Are you looking for keto diet tips? Well, this is a great place to start. When starting out a keto diet, the first few weeks or days can be really brutal. During this phase, your body starts changing from using glucose for energy to using fat, and you’re likely to experience some major fatigue, cravings, and possible “keto flu” symptoms including pains and aches.
For this reason, it’s important to set yourself up for success – particularly on these first few weeks. The last thing you want is to get caught off guard and reach for that box of cookies you forgot to throw out. But don’t fret. In this post, we’ll share 7 simple tips to help you become a keto diet veteran in no time.
1. Clean out your Kitchen
For any kind of lifestyle change, the first step is modifying your environment to avoid constantly having to resist temptation. So, go ahead and give out all the carb-heavy foods that you’ll no longer be eating and replace them with healthy foods like olive oil and MCT oil.
Ensure that you have lots of foods rich in healthy fats and keto-friendly snacks all around the house to make it a lot easier for you to adjust, especially during the first few weeks while you deplete your glucose stores. Take a look at this keto diet food list and stock up. This is the period where fatigue and cravings are at their worst, and you’ll want to have lots of keto-friendly foods available with zero temptation.
2. Meal Prep
Just as with cleaning out your kitchen, meal prepping entails creating a path of as little resistance as possible while you transition from the conventional diet to a more restricted keto diet. If you find yourself thinking too much about every single bite of food you put in your mouth, you’ll be so exhausted by the end of the day, and therefore more likely to slip and splurge on a sandwich.
Instead, ensure that you have a couple of staple foods on hand.
3. Track your Macros, Especially at First
The keto diet heavily depends on macros tracking and monitoring. Why? Well, it’s almost impossible to deplete the glycogen stores in your body if you’re eating lots of carbs and not enough fat.
While the macronutrient ratios might vary widely, a widely accepted ratio is 65% to 80% fat from healthy fat sources such as MCTs derived from coconut oil, 5% to 10% carbohydrates, and 15% to 30% protein. Of course, you’re allowed to play with these ratios a bit, but the key is to keep the carbs as low as possible and rely on fats for calories.
4. Prepare for Eating Out
If you’ve ever tried a restricted diet like vegan or paleo, you’re already familiar with how difficult it can be to eat out. Fortunately, keto is rather simple – low-carb veggies plus a drizzle of olive oil.
Be sure to check out the menu of a restaurant before you head out to make sure they can accommodate your new eating plan, and that they accept food substitutions. Replace any fries, potatoes, or bread with salad, leafy greens, or cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, and make it a truly keto meal by adding a generous amount of MCTs.
5. Supplement Strategically
As the body adjusts to your new eating plan, it’s possible that it will lose more electrolytes than normal. A keto diet is also naturally lower in things like fiber and other micronutrients. If you want to feel good throughout your keto journey, try targeted supplementation. You can get all the advice and details you need on our recommended supplements and their dosage in this article.
6. Intermittent Fasting
This is a great way to help your body get into a ketogenic state much faster, bust the cravings, and lose unwanted fat. Intermittent fasting often consists of creating specific fasting/eating windows. Most people prefer starting with a 13-hour fasting window, and then work their way towards 16 or 18 hours of fasting a day.
7. Exercise
During the first couple of weeks, the keto diet begins changing your body on a metabolic level. This might translate into changes with your energy levels. Moreover, some people have a lot more body fat to lose overall, while others can burn through they glucose stores rather quickly.
For this reason, your normal workout routine might stop working for you momentarily. So, it’s good to listen to your body during these first few weeks. If you get exhausted, take a break from the intense training and see how you feel. If you find that your energy levels are through the roof, try harder workouts and find a sweet spot.
