Wednesday, February 7, 2018

13 Tips For Losing Weight On A Ketogenic Diet


Ketogenic diets are all the rage these days. Many people think that an all meat diet where you can eat as much as you want sounds appealing. They miss out on the nuances of the diet and don’t quite understand how it works.

It’s still important that you watch what you’re putting in your diet to maintain ketosis. It doesn’t stop there, however, as a full lifestyle change is necessary to drastically promote weight loss. Here are 13 ketogenic diet tips for weight loss success.

1. Weigh Your Food

Accuracy is important when trying to reach your weight loss goals. Investing a good food scale can really help you monitor your carbohydrate intake with precision. While many may think they can measure by just “eyeballing” servings–the slightest error can have you think you’re consuming an 8 oz. portion though it may really be a 12 oz portion. These errors add up!

Avoid the guesswork and use a scale to calculate your food intake. Look for scales that allow you to measure in grams and ounces. There are even scales that connect to apps and websites for even more intuitive food tracking to help you reach your goals.

2. Drink Water

Staying hydrated is one of the most important rules of any diet, not just a ketogenic diet. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in our daily routine that we forget how much water we’re taking in throughout the day.

While on a ketogenic diet, begin your day by consuming at least 8 to 16 ounces of water. This will allow your body to rehydrate immediately and begin its natural cycles. Throughout the day, you should aim to drink about half of your body weight in ounces.

A 150-pound individual should try to drink at least 75 ounces of water during the day. That may seem like a lot but it’s less than 10 cups. When you look at it like that, it doesn’t seem so challenging. Drink your water, stay hydrated, and the weight will melt away.

3. Exercise

A common misconception on a ketogenic diet is that diet alone is enough to lose weight. This definitely depends on the individual but what’s for certain is that exercise can greatly enhance weight loss.

Regular, high interval, high-intensity training, known as HIIT, has proven to lower blood glucose levels. These short exercises–an entire workout can be completed in 25 minutes including warmup and cooldown–are ideal for ketogenic dieters.

Remember to stick to the routine and listen to your body. Overdoing it can lead to elevated stress hormones being released into the body which can produce negative effects towards weight loss.

4. Mind the Protein

A common mishap with ketogenic dieting is consuming too much protein. While protein is an important aspect of a ketogenic lifestyle, consuming excessive amounts leads to the body’s conversion of those amino acids into glucose. This process known as gluconeogenesis can really set your weight loss back.

While every person is different when it comes to the amount of protein needed, there are some indications that you can look for. If you become aware of falling out of ketosis, even though you feel you are strictly following your diet, it might be time to consider the amount of protein you are consuming.

Take into consideration the level of intensity of your workouts. Resistance workouts require more protein to aid muscle gain, while aerobic exercise will respond well to less protein for greater weight loss.

5. Reduce Stress

Stress has the power to dampen your weight loss progress by kicking you out of ketosis. Stress can impact your hormone levels causing your blood sugar levels to rise. Often times this can lead to carb cravings as well.

While you may not be able to control all the aspects of your life that may lead to stress, you can find ways to mitigate the stress. Practicing stress relieving exercises and practice like mindfulness, can effectively help you release tension and avoid the pitfalls that stress can play on our bodies.

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