How to Start the Ketogenic Diet Correctly? | Simple Steps for Beginners to Get Started
Are you looking to begin your journey with the ketogenic (keto) diet but aren’t sure where to start? In this comprehensive video, we’ll walk you through How to Start the Ketogenic Diet Correctly and break down simple steps for beginners to get started on the right track. Whether you're trying to lose weight, boost your energy, or improve your overall health, following the keto diet properly can lead to amazing results.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carb eating plan that encourages your body to enter a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. But starting this diet can feel overwhelming, especially with so much information out there. That's why we're here to guide you through each step, making the process easy and approachable for beginners.
What is the Ketogenic Diet?
Before diving into the steps, it’s important to understand what the ketogenic diet is and why it works. The keto diet involves drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake and replacing it with healthy fats. This reduction in carbs puts your body into ketosis, where fat becomes the primary source of energy instead of glucose. As a result, you start burning fat more efficiently, which can lead to weight loss, improved mental clarity, and even better blood sugar control.
Benefits of the Keto Diet
There are numerous benefits associated with the ketogenic diet. Here are just a few reasons why so many people turn to keto:
Weight Loss: Since your body is burning fat for fuel, you can experience rapid weight loss, especially in the first few weeks. The keto diet helps control hunger and cravings, making it easier to stick to a calorie deficit.
Increased Energy Levels: Once your body adapts to burning fat instead of carbs, many people report higher energy levels throughout the day without the sugar crashes associated with a high-carb diet.
Better Mental Focus: The brain thrives on ketones, which are produced during ketosis. This often leads to improved cognitive function and mental clarity.
Balanced Blood Sugar: The keto diet can help stabilize blood sugar levels, which is especially beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance.
Reduced Inflammation: Keto has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body, which can help with conditions like arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.
Step-by-Step Guide to Starting the Ketogenic Diet Correctly
Now that you understand the basics and benefits of the keto diet, let’s dive into the steps you need to follow to get started:
1. Calculate Your Macros
One of the first things you need to do when starting keto is to determine your macronutrient (macros) needs. The typical breakdown for a keto diet is:
70-75% of your calories from fat
20-25% from protein
5-10% from carbohydrates
You can use a keto calculator to figure out how many grams of fat,
Are you looking to begin your journey with the ketogenic (keto) diet but aren’t sure where to start? In this comprehensive video, we’ll walk you through How to Start the Ketogenic Diet Correctly and break down simple steps for beginners to get started on the right track. Whether you're trying to lose weight, boost your energy, or improve your overall health, following the keto diet properly can lead to amazing results.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carb eating plan that encourages your body to enter a state of ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. But starting this diet can feel overwhelming, especially with so much information out there. That's why we're here to guide you through each step, making the process easy and approachable for beginners.
What is the Ketogenic Diet?
Before diving into the steps, it’s important to understand what the ketogenic diet is and why it works. The keto diet involves drastically reducing your carbohydrate intake and replacing it with healthy fats. This reduction in carbs puts your body into ketosis, where fat becomes the primary source of energy instead of glucose. As a result, you start burning fat more efficiently, which can lead to weight loss, improved mental clarity, and even better blood sugar control.
Benefits of the Keto Diet
There are numerous benefits associated with the ketogenic diet. Here are just a few reasons why so many people turn to keto:
Weight Loss: Since your body is burning fat for fuel, you can experience rapid weight loss, especially in the first few weeks. The keto diet helps control hunger and cravings, making it easier to stick to a calorie deficit.
Increased Energy Levels: Once your body adapts to burning fat instead of carbs, many people report higher energy levels throughout the day without the sugar crashes associated with a high-carb diet.
Better Mental Focus: The brain thrives on ketones, which are produced during ketosis. This often leads to improved cognitive function and mental clarity.
Balanced Blood Sugar: The keto diet can help stabilize blood sugar levels, which is especially beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance.
Reduced Inflammation: Keto has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body, which can help with conditions like arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.
Step-by-Step Guide to Starting the Ketogenic Diet Correctly
Now that you understand the basics and benefits of the keto diet, let’s dive into the steps you need to follow to get started:
1. Calculate Your Macros
One of the first things you need to do when starting keto is to determine your macronutrient (macros) needs. The typical breakdown for a keto diet is:
70-75% of your calories from fat
20-25% from protein
5-10% from carbohydrates
You can use a keto calculator to figure out how many grams of fat,
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Welcome.
00:01Today, we're going to show you how to start keto correctly, and this is for beginners.
00:07What are we trying to do?
00:08We're trying to switch what your body is running on as far as fuel-wise.
00:12So we want to switch from burning sugar fuel to fat fuel.
00:16There's this one hormone called insulin, which is the key to determine whether you're going
00:20to burn fat or burn sugar.
00:23So you want to keep it low to burn fat.
00:26When it goes higher, your body will burn sugar.
00:31Very simply, lower your carbs and eat less meals.
00:36That's different than lowering your calories.
00:39Now by eating less meals, you are going to lower your calories, but that's not the goal.
00:44You could actually eat larger meals, just not as frequent.
00:49Why is it a good idea to eat less frequent meals?
00:52Because every time you eat, you trigger insulin.
00:56Every time you eat carbs, you trigger insulin.
00:57So we're just trying to lower this insulin.
01:00The combination between these two are very, very powerful.
01:05So what are you going to eat in a meal?
01:06Well, first thing, you have to eat low carbs.
01:09So you want to cut down all your carbs.
01:10That includes sugar.
01:11I'm talking about honey, agave nectar, brown sugar, white sugar, date sugar, all sugar.
01:20You can replace it in various recipes with what's called sugar alcohols.
01:26I put some links down below of examples of that so you can learn about that.
01:30But there's these sweet alternative sugar sources that you can use.
01:36So that means that when you go buy food, you have to start reading the labels and looking
01:40at the sugar content.
01:42You want it as close to zero as possible.
01:45You want to avoid fruit except for berries.
01:48There's three berries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries.
01:52You can have those in small amounts, but no other fruit, especially apples.
01:59Grains like wheat flour that they make breads, pasta, cereal, crackers, biscuits.
02:02You want to avoid that, but guess what?
02:05There's a substitute.
02:07People use almond flour to make all sorts of things from pizza crust to bread to you
02:14name it.
02:15There's a lot of recipes that you can use as an alternative grain.
02:20Avoid starches like potatoes, but guess what?
02:23There's all these recipes that you can make out of cauliflower that is very similar to
02:28the starches, not identical, but you can make things that are very close to tasting like
02:32mashed potatoes.
02:34You can even make a cauliflower crust for your pizza.
02:37It's quite good.
02:38Now when I say cut out all the carbs, there's an exception, vegetables.
02:44In fact, you want to consume more vegetables, at least seven cups, you know, even more.
02:51That could be salads or other types of vegetables like bell peppers, like cabbage, like broccoli,
02:57kale, Brussels sprouts, and at this level that I'm teaching you, you can even do carrots
03:02and tomatoes, beets.
03:04Don't worry about that.
03:05You can have those.
03:07And the last point about vegetables is that ideally if you eat them first, it's going
03:12to be a lot easier to consume seven cups than after you have the protein and fat because
03:19this is going to fill you up pretty fast.
03:21So I always consume the vegetable first.
03:23Now you can consume it at the same time, but just as a strategy to make sure you get enough
03:28vegetables in your diet, I like to consume these first because very few people consume
03:33enough vegetables.
03:36And one last point, vegetables provide two things.
03:38They provide food for your microbes that then help your blood sugars and help give
03:44you energy.
03:45Also, they provide a lot of nutrients like potassium and magnesium and even vitamin C.
03:50Because what are we trying to do?
03:51We're trying to do keto correctly and by correctly I mean healthily.
03:55Okay, number two, moderate protein.
03:59Not massive amounts like in the Atkins diet, but moderate amounts.
04:04That could be depending on your size and your metabolism and your age, between three
04:08and eight ounces.
04:10Maybe you're 18 years old and you work out hardcore.
04:14You're going to need maybe more protein.
04:17So rather than have a little scale and measure it, just consume protein the size of the palm
04:21of your hand.
04:23Maybe a little bit more, a little less, just to kind of keep it really simple at this level.
04:28What type of protein?
04:30Different types of meat, fish, chicken, seafood, eggs, cheese, unless you have an allergy or
04:37any type of severe gut issue, nuts or nut butters.
04:44Also make sure that if you buy peanut butter or whatever, you read the ingredients to make
04:48sure it doesn't have added sugar.
04:51You don't want to add sugar to any of these.
04:54Because sometimes when you have like deli meats, they have dextrose in there or extra
04:59sugar.
05:00If you're having bacon, they have extra sugar added.
05:02You preferably keep the sugar away from your protein.
05:06All right, with the protein, as far as the order of when you eat it, you just ate your
05:10vegetable, your salad, now you start with your protein.
05:14The key with the protein is not to consume lean protein or low-fat protein.
05:19Try to consume protein that has more fat.
05:23Why?
05:24Because that's going to help your insulin levels.
05:26When you consume protein that's very low fat and lean, as in like powders, especially
05:34like whey protein powder, you majorly increase insulin versus consuming fattier meat or fattier
05:42fish or like brie cheese, which has more fat.
05:47So that's a really key point about protein.
05:49All right, the third thing is that you're on a higher fat diet.
05:54Now when we talk about higher fats, mainly we're talking about the calories.
05:59There's more than twice as many calories in fat than there is protein and carbs.
06:05So based on calories, it would be a higher fat diet.
06:08So I'm not going to say anything more to confuse you on that point.
06:12But realize that when you're consuming the protein, guess what?
06:14You're consuming a lot of the fat in your diet already because protein always comes
06:19with fat.
06:22You may add some additional fats.
06:24Let's say some avocado, butter to cook your food in, or let's say you melt the butter
06:31on your vegetables, which is a good idea because the veggies have certain fat-soluble natural
06:39chemicals in there that are good for you, even antioxidants, they're called phytonutrients,
06:45and adding oil to your salad, whether it's olive oil or butter over your vegetables will
06:50help you extract those nutrients out of that meal.
06:54That's why it's good to combine these things right here.
06:57Olives or olive oil is very, very good.
07:00Coconut oil is actually also pretty good.
07:03And of course, some of these are in the fat category, like nuts, for example, are half
07:09fat and half protein, a little bit of carb.
07:13Cheese is protein and fat.
07:15Eggs are protein and fat.
07:16So a lot of these are fat too.
07:18So both of these are kind of a combination.
07:22But if you're starting keto, a lot of times people add maybe some nuts or cheese after
07:27the meal to be more satisfied.
07:30So that's something that they do.
07:32And so that's why I said eat this third, but of course, it could be within the meal.
07:36Now, there's certain fats you definitely want to avoid, soy oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed
07:42oil, even the safflower oil, the sunflower oil, I would be careful about consuming too
07:46much of those.
07:48These are GMO, they have chemicals in them, but the problem is they're highly inflammatory.
07:53Even though it's a fat, it's the wrong type of fat that you want in your body.
07:57And you probably see these in salad dressings and many different products like mayonnaise
08:03in there.
08:04So you're going to have to kind of start reading labels and really get picky on certain things
08:07that you're going to be buying.
08:09So we talked about generally what to eat, but we also want to talk about eating less
08:14meals, right?
08:15Less frequent meals.
08:16We're going to do intermittent fasting, we're going to combine both of these together to
08:19really take that insulin and bring it down to a normal level.
08:22So here's the rule of thumb, don't eat unless you are hungry.
08:27Now let me define hungry, because sometimes you might get a little bit of hunger, but
08:32you still feel strong, you still feel fine, your mood is good.
08:37We'll try to push through that, okay?
08:41There's also a difference between hunger and also like a habit.
08:44People have like a habit of eating all the time, even when they're not hungry, because
08:48they feel that they're not as full as maybe they should be.
08:54So you don't have to be full all the time.
08:57We're talking about hungry, and a true hunger is like, wow, I feel like I really need to
09:02eat.
09:03I feel a little bit weaker.
09:04I feel a little shaky.
09:05I'm starting to notice I'm a little bit more irritable, okay?
09:09That is what we're talking about, not some little temporary hunger.
09:15Number two, ideally you want to skip the breakfast.
09:18You can do this on a gradual level where you keep pushing your breakfast later and later
09:23and later, or just cut it right out and just skip breakfast.
09:28Instead have your coffee with a little butter in it, a tablespoon of butter and or MCT oil,
09:36which will help you greatly in making ketones, which is very therapeutic to your brain and
09:44it'll satisfy you.
09:45So as you're trying to transition into the state of ketosis, which you're burning fat,
09:51because ketones are a byproduct of burning fat, if you add MCT oil, that will give you
09:58ketones right away, and it'll make the transition a little more comfortable, especially with
10:02your cognitive function.
10:04So this is a good idea.
10:06And if you did this coffee with these two fats, it's going to be very easy to skip breakfast.
10:13Also, I want to note that at about 8 a.m. in the morning is when you have this hormonal
10:19shift with cortisol might go up, and you may find a temporary, about a half hour, kind
10:25of a sense like I'm ready to eat something.
10:29It's the cortisol.
10:30It's a hormonal shift, and it can increase your appetite.
10:34Just ignore that and push through that.
10:38So we're skipping our breakfast at this point.
10:41Number three, very importantly, do not snack through the day.
10:46That little snack, even though it's a low amount of calories, will make you hungry.
10:52Eating stimulates hunger, especially if it's in the form of a snack.
10:57So just cut out all snacking.
10:59It's very, very important.
11:01If you get the temptation to snack, just realize that you didn't consume enough fat at the
11:06last meal.
11:08So the next meal, add more fat to the diet so you can go easily from one meal to the
11:14next.
11:15So it's important to add more fat to go longer.
11:18There's a lot of details to fill in the blank, but typically you can drink water, tea, coffee,
11:26anything without sugar.
11:27You can take your vitamins.
11:28It's not going to be a problem.
11:30And again, there's a lot of details that I'm not covering, but I'm just giving you the
11:34basics.
11:35So let's say your first meal is at noon.
11:38You eat your meal.
11:40Don't really worry at this point about calories because we're not trying to reduce calories.
11:45All we're trying to do is have that first meal, make sure it fits what I said in the
11:48last slide, and then the second meal at six.
11:53So that gives you a six-hour eating window and 18-hour fast.
11:59If you don't snack, which is huge.
12:03This is going to allow you to see a lot of benefits with this program.
12:08So that is the summary of how to do keto correctly.
12:14Before you go, if you have a question about a product or you're new to keto and you want
12:19to know how to begin keto or you're on keto and you need a debug because it's not going
12:24to be smooth, I have a keto consultant standing by to help you.
12:29This is just for the people in the US.
12:31Hopefully in the future we'll be able to answer everyone's call.
12:34But I put the number down below so you can call and get some help.