So, you want to be a keto master. Defeat all the other keto’ers and claim your throne as the Keto Ultima! No? You just want to be happier, healthier, and lose weight? Well then you’re in luck, because I’m here to help you on your keto journey. I’ve been deep in the keto for well over 4 years now. It’s a lifestyle for me, a new way of living, and it can be for you too.
BUT you need to be aware of all the pitfalls and self-defeating behaviors that cause most people to stumble and fail. A successful ketogenic diet is about more than restricting carb intake and finding the perfect keto friendly foods. It’s more than just a weight loss goal. It’s an entire metabolic system your body is DYING to tap into. For some people, that could be very literally true.
Ill teach you how to prepare, start, sink into, and thrive in a ketogenic state. From your waking moments to your work life, the gym, and the dreaded holiday dinners, I’ll guide you and share my years long keto journey with you so you can learn from my mistakes and make the most of your own journey.
This article will be long, detailed, and jam-packed with as much information as I can muster. Below is a list for you to easily navigate through this post and find the info that interests you the most. You should read the whole thing, but I totally understand if you don’t.
Also know that I AM NOT A DOCTOR, MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIST, OR QUALIFIED NUTRITIONIST. I’m just a regular dude-bro out here experimenting with life and all it has to offer. Everything I detail in this blog post are purely opinions and experiences that I’ve gathered along my journey. I truly hope this keto diet for beginners guide will help you on your journey. So without further delay, here’s what I have to offer!
What ketosis is, and what it isn’t
Ill start by telling you that the keto diet isn’t a miracle diet. It won’t cause you to lose body fat. You can lose body fat with a traditional caloric deficit coupled with eliminating processed foods from your diet.
If all you are looking for from the keto diet is to lose a couple pounds then let me save you from the inevitable rebound weight-gain effect when you abruptly quit in 3-6 months after you lose “enough weight”. You’ll likely just be heavier and more miserable than before you started, so don’t. Just don’t.
That’s not meant to be passive-aggressive criticism either, I mean it from the bottom of my heart. You can lose weight by simply cutting calories, eliminating trash from your diet, and increasing your overall amount of daily and weekly exercise. Do this for as long as you have breath in your lungs, and you’ll keep the weight off.
But if you “do keto” for 4 months, lose a bunch of weight, and then “get off keto” and go back to all your old habits, the weight you lost will be back with a vengeance. Guaranteed.
So what is keto? The ketogenic diet is an alternative metabolic system that converts fats into an energy source that your body uses for fuel. That’s the simplest way this dude-bro knows how to describe it. The energy source is called “ketone bodies” or “ketones”, and the metabolic system is called “ketosis”. That why, you guessed it, it’s called the keto diet. It’s achieved by maintaining a caloric ratio of high fat, moderate protein, and very low carb.
The keto diet is different from other low carb diets because the emphasis is solely to put yourself into a state of ketosis. Unlike some low carb diets, the keto diet has to have moderate protein, not high protein, otherwise you will keep/kick yourself out of ketosis. There is no such thing as a high protein ketogenic diet for this very reason.
Keto dieters usually follow a standard ketogenic diet, which I’ll detail below. But you can also research both a targeted ketogenic diet, or even a cyclical ketogenic diet. Both utilize different techniques and goals to achieve very specific outcomes. What I will be detailing in this article is a standard ketogenic diet.
The typical keto diet consists of 70-75% calories from fat, 20-25% calories from protein, and 5-10% calories from carbs. You must also deplete your glycogen stores to be able to start ketosis, but that happens naturally as you restrict total carbs and burn up all your glycogen. You can speed this up, and I’ll give you some tips later in this article. What in tarnation is glycogen? Think of it as stored glucose, or sugar.
But doesn’t the body and brain run on glucose?
Yes.
So then don’t you need carbs to make glucose?
No.
The liver is capable of making all the glucose it needs from fats and proteins through a process known as gluconeogenesis. This $10 word means “new glucose creation”. There is technically no “need” for carbohydrates. Does this mean carbs are unnecessary? I guess maybe, but also maybe not. But for sure it is way beyond this dude-bro’s scope of understanding.
All I can say for certain is that technically, TECHNICALLY, you don’t need carbohydrates to create glucose in the body. I only point this out so that you aren’t scared off because of that one time in biology when you learned about the kreb cycle and mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell or whatever. Again, just a dude-bro.
That’s also the point of ketogenesis, or the making of ketone bodies for fuel. Your body will switch to this method of energy consumption and still be able to derive all the essential glucose needed from the liver while transitioning into ketosis. There is a fantastic article here that goes into more detail about the differences between Glycogenolysis, Gluconeogenesis, and Ketogenesis.
With that being said, you still would have to maintain a caloric deficit while in ketosis to burn BODY FAT. Or, just get used to doing fasted workouts and then MAINTAIN A CALORIC DEFICIT to make sure you don’t add the fat right back. Did I mention caloric deficit? Ok cool beans because you need to figure that out before you think you’re going to lose any body fat. Here is a simple Calorie Deficit Calculator that you can use to get started.
Preparing for your keto diet
It’s been said that you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. This is an incredibly powerful statement that holds especially true to starting a ketogenic diet. You will need to make sure you have the proper systems put into place BEFORE you begin your keto journey, otherwise you will fail. This isn’t a threat, it’s a reality.
The ketogenic diet isn’t just a low carb diet, so just planning to eat less carbs won’t guarantee success. It also isn’t just a high fat diet, so planning to simply eat a bunch of fat won’t guarantee your success either.
You will likely have to fundamentally alter you eating habits in a way that may be completely foreign to you. It may even seem unnatural. That’s ok, in fact that’s probably ideal. Because once you get into the groove, you will never look at eating the same again.
Remove foods with added sugars.
This one may seem obvious, but you should probably start off by getting rid of any food that has added sugar in the ingredients list. These include, but are not limited to:
- Agave nectar
- Dextrose
- Maple syrup
- Anhydrous dextrose
- Evaporated cane juice
- Molasses
- Beet sugar
- Fructose
- Pancake syrup
- Brown rice syrup
- Fruit juice concentrates
- Powdered sugar
- Brown sugar
- Fruit nectars
- Raw sugar
- Cane crystals
- Glucose
- Rice syrup
- Coconut palm sugar
- High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
- Sucrose
- Confectioners powdered sugar
- Honey
- Sugar
- Corn sweetener
- Invert sugar
- Sugar cane syrup
- Corn syrup
- Lactose
- Table sugar
- Corn syrup solids
- Maltose
- Turbinado
- Crystalline fructose
- Malt syrup
- White granulated sugar
The list goes on and on. You can also check the nutrition label and look for “added sugars” beneath the “Total Carbohydrates” row in the nutrition table. If the number is anything but zero then it obviously has added sugars.
Read every food label
You should also get into the habit of reading every food label and ingredients list of foods you consume. You can even find these for raw foods like fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts and seeds online. A few food nutrition database sites are available here:
https://www.nutritionvalue.org/
https://www.calorieking.com/us/en/
Getting into the habit of reading and understanding food labels, nutrition tables, and ingredient lists will absolutely make your life significantly better, even if you don’t stick to any specific diet. It is especially crucial for a successful keto diet, as each and every sneaky added sugar could keep you out of ketosis. Remember: you have to get into this special metabolic state by abstaining from excess carbs and maintaining a certain ratio of fats, protein, and carbs.
So, knowing exactly what amounts of what are in the foods you eat will be the difference between hitting ketosis and just eating less carbs.
Get a macro tracker
This isn’t a race, it’s not a competition, it’s science. You can eat as much or as little as you want. The total calories don’t matter (although it will help if you’re in a caloric deficit to kick start ketosis, but it isn’t required), what matters is the golden ratio of fats to protein and carbs. Knowing what your total calorie intake is in terms of this ratio is what will help you get into ketosis.
It’s not complicated either. Start with 75% of calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbs. The fat and protein ratio can be adjusted, but leave the carb ratio at or below 5%. You should leave the fat ratio at or above 70%, as excess protein intake will convert into glucose and keep/kick you out of ketosis. Seems simple, right? It is, but how will you know unless you have a way to accurately count these calories and make sure you don’t break the ratio? That’s why you need a tracker.
I tried unsuccessfully for 2 months to get into ketosis, I almost gave up, and then i learned about this magical ratio and got a macro tracker to measure my foods. I found a great macro tracker, plugged all my info in, adjusted my macro ratio, plugged in my food for the day and BAM – I got into ketosis within a 2 days.
This isn’t a forever thing, it’s a tool to help you in the beginning. Think of your macro tracker as training wheels, it’s meant to help you stay on the bike for long enough for you to develop the automatic habits needed to ride with ease.
Understanding and Avoiding the Keto Flu
People often talk about the keto flu. It’s real. Keto flu symptoms brain fog, body aches, headaches, lack of energy and more. It’s also the most easily avoidable obstacle in your keto journey. There isn’t a whole lot of concrete understanding of what exactly causes it, but the biggest factor among most people is the loss of electrolytes. So drink salt water. Boom, i just saved you a week of feeling like s#!t.
In all seriousness, what ends up happening is that in the absence of carbohydrates (“carb” + “hydrate”), your body will lose an increased amount of electrolytes as it transitions from a glucose based energy system to a ketone based energy system. Carbs help your body retain and shuttle water throughout your body.
As you stop consuming carbs and start to shed your glycogen stores, you end up shedding an excess amount of water as well. This forces your body to adapt, and it usually ends up costing excess electrolytes along the way. Replacing these electrolytes, specifically sodium, will help your body transition painlessly into ketosis.
I drink 1/4 tsp of salt in a pint of water everyday when i wake up. If I start to feel a little out of sorts during the day, I drink another glass of salt water. I also use an electrolyte drink mix that tastes like lemonade and is sweetened with stevia (ill discuss sweeteners later). Moral of the story: Salt is your friend, keto flu is avoidable and temporary.
Starting your ketogenic diet
Ok, so you’re amped up and ready to start a keto diet! What’s your first step? Plan it out. Be prepared to plan each and every meal to attain the holy golden calorie ratio of 75% fats, 20% protein, and 5% carbs. For a standard 2000 calorie diet, this will look like:
Fat: 167g
Protein: 100g
Carbs: 25g
Can you change this ratio? Absolutely. But to START a keto diet, I would recommend this ratio because it should provide enough protein while completely saturating you body with enough fats to really get the ‘ol keto motor roaring.
I personally do 72% fat, 24% protein, and 4% carbs. This puts me at 120g of protein, which is 0.8g of protein per pound of lean body mass (150 pounds is my ideal weight) Remember, excess protein is converted into glucose, which will keep/kick you out of ketosis. And no, I don’t care what Dwane Johnson eats in a day. Are you Dwane Johnson? Then you don’t need to eat like him.
But what about building muscle while on a keto diet? Don’t you need to eat 1.5-2g of protein per pound of body weight to build muscle? No. That appears to be an old bro’s tale from the golden age of lying your ass off about all the steroids you’re doing. Here is an article which includes a meta-analysis study about ideal protein consumption for building muscle. Moral of the story: 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight is plenty to build muscle.
YOU ALSO HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THAT YOU HAVE TO DEPLETE YOUR BODYS MUSCLE GLYCOGEN STORES BEFOR YOU SWITCH INTO KETOSIS. This could take a few days, or a few weeks. It all depend on age, weight, activity levels, gender/sex, specific caloric ratio, and daily caloric intake.
It also depends on if you fast for prolonged periods during the day. You don’t have to fast to get into ketosis, but it sure does help. A simple shift to not eating until 2-3 hours after you wake up could be the extra little boost you need to get you into ketosis faster without having to dedicate yourself to a more extreme intermittent fasting schedule. You could even get up and go walk/jog/run for 20 minutes in the morning to help speed up the process too.
Keto Foods
Here’s where it starts to get convoluted. There really is no such thing as keto or non-keto foods. “Keto friendly” is a gimmick, too. You need to avoid the obvious breads, starches, and sugary sweets and fruits, but it isn’t because they aren’t “Keto”. It’s because a very small amount will push you past your threshold of daily net carbs and keep/kick you out of ketosis.
Net carbs are total carbs minus dietary fiber and/or sugar alcohols. Flax seed, for example, has 4 grams of carbs per tablespoon. But of those 4 grams of carbs, it has 4 grams of dietary fiber. That means zero net carbs. Here’s a pretty straightforward article that explains net carbs in more detail. The moral of the story: Net Carbs are what counts, not Total Carbs.
It’s all about the ratio of calories and depleting muscle glycogen. You can eat any carby-carb food you want as long as you don’t exceed a certain daily-ish threshold of net carbs. And if you stick to your macro tracker and diligently track what food you eat, you’ll know immediately whether or not a certain food will put you at too many net carbs for the day.
I also don’t know you. Are you a vegan? Do you have severe food allergies? Do you live somewhere with limited food options? Are you living with someone who buys the food for your house and you have little say in what’s available?
I don’t know, and these circumstances make a huge difference in what kinds of keto options you have available. Understanding exactly what a keto diet means in terms of what food you are allowed to eat will help you navigate whatever ecosystem you happen to exist in right now.
I won’t leave you hanging to figure the rest out on your own. It can be very tricky going to the grocery store without any idea of what to buy other than,
“Meh, it’s whatever dude. Just don’t eat too many carbs”.
You should start with the basics: avocados, pecans/macadamia nuts, almond flour, coconut flour, Kerrygold Grass-fed Butter, olive oil, ghee, coconut oil, fatty and/or lean cuts of QUALITY meat (AVOID PROCESSED MEAT LIKE THE PLAGUE ), eggs and cheese. That’s the most basic of basic keto safe foods.
You will also want to eat fruits and vegetables, too. Yes, I said fruits and vegetables. And things like nutritional yeast, flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and a quality protein powder. I use the protein powder to cap off my ratio of protein for the day, sometimes as little as 10g of whey protein all the way up to a full 30g scoop.
When I say fruits, I mean explicitly berries. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, that’s pretty much it. I usually buy a bag of frozen berries and blend them in with my daily protein smoothie. Depending on what my net carb count is for the day, I usually add 3-5 oz of mixed berries to my smoothie. These berries are higher in dietary fiber, so they end up with lower net carbs.
When I say vegetables, I mean leafy greens. Broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, spinach, kale, brussels sprouts, these veggies are nutrient rich and have pretty low net carbs. Most days, I don’t even factor these in to my total calories because ITS SUPER IMPORTANT TO EAT VEGETABLES, EVEN ON A KETO DIET. You need these veggies. Eat them. Sautee up some bacon fried brussels sprouts and toot the night away!
Most of all, be creative. Use your calorie counter to your advantage. Put in your foods, plan out a delicious meal, and make sure it stays within whatever your caloric ratio is. If it’s over in one aspect, take a little bit out. If it’s under in one aspect, make up for it later with a night-time smoothie with some peanut butter, protein powder, and/or fruit. It doesn’t have to be painful, but it does have to fit in the ratio for the day. Ill list specific recipe blogs that I follow later in this article.
Keto Products
Be warned: MOST KETO PRODUCTS ARE TRASH. I could almost stop there, just tell you to skip anything with the words “keto”, “keto friendly”, or “keto diet” on it. In fact, the best keto foods don’t come in a bag or a box. They come from the produce aisle at the grocery store, or the butchers block at your neighborhood farmers market.
Don’t let this diet become an excuse to try a different flavor of junk food. If you’re “doing keto” so you can justify eating “keto cookies” all day then you’re just going to hurt yourself in the long run. Again, it’s better to just cut out the trash and not do keto than it is to deny other healthy foods from your diet because you’re doing keto to lose weight. Stop the bad habits first, otherwise they’ll follow you into ketosis and turn you into a statistic.
That being said, there are several brands that I absolutely love BECAUSE OF THEIR OVERALL QUALITY OF INGREDIENTS. I don’t seek out “keto foods”, I seek out brands that emphasize quality above all else. Then, iI incorporate those food brands into my caloric plan. I won’t keep yelling at you, here’s my list of go-to brands:
Keto Habits
Keto habits may seem like a silly way describing your new life, but it’s something you’ll have to develop to be successful at maintaining a ketogenic lifestyle. Reading food labels, telling friends and family “no i dont want cake”, quitting certain foods you love like they’re an illicit drug, it all takes willpower and practice. If you want to burn fat for fuel, eat fat for funsies, reap the health benefits of ketosis, and find true keto success, then you’ll have to look at it like any other commitment in life.
Exercise is absolutely vital to success under any circumstance. It should be a part of you daily/weekly life regardless of what diet you’re on. But it’s especially important when you are on ketogenic diets.
Plan keto meals in advance. Have a few planned out meals and recipes tucked away for those long hard days when you get home and just want to binge eat comfort food. This goes along with your general keto eating plan, but having these go-to meals can help your keto diet work for you.
Monitor your weight loss, but don’t obsess over it. That’s not healthy, nor is it productive. If weight loss is your only goal, you’re missing the point of ketosis entirely. Your body burns fat at different rates and for different reasons. Not all of those reasons are healthy ones. Be mindful of this, and focus on being healthy. Body fat loss is a symptom of a solid keto diet plan, it should not be the entire goal.
Make sure you prioritize quality food intake over quantity. Don’t sacrifice a healthy lower calorie/fat option for a junk food option just because it has more fat/calories. You wont reap any health benefits from junk food, especially on a ketogenic diet.
Remember that this is a metabolic state, and not a rule book or fad diet. This isnt the Malibu-Mango and splenda diet. This isn’t any of those trendy weight loss diets. You are forcing your body to change its fuel source buy eating significantly fewer carbs than it has before, and you need to be mindful that this takes time and potentially a lot of effort.
Too much protein will keep/kick you out of ketosis. Don’t think that you need more than you do. I made this mistake early on, and it’s a mistake that many people make along the way.
Your overall calorie intake is what determines the rate in which you will end up burning body fat. Does the keto diet help? Of course, but not if you’re eating an excessive amount of food.
Keto Mistakes
Ill keep this brief, because it all boils down to one simple mistake: Not keeping track of what you eat. Keto diets work when you know HOW they work, and they only work when you know what you’re eating. The difference between a ketogenic diet and a low carb diet could be as simple as not realizing that the glass of milk you use to make your smoothie has kept you out of ketosis. It could mean that your net carbohydrate intake is way higher than you realized because you didn’t notice all the added sugars in your favorite peanut butter.
A ketogenic diet can also become unhealthy very quickly if you aren’t emphasizing healthy fats. If your focus is burning fat and any ‘ol fat will do, then you’re likely to do a lot of damage to yourself along the way. A successful keto diet plan includes research, education, trial and error, and a devotion to living cleaner and healthier.
Keto Recipes
These recipe blogs should start you in the right direction, and give you a good point of reference as to what’s possible on a ketogenic diet. You’ll likely notice a common thread of ingredients like almond flour and cauliflower, so be sure to start stocking up on these ingredients and keep then in full supply.
Getting into ketosis
There’s really only one thing you need to know about getting into ketosis: It takes time. You have a dramatic amount of control over how much time it takes to get into ketosis, all based on how much you’re willing to give up to get there.
The quickest way is by fasting for a few days while exercising a moderate amount. You could potentially get into ketosis in about 2-3 days if you just dont eat and exercise about an hour a day. Sounds like torture to you? That’s because it probably would be. Let’s not kid ourselves, if you dont have any experience fasting, or exercising in a fasted state, then this is a recipe for disaster.
The next option would be either fasting for a few days without exercising or exercising significantly more than normal while maintaining your specific caloric ratio, but at a slight caloric deficit. Either one of these options may be more pleasant than the method listed above, but might still be problematic for most people. That’s fine. THERE IS NO NEED TO TORTURE YOURSELF TO GET INTO KETOSIS. Either of these methods listed could help you slip into ketosis in 6-10 days.
The next, and probably easiest way to get into ketosis, is just maintain your caloric ratio at a normal caloric level (not a deficit) and exercise as much as you’re able to. Snack, eat healthy fats, eat very few carbs, slowly teach your body that this is the way now, you will be making energy from dietary fats and not carbs anymore. It’s slower, but its more sustainable. You can expect to get into ketosis within 2 weeks or so depending on how much you are able to exercise. It’s totally fine to do it this way, slow and steady wins the race!
How will I know when Im in ketosis?
Great question, thanks for asking. You can monitor your urine with ketone test strips. They’re available in the diabetic isle of pretty much every grocery store and pharmacy I’ve been to. This includes Walmart and Costco, too.
But, like most people I’ve talked to, you’ll just feel it. You will literally feel different, almost like a euphoria washing over your body. That’s what I felt when I got into ketosis, it was this undeniable feeling of calm and wellness. It hit me out of nowhere, and so I went to test my urine and the test strip changed color to indicate the presence of ketones.
It’s important not to get discouraged. Don’t feel like you aren’t doing it right, or that it doesn’t work for you if you’re 2-3-5 weeks into it and you still aren’t producing any ketones. It’s a different process for everybody, and it will take a different amount of time depending on several different factors. Just stay with it and it will happen in due time.
Maintaining ketosis
This just might be the hardest aspect of the keto diet as a whole. It could also become the easiest if you remember a few simple rules.
- Always track your food to make sure you stay in your ratio. Once you become fat-adapted and you’ve been in ketosis for a few months, you won’t have to track every calorie. But use these training wheels in the beginning!
- Drink lots of water! You won’t be consuming carbohydrates, so you’ll need to drink plenty of water.
- Learn the power of the word “NO”. Say no to yourself, your spouse, your family, your friends, tell anybody that needs to hear it and say it with confidence. Any time you feel pressure to break your resolve, say “NO”.
- Make a plan and stick to it. Plan out your day, you week, your month, plan it all out. This is new and uncharted territory for most people, so don’t get lost and bewildered trying to navigate without a solid map.
- Eat quality foods. Emphasize eating quality over quantity. Junk food will make you feel like trash, even in ketosis. Don’t make it harder for yourself by supplying your body with inadequate fuel.
These things become second nature with time and practice. Every step becomes easier and easier, until one day you look back and wonder how you every lived “the old way”.
Breaking Ketosis
So, you want to see if it’s all just a placebo effect? I did too. Spoiler alert: It’s not. But it’s very normal and potentially very healthy to break ketosis every now and again. You should discuss it with your doctor if you have any underlying health conditions, so I won’t mention any reasons why you might want to intentionally break ketosis.
I will say this: How you break ketosis matters.
The first time I did it, I ate pizza and ice cream. I’m not kidding. I had 5 slices of pizza, a slice of key lime pie, and vanilla bean ice cream. I felt like absolute trash for the next 3 days. It was like being hung over from a night of heavy drinking. Don’t do this. It’s not worth it. Im not saying don’t eat carbs, just be mindful of what you’re consuming.
Instead, I would recommend things like a whole wheat bread sandwich, or a sweet potato, or vegg out with a bowl of fruits and healthy snacks. Maybe kick yourself out of ketosis by just increasing the amount of quality protein and carbs in your ratio. Maybe just decrease your total fat intake to 50% while increasing your protein and carbs to 30% and 20% respectively. Maybe drop your fat intake to 20% and increase your carb intake to 50%. Play around with it and see what works best for your overall goals.
The second time I broke ketosis was with a ruben sandwich at the airport in Portland. Not exactly health food, but significantly better that my first attempt. I made sure to eat healthy carbs and food the next 2 days and I didn’t feel like trash. I didn’t really feel anything, I didn’t feel good or bad, which was in stark contrast to the keto euphoria you feel when ketones are pumping through your veins. I just felt meh, which is why I ended up going back into ketosis.
The main thing to remember is to do it responsibly and with a purpose. Don’t undo all the healthy habits you’ve been building by binge eating at a $9.99 all-you-can-eat buffet.
That wraps it all up. This guide will help you get into ketosis, and hopefully do it in a way that’s healthy and sustainable. Just remember to take it one day at a time, be mindful of what you eat, and be kind to yourself along the way!
