PSA: Bacon and eggs aren’t the only thing you should be eating
The ketogenic diet can be a great way to lose weight – but its not full-proof. Some dieters might feel that keto’s not working for them, but often times their stagnant weight loss is a direct result of thgese common keto mistakes. If you’re doing keto and not losing weight, make sure you avoid the top 5 keto mistakes so that you can lose fat, fast.
1. Eating too many calories
Keto isn’t magic, so calories still count. But one of the amazing benefits of keto is that many people report feeling full and satisfied, which increases likelihood of long-term use and helps with portion control. Remember to only eat when you’re hungry, and stop when you’re full. But keep in mind – if you have a history of food abuse or are prone to binge eating, those satiety effects might not be strong enough. If you noticed you’ve been sticking to the diet and not losing weight, consider tracking your calories and/or macros to ensure you’re actually in a calorie deficit. If you’re close to your goal weight and have only a few pounds to lose, it’s important to not over indulge.
2. Not tracking your ketone levels
Keto is unique because unlike other diets where you’re only relying on lagging indicators, such as weight or inches lost, you can get instant feedback on how you’re doing in this very moment with keto. When you’re deeper in ketosis, you’re burning more fat for fuel. And if you got knocked out – you might have accidentally consumed hidden sugar or carbs.
Today there are 3 ways to measure how deep you are in ketosis, including:
- Pee strips – difficult for the*ahem* ladies and one-time use.
- Blood tests – much like glucose or insulin tests manufactures like Keto Mojo and Xceleration offer glucose testing strips for sale that will monitor the ketone levels in your blood. Keep in mind, you’ll want sanitary conditions to draw your blood, will have to carry the device to work and when traveling and will need lancets to poke yourself to retrieve a sample. Also, sometimes you won’t.
- Keyto – our proprietary ketone breath analyzer. With the keyto you just blow in to the device whenever you want to check your ketosis level – it’s easy, simple, clean and saves you from one-time use products like pee or blood strips.
3. Consuming an excess of sugar alcohols, replacement foods and fake sugars
It can be tempting to fall in to the diet food trap. Low-carb chocolate, diet sodas or gummy replacements can be tempting, but we’ve found that they still have a negative impact on ketosis and your weight loss goals. In fact, in our unbiased studies some of these diet candies still reported a strong insulin response despite promising only 1-7 net carbs. While this is merely inconvenient for low carb dieters, this can have dire consequences for children or adults with diabetes. For best results, stay away from substitutes.
4. Too much protein / incorrect macros
Many people who follow a keto diet notice they have to pay particular attention to macros. Remember: more than 65% of your caloric intake should be coming from fat- this is different from Atkins or other low-carb diets that allow for up to 50% of calories coming from protein.
5. Drinking too much
Drinking too much is generally considered to be a bad thing for health. It can disrupt your sleep, encourages the accumulation of adipose (tummy) fat and slows down metabolism. Essentially everything you want to avoid with keto. But how much is too much? According to the NIH women should limit their alcohol intake to one drink per day. Men can have up to two drinks per day.
But what does “a drink” actually look like?
| Alcoholic Beverage | Fluid Ounces | Alcohol Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Beer | 12 ounces | 5% |
| Malt Liquor | 8-9 ounces | 7-9% |
| Wine | 5 ounces | 12% |
| Hard Alcohol / Spirits | 1.5 . ounces | 40-45% |
But good news, fellow imbibers. If you’re more of a “if it fits my macros” keto dieter you may be relieved to learn that many hard alcohols like vodka, whisky and tequila have no carbs at all. That’s right – so you don’t have to say goodbye to you daily drink (or two or three).
