Let’s say a boy was playing and hurt his leg, he went to see the doctor, the doctor first closely examines his leg, tries to find out if he pulled any ligaments or has any fractures or broken bones, if he doesn’t find any major issues he might tell him to rest his leg a bit, and take a painkiller for a few days and come back to see the doctor if the symptoms don’t go away.

The boy comes back in 3 days saying the pain is still there, the doctor might wrap his leg tight and ask the boy to completely avoid stepping on this leg for two weeks to allow for proper healing.

Now, this advice was extreme, if it was given to a healthy boy or a boy that just had a very small sprain, it would have been counteractive, maybe even harmful! But in his case, it was the right way to go for a limited period of time only until his body is able to heal again.

That is how I think of the keto diet exactly, it’s an extreme solution that is safe, natural, and even necessary for some people when other more gentle approaches fail to work, it is not -in my opinion- a lifelong solution or the first step to try when trying to lose weight instead it is the last step when everything else fails to work.

Weight gain is a problem with the type of food we eat, the amount of food we eat, our insulin levels, and our level of activity, and that is where our main focus should go first, fixing that part in many cases will be more than enough without going into keto. If you want to start doing just that you can explore my weight loss philosophy for free by signing up for my 7-day weight loss training here and start shedding the pounds naturally.

Well, what if even with all the above the weight just doesn’t go down? Is keto a good option then?

Yes, because a keto diet can reverse metabolic disorders that prevent us from burning fat effectively. Years of eating high carb, high sugar meals can mess up our metabolism and cause insulin resistance preventing us from seeing actual weight loss success with regular methods. This is where keto can have an edge over other diets by lowering down insulin levels and allowing the body to tap into its fat-burning powers once again.

Now the key here is to do a healthy clean Keto, and know that this is a temporary phase and not a lifestyle and that eventually, you need to go back to a more balanced approach, because there is a right and wrong for every diet out there, and the keto diet can easily be done loads of junk processed foods, so make sure you learn how to do the keto diet the healthy way so that you can improve your health as well as lose weight. You can check my 30-day clean keto program here to get a step by step plan on how to go on keto the healthy way.

Ketosis was once a natural process that our bodies went in and out of all the time, not eating for two days will get you in ketosis right away, and before Costco and 7 eleven people use to always have days of food and days of starvation, on the days where there was a lack of food their bodies tapped into their fat cells and burned fat to make ketones for energy, that is what kept them alive and kept their bodies functioning when there was a scarcity of food, so everyone was basically keto adapted! Fast forward to the 20th century and no one even knows what hunger is, you would be lucky if you even went more than 3 hours without food, so your body never even learned the mechanism of making ketones out of fat, which explains why we all get the keto flu the first week! So don’t be scared of getting into ketosis, it’s a very natural process that most of our ancestors went through multiple times through their life span.

Now let’s debunk a few myths and talk about the pros and cons

Pros

✅Keto diet can you burn fat more efficiently?

Yes, keto diet is one of the most efficient diets to help you lose fat, not just weight, and maintain muscle mass.

✅Keto diet can give you more energy and focus?

Yes, but not everyone! The keto diet helps some people with focus and energy tremendously! While others feel like they lack energy on a keto diet.

✅Keto diet reduces your hunger and appetite?

Yes, the state of ketosis -very similar to starving mode- actually reduces your appetite in an attempt to help you cope with the lack of carbs! Which makes sticking to the diet that much easier.

Cons

❌A keto diet restricts healthy foods like beans, fruits and certain amounts of vegetables which can lead to nutritional deficiencies

Yes, the keto diet does restrict a lot of healthy foods, which sometimes causes deficiency in magnesium or reduction in fiber intake, that’s why I don’t recommend a keto diet for life, and I teach my clients how to go on a clean keto diet that emphasizes the largest amount of veggies and fiber sources. Some people do have to resort to supplementation as well during the diet.

❌A keto diet can sometimes have adverse effects if done for prolonged periods

there are no studies showing long term safety, there are some animal studies showing some adverse effects on kidneys and insulin resistance when adhering to the diet for longer periods.

❌A Keto diet can be hard or impossible to stick to long term

Yes, due to the strict nature of the diet, it’s very hard to have this as a lifestyle long term

❌A keto diet requires precise measuring and weighing food, which is hard to maintain long term and can also cause obsessiveness for some people,

❌A keto diet doesn’t allow for intuitive eating or listening to your body, that’s why fixing our habits around food have to be done first before we embark on a keto diet, other wise once we stop it we will go back to our old eating habits.

Misconceptions

✅A keto diet can increase cholesterol

Yes, it can for some people who are genetically predisposed to it.

Yet the majority of the studies show improvement in heart health markers on a keto diet, even though some people might see an elevation in LDL during the keto diet, it’s usually in the large particle LDL (which is actually preventive of heart disease), and usually people see an improvement in the triglycerides, and the ratio between HDL to LDL

❌ A Keto diet means eating lots of steak, bacon, and cheese?

A keto diet is composed of 75% fat, only 20% to 25% protein, and 5% carbs. Which means the majority of your calories need to come from pure fat not meats!

❌You can’t have any fruit on keto?

You only have 5% carbs to play around with, so definitely no high sugar fruits, but you might be able to plan in some strawberries and blueberries

❌A keto diet will cause me to regain the weight faster after I stop?

No, that’s one of the advantages of the keto diet, it actually improves your metabolism and fat burning capabilities, so you don’t rebound quickly unless of course, you go all the way in.

❌The keto diet is unhealthy?

You can do a junk vegan diet, a junk low fat diet, or a junk keto diet! It’s really all about the food choices you can make. You can do Keto completely clean by adding in as much vegetables and fiber as you can and using only clean fat and protein sources (if you need help doing that, check out my clean keto program)

❌The keto diet should be the way for everyone to lose weight?

No, absolutely not! It should be the last resort when everything else fails, the keto diet is not a lifestyle instead it’s a natural safe solution to metabolic disorders when people have extreme insulin sensitivity and blood sugar imbalances sometimes they fail to lose weight with the regular methods and Keto becomes the solution. It’s like if you are low on vitamin D, you will need to take a high dose supplement to pump it up, then you can maintain it by just sitting in the sun an hour a day, I think of keto the same exact way.

❌Ketosis is an unnatural process for the body?

Historically people unintentionally went in and out of ketosis all of the time, when the winter came in and produce was scarce sometimes they would go months just on animal proteins, when food was scarce and they would go for 2-3 days without food that also pushed their body into ketosis…

It’s only now with the overabundance of foods all the time that our body stopped repeating the benefits of this natural fat-burning process.

❌Keto diet is the only way to lose weight?

No, it’s not the only, and it’s not for everyone, some people do very well on keto and feel their best, and some people actually feel miserable on it! That’s because of the difference in our genetic structure. Listen to your body as you embark on this journey and know that there is no one size fits all.

❌I should stay on keto forever

No, I don’t think keto is a long-life solution, but it can help you lose fat more efficiently to get to your goal and then maintain it with something that is more sustainable long term.

If you would like to experiment with the benefits of ketosis from fat loss to energy-boosting, but want to do it the right, clean, and healthy way! Join my 30-day Clean-keto program where I will have it laid down for you step by step with detailed instructional videos and meal planners.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/6″][/vc_column][/vc_row]