Popularly referred to as keto, the ketogenic diet dictates reducing the number of carbs you eat to lose weight and improve overall health. However, keto has to be implemented correctly for you to be able to reap its benefits. When you adopt a keto diet, it means that you can only consume 20 to 50 grams of carbs per day. This can not only lead to weight loss, but also help in controlling blood sugar and improving heart health.
But, there are some things that might sabotage your efforts when you are following a keto diet. What are they? You can check them out below.
Eating too many carbs
One of the major reasons why you might not be losing weight despite following a keto diet is because you are eating too many carbs. The diet involves reaching a state of ketosis, which is a metabolic state in which your body gets energy by burning fat rather than glucose. This can only happen when you reduce your consumption of carbohydrates. To accomplish this, you need to get just 5% calories from carbs. This can be difficult to achieve, given that your daily calories are likely to include 45% to 65% carbs, but doing it is how you can reach ketosis and lose weight.
Not eating enough nutritious foods
Regardless of the diet plan you are following, you need to consume nutritious whole foods to achieve weight loss. Even if the processed foods you are eating are keto-friendly, they can put a dent in your weight loss. Your weight loss efforts will be derailed if you add in foods, such as keto desserts, snack bars and other packaged foods. Furthermore, eating convenience type-foods can also slowdown the weight loss process because they are high in calories and low in nutrients. Therefore, it is best to consume unprocessed, whole foods on a keto diet.
Consuming excessive calories
You have to create a calorie deficit when you want to lose weight. You can either do this by reducing the number of calories you consume, or burning more calories via physical activity. You will not lose weight if you are following a keto diet, but not monitoring your calorie intake. A lot of keto-friendly foods are high in calories, so you need to be careful in how much you consume to avoid overdoing it. You need to be careful of the portion size, engage in more physical activity and avoid snacking for creating a calorie deficit.
Undiagnosed medical issue
The keto diet is highly effective for weight loss. But, if you are finding it difficult to lose weight even though you are doing everything right, then there could be a medical issue standing in the way of your weight loss. Depression, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), hyperinsulinemia and hypothyroidism are some of the medical issues that can lead to weight gain and make it difficult for people to lose weight. You can get a series of tests to rule out these medical issues. With proper medication and management, you will be able to achieve weight loss.
