I get asked often over and over again what a Ketogenic diet is and what I eat while I’m on the Ketogenic Diet.
Let’s start with the first question. What is a Ketogenic Diet?
A Ketogenic diet is a diet that depletes the glycogen in the liver, causing the liver to create ketones as an alternative energy source for your body.
A Ketogenic diet requires you to significantly reduce your carbohydrate intake to normally less than 30g a day. This causes your body to switch over to burning the body fat you eat and are carrying around as it’s primary fuel source. Outside of liposuction, this fat burning process is the fastest way and the only other way to lose body fat.
A ketogenic diet most of the time is NOT a high protein diet. You may eat a higher amount of protein than you usually do, but a Ketogenic diet is usually a high fat, moderate protein, low carb diet. On this diet you will be eating full fat foods like sausage, eggs, chicken, fish, Wendy’s Triple Baconators, IHOP Colorado Omelete, Chipotle burrito bols, KFC Double Downs and all the BACON you can stand!
Your calorie breakdown will come out to 60% fat, 35% protein and about 5% carbs.
My Food List includes the items that you are allowed to eat. I only eat three meals a day and the occasional snack and lately I’ve been taking in 3000+ calories (That’s just freakin insane!) For examples of things to eat you can also look at My food log.
WARNING!!! Starting a ketogenic diet without easing into it has a diuretic effect. If you think you have gas during the first two weeks DO NOT BE TRICKED!! You will find yourself on the losing end of an embarrasing situation. This is caused by your body releasing water and salt that it was hanging onto for the use of carbohydrates. When you enter into ketosis your body gets rid of what it does not need and it goes right out your ass!
To start off
1. Drink 72 oz. of water or more a day
2. Eat at least 1g of protein per lb. of lean body mass
3. Eat fat and protein until you are not hungry – this will help with the sugar withdrawals
4. Eat foods off of my food list
5. Eat real foods (unprocessed foods) as often as possible. Eating real food has more vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants.
6. Do not eat starches, sugar or any grains (Sorry, no bread, rice or potatoes!)
7. Only weigh yourself once a week for men and once a month for women (a woman’s cycle can effect weight for up to 6 weeks)
During the initial sugar withdrawal period eat until you can’t stand eating to avoid and overpower the sugar addiction.
Thanks for the quality post! As I was looking at your foodlist, I see lots of complex carbs included. Do you consider those safe and having little or no effect on ketone production?
I also have a question regarding protein and fat ratio. I need to lose about 80 pounds. Do you have any experience with higher protein intake so that dietary fat can be lower, enabling stored fat to be used as a higher priority?
I appreciate your thoughts!
Aaron
Complex carbs slow the digestion rate due to the fiber. If you have any gut issues avoid high fiber foods. I recommend adding them back into the diet slowly after being in ketosis for a week to help mix it up and keep the food interesting.
Unless you eat a large amount they will usually not kick you out of ketosis.
When it comes to ratio you first need to correct your appetite regulators. These are usually blown out of whack due to high insulin levels and the consumption of Gliadin. You should start eating large amounts of fat as it kick starts ketosis for most people. Protein can be as low as 8% of total daily calories without losing muscle mass. Trying to speed up the process usually backfires on you. Eat as much as you can throw down your throat with 65-70% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs the first week and your system will begin to regulate your hunger levels where they actually should be. After two weeks you will find that your hunger level only demands you to eat ~1200 calories a day because it will be acquiring the energy it needs from fat stores. You will be able to eat until you are no longer hungry and be losing weight at the same time!
If you have 80 lbs to lose then your leptin levels are through the roof. Once you cut out the grains and get your insulin level into the dirt your system will begin to correctly regulate your hunger the way it was meant to.
While losing 80 lbs expect to hit two or three plateaus. This is the period of time that your body is adjusting to the new environment. After two months start adding a cheat meal in once a week to keep the cortisol levels down and to give you some flexibility and a social life!
If you decide to stop doing the diet you have to phase back into eating carbs. After a period of time in ketosis the body is insulin resistant and you will gain weight back INCREDIBLY FAST if you starting eating pizza every day. Add carbs back a little at a time over two weeks to prevent these unwanted results. I actually advise that people should transition to a paleo diet once they have hit their goal weight.
Hello,
So i am a 21 year old female, 5’8″ and 200 pounds. I am trying to loose about 30 pounds to get me back to how i was before college. I love the diet, i just don’t know how much i should be exercising? I am just afraid instead of loosing weight, I’m gonna gain it with my low metabolism.
Please let me know
Kathryn, what type of exercise do you believe would make you gain weight with a slow metabolism on a ketogenic diet? The best exercise to do to burn body fat while doing this is major compound movements like deadlifts, squats and bench press. But any exercise will cause you to lose weight while on a ketogenic diet if you are over 30% body fat. One of the major benefits of a ketogenic style diet is appetite regulation. Once you adapt to ketosis your appetite will begin to regulate properly and you’ll only be hungry when your body needs fuel. This does not mean to avoid eating in an attempt to speed up the process. One of the mechanisms that break and allow us to become overweight or obese is when we consume too many carbohydrates and our leptin signalling is blocked by elevated insulin levels. When all the systems in the body are working properly your body will want to get to around 23% body fat in women and around 16% for men. There is of course a range around those numbers but to stray to far from them means that something is out of whack. Also remember to slowly add carbs back into your diet if you decide to relax and not stick to the diet. The (healthy form of) insulin resistance that is caused by ketosis will cause you to put weight back on extremely fast if you go straight into a Mountain Dew, pizza and bagels style diet. Each person should come off slowly to find what their individual carb tolerance is before they start gaining back weight.
Hello, I am 20 years old 5’9 and weight 194lbs. I have 18% body fat and was wondering if this diet will help reduce that to around 10% or if it only works for people with a higher body fat percentage? Please let me know
Yes, Jesus it will get you to 12% or below. At your body fat level you would do best following a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet. Follow a Standard Ketogenic diet for two weeks, on the evening of day 14 workout and that same evening eat 1g of carbs per pound of bodyweight. Wake up the next morning and eat ketogenic for the next 5 days. On the 5th night make sure you workout and then do another carb up like you did 5 days before. Continue this until your weight loss stalls.
my age 23. m a female..is that true the carb we r taking in ketogenic diet plan we hav to make it as a life long diet plan? i lost weight before some month by crash dieting but i lost m muscle a lot.. but m lower body fat remains same.. when m done with weight loss can i come back to my usual cab intake? i hav high LDL level and vit D deficency .. m hair also falling after crash diet.
is that safe to start this diet ketogenic?
which 1 is going to best for me ketogenic or ckd?
plz guide me..
CKD is easier to stick to and a staying in ketosis long term is only beneficial if you are trying to treat a disease. You should take the liquid drops of Carlson’s Vit D, do a ketogenic diet and make sure you are not trying to starve yourself. No cheats for two weeks but make sure to eat a ketogenic diet for two weeks without cheats and on day 14 workout and then eat 1g of carbs per lb of bodyweight for a carb up. Repeat the carb up every 5th day and see a doctor as you may need to take something (gastric bypass vitamins) if you are in that bad of shape with your hair falling out. You should slowly transition to a diet like John Kiefer’s Carb Backloading once you get down into the 20% body fat range. That would allow you to eat whatever you want on nights that you have worked out. That even includes ICE CREAM!! You can read about it here: http://www.fitnesslowdown.com/does-carb-backloading-work/
Hey. I would like to lose 10 pounds. How long should I be on the diet? Do you have an example week diet meal plan? Exercise maybe? Cardio, anaerobic training?
Thanks in advance.
K.
There’s a 3 day a week workout plan listed at the top of the website. You can use that and maybe add in a run here and there during the days you don’t have a workout!
Hello! I’m 24 years old female, weigh around 135 lbs. I work out regularly, sometimes two to three time a day. I just wanna drop about ten pounds since I have been stuck at 135 for a long time. I heard keto diet could help me lose weight but I’m just not sure how to start and how much protein and carb I cn eat. Would u mind helping me out?
Thank you.
Hello there!
Just curious, I am on a low carb diet currently with a goal of losing 70lbs by Sept. I have been on this before with great results. However, I started my diet this past week and have been doing great. I monitor my ketones with strips and very fast started ketosis. This past Friday I went out to dinner and cheated (was a special occassion) and that night started back on my diet. Since then I have monitored my ketones and have tested negative. I cannot seem to get back into process…Any tips or ideas? I take supplements to help speed the process, but nothing seems to be working.
Your body begins to regulate the amount of ketones in the blood stream in an efficient manner once it begins to adjust. The strips after that are only good if you are concerned about ketoacidosis. Just make sure your eating 5% carbs, 25% protein and 70% saturated and monounsaturated fat. Also, have a cheat meal at least once every five days to keep the fat burning hormones high! Don’t worry about the strips if you are just trying to see if you are in ketosis as they only show excess ketones being dumped through urine (in other words excess ketones that the body doesn’t need due to overproduction).
HELLO,
I AM EXTREMELY INTERESTED AND READY TO START A KETOGENIC DIET, BUT I HAVE ONE QUESTION. BECAUSE I HAD MY GALBLADDER REMOVED, WILL I HAVE ISSUES SINCE THIS IS HIGH FAT DIET?
You will need to take something that has Ox bile in it to help break down the fats. NOW Superfoods is a good product that I use! And I would increase my fat intake over a graduated amount of time so you can adjust how much ox bile you need to take along the way!
Hi, I lyk everytin you’ve jst said,but I have a problem of sleeping day nd night,I sleep lyk a baby,I jst want 2 knw if sleeping during the day will prevent me 4rom losing weight even if im on diet and jogging every morning and afternoon?please help me I’m really need to lose weight.
No it will not. It may actually help is your workout intensity is high!
Hi there, I’m just about to start my first ketogenic diet after trying calorie controlled diets all my life and not seeing any long term results I am really excited to get started on this as it appears to actually deliver results! Also knowing that I’ll be healthier on the inside and out is extremely motivating! I am 30 years old, 5ft 6, female weighing 230lbs. I think my ideal weight would be around 140lbs – that’s my first goal anyway. What would you suggest as the best “action plan” for me? Should I stick to the diet rigidly (70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carbs) until I start to see results? Also I am aiming to exercise at least 3 times a week. Also I see you have CARROTS on your food list but on other websites they say they are very high in carbs, are they definitely allowed?
Many thanks
i am 5,7 and weigh 156lb, and want to start a ketogenic diet to reduce my BF to around 12-15%, while maintaining, and if possible gaining muscle. How many calories should i be aiming to consume? i saw you consume 3000 but surely thats far too much for me? especially if my aim is to lose fat. i work out 3 times a week in the gym using the basic compound exercises. any advice would be much appreciated.