If you are a beginner to the keto diet then don’t mess with these 5 ketos mistakes.
Not measuring your ketone levels
If you want to do the ketogenic diet, and you want to get into ketosis, one of the things that you need to do is make sure that you’re measuring your ketone levels. You have to know where you’re at and you have to know if something is throwing you out. If you’re there’s a particular food that’s throwing you out of ketosis or there is a food that’s messing up your results, you want to make sure you know. By measuring your ketone levels you’ll have a good baseline to go off of. You’ll have a metric to be able to actually see where you are at day to day and really understand how you’re doing with your ketosis. Measuring your ketone levels is very powerful.
Bad fats
In the ketogenic diet, you’re supposed to be consuming a lot of good fats. The problem is when people see keto and following the keto diet means eating a lot of fat, they typically just grab fats. They grab things like corn oil, soybean oil, margarine, all these different fats that you don’t want to be consuming. The fats that actually raise Omega 6 levels in the body, drive inflammation, cause health concerns, etc. We want to be seeking good healthy fats. Think butter, avocado, coconut oil, olive oil, etc. The really good, healthy fats that are going to help improve our health overall.
Too much sugar alcohol
A lot of people love the way that their diet used to taste; nice and sweet lots of sugar in it. What they do is try to compensate by adding in a lot of sugar alcohols.
I can tell you from experience this is a bad idea. When I first started following the ketogenic diet there weren’t all these rules and guidelines out there. It was all trial and error. If you add a lot of sugar alcohols into your daily life, the next thing you know you add a lot of gastrointestinal distress. You can even find yourself spending the day in the bathroom if you eat way too much of it. You want to make sure that you’re limiting sugar alcohols or even eliminating them completely.
Electrolyte depletion
A lot of people are depleting their electrolytes. When you follow the ketogenic diet you flush out a lot of water out because you’re keeping your insulin levels low. As a result, you lose sodium, potassium, calcium, and also magnesium. As a result of that, you can feel awful if your electrolyte levels fall really low. If you’re someone who is exercising hard and following the ketogenic diet, you’re going to have a little bit more of an issue with this. Make sure that you’re using some electrolytes on a regular basis to make sure you’re getting the proper levels. You can use things like cream of tartar, sea salt, etc., to help boost those levels up. You can even supplement with a powder to make sure you keep up electrolyte levels.
Enough fiber
A lot of people want to go and get fiber bars and consume fiber in all these different ways when following the ketogenic diet because it’s important to make sure that you’re getting it in.
However, the best way to get lots of fiber is by eating lots of green leafy vegetables. When people are following the ketogenic diet, they tend to gravitate towards a lot of different foods, but not green leafy vegetables. When on the keto diet, make sure that you’re eating a lot of green leafy vegetables.
It is very important that you get that fiber, in because it’s very important for your gut health. Making sure that you don’t get constipated and everything else. Again, when you’re doing the ketogenic diet, green leafy vegetables are very important.
Macro measurements
We look at the macronutrient measurements, they are important as well. When we’re following the ketogenic diet, we’re supposed to be eating high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrates.
If you’re messing up those macronutrients then there’s a good chance you’re not going to get results. If you’re consuming not enough fat or maybe too many carbs (it is very easy for those carbs to creep up on you), or you’re consuming too much protein, it starts to break down as sugar in the body.
Not prepared
Not being prepared is a big mistake for a lot of people. For example, you’re going to a birthday party or you’re going to a restaurant, and you’re not prepared as to what you’re going to eat. Then you just kind of go off the rails and screw up all the hard work you put in so far. So being prepared is very important. As a rule of thumb, you can pretty much find a side salad and fatty meats wherever you go. Whether it’s a restaurant birthday, party at a friend’s house, etc., you could typically dig up a side salad and find some fatty meats. Those are safe options to go with if you are not prepared. When following the ketogenic diet, it is always in your best interest to be fully prepared for everything you’re going to eat so that you don’t mess up all your hard work.
