Keto Diet Tips for Beginners

You may have heard of the keto or ketogenic diet recently or for some time now. However you may be wondering what it really is and how to get started. We put this article together to show how to start keto diet in the best and most simple way.

We’ll look at what the keto diet is, foods to eat and avoid, meal plans, some practical tips from someone who’s doing it and side effects, among others.

What is the Ketogenic Diet?

The keto diet (also known as ketogenic diet) is simply a low-carb diet that consist primarily of high fat, moderate protein and of course, low carbohydrates. It’s been clinically proven to help followers lose weight and burn fat more effectively compared to other diets.

The most common reason people choose keto is to help them lose weight and fat. However, the diet has added benefit of giving you improved physical performance and high mental clarity. Studies also show that it helps with diseases such as diabetes type 2, cancer, epilepsy and cardio-vascular diseases, among others.

Here at the 10 easy steps showing how to start keto diet for beginners for weight loss.

#1: Learn all you can about eating keto

There are many people, both men and women, who start keto by simply jumping right in without doing much research on what they can and can’t eat. This leads to costly mistakes, slow weight loss and poor keto results.

You don’t want you to experience the frustration of not being able to get into ketosis because you didn’t realize the package that says ‘low-carb’ prevented you from getting into ketosis or even reversed your state of ketosis.

Therefore your first step to starting keto for weight loss success is to learn everything you can about keto.

There are about five different types of ketogenic diets. These

• Standard Ketogenic Diet (SKD). Also known as the Basic Keto Diet (BKD), it is the type mostly followed by

#2. All carbs aren’t equal

Your second step is to understand that all carbs aren’t created equal. On a keto diet we’re eating approximately 65-75% fat, 15-20% protein and 10-20% carbohydrates. However, not all carbs are created equal.

On the keto diet all grains are off-limits. Yes all grains including corn, rice, wheat, barley, all of the grains, you don’t need them. Also off-limits our starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams.

Also the majority of fruit is off-limits. Exceptions to the fruit rule are berries which are lower in carbs. Your very first trip to the grocery store when you’re preparing to transition to a keto diet can be a little frustrating because a lot of the marketing on packaging is misleading. Just because the package says ‘low-carb’ doesn’t mean that it’s a keto-friendly food. So how do you tell? This brings us to the third step on how to start keto diet.

#3. Find places carbs are hiding in food.

There are a number of places that carbs are hiding. Food additives are a huge culprit so it’s important not to just read the nutrition label but also the ingredient list.

Let’s say that you’re looking for a salad dressing that is keto friendly. You’re pulling dressings off the shelf and most of them look pretty good. They say zero carbs, maybe one carb.

So let’s just pick on one brand, for example the Simply Ranch dressing by Hidden Valley, for illustration purposes. Now one serving, which is two tablespoons has one gram of sugar.

A closer look at the label reveals that it contains some ingredients that do not belong to the keto shopping list: sugar and corn starch. These two ingredients are ingredients we want to avoid if at all possible.

Especially for those of us who are going to use more than two tablespoons of salad dressing on a big salad for lunch. Avoid foods with hidden ingredients including maltodextrin which is a food additive derived from corn.

If you aren’t sure about a food additive or something on the ingredient list, just do a quick google search and see is that ingredient derived from a grain. That’s a warning sign that it’s a no-no.

So here a few foods to avoid that you may not think about right away. These are foods that catches some people out. It happened to me: soy sauce contains gluten, ketchup barbecue sauce often have a lot of added sugars or just naturally occurring sugars.

Flavored coffee actually sometimes contains sugar as part of the flavoring packet. Baking powder generally contains corn starch. If you can find one with arrowroot powder that’s a lot better option.

I choose to make my own at home. Finally Miracle Whip has a lot of added sugar so use Mayo instead.

Watch for added sugars cured meats such as sausage, bacon and brats. Get the lowest sugar option possible.

#4: Commit to 100% Keto a Month

Begin the keto diet when you can be all-in for four solid weeks. Take time to prepare an advance you can hit the ground running and avoid as many obstacles as possible. Because the truth is life is going to throw you a curve ball.

Obstacles are going to occur so anticipate them and plan in advance. It’s much less stressful and it gets you to success faster.

#5. Be Accountable to Someone

The truth is we become like the people that we surround ourselves with. Research shows that our habits, our health and our weight are all heavily influenced by the people we are closest with.

So create accountability for yourself by hiring a coach or joining a social support group. Find a partner to do keto with you, whether that’s your spouse or a good friend or someone that you meet in the keto group who also needs an accountability partner.

You can some great keto groups on social media platforms like Facebook. Joining a social group will give you the chance to meet new people to connect with.

Now we’re gonna dive into the nitty-gritty strategies you’ll need to nail this new way of eating

#6. Get Rid of Temptation

You know those foods that are in your house that are the big temptations for you, get rid of them. Remove them completely from your household. Now don’t panic. Chances are there’s a great keto option for your favorite foods.

This brings us right into your next point step.

#7. Get Comfortable in the Kitchen

To be wildly successful on a keto diet you’ll simply simply substitute keto friendly foods for those foods you’re getting rid of. If you love ice cream, simply make keto ice cream. Love breakfast foods like waffles, cinnamon rolls and pancakes make keto versions of these items.

Love chips and dips, again make keto chips and a keto friendly dip. Love appetizers? You treat it the same way, make keto friendly versions.

Commit to learning to cook the keto way and schedule time to cook each week if you can. You can find recipes for almost any of your favorite non-keto-friendly foods online or via Facebook groups or even on Pinterest.

We prefer to batch cook on the weekends or if we have a free evening during the week.

Batch cooking is when we make a large batch of keto foods. For example one of our go-to keto foods are nacho chips and keto waffles. We do this most weekends and we freeze these then we choose one or two keto meals to make in a large batch and freeze as well.

Keeping our freezer full of quick keto options saves us when something comes up during the week.

#8. Familiarize Yourself with Keto Options at Restaurants

A lot of people have anxiety when going out with coworkers or friends and this should not be a problem. Look at the menu in advance and figure out what you can order.

A really popular option would be bun-less burgers topped with bacon and cheese, maybe a side salad with creamy dressings such as blue cheese or Caesar. Or you can order a fatty cut of steak and a side of veggies.

Then smother those veggies in some extra butter. Almost every restaurant out there has some options if you’re on a keto diet. Another great tip is to also request gluten free with your order to make sure there aren’t sauces or anything that contains gluten being added to your food. As you may have guessed, gluten is not eaten on the keto diet.

#9. Keto Supplements

Yes you need supplements. Experts agree that supplementing is key on a successful ketogenic diet especially to avoid the keto flu and other symptoms that can occur if your body doesn’t get the nutrients and minerals it needs.

But not supplements to push your body into ketosis. Read this article here for more information on that.

Here’s how view keto supplements. Think about your car. Would you attempt to drive your car without gas, oil, transmission fluid, power, steering fluid? I don’t think so. What if you just had flat tires would you just go drive it around? Of course not.

Our bodies need specific inputs (nutrients and minerals) to run correctly. When we don’t provide those inputs the results are a wide variety of symptoms as our body continues to chug along without the stuff that needs.

Supplementing correctly is critical to support your body’s needs. Experts agree that you need to supplement with additional salt, magnesium and potassium on a ketogenic diet because of the changes that occur in your body.

Many experts also recommend high quality digestive enzymes, probiotics and omega-3s. Many of the products you’ll find on store shelves are a waste of money because not all supplements are created equal.

There’s not a lot of regulation on how bioavailable the ingredients in a specific supplement are to your body. So do your research in advance know the company and know that you can trust them and what is in their keto supplements before buying them.

#10. Hydrate Adequately

Drinking adequate amounts of water is something we all know we should be doing. The same goes for being on the keto diet. Make sure you’re getting at least half of your body weight in pure water each day. That means if you weigh 200 pounds you should be drinking at least 100 ounces of water each day the finishes up are 10 steps to starting a keto diet I hope you found this helpful