Jump-Starting Your Keto Diet: Easy And Effective Strategies

To jump-start a keto diet, it is important to understand what ketosis is and how it works. Ketosis is a metabolic state in which the body uses ketones, which are derived from fats, as its main source of energy instead of glucose from carbohydrates. To enter ketosis, one must limit their carbohydrate intake to a maximum of 5% to 10% of their daily calories, while increasing their consumption of healthy fats and moderate protein. This shift in macronutrient ratios can take some time, usually 2-4 days, but may take longer depending on individual factors.

- Drink keto-friendly coffee: Coffee with grass-fed butter or MCT oil is a popular choice for those on a keto diet.

- Stock up on keto-friendly snacks: Opt for snacks like pork rinds, kale crisps, and broccoli spears. For a sweet fix, choose keto-friendly protein bars.

- Increase healthy fat intake: Consume more healthy fats like fatty fish, olive oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil.

- Eat more protein: Prioritize protein-rich foods like meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy.

- Intermittent fasting: Try intermittent fasting by delaying your first meal of the day by 4-6 hours after waking up.

- Exercise: Increase physical activity to deplete glycogen stores and encourage the body to use ketones for fuel.

- Monitor progress: Use ketone test strips, blood tests, or breath analysers to check if you are in ketosis.

Limit your carb intake

Limiting your carb intake is crucial for achieving ketosis, the metabolic state that distinguishes the keto diet. Here are some detailed tips to help you restrict your carbohydrate consumption effectively:

Understand the Basics of Carbohydrate Restriction

According to experts, you should consume no more than 50 grams of net carbs per day to stay in ketosis. Net carbs refer to the carbohydrates that are absorbed into your body. However, it's important to note that the exact carb limit can vary from person to person. Some individuals may need to limit their net carb intake to 50 grams or fewer per day, while others can achieve ketosis while consuming slightly more.

Calculate Your Net Carb Intake

To ensure you stay within the recommended carb limit, it's essential to calculate your net carb intake accurately. You can do this by examining food labels and subtracting the amount of dietary fiber and half the amount of sugar alcohols from the total carbohydrate content. This will give you the net carb amount for that particular food item.

Choose Carb Sources Wisely

Not all carbohydrates are created equal. When following a keto diet, it's best to obtain your carbs from whole, unprocessed foods. Opt for green and leafy vegetables, as they have an extremely low net carb count and can be enjoyed freely. Additionally, include high-fiber, low-fructose fruits in your diet plan.

Read Food Labels Carefully

When shopping for groceries, it's crucial to read food labels carefully. Wheat-based products, such as rice, pasta, and cereals, are typically high in carbs and should be limited or avoided. Some fruits, vegetables, beans, and legumes can also be high in carbs, so it's important to check the labels before purchasing.

Plan Your Meals

Meal planning is a helpful strategy to ensure you stay within your carb limit. By planning your meals in advance, you can make more informed food choices and track your net carb intake accurately. This will help you stay on track and avoid exceeding your daily carb allowance.

Be Mindful of Hidden Carbs

Remember that carbohydrates can be sneaky and hidden in various processed foods. Sugar, for example, is a type of carbohydrate that can be found in unexpected places, such as sauces, condiments, and even dairy products. Always read ingredient lists and nutrition labels to identify any hidden sources of carbs.

Eat more healthy fats

Eating healthy fats is a crucial component of the keto diet, as it is a high-fat and very low-carb approach to eating. Here are some tips and food options to help you increase your healthy fat intake while on a keto diet:

Understand the Different Types of Fats

Firstly, it's important to know that not all fats are created equal. The keto diet typically recommends consuming sources of unsaturated fat over saturated fats. Unsaturated fats are known to be anti-inflammatory and heart-healthy, helping to lower cholesterol levels. On the other hand, saturated fats can increase your LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels.

Choose Healthy Fat Sources

When following a keto diet, focus on healthy fat sources such as:

• Avocados and avocado oil: Avocados provide heart-healthy monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and are packed with fibre, essential vitamins, and minerals. Avocado oil has a high smoke point, making it ideal for stir-frying and searing.
• Nuts and nut butter: Nuts and nut butters are great sources of unsaturated fats, plant-based protein, and fibre. Opt for a variety of nuts like pistachios, walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews, and Brazil nuts. When choosing nut butter, select products without added sugars.
• Seeds: Chia seeds and flax seeds are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids, fibre, and plant compounds that may reduce inflammation and prevent chronic conditions.
• Oily fish: Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, anchovies, and sardines are rich in high-quality protein and heart-healthy omega-3 fats. Salmon also provides a good dose of vitamin D.
• Olives and olive oil: Olives and olive oil are loaded with heart-healthy fats and contain vitamin E and compounds that reduce inflammation and your risk of chronic conditions. Olive oil is great for light sautéing, dressings, or drizzling over cooked foods.
• Coconuts and coconut oil: Coconuts and coconut oil are popular on the keto diet as they provide medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs), which are easily absorbed and used by the body. Coconut oil may also help ease your transition into ketosis.
• Full-fat Greek yogurt: While it contains some carbs, full-fat Greek yogurt can be a healthy addition to your keto diet. It provides beneficial probiotics, calcium, and protein.
• Eggs: Eggs are versatile and nutritious, offering healthy fats, protein, and antioxidants that support eye health.

Limit or Avoid Certain Fats

While the keto diet is all about fat, it's important to be mindful of the types of fat you consume. Here are some fats to limit or avoid:

• Bacon and sausages: These high-fat, high-protein foods can be included in moderation, but it's easier to control your fat intake by adding fat to foods instead of eating these processed meats. They also contain high levels of saturated fat, which can increase your LDL cholesterol.
• Butter: While butter is carb-free and high in fat, it is high in saturated fat and cholesterol, which can increase your risk of heart disease. Use it sparingly and opt for unsaturated fat sources instead.
• Cheese: Cheese is a good source of high-fat, low-carb fuel, but its overall high saturated fat content means it should be consumed in moderation.
• Whole milk: While whole milk contains a good amount of fat, it also comes with a significant amount of net carbohydrates. Opt for lower-carb alternatives like fortified plant-based milk.
• Processed and fatty meats: The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting fatty meats like beef, lamb, and pork due to their high saturated fat content. Choose leaner meats like skinless chicken and turkey, or ask your butcher for advice on selecting the leanest cuts of beef.

Include Healthy Fats in Your Meals and Snacks

To ensure you're getting enough healthy fats throughout the day, try these tips:

• Add fats to hot drinks: Include butter or coconut oil in your coffee, matcha, green tea, or hot chocolate.
• Use vegetables as a vehicle: Dip low-carb vegetables like broccoli, zucchini, or celery in high-fat dressings or dips.
• Make fat bombs: Create ball-shaped snacks that are high in fat and low in carbs by using recipes with coconut or nut butter as a base.
• Choose oily fish: Opt for oily fish like salmon or tuna, which contain more healthy fats than white fish like cod or haddock.
• Select fatty cuts of meat: Eat poultry with the skin on or choose fattier cuts of meat to increase your fat intake.
• Pack fatty snacks: Olives, boiled eggs, nuts, and avocados are portable snacks that will help you get your daily dose of healthy fats.

Increase your physical activity

Exercise is a great way to improve your health and well-being, and it can be perfectly compatible with a keto diet. However, it's important to understand that as you are fuelling your body in a completely different way, it will respond differently.

When you exercise, your body needs to access energy quickly to maintain performance. On a keto diet, your body is burning fat for energy instead of carbohydrates, and this process is less efficient. As a result, you may experience reduced performance during high-intensity workouts.

• Moderate-intensity exercises are best suited for a keto diet. Activities such as jogging, biking, rowing, and yoga are ideal as they don't require short bursts of intense energy.
• Cardio exercises such as jogging, swimming, and cycling can help improve your endurance performance for longer bouts of cardio. Aim for moderate intensities to maximize fat burn.
• Weight training and strength-building routines can be compatible with a keto diet, but you may need to adjust your approach. Focus on very low numbers of reps (5 sets of 5 reps or fewer) with greater rest in between to utilize the phosphagen system for energy.
• High-intensity interval training (HIIT) may be challenging on a keto diet due to the lack of readily available carbohydrates for energy. If you wish to incorporate HIIT, consider consuming 25-50g of easy-to-digest carbohydrates 30 minutes before your workout. This will provide a boost of energy, and by the time you finish, your body can return to ketosis.
• Team sports such as soccer and rugby can be impacted by a keto diet due to their need for short bursts of intense movement. If you play these sports, consider strategically timing your carbohydrate intake to ensure adequate energy levels.
• Swimming is another excellent form of exercise that can be compatible with a keto diet. Aim for moderate-intensity laps to stay within the fat-burning zone.
• Walking is a low-impact exercise that can be easily incorporated into your daily routine. Aim for a brisk walking pace to increase your heart rate and promote fat burning.
• Cycling is another great option for keto dieters. It falls into the category of steady-state, moderate-intensity exercises that utilize fat as the primary fuel source.
• Yoga is a fantastic complement to a keto diet as it focuses on low-intensity movements and improves flexibility, balance, and mental focus.

Remember, when increasing your physical activity, it's crucial to listen to your body and not push yourself too hard, especially if you're new to the keto diet or exercise in general. Start slowly and gradually increase the intensity and duration of your workouts. Additionally, ensure you're staying properly hydrated and consuming enough electrolytes, especially sodium and potassium.

Prioritise protein

Protein is one of the three macronutrients, or nutrients that are needed in large quantities and that provide calories. The other two are carbohydrates and fat.

Protein has a big role in the diet. Proteins can be broken down into amino acids, which the body uses to build new tissues. This makes protein essential for wound healing, injury recovery, and muscle growth.

Additionally, there are nine essential amino acids that we must get through food.

However, this isn't the only role of protein. For people who are aiming to lose weight, protein can be helpful for a number of reasons.

Protein helps to slow down digestion, so it keeps you feeling fuller for longer. Additionally, because it takes longer to digest, it burns more calories during the digestion process. This is known as the thermic effect of food.

Getting adequate protein while losing weight can also help to "spare" your muscles. While in many cases people lose some muscle mass when they lose weight, a ketogenic diet with adequate protein may help prevent these muscle losses. This has the benefit of keeping your metabolic rate, or the amount of calories you burn at rest, up — making it easier to lose weight.

Additionally, protein can help to prevent blood sugar spikes from eating carbohydrates. This is important to remember when you choose to go off of the keto diet, even temporarily. Consuming carbs with a source of protein can help to minimize the blood sugar impact they have.

Generally, people following a keto diet need anywhere from 20 to 30 per cent of their calories from protein.

According to ketogenic diet experts Stephen Phinney, MD, PhD, and Jeff Volek, PhD, RD, the most ideal way to calculate protein needs for people on keto is grams per kilogram of body weight (g/kg body weight). They recommend sticking to a target range of 1.2-2.0 g/kg body weight, depending on lifestyle. For instance, if you are a male who lifts heavy weights often, you may want to eat at the higher end of the protein range, while a smaller female who doesn't do much weight lifting may do better at the lower end of the protein range.

Here's a helpful table to help you calculate your protein needs, modified from Virta Health's protein needs table. Note: if you are overweight, your protein needs are calculated based on a target weight rather than your current weight.

Protein Range (1.2-2.0 g/kg body weight)

To calculate it for yourself, first convert your target weight to kilograms by dividing it by 2.2. Then, multiply that weight in kilograms by 1.2 to get the lower end of your target protein range, and by 2.0 to get the higher end of your target protein range.

Sticking to the recommended protein guidelines of 1.2-1.0 grams per kilogram of target body weight should be adequate protein to support ketosis with no risk of kicking you out of ketosis.

Also, remember that protein is extremely filling, and it would probably be fairly difficult for the average person to eat a large enough amount of protein to reverse ketosis in one sitting.

People on keto may easily slip into a pattern of low protein intake because high-fat foods can be filling on their own — especially if they are also concerned about protein kicking them out of ketosis.

On a short-term basis, you may not notice any side effects or complications of low protein intake.

However, an inadequate protein intake over time could lead to several problems, including muscle mass loss, appetite changes, weight gain, delayed wound healing or injury recovery, and fatigue. Low protein intake is also linked to a higher risk of death from all causes.

In children and adolescents, inadequate protein intake can lead to stunted growth and diseases of malnourishment. However, these conditions are very rare in the United States.

There are several keto-friendly foods that are rich sources of protein. These include:

• Meats: beef, chicken, pork, fish/shellfish, etc.
• Eggs: chicken eggs, quail eggs, duck eggs, etc.
• Dairy: cheese, plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese
• Nuts and seeds: peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans, macadamia nuts, walnuts, chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds, nut/seed butters
• Protein supplements: protein powders, protein shakes

Tips for getting enough protein on keto

• A piece of meat the size of a deck of cards is roughly 20 grams of protein. You can use this knowledge to build each meal, ensuring that you're getting adequate protein. Most people will need at least 60 grams of protein per day, so you can aim to include at least a "deck of cards" worth of meat at each meal. If your protein needs are higher, you can double your meat portion at all or certain meals.
• Spreading protein intake evenly throughout the day is the easiest way to meet your goals. Protein is extremely filling, so it can be difficult to meet your goal if you're trying to cram it all into one meal. This can be a real challenge for people following intensive intermittent fasting protocols like 20:4 or one meal a day (OMAD). If you're able, it's best to divide your protein intake evenly throughout the day to ensure you get enough.
• Nuts, seeds, and cheese can easily boost your protein intake. If you're finding that you're just a little bit short on your protein intake each day, having nuts or cheese as a snack — or adding a sprinkle of cheese or seeds to your meals — can help push you over the edge to your goal. However, if you're trying to lose weight, you probably shouldn't depend on these foods as your primary protein sources. They are very rich in calories, which may slow down your weight loss.
• Meat and protein powder are the easiest ways to significantly increase your protein intake. Need to significantly increase your protein intake? Adding an extra serving of meat to your meals, or having a protein shake or two as a snack, are the two simplest ways to get more protein without drastically changing the way you meal plan and prep.
• For more exact numbers, a food scale is a worthwhile investment. Although you certainly don't need a food scale to get enough protein on keto, it can be helpful if you want to track your intake more accurately.

Try intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is a popular method to jump-start your keto diet. It involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting. During the fasting period, you either eat very few calories or none at all.

There are several ways to do intermittent fasting. One popular method is the 16/8 method, where you fast for 16 hours and restrict your food intake to an 8-hour window. Another method is the 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for five days and restrict your calorie intake for two non-consecutive days. You can also try alternate-day fasting, where you eat a calorie-restricted diet every other day.

Intermittent fasting can help you reach ketosis faster. When you fast, your body maintains its energy balance by shifting its fuel source from carbohydrates to fats, which is the basis of the keto diet. Fasting also decreases insulin levels and glycogen stores, leading your body to start burning fat for fuel.

Intermittent fasting is mainly used as a weight loss technique. It has also been shown to reduce inflammation, improve brain function, and control blood sugar. Additionally, it may help preserve muscle mass and improve energy levels, which can be beneficial for keto dieters aiming to improve athletic performance.

Before starting intermittent fasting, it is important to consult your healthcare provider, especially if you have certain health conditions, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have a history of disordered eating. Combining intermittent fasting with the keto diet can be very restrictive, so it may be challenging to stick to this approach long-term.

Frequently asked questions