One very successful method of losing weight for me is to eat a ketogenic diet.

A What?

In a nutshell, Keto is really a lifestyle change that involves greatly reduce carbohydrates (because you cannot totally eliminate them), and increase the amount of calories that you get from eating fat. There have been many ketogenic diets over the years, such as The Atkins Diet and South Beach Diet, so the concept is not anything new.

Ketogenic diets are based on the hypothesis that the source of excess weight is from too much insulin, which is a hormone that tells your muscle and fat cells to absorb excess glucose (sugar) in your bloodstream. When your Blood Glucose level increases, insulin is produced as a response in order to bring it down.

So, a ketogenic diet tries not to suddenly increase your Blood Glucose levels while also training your body to metabolize fat for its energy needs. To do this, the majority of your calories in a day should come from fat, which does not trigger an insulin response. The remaining calories should come from a split between carbohydrates and protein.

It's easy to see why carbohydrates are bad on a Keto diet, because they directly correlate with sugar. But why protein? Well, beyond a certain amount each day, your liver tries to convert excess amino acids (protein) into sugar by a process called Gluconeogenesis.

Quickstart

Starting a ketogenic diet is hard. I've done it several times already, and the first few days can be stressful because of the munchies. Your body is trained to use carbohydrates for fast energy, so it takes about three days for it to adapt to metabolizing fat instead (fat from your food, and then eventually the fat stores that have been building up inside your body, too).

For this last time, I followed this menu through the adaptation phase:

Breakfast:

• Two Eggs and Bacon from Waffle House
• Coffee, black (at home, I use a teaspoon of Coconut Oil and a pad of butter or a little bit of heavy cream)
• Water

Lunch:

• Chipotle Chicken Bowl (no rice or beans, but sour cream, guacamole, cheese are awesome for Keto)
• Coke Zero

Snacks:

• Cheese and Mustard
• Lots of water. Get the flavored water like Nestle Splash.

Dinner:

• Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger (skip the bun, avoid toppings with carbs, and knife-and-fork it like a steak)
• Coke Zero

OMG I NEED A DESSERT:

• Try various fat bomb recipes.
• One I like: Whip together 2 blocks of cream cheese, maybe 1 cup of heavy cream, and a packet of sugar free jello. Top with Whipped Cream, and enjoy as if it were a mousse.

(repeat and adapt as desired for the next few days)

So, like, seriously - this menu is a valid introduction to Keto, in case you thought that you had to eat only alfalfa sprouts or something. It's not about cutting out places that you love to eat, but rather, eating the right thing at those places. The intro day above might still be a little heavy on the protein, but Rome wasn't built in a day - cutting out carbs is the first priority, and then eventually you will adapt and be able to reduce protein as well.

Photo Credit: https://pixabay.com/en/scale-diet-fat-health-tape-weight-403585/