Mistakes to Avoid on the Keto Diet

The Keto Diet has been on fire all over the internet for the last couple of years…because it works.

If you are looking to lose weight and feel better, Keto is a great option.  It’s not dangerous.  It doesn’t take forever to start seeing results either. I lost 20 pounds in my first month on the Keto Diet.

If you’re just starting out, you should check out this post on how to lose ten pounds in 7 days.

If you want better concentration, less joint irritation and want to be healthier overall….You should give the Keto Diet a shot.

There are tons of other benefits that might surprise you.

And with all the easy recipes you might become a gourmet while losing weight

You can check those out in this post about the amazing benefits of the Keto Diet.

First Lets See Why We Make Mistakes on the Keto Diet

We have been taught that the food pyramid looks like this…and this image has not changed much in the last 20 -30 years.

This is what the ADA recommends to stay healthy. It’s the image school children start seeing in kindergarten..and we take these beliefs with us into adulthood.

Take a close look at the base of the pyramid.

Every single item at the base of that pyramid turns to sugar in your body.

No wonder we are ALL getting bigger. This Food Pyramid is sabotaging our health.

The Keto Diet is a food science.

If you don’t reach Ketosis, it doesn’t work and you won’t lose weight or gain the benefits. Most people quit when they don’t see the amazing benefits that are plastered all over social media…

Doctors have been recommending Keto Diets to obese and diabetic patients for decades. But, until recently there hasn’t been much information about it available because the ADA doesn’t recommend it to the general public.

Why? There are too many theories surrounding that question to go into it here… they just don’t.

A lot of people have trouble wrapping their minds around a high fat, low carb diet for good reason…such as, it goes against every single thing we have been taught about food since we were toddlers.

Common Keto Pitfalls

I hope to help you avoid some some of the most common blunders and avoid standing in your own way on this journey.

Diets are problematic because they involve habits and even addiction. The better prepared you are the better you will do.

The Keto Diet is about food.

The right food.

The Keto lifestyle is about the right food in the right amounts to get you to ketosis.

Then you can get to the business of burning fat instead of sugar.

When you stop burning sugar you will be able to see the weight loss, feel the extra energy, and all the rest of the benefits.

There is emotional, social, cultural element to food. Food connects us to others and has been a way for people to socialize for thousands of years.

Which makes switching to a Keto lifestyle  a little more complicated than just pushing your cart down a different isle in the grocery store.

Suddenly, you are a little more conscientious of what you are putting into your body, eating out can be difficult and others might have their own “opinions” about your choices.

Don’t stop socializing…choose what you can eat from the menu or ask for small, reasonable substitutions.

For freaks sake, don’t be a pain in the ass about it or you will have to listen to those opinions all night…. not that this has ever happened to me.

Avoid these next ten mistakes

1.  Don’t Think of Keto as a Quick Fix

For Keto to work for you will need to be committed to a change in your lifestyle.

You’re trading your sugar addicted, low energy lifestyle for a better Keto lifestyle where you look better, feel better, and think better.

If you want the benefits you have to follow the diet…it gets easier, I swear.

If you follow the Keto Diet for a week, and you get to ketosis you will see some results.

You may see substantial weight loss, lower blood pressure and some of the other benefits, but if you revert back to your old ways you will revert back to your old problems FAST.

In the beginning it will require some self control, but with knowledge and some good planning you can get through it.

After a while eating Keto will become a habit and ketosis will be more permanent.

You will you will look better, feel better, be more energetic, and it will become your new habit…Your new lifestyle.

2.  To Stay in Ketosis, You Will Need a Plan for Stress

If you are experiencing stress you might crave comfort food.

If you have a terrible day or are going though something tough you might be tempted to jump back into the familiar and comforting arms of junk food.

Just like a heat of the moment tumble with your ex….it will leave you feeling dirty the next day. The repercussions are usually temporary, but you will probably regret it.

If you’re in a personal hurricane and you have to eat a pop tart…eat it,  then make a plan to get back to ketosis.

Or better yet, you could plan to have something other than a pop tart. Check out all of these super fast and easy Keto Dessert Recipes to quell your cravings…

Once ketosis becomes your norm and Keto is your lifestyle, you will find some Keto foods that are comforting.

Until then it would be best to have a plan.

3.  Ketosis Will Not Work Faster if You are Obsessing about the Scale

You know the one your Grandma told you about a “watched pot never boiling” right? Same goes here…

This is difficult because when you get excited about starting something new you want instant gratification – something that you can put a number on.

It’s the American way. You will want to look at the scale.

But you are going to have to trust that the Keto lifestyle is going to work.

With Keto, the scale is not going to help you because the scale is going to go up and down in a way that may not match your effort for the day.

One day you might hit all your macros, and no change, and the next day it might be the same in terms of macros, and the scale drops like a lead balloon.

Leave the scale alone. If you need a number to concentrate on, use your daily macros and your calories.

If you must check your weight do it once a week at the same time of day.

The same goes for the measurements that you did on the first day.  Keeping a log will help you see your progress.

Soon you will notice your clothes getting looser and you will be healthier that’s what this is all about.

4.  The Keto Diet is a high fat diet.

On Keto 75% of your calories need to come from fat

Don’t be afraid of the amount of fat you need. Just make sure that majority of it is clean fat….AKA Healthy Fat.

This is a big one because the idea of eating fat has been so maligned. We have been taught that ALL FAT IS BAD.

Since the 1950’s the line from medical community and the food industry has been that fat is bad for you.

It has been drilled into everyone’s mind that fat will clog up our arteries and give us heart attacks and we will die.

Fat will make you fat, that is what has been has been hammered into all of our heads.

You remember the food pyramid where your carbs were the big base part at the bottom, and oils and fats were the tiny little point at the top.  Even now the FDA suggests you get 65% of your calories from carbs.

This myth that fat is bad for you and carbs are what you should eat was started innocently enough.

In the 1950’s they discovered that there was fat in the arteries of heart attack victims so they said what seemed logical: these people must have eaten too much fat.

The food industry jumped on this because sugar and carbohydrates are much cheaper to produce, they have a longer shelf life and the bonus of being addictive.

Even with that knowledge, I understand it’s hard to believe that you should eat more fat to get to ketosis.

It doesn’t have to be cheap meat and dirty fat either….avocados and coconut oil provide good clean sources of healthy fat.

There are even vegan options if you want to go that route.

There is a growing body of science to back up the fact that a ketogenic lifestyle is good for you.

5.  Don’t Eat The Wrong Kind of Fat

Even when you have accepted that fat is good for you there is an exception.

The food industry has created a processed abomination called trans-fat, these are chemically altered fats so they have an almost indefinite shelf life.

Avoiding these on the Keto Diet shouldn’t be that difficult because the bad artificial trans-fats usually found in highly processed foods.

Highly processed foods are also full of highly processed starch and sugar.

Still, these artificial trans-fats are toxic.  Even if you have not decided to go Keto, you should avoid trans-fats like the plague.

The fats you want to consume are the saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, and naturally occurring trans fats.

Getting good fat is fairly easy when you’re looking to avoid all of the carbs and processed trans fats.

The good fats are in butter, eggs, avocados, walnuts, and fish oils.

There are plenty of other sources for these fats, those are just a few examples.

You can get these fats through fat bombs as well. These are going to give you the fats you may desperately need when you’re on this diet. It’s crazy to think that not getting enough fat as a common mistake people make on this diet.

6. Don’t Eat Too Much Protein

To maintain health your body needs enough protein to build muscles and repair injuries.

If you eat too much protein your body will use what it needs for the muscle building and repair. Then it will change the extra protein into blood sugar via a process called gluconeogenesis.

This basically turns protein into carbs that can throw you out of Ketosis.

Your body would much rather burn fat.  So if you would like to feel better and have more energy you will want 20% or less of your calories coming from protein.

7.  Don’t Get Dehydrated

Drink enough water and eat enough salt.

You are going to need a lot of water, I personally drink at about a gallon a day, and I don’t include coffee in that measurement.

During weight loss your body is going to lose more fluids and electrolytes than usual.

For your organs to do their best work you are going to need to stay hydrated.

If you are used to drinking a lot of water, keep it up.  If that is not your habit, then you need to make a conscience effort to stay hydrated.

If you use an app to track your macros, the will also allow you to track your water.

The reason your body is losing water is that during ketosis your body excretes sodium and the water follows.

Your body functions better when you have the right amount of sodium.  So you will need to eat enough salt.

The main thing that you can do to avoid or shorten the Keto flu is to consume sodium and drink a lot of water.

8.  Don’t Deprive Yourself of Sleep

You need to plan time to get enough sleep.  If you’re an adult that means something different for everyone. I need seven to eight hours.

Do yourself a big favor and get enough sleep whether you are doing this diet or not.

When you start out on the ketogenic diet you may have trouble sleeping.

In general this is true whenever you are making a big lifestyle change.

Think of the first few days as starting a new job.

Keto is no different and you’re probably going to miss a few winks.

According to WebMD, lack of sleep can cause some of these nasty ailments and crappy afflictions…

Accidents, heart disease, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, low sex drive, depression, premature skin aging, forgetfulness, weight gain and impaired judgement….ewww. None of these sound good.

9.  Don’t Let Keto Get Boring

The best diet is the one that you’ll stick with, most people don’t stick with diets for one of two reasons.

The first reason diets fail is that you end up starving and “hangry” all the time and that sucks.

With the Keto diet that is not a problem because eating fat releases hormones that make you feel satisfied.  That fat is a source of energy from burning fat instead of sugar.

The second reason many people quit diets is they get bored with the limited food choices.  With Keto this is only a problem in your head.

I have made a shopping list and just off the top of my head I thought of twelve different kinds of cheese, and you would be surprised at what you can do with cheese – like spinach artichoke pizza or bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers

Maybe you want a quick sandwich but you need a some bread, you can make a keto sandwich roll in about two minutes.

Or let’s say you just can’t eat bacon and eggs without toast. Try making a simple almond yeast bread.

Maybe you are just craving something sweet and chocolate, in about 5 minutes you can have that.

There are thousands of recipes online, and many of them can be made in minutes.

My point is that if you have the ingredients Keto does not limit food variety.

If you are like me, and you live out in the sticks, you may not be able to get a lot of this stuff at your local grocery, but we have the internet and Amazon Prime for that too.

10.  Ketosis is Not a Competition

I lost 15 pound in the first 10 days of the keto diet. Then I gained three during the next week.  After that I plateaued, but my pants keep getting looser – so that’s good.

If you compare yourself to my first 10 days you might feel bad about your progress. That might turn into downward spiral for you. You might even quit and go back to sugar addiction.

Or maybe you have lost even more….either way, don’t quit.

The point is that your results and my result or your results and anyone else’s results are going to be different.

Comparing them doesn’t really have an upside in terms of your weight loss success with the Keto diet.

If you follow Keto and you consume less calories than you burn, you will lose weight and will be fat that you lose.

While you’re losing that weight, you will feel better, you will have more energy, better concentration, and overall you will have better health.

You win. No competition and No comparison.

What is the number one mistake you think is hard for you to overcome on the Keto Diet?

I would love to hear from you!

Thom

We have lots of great recipes to help keep Keto interesting.

• Bone-in Smothered Pork Chops
• Creamy Tuscan Chicken
• Keto Pad Thai
• The Best Keto Cocktails you can make at home.