The TLDR to Keto and weight loss.
If you’re lazy and want to know the bare essentials to Keto glory, AKA the get rich quick version. You have come to the right place. Here are 5 straight forward steps to obtaining ketosis and beginning your weight loss journey.
Step 1: Stop eating carbohydrates
This one is the corner stone of ketosis. Your body burns carbs before it burns fat. Take away the carbohydrates and manage your protein. The only thing left to do is burn fat!
How does that work? Is that safe? Do you care? This is Keto cheat sheet, we don’t have time for details! I just want to be skinny!! (Or healthy as not everyone turns to keto for weight loss alone). If you really want more info on the whole carbs vs fat debate start here
Step 2: Drop the sugar
Step two is another given, but needs its own mention because you will be surprised just how much sugar your regular foods contain. Pro tip for weight loss, don’t buy anything that’s “low fat” or “no fat”. If you remove the fat and still want something to taste better than a cardboard box you need sugar!
Read the labels of everything your putting into your mouth, it sounds like a chore but really it takes two seconds to read the label. Soon enough you wont need to read it, you will either know or have a fair idea what to expect. Sugar > Zero? Put it down son…
Step 3: Drink Water
Every time you think “ooohh I could really go for a soda/beer/wine/coffee”, STOP! How about you go and drink a glass of water first. If you still want your pleasure beverage after that, go for it. This was my trick to cut down from 6-8 (diet) cokes a day to about 2-3. It’s painful at first, but it worked for me, maybe it will for you too.
Step 4: Empty the kitchen
Bin or Donate all of the non keto food in your house. You wont be needing it again. The aim here is to remove temptation, if there isn’t a cupboard full of carbs to tempt you while you transition you are more likely to reach the event horizon of weight loss. Once you pass this point you hopefully can ignore even the fullest fridge of chocolate, coke, donuts and pizza. People joke at dinners and catch ups about how jealous I must be of them eating sweets and tasty junk food. The truth is, I don’t actually care. Once upon of time on any of the past diets I’ve tried I would be drooling at the mouth, desperate for the smallest taste of something sweet. Keto changed this for me, 110%. Food = Fuel.
Step 5: Food shopping
You have emptied your kitchen, now you need to restock it.
Without being well versed in Keto life, the most simple approach is stick to the outside perimeter of the supermarket… Meat and green leafy vegetables is all you need. Check out my post on my staple foods for my real world examples. The TLDR version is Bacon + Eggs + Red Meat + Chicken + Broccoli + Spinach + Cheese + Cauliflower. If you have a mix of those you have a basic keto meal at hand. For those who wish to embrace keto cooking you can’t go past the reddit keto recipes sub as a starting point. Everyday fellow keto’ers share amazing keto creations, sure to satisfy the fussiest eater along your keto weight loss journey.