KETO DIET BASICS
To help you understand keto dieting, it helps to use the imagery of “food = energy”. Creating an image in your mind that everything you put into your body is energy will allow you to understand that different foods provide different types of energy for your body.
Your body will either get energy from carbohydrates, protein or fat.
The objective of a keto diet is to ensure you get most of your energy from fat, then a bit from protein and minimal from carbohydrates.
That’s where you would have heard the term “eating your macros” – macros are “macronutrients”, which are either carbohydrates, protein or fat.
This is different from the term “micronutrients”, which are nutrients found on the micro level such as vitamins and minerals.
To follow a basic keto diet, you need to consume set macros. There are different recommendations, however, for entry-level ketosis. With the objective of becoming fat adapted and losing weight, it’s 70% of your diet from fat, 25% from protein and 5% from carbs. If that seems hard, confusing and daunting, hang in there and we will show you a way to make it fun and easy to follow.
KETO DIET MADE EASY
Before we look at keto dieting styles, let’s refresh on what the basics of the keto diet are:
> Keto is macro focused
> Keto is 70% fat, 25% protein & 5% carbs
These are the foundations of keto dieting – the rest is up to your dieting style and preference.
HOW DOES THE KETO DIET WORK?
Keto works by changing the energy source your body relies on. Instead of you burning sugar for energy, which happens when you have a high-carb diet, your body burns fat for energy. To substitute the absence of carbs, it’s actually proven that your body prefers to burn fat as fuel.
I will get a bit geeky here – however, hold tight. Basically what happens in your body when your sugar levels drop because you cut carbs out of your diet, is that your body will start to produce what we call ketones (we will talk about them shortly – however, they are life changing). Those ketones will now become your body’s energy source, but the best news is, the way your body makes these ketones is by breaking down your fat, so in essence, your body will burn fat for energy, not carbs.
That’s why keto dieting is so great, because once you’re in ketosis, your body will become a fat-burning machine. This is great news not just for fat loss, but long-term energy, clarity and health changes.
Being in ketosis/using fat for fuel is like having thousands of mini miners in your body, chipping away at your fat all day and all night and taking it back to the power plant to be burned to make energy.
Coming from a background of 11 years as a Personal Trainer and being the personality type who loves systems, learning this amazed me. I thought, if someone flicks the switch and chooses to be in ketosis, they no longer need to worry about their weight because their body will naturally bring them to their natural healthy range. How amazing is that? But that’s what happens when you eat the way you were intended to.
