We all make mistakes and the ketogenic diet is no different. Below we share some of the traps we’ve fallen into along the way to Keto success!
Of all the Keto Diet tips number 9 is probably the one that has served me best towards happiness and enjoying this nutritious way of eating.
1. Not Getting Enough Essential Electrolytes
When we eliminate carbohydrates from our diet, our body stops holding onto essential electrolytes and flushes them out, along with all that water that high carb diets cause you to hold onto. In particular, the body’s primary electrolyte; sodium.
One of the most common ketogenic diet mistakes is not replenishing our electrolytes and eliminating salt from our diets (like we’ve been conditioned). Make sure you replace your electrolytes to stave off the dreaded keto flu.
2. Extreme Calorie Restriction
Initially, you should ignore calorie restriction all together while you adapt to a low-carb, high-fat way of eating. Even then, calorie restriction should be a careful calculation, just enough to lose excess weight.
Remember the ketogenic diet has a tendency to blunt hunger pangs through its suppression of the hunger hormone “ghrelin”.
With a little attention and not much effort, you can adapt to not overeating naturally, without making it a chore.
Over the top calorie restriction is not only a big ketogenic diet mistake but is responsible for the failure of so many other diets.
3. Excluding Good, Nutritious, High Fiber, Cruciferous Vegetables From Your Keto Diet
You should eat a good amount of green cruciferous vegetables on a ketogenic diet.
A big misconception, that many who haven’t cared to read into ketogenic dieting make, is that people on the diet don’t get enough fiber and vitamins from vegetables.
They assume because it is a high-fat, low-carb diet that the keto diet doesn’t include vegetables.
They’re completely and utterly wrong. Make sure you get a good serving of vegetables with your meals, you need them!
4. Too Much Omega 6 Is Bad. Omega 3 Is Good!
Understand that Omega 6 Fatty Acids are inflammatory and they counteract Omega 3’s.
Consuming high amounts of Omega-6 fatty acids through foods such as peanuts, peanut oil and walnuts can see you with aching joints along with other inflammatory problems.
This true, especially if you’re a regular exerciser and on the other side of 40. Get lots of healthy Omega 3’s for heart health, joint function, and general well-being.
5. Stop Weighing Yourself All Of The Time
Focus on losing fat not weight. Of course, you will lose weight but you will also be preserving a lot more muscle than traditional starvation type diets so the scales won’t tell the full story.
Weighing yourself all day every day will dishearten you.
Most people will see a dramatic weight loss in the initial weeks of starting a ketogenic diet but that weight loss will mostly be water.
Do yourself a favor, get rid of the scales and replace them with a measuring tape, skin fold calipers and, a camera. Your main focus now should be inches, not pounds or kilos!
6. Should You Eat 6 Meals a Day?
No you should not eat 6 meals a day. The ketogenic diet is a great appetite suppressor, take advantage of that and eat only when you’re hungry.
We’ve all heard it and it simply isn’t true that we should be eating 6 meals a day. Do not force feed yourself. Eat when you’re hungry, do not starve, eat no more, no less.
Simply fuel your body with nutritious healthy keto-friendly foods, it will tell you when it needs food.
7. Eating Too Much Protein
Use our Keto Calculator and stick to your macros. Too much protein will prevent ketosis and can indeed prevent fat loss by stopping fat from being our primary source of fuel.
Protein can absolutely be converted to fuel; we only need enough of it to maintain muscle mass.
8. Cheat Days On Keto
Don’t do cheat days, they make sticking to your diet that much more difficult.
There “might” be some argument for performance athletes or bodybuilders to carb load, but for the average Joe, cheat days are complete and utter nonsense and the perfect way to sabotage your diet.
Think about this, do alcoholics have cheat days? NO! So why would you get stuck into that addictive carb-loaded pizza and garlic bread on a Sunday, only to have to start all over again on Monday? (Warning: You will feel quite sick the next day by the way if you do).
9. Finally, Pushing The Keto Diet Onto Others Unsolicited
That’s right, no one likes to be told what they’re doing is wrong, even if you’ve got good intentions.
Everyone has their own opinion on what the best diet plan is, regardless of whether they’re right or wrong.
Save yourself the headache and let your results speak for themselves, people will come to you wanting to know how you got that amazing figure while eating delicious bacon and eggs.
The last thing you want to do is repel people and invite unwanted conflict into your life with unsolicited advice to somebody slurping on a smoothie next to you in the gym.
Go about your business and reap the rewards 🙂
In Conclusion: It’s not hard to slip here and there, but if you are aware of how you are dieting and adapting, avoiding making these common ketogenic diet mistakes will become second nature.
This is very nice information and helpful, thanks.
so agree have to get out of the mind set on cheat days have been there feeling sick the next day.
It’s definitely not worth it Edna!