The keto diet is one of the most popular diets around – and for good reason. Not only does it help you lose weight, it’s also good for your heart.

Going keto cuts out foods that are bad for cardiovascular health while encouraging foods that are good for you.

Look at the increasing number of diabetes cases as well as the vast amount of heart related health incidents and you will understand that these problems are caused by the way people eat.

Low fat, high carb diets long touted as helpful aren’t good for your heart. In fact, high carb diets are the number one cause of long term health problems, and not surprisingly, the leading cause of obesity and weight gain.

The word “diet” can be misleading too because for many people, this type of eating is a way of life.

The ketogenic diet is one of the best programs to gain both immediate and long term benefits for your heart. When you begin to follow keto, the first thing that occurs is It stabilizes blood sugar levels.

Your insulin level drops.

Let’s talk a bit about insulin and what it does for the body.

Basically it helps to keep blood sugar levels at bay. Higher levels of insulin will cause the body to store more fat. When you eat more than you should or weigh more than you should, your body has to produce greater amounts of insulin.

As a result of this, your body can become insulin resistant. Since insulin is what tempers the metabolism of certain cells within your body, it impacts your heart health. This happens because the higher the glucose load your body deals with, the more damage it can cause to the heart and the more it builds plaque within your arteries.

The keto eating plan keeps insulin levels within a range that promotes heart health rather than diminishing it. Another heart healthy point in favor of the keto diet is that when you eat this way, it lowers your cholesterol.

Some people might balk at that fact since fat is used as part of the keto diet. However, since healthy fats are used, the diet boosts your good cholesterol, which in turns lowers your risk of developing heart disease.

This might be difficult for people who still believe in the popular misconceptions of yesteryear and lump all fats into one group.

Studies done on the keto diet show that several metabolic risk factors for developing heart disease are lowered through the keto diet. These risk factors include not having a high enough level of good cholesterol, high or borderline blood pressure, abdominal fat, and high glucose levels.

The keto diet is healthy because it can keep your blood sugar level stabilized. You won’t crave the high sugar foods, which send your glucose levels soaring, and then dropping, which can lead to overeating and retaining fat stores.

There are several questions that run through peoples’ minds when it comes to dieting. It maybe something like knowing how fast the weight will come off, whether or not they can stick to it, or how it will impact their life.

Lately, Keto is a top choice for many people these days because of these five big reasons:

1- You don’t have to sacrifice flavor. That means rice cakes and typical bland, low calorie foods are out.

Going keto allows you to keep the fat and taste in your meals which is almost counterintuitive. Cheese, fatty meats or other delicious healthy fats like a rich guacamole topping are actually pivotal in a successful keto journey.

2 – Hunger does not have to be an issue. The fact that fat is in your meal plan means you’ll usually stay satisfied and never feel like you’re starving.

3 – Weight loss can be fast. Let’s face it, most diets and dieters only have one goal in mind – losing weight. Everyone wants the diet to be over with as soon as it starts if possible… Following a Keto plan can help to melt the weight off quickly because your body is burning fat stores for fuel instead of carbs.

4 – Keto is easy to modify. Being on a diet is hard enough. Having to follow a difficult plan when you’re traveling, dining out, or visiting friends and family makes it easier to throw in the towel.

With Keto, however, you can easily order items off almost any menu and have a simple, low carb, ketogenic meal. Opt for a meat and low carb veg and leave off the breads and sauces for your loved ones.

5 – Keto isn’t an all or nothing deal. With keto, you can adjust your carb, protein and fat intake to allow you to maintain your macros and goals. Raising your intake to 50 or even 100g carbs per day may not be in your best interest, but there is less worry about yo yo dieting, unlike many other diet plans.

Watch your macros and keep on keto-ing!

Can you guess the most common time that people give up their dieting plans?

Yup, that’s right. Holidays.

It doesn’t have to be that way with keto because it isn’t a restrictive program per se. There are things that should be kept at bay but compared to orthodox diet plans that have survived decades – keto is the most decadent.

Today is Halloween and while you may not go bonkers over store bought candy, there are ways to indulge in this sugar filled ocassion.

Healthfulpursuit.com released a great keto post specifically for today. Don’t believe me, go check this out:

https://www.healthfulpursuit.com/roundup/keto-halloween-recipes/

There’s a big myth floating around the keto diet world which makes some people steer clear. Some people believe that the ketogenic diet is just a high protein diet.

It’s not. In fact, protein should only make up 25% of your daily macros.

The association is made because you can eat a lot of protein such as eggs, chicken, beef, cheese and other meats for very few carbs.

This usually means dieters often fill up on these foods, and probably aren’t tracking their macros very well. If they were, they’d realize that the majority of their meals are actually made up of healthy fats, and not proteins.

The macro count for healthy fats is approximately 70% of your nutrition for the day, with the remaining 5% being carbs. Healthy fats are beneficial for your body, while too much protein can be damaging – not all proteins are created equal.

One of the benefits and most alluring things about the keto diet is that you don’t need to go low fat. Not only is fat flavorful, consumers can give up the guilt and dig into delights like marbled meat on a steak, think wagyu!

Let’s be honest, how many diet plans encourage treats like bacon and cheese? It makes anyone’s mouth water.

But the real focus of the ketogenic diet is low carb, high fat – so it’s very important that as you guide yourself away from carbs and sugar; and start looking at fats which will keep you satisfied rather than eating larger portions.

Healthy fats are like avocados, eggs, olives or olive oil, nuts and seeds. That doesn’t mean you can’t have other fats, but try to find fats with good cholesterol and up your intake of healthy fats.

Keep in mind that your taste buds will probably change as you stay on the diet longer. For example, a Coke or Sprite will taste way too sweet for you after going weeks without sodas and using fake sweeteners.

This is helpful because it curbs your sugar cravings. Instead, you will begin craving the healthy fats that benefit your body from head to toe.

Enjoy the bonus that you can have plenty of proteins, but don’t neglect the real star of this meal plan – Fat!

It’s the one that keeps you feeling full.

Typical of any diet, the urge to quit can be pretty strong. To be fair, you have spent more time nurturing bad eating habits and a highly restrictive diet like a keto one is even harder for some.

There are things you can do to strategically prevent yourself from falling off the wagon and adhering to the plan until you reach your goals. The key is to pick a diet plan that suits your lifestyle.

First things first:
Track everything. Calorie deficiency is key to any diet but with keto, the type of carbs are super important.

One of the biggest culprits are sneaky carbs in condiments like ketchup. Tracking keeps you in ketosis, and will prevent the frustration not seeing any significant progress, and quiting.

Number 2:
Get plenty of healthy fats. Your fat ratio in the foods should be between 60-75%, and these fats will keep your mind and stomach satiated. What does that mean?

It means you won’t get hunger pangs and reaching out for the next quick fix, as happens on some low calorie diets.

Healthy fats include things like olive oil, butter, avocado and fats from a variety of meats or fish. Keto is not the kind of plan where you have to avoid marbled meat…wow right? In fact, it will help you on a ketogenic diet.

If sweet tooth cravings are an issue for you, going keto diet will help curb that too. This type of scenario is what often causes people to give up when dieting because the plans ban foods from their meals. In contrast, there are a ton of recipes to make sweet keto fat bombs!

Want some chocolate mousse made from cream cheese and real butter? You got it! Click here for a custom keto plan that’s built based on YOUR personal preferences.

For some, cutting carbs mean a craving for fruit that is now off limits…because of the heavy carb count. Scrumptious fruits like peaches, pears and watermelon are loaded with not-helpful-for-your-keto-plan carbs.

Really all you need to do is to learn which fruits are keto-friendly and which ones are not. For example, berries are have a much lower carb count than those mentioned above. Splurge on blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and raspberries in moderation of course because while they have a low carb count, you still need to be aware of sugar levels.

If you do hit rock bottom and consider quitting, give yourself a break and simply have one day of low carb instead. Then hop right back on that wagon and get back on ketosis again. The important thing is that you do not give up when the going gets tough.

You got this!

And if you would rather have someone do the planning for you, take a look at the quiz that Tom Hunter created in his Custom Keto Diet program. It’s tailored by food preferences, daily activity levels, height, weight and even target weight goals.

Lately, people associate keto with significant weight loss.

There are many health benefits to the ketogenic diet. The basis of the diet is that it is designed to get a certain response from the body. Those on the keto diet eat normal amounts of protein, higher amounts of fat, and they keep their carbohydrate intake very low.

Because carbohydrate intake is low, the blood sugar (glucose) level is low, and the brain pulls from this alternative energy source, which is fat. Before fats can be used by the body, the liver has to first convert them to ketones. It is ketones that are used as energy for the body and brain when there is lack of glucose.

The ketogenic diet actually originated as a tool for treating neurological diseases, such as epilepsy. Studies have shown that this diet can have benefits for a wide variety of health conditions.

Some wonderful side effects people on the diet may experience include:

Less Acne: Lower insulin levels and eating less sugar and processed foods help improve acne. In addition, an increase in water intake will occur due to the lack of carbohydrates, offering good hydration of the skin.

Clarity of Mind: An unbalanced diet can lead to lack of mental clarity, and it feels like a foggy brain or mind fog. People find it difficult to remember facts or struggle with staying focused on tasks. The keto diet, by helping the body burn fat as energy, sends energy to the brain and helps it to stay focused.

Alzheimer’s: Ketogenic diets are being used to help treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Patients on keto have shown a reduction in those symptoms and improved cognitive function.

Improved Productivity: Many people are not aware that ketones are a more efficient energy source than glucose. For the brain, energy is everything. This type of energy helps better protect the brain and the rest of the body from oxidative stress, which negatively affects mental performance and brain aging. Improved mental performance, improved clarity, improved memory all combine to improve productivity.

Cancer: The Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Iowa, and the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, have conducted medical studies that show positive results of the keto diet as an effective treatment for several types of cancer and even slowing tumor growth.

Epilepsy: The Epilepsy Foundation endorses the ketogenic diet because it has been shown to help control seizures in some people with epilepsy. Doctors usually recommend the ketogenic diet for children whose seizures do not respond to different seizure medicines.

Heart Disease: Decreases risk factors of body fat, HDL levels, blood pressure and blood sugar.

In fact, those who stick to the diet find that they lose weight more quickly than with conventional diets.

But with the numerous benefits listed above, it’s no wonder why Keto has been the talk of town in recent years.

While no research is conclusive that a ketogenic diet will reduce the symptoms or actually cure major health issues, there is evidence that it does no harm.

As for the side benefits of mental clarity and weight loss, those are shown to occur in otherwise healthy adults.

Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28437190

People always ask if they’re allowed to have fruit on the keto plan.
The simple answer is that you don’t have to give up fruit completely…

Fruit is a natural part of a healthy diet and they offer many benefits. But since the keto diet does focus on low carb eating, what you have to do is make smart choices.

How? You have to find the fruits that are as low in carbs as possible. There seems to be some advice going around that if you want to stay in ketosis, you have to avoid all fruits, but that’s not the case.

Not all fruits are high carb. You can have tomatoes (yes, they’re a fruit!!). A small tomato only has around 3 grams of carbohydrates.

Lemons! Eating a lemon like oranges is not what we’re talking about here. Add it to drinks to give it a tangy, citrusy flavor, but without all the carbs.
Avocados are another fruit that you can safely have on the keto diet. In fact, it’s probably the signature “Keto Fruit”. An entire avocado only has 4 grams of carbs and boy does it fill you up! 

So you can either eat half or a fourth of an avocado and still not go over your net carb limit.

Berries are another fruit to eat when on the keto diet. Though they might seem high in carbs, they’re not. Just like with any fruit, though, you want to watch your portion size. You can have blackberries or raspberries for less than 2 net carbs for ¼ cup.

You can have strawberries, too – although the carb count comes in slightly higher at 2 net carbs per ¼ cup.

When consuming fruit, just remember that the keto diet isn’t so different from any other carb limiting diet.

You just want to aim for the foods that give you the lowest amount of carbs for the biggest health benefits.

Hope that helps and happy keto-ing!