods have hidden carbs, from condiments like ketchup and salad dressing to meats and other proteins that have flour or breading added. You’ll also have to keep this inquisitive nature up when you go out to eat, even if it’s at a friend’s house. Being aware of what goes into your food is your number-one priority.
Upping your consumption of healthy fats
As you know, you’ll need to increase your fat intake — and by a lot. If you’ve ever been on a diet, it can be quite alarming to have to raise your fat intake, especially if you think eating fat will automatically make you fat. Even if you’re not looking to lose any weight, fat has received a reputation for being unhealthy, bad for your heart, and something that should always be limited. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you get fat from healthy sources and choose a range of nutritious fats, but fats themselves aren’t inherently bad. We talk more about this in Chapter 4, but it’s important that you’re getting your fats from both plant and animal foods and eating a mix of nuts and seeds, avocados, healthy oils, dairy, and animal fat.
Calculating your protein target
The amount of protein you get in a keto diet isn’t that far off from what you’d eat on a high-carb diet, so there shouldn’t be too much confusion here. Some people wrongly think that the keto diet is a high-protein diet and that all people on the diet eat is meat, meat, and more meat. This isn’t true, and the keto diet isn’t an excuse to only eat beef jerky and hamburger patties. You’ll need to be aware of how much protein you should be consuming in a day based on your body weight and activity level. You’ll also need to get familiar with the appropriate serving sizes of your protein sources, as well as the best sources of protein that work with your lifestyle. A moderate amount of protein is about 0.36 gram for every pound of body weight if you’re usually sedentary, or about 54 grams if you weigh 150 pounds.
Slashing your carb intake
Your carb intake will make or break your keto journey, so be vigilant! We should mention that whenever we talk about “carbs” in this book, we’re referring to digestible carbs. These are complex and simple carbohydrates — from whole grains and oatmeal to candy and sugar-sweetened anything — that your body uses as fuel. You don’t have to limit indigestible carbohydrates like fiber; your body can’t digest them, which means carbs from fiber won’t kick you out of ketosis. In the keto diet, you exchange high-carb foods for low-carb vegetables that are also good sources of fiber. You can eat a small amount of low-sugar fruits like berries. Don’t worry, there are lots of great-tasting low-carb options that will keep you full.
To succeed on the keto diet, get used to looking at nutrition labels. It’s important for you to know how many carbs you’re eating so you don’t get kicked out of ketosis. Over time, you’ll learn how to avoid “hidden” carbs and thrive on low-carb options instead.
Knowing when you’ve entered a state of ketosis
It takes between a few days to a week of a very low-carb diet before most people enter ketosis. That’s because our bodies store an “emergency” amount of carbs just in case we suddenly run out of bread and pasta. If it’s your first time entering ketosis, you may be unsure of what to expect. Some people have symptoms that suggest ketosis, while others won’t notice any changes at all. The most common signs of ketosis for first-timers are headaches, fatigue, and muscle cramps (symptoms of the keto flu that we cover in Chapter 2). Although unpleasant, this is a sign that you’re achieving your goal.
So, how will you know you’re in ketosis if you don’t have any symptoms? One common way to tell if you’re in ketosis is to use a ketosis urine test — it’s the same concept as the urine test women use to check if they’re pregnant, but instead you’ll find out if you’ve succeeded into getting into ketosis. When you’re in ketosis, your urine will have a certain level of ketones (the products of fatty acids breaking down) that high-carb dieters won’t. This lets you know that you’ve reached your goal. These urine sticks are available online or at most quality nutrition stores. You can also take a blood test to measure the same thing. We show you exactly how to test for ketosis in Chapter 3.
Knowing when to stop
When you’re clearly in ketosis and you’ve gotten over any initial roadblocks, you should be feeling on top of the world. Occasionally, though, some people in ketosis don’t feel this way even after weeks or months of commitment. Here are some signs that you need to reevaluate your approach to keto:
You’re constantly tired.
It’s difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
Your bathroom habits have slowed way down.
You’re not as strong as you used to be and you’ve lost muscle definition.
You’re experiencing skin rashes or hair loss.
If you’re dealing with some of these issues, you probably need to make a change and investigate what’s going wrong with your keto journey. You may notice these side effects if you aren’t following a whole foods diet and are missing out on crucial nutrients, like essential vitamins and minerals. Some of us fall into this trap because we eat the same five or six keto-friendly foods and not much else. If you feel like you’re floundering in your keto diet, make sure you take stock of what you eat on a daily basis and if it’s genuinely nurturing you.
A rare side effect, but one that deserves mention, is ketoacidosis. This most often occurs in type 1 diabetics, but it can occasionally be experienced by others. Ketoacidosis is when the number of ketones in your bloodstream have exceeded the healthy range. This generally only occurs in people who have an underlying medical condition (like diabetes), but very rarely it can happen if you follow ketosis and restrict your calories too much or have a high energy requirement, like women who are pregnant. If you have a significant medical condition, talk with your doctor before starting a keto diet.
If you have a medical condition that you manage with a doctor, make sure to seek your doctor’s advice before starting keto. Keto is a healthy lifestyle option, but some medical conditions don’t mix well with it.
Clearing Common Hurdles
The keto diet can be challenging at first, so you need to focus on your commitment before beginning the journey. It’s a good idea to have a sense of the common hurdles you’ll likely encounter when you start the keto diet so you can be prepared to face them confidently. We get into the nuts and bolts of this in Chapter 3, but here we give you a little taste of what to expect.
Dietary restrictions
The first thing that people get concerned about are the restrictions of the keto lifestyle. Because so many of us consume half (or more!) of our calories in the form of carbohydrates, you may feel like you have nothing to eat. This couldn’t be further from the truth. There is quite a range of high-fat, low-carbohydrate foods out there that you haven’t explored. The keto lifestyle will open up a world of healthy whole foods that will keep you satisfied and healthy.
Carb cravings
Giving up something always leaves intense cravings until the void is filled. Carbs are no different. It’s normal to have intense cravings for carbs when you first go on the keto diet, especially because your body is so used to using them as fuel. What’s more, you’re probably a bit addicted to carbs. Sugar triggers the same receptors in your brain as heroin, so when you give up carbs, you’re literally giving up an addiction.
Luckily, there is also a range of alternative “flours” and low-carb snacks that you can have on hand as you start the keto lifestyle. With a little knowledge and some trial and error, you’ll beat the carb cravings and find foods you enjoy that keep you satisfied without intense cravings. As you get further into the keto lifestyle, however, you’ll realize that your cravings for carbs will disappear altogether. You’ll lose the urge to snack between meals as your glucose levels stabilize and you feel satisfied with your whole-food keto meals.
Unpleasant side effects
Keto can come with side effects like keto flu, keto breath (a fruity or musty odor), constipation, or even nutrient gaps as you learn what to eat. These are signs you’re entering ketosis (which is the goal), but they can still be tough. These side effects usually resolve with time, and this book helps you ease the transition and minimize discomfort. The rest comes down to your commitment.
Social pressures
Eating is social, and many people will have opinions about your diet. Those unfamiliar with keto may warn about heart attacks or other health risks — concerns often based on misconceptions. If you’ve done your research, don’t let their worries derail you. Thank them for their concern, stay committed, and let your results speak for themselves. You may even change their minds.
Restaurants, gatherings, and parties can be tricky as you avoid breads, desserts, and other high-carb foods. People may notice and share their opinions — don’t get hung up on whether they agree.
Even your doctor may be cautious. Keto has a long medical history, but much of it centers on epilepsy treatment, so using it for weight loss or metabolic health may raise eyebrows. Share the research you’ve reviewed and suggest a monitored approach with regular checkups and blood tests. Measurable results can build confidence for both you and your doctor.
You know your body best, and if you’ve done your research, stay empowered to care for your body in the way that makes you feel at your best.
Don’t let well-meaning friends, family, or even doctors dissuade you from pursuing a healthy whole-foods keto lifestyle. Keep committed and keep doing what’s right for your lifestyle and healthy body.
Chapter 2
Weighing the Pros and Cons of the Keto Diet
IN THIS CHAPTER
Celebrating the numerous benefits of the keto diet
Recognizing potential drawbacks of the keto diet
Calming concerns about fat and cholesterol
The ketogenic diet is not only an intuitive and simple way to eat, but also a lifestyle choice proven to improve your health and keep you feeling your best. Eating the nutritious, high-quality foods found on the keto diet fuels you with clean energy, letting your mind and body do what comes naturally: Be strong and efficient, prevent disease, and maintain a clear and optimistic outlook on life.
Sadly, many people have fallen away from this way of eating and coming back to it may seem overwhelming at first, especially if you’re a bit rusty on the topics of ketosis, macros, and metabolism. There’s no need to worry, though. In this book, we guide you through the basics, and this foundation will help you breeze through many of the misunderstandings that you’ll encounter on your keto journey. With a little thoughtfulness and persistence, you’ll soon notice the many benefits of the keto diet, and these concerns will drop away.
In this chapter, we discuss the main benefits of keto — get ready, because it’s not a short list! We also walk you through some of the common concerns people have when starting a keto diet, especially in the first few days and weeks. We dive into the common misconception that a high-fat diet will make you fat or unhealthy (spoiler alert: it won’t). Instead, we point out the real culprits — sugar and processed foods — and show you how life without them can be so much sweeter.
The Numerous Benefits of a Keto Diet
The keto diet isn’t just a fad. When you use fat for fuel, you drive the body into ketosis, a state that promotes more efficient energy use and healing. First adopted by doctors in the 1920s to treat refractory epilepsy, keto has since been linked to benefits far beyond seizure control, including weight loss and improved heart health. When you understand its potential, it’s easy to see the appeal.
Weight loss
Let’s address the elephant in the room head-on: Fat does not make you fat. The human body is much more intricate and intuitive than that. The idea that “fat makes you fat” is a gimmick used by corporate interests that have 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. The number of people who struggle with obesity has doubled since that era, while the ketogenic diet has been used since the 1960s to stop excessive weight gain in its tracks.
Using fat as fuel bypasses sugar’s addictive chemistry and ensures that we use those pesky love handles and muffin tops that we already have as our source of energy. Because the body has an infinite ability to store fat (compared to the much more limited ability to store carbohydrates and sugars), the keto diet adapts the body to a more sustainable source of energy that will fuel you for the long term rather than causing you to burn out quickly like a sugar high. Using keto intelligently leads to losing fat and dropping stubborn and unwanted pounds; the very fat you’re trying to rid yourself of is used to fuel your weight loss. Research bears this out: Multiple studies show that people on carbohydrate-restricted diets, compared to low-fat and other “weight-loss diets,” lose more weight in the first few months and successfully keep it off long term.
When you go into ketosis, you stop being a fat-making machine and instead become a fat-burning machine. Research shows that healthy young participants on a ketogenic diet increased their resting metabolism compared to others on a regular carbohydrate-indulgent diet. Interestingly, the more fat you have, the more you use; overweight people use a higher percentage of broken-down fatty acids as fuel than lean people. Going further, people on the standard ketogenic diet who eat up to 25 grams of daily carbs are able to lose weight, and more important, keep it off longer. This means that even a flexible keto diet will jump-start your weight loss.
The best part? The keto diet helps you lose weight while decreasing pesky cravings that are so common on low-fat diets. This way, you’ll be more likely to go the distance in your weight loss journey. It may have to do with the fact that high-fat foods are just so satisfying that you’ll naturally notice you’re not as hungry as when you were eating more carbs or restricting your calories! The same is true of proteins, which are also a crucial part of the keto diet.
What’s more, scientists are learning that ketones signal the body to eat less by affecting appetite hormones like ghrelin and leptin. These two hormones affect the body in opposite ways: Ghrelin levels typically rise when you’re hungry to increase appetite, while leptin is turned on after a big meal, signaling your brain that it’s time to stop eating. Research shows that ghrelin tends to rise when you cut calories to lose weight, which is why crash dieters find it so difficult to cut calories continuously. Ghrelin is screaming, “Eat!” and it’s difficult to ignore. Ketosis, however, tends to block the increase in ghrelin, so you don’t feel ravenous even when you’re losing weight.
When you understand how ketosis works, this becomes intuitive. When the body feeds off of carbs, it quickly consumes them and then screams for more. When the body feeds off of fat, it utilizes all the consumed fat (what you just ate), and then when it’s done, it naturally transitions to stored fat (what you were trying to get rid of in the first place). Your body stays satisfied because it’s continuously feeding, and it’s doing so off of the weight you want to lose!
This is vital to understand because many people who lose weight are not able to keep it off. In fact, most will end up packing on more pounds than they initially lost. This yo-yo dieting keeps many people in its grip, trying diet after diet, which only leads to feelings of deprivation, intense cravings, and inevitable overeating and rebound weight gain. That’s not the case if you stick to a ketogenesis diet; your body doesn’t stop burning fat over time, and your metabolism doesn’t slow down as it would with low-fat diets.
The keto diet is a natural and innovative way to jump-start your metabolism and turn you into a lean, fat-burning machine. Without the use of harmful chemicals or starvation diet techniques, you use your body’s natural metabolic pathways to optimize your safe and long-term weight loss.
Improved body composition
Sculpting a lean body is one of the benefits that comes with keto weight loss. As we use our fat stores, we can whittle our waists, a vital sign of improved cardiovascular fitness. Belly fat is associated with heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It’s no secret that, as we age, many of us tend to lose muscle and gain fat. Ketosis stops this in its tracks. By using fat as fuel and providing adequate protein, people on the keto diet maintain their lean muscle mass over the long term because it’s not used as a source of energy.
A few studies have looked at the changes in body fat and lean muscle mass when the ketogenic diet is combined with exercise. In two studies, participants on the keto diet (70 percent to 75 percent of calories from fat, 20 percent from protein, and less than 10 percent from carbohydrates) lost more total body fat and belly fat than men on the same strength-based routines who ate a typical carbohydrate-rich diet (50 percent to 55 percent calories from carbohydrates, 25 percent from fat, and 20 percent from protein). The results regarding lean muscle mass were mixed; in the longer study, the keto diet nearly doubled lean body mass, while in the other study, there was no change in this area.
When accompanied by increased resistance training, only the ketogenic diet led to total body fat loss. This is incredibly important for athletes, who may want to decrease body fat percentage — an essential concept in many athletic sports — rather than just lose weight. As such, the ketogenic diet is a safer option for meeting weigh-in requirements or obtaining a “sculpted” shape for competitive sports such as bodybuilding. Importantly, it does not do this at the cost of restricting much-needed calories, as may happen in athletes desperate to lose weight quickly. Therefore, there is little risk of muscle loss and fatigue and a high chance of weight loss.
These studies showed that the ketogenic diet is unlikely to cause an absolute increase in muscle mass. Lean body mass
