Whether you're a total noob or you've fallen off the wagon, we all understand the new year is a great time to make some changes or get back on track.
First things first:
What is Keto?
Keto is a type of very low carb (VLC) diet, also called a low carb/high fat diet (LCHF). The goal of keto is to limit carbs low enough to reach nutritional ketosis - raising blood ketone levels so that most cells in the body will get their energy from ketones rather than from glucose.
How many carbs? Well, that depends on the person, but the foolproof way to reach ketosis is to limit carbs to abour 20g a day, so that's what we recommend. If you'd like to play around, most people find their happy place somewhere under 35g net carbs a day.
Nutritional ketosis is a result of decreased carb intake. If you are limiting carbs to the recommended levels, you are in ketosis. Some people notice a metalic taste in their mouth, bad breath, or other changes, but these aren't universal and aren't necessary. Using ketone sticks designed for diabetics is unnecessary and misleading - they measure ketones in your urine, but you can be in ketosis without having excess in your urine. There are blood meters and even a breath meter, but they aren't necessary. If you are limiting carbs, you are in ketosis.
Why Keto?
While there's no significant metabolic advantage to eating a ketogenic diet for healthy people, a lot of people find eating LCHF makes it easier to eat less. Lowering carbs means evening out your insulin levels, which has an effect on other hormones as well. This can mean less hunger (which makes eating less easier, and eating less is the key to weight loss).
For people with certain illnesses (insulin resistance, PCOS, inflammatory illnesses) eating LCHF can mean relief of symptoms. If you are being treated for any of the above, it's a good idea to check with your doctor about your diet changes.
What Can I Eat?
Technically, anything in a small enough portion is low carb, but generally it's a good idea to get most of your calories from the following:
- leafy greens
- pork, poultry, fish, beef and other meats
- eggs
- high fat dairy (hard cheeses, full fat unsweetened yogurt, cream, butter)
- nuts and seeds
- above ground vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli
- avacado
- fats like coconut oil, olive oil etc.
and it's best to avoid eating the following:
- grains (including corn, rice and oats)
- legumes (aside from peanuts)
- fruit (aside from berries)
- starchy vegetables (like potatoes)
- anything with added sugar
Remember, this is just a guideline. Anything in a small enough portion can keep you under your carb limit, but it's more a matter of it being worth it or not. What you eat is up to you
I don't like/I can't eat x
That's fine, don't eat that thing. There are lots of other things you can eat, just keep track and make sure it fits your goals.
How much should I Eat
Well, that depends on your goals. A lot of people come to /r/keto because they want to lose weight, but nutritional ketosis isn't a magic bullet to weight loss. If you're hoping to lose, head on over to the keto calculator and fill in your info. Unless you're an athlete with a regular training schedule, set it to sedentary (even if you get your 10k steps a day!). As a general rule, a 20% deficit is a good place to start, but the higher your BMI, the more wiggle room you have with that. Most people will find they have trouble sustaining a deficit over 35%, and if you're battling your hunger it's going to be harder to stick to your plan. Slow, steady progress is much better than starting hard and crashing.
Adequate protein is important, but there's a lot of debate on what "adequate" really means. Here, you'll find most people recommend 0.8g of protein for every pound of lean mass. The keto calculator can figure that out for you using a bodyfat estimate. For most women, it will likely be between 60-120g, for men it will likely be between 80 and 150g.
Remember, carbs are a limit, protein is a goal, and fat is flexible.
If you're wanting to maintain or even gain weight, the calculator is still a great stop, and you can also head over to /r/ketogains for more information on how to build muscle while eating LCHF.
A food scale and some sort of tracking system (my fitness pal, my plate, livestrong, loseit etc) are great tools for keeping track of how much you're eating. Not everyone tracks what they eat (not tracking is what we call lazy keto), but those who track tend to have more consistent results, especially as they get closer to their goal weight.
Welcome to the Community
We are here to support each other, share experience and resources, complain when people don't get it and celebrate successes. It's important to be a responsible member of the community - that means no sexualizing progress posts, no personal attacks and no name calling. If you see posts you think don't follow those rules, please make use of the report button so the mods can take a look at it.
- Make use of the daily support thread if you need encouragement or to pass some on.
- Post your progress pictures on Photo Friday.
- Share an article or recipe - links need to be shared in text posts. Please include a tl;dr or your opinion/experience in the body of the post. Posts containing nothing but a link are considered "low effort" and are removed.
- Ask for support for specific circumstances - chances are someone has been there and knows how to get through it
You can also take a look at /r/ketoscience, /r/100daysofketo, /r/xxketo, /r/medicalketo, /r/ketorecipes /r/ketogains, or join us on our IRC channel on freenode.net
Don't forget to take a look at the FAQ and the information in the sidebar.
And remember:
Every day is a new day. When you change your habits, each choice you make is a chance to get closer to where you want to go and further away from where you've come
With diet changes, that can be stretched to each meal as well - every time you eat you're getting the chance to reinforce new habits and move past the things that got you here in the first place. With this in mind, if you happen to fall off the wagon (cheat, treat yourself, indulge, whatever you happen to call it) please know that nothing horrible or dangerous will happen to you just because you've been eating keto and then stopped, and we do not need to know about it. There is no need to confess or tell us all about what went wrong or why. Just take the hit, take a deep breath, and keep moving forward. If you know you're heading into a situation that might cause you trouble, feel free to post in our daily support thread (second sticky at the top of the sub) for support or make a post and ask others how they've handled similar situations (cruises, vacations, parties, hospital visits, dental surgery - we've done it all).
edits will likely follow to add more relevant subs, to correct things or to fix spelling errors
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