One of the ways to improve your mental and physical health is by maintaining a healthy body weight. Losing weight is not as easy as it sounds. To lose weight, you need to do various things and be consistent in them.
Obviously, exercising and moving your body is one of the major ways to lose weight. As for diet, the keto diet is one of the ways to consider achieving weight loss.
Keep reading to learn how to lose weight while on a keto diet.
Cut the Amount of Carbs You Eat
When on the keto meal plan for weight loss, you need to cut the amount of carbs you consume. The keto diet aims to deny the body food rich in glucose. When you deprive your body of carbs, it will use the stored glucose. Once it exhausts the available glucose, your body starts looking for alternatives. Since you will not be eating carbs, there will not be a supply of glucose in your body from carbs. Your body breaks down stored fat to get glucose.
Since your body will have low sugar levels because of reduced carbs intake, the insulin hormone will also decrease. At this point, your liver will start to produce ketones from fats. The ketones then become the energy source because there is no glucose in the body. At this point, your body undergoes ketosis, which will help burn fat because the body will convert the available fats into ketones. With the fat burning, you will lose weight after a certain period of the keto diet.
Know the Food to Include in Your Diet
To lose weight when on the keto diet, you need to know the food you can eat and avoid. The primary aim of the keto diet is to lose weight. However, when you maintain healthy eating, the keto diet can also help improve your mental health and prevent heart diseases. The principle of the keto diet is low carbs intake and high fat intake. Therefore, you need to eat foods with a high-fat percentage, moderate proteins percentage, and low carbohydrates percentage.
Foods that can speed up weight loss during the keto diet include the following:
- Fatty seafood like salmon, trout, tuna, and cod
- Dairy products like cheese and full cream
- Meat from pork, chicken, bacon, turkey, and steak
- Oily and fatty foods like eggs, mayonnaise, coconut oil, avocado oil, and margarine
- Nuts and seeds like almonds, peanuts, macadamia, chia, and pumpkin seeds
- Low carbohydrate vegetables like spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, pepper, onions, and tomatoes
- Berries
Foods to avoid during the keto diet include the following:
- Grains such as rice, cereals, and pasta
- Sugary foods like juice, cakes, sweets, and ice cream
- Alcoholic drinks
- Beans, lentils, and peas
- All fruits except berries
How Long Should You Be On Keto Diet to Lose Weight?
There is no specified period for the keto diet. The rate of weight loss varies from one person to another. Also, the weight loss journey is not consistent. Some weeks you will lose a lot of weight, and other weeks you will feel like you have not lost any weight. Various individual factors affect the rate of weight loss when on the keto diet. If you understand yourself, it becomes easy to know how to lose weight when on the keto diet. Several factors determine the rate of weight loss when on the keto diet:
Body Composition
Does your body have a lot of fats to lose? The amount of fats in your body will affect the rate of weight loss. If you have too many fats to lose, you will burn the fats faster than someone who has few extra fats.
Health Status
Your general health affects the rate of weight loss. If you have hormonal or metabolic disorders, your weight loss will be challenging and at a slower pace.
Lifestyle
Consistency is key for weight loss with the keto diet. Your lifestyle will either support your weight loss journey or break it. Ensure you maintain your keto diet throughout, and incorporate exercising to increase the rate of weight loss.
All in all, a keto diet can work wonders on your weight loss journey. All you need to do is be consistent and always watch your diet.
