A custom keto diet for weight loss success
While the keto diet has been around for about a hundred years—since the 1920s—interest in it started really ramping up in the 1990s. It’s now impossible to visit a grocery store and not see at least a handful of products with a “keto-friendly!” badge on the package.
This dietary approach has gained in popularity for good reason. It has been shown to help improve everything from acne to heart health to brain function and weight loss. Unfortunately, the diet may not be as effective when tried from a one-size-fits-all approach.
The fact is, for a keto diet to be most effective, it requires planning and careful consideration of your personal goals, bio-individuality, and current health status. To be successful, a custom keto diet using general keto guidelines as a starting point should be used. This can be incredibly challenging to do correctly on your own.
What is a keto diet?
Keto is short for ketosis, which means the body is burning fat for fuel. There are many ways to achieve ketosis in the body, starting with eliminating sugars and carbs from the diet which forces your body to run on fat (from ketones) rather than glucose (from sugars).
There are many types of keto diets and foods on the market today. At ShiftSetGo, we highly recommend and coach a nutritional keto eating program. When done correctly, this type of diet can help lower blood sugar, increase energy, and burn fat!
The fact is, many of us are insulin resistant. A study published in 2021 by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that 40% of adults aged 18-44 have insulin resistance. With our modern food supply, this may not come as a surprise. As we continue to eat foods high in carbs and sugars, our body becomes increasingly numb to insulin. This results in weight gain, fatigue, and more serious issues such as type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.
Dirty keto vs ShiftSetGo
When considering a keto diet approach, it can be easy to get caught in the trap of watching the amount of fat, carbs, and protein you eat, without any regard for the quality of the food you eat. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who eat high amounts of butter, bacon, and even modified fast foods when attempting keto. This method might seem to work initially, but it is definitely not a healthy long-term solution.
What is a dirty keto diet?
A dirty keto plan is when you don’t track many of your macros and you simply eat low carb items without taking into consideration the quality, fat content, or the amount of protein in those foods.
This approach can help you achieve short term results, but consistent weight loss is highly dependent on detailed tracking of macros, choosing the right foods, meal prepping, and overcoming plateaus independently. This leaves dieters left to figure out how to reach their goals alone and makes long-term maintenance a challenge. With no regard for food quality, this diet is often too high in saturated fats, which also makes developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or cardiovascular issues a concern.
What is a nutritional keto diet?
The fact is a keto diet is more complex than just reducing carbs—it’s about getting the amount and quality of carbs right as well as fats and protein. To achieve nutritional ketosis, the diet must be well formulated.
The amount of carbs, fat, and protein in a nutritional keto program are specifically selected to put you in the optimal ketogenic range. Carbs provide the body with fiber to promote a feeling of fullness, maintain digestive health, lower blood sugar, and improve insulin sensitivity. Setting fat intake to an ideal level allows you to burn up to 1,500 calories in stored body fat each day. Eating enough protein—but not too much—helps maintain healthy body function, without raising insulin levels.
It’s also incredibly important to pay attention to the quality of the food you eat. Supplying your body with the nutrients it needs to repair, detox, and function optimally is crucial to long-term success.
Through this well formulated option, you can experience more consistent results and receive targeted support to overcome weight loss plateaus.
The benefits of nutritional ketosis include:
- Reduction of appetite
- Feeling full longer
- Fat burning
- Increased mental clarity
- Decrease in hunger
- Reduced cravings for sugar
- Balanced blood sugar and energy levels
Common keto mistakes
While the idea of keto may sound simple, with such specific ratios of macros required, it can actually be confusing to know what to eat. If you’re trying to lose fat with a keto diet, it can be challenging to determine the proper combination of fats, carbs, and proteins in a DIY meal plan. Success requires careful macro planning, meal prepping, and timed eating. With all of these moving parts, it can be easy to make mistakes. These are some of the more common mistakes folks make when attempting a DIY keto plan.
Only eating unhealthy, high-fat foods.
While you can get into ketosis by eating cheese and bacon all day, this is not a healthy way to do it. Overdoing the amount of fat you eat doesn’t always lead to weight loss as the body will burn the fat you’re eating, not the fat you’re storing as bodyfat.
Taking exogenous ketones.
Remember, ketosis is a physiological state. Taking exogenous ketones will allow you to burn the ketones you’ve consumed, but not burn your stored fat. If your goal is to lose weight, your body needs to make its own ketones by getting into ketosis.
Not planning ahead.
Doing a DIY keto plan takes meticulous planning and constantly tracking your macros. It can be difficult to get in just the right amount of fats, carbs, and protein for your body. Failing to plan can cause you to make choices that can throw you out of ketosis. For example, reaching for a “100 calorie” snack pack when you’re in a pinch and on the go can knock you out of ketosis due to the small amount of extra carbs or sugars.
Consuming too many carbs.
Be sure to avoid vegetables that are high on the glycemic index. Just a few extra tomatoes or the wrong protein bar can be enough to kick you out of ketosis. This will leave you feeling groggy and hungry while stalling out your weight loss efforts.
Thinking calories matter most.
Calories do matter, but ketosis is not just about calories in and calories out. It’s about getting your body into fat-burning mode.
Failing to balance electrolytes.
Not getting in all of your electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium, or creating an imbalance between them, can lead to issues like feeling faint, low energy, brain fog, insomnia, and more.
Not working with a coach.
The ShiftSetGo program is a coached and planned nutritional ketogenic diet. Our members receive personalized, one-on-one coaching support to take the guesswork out of designing a program that works for them.
A custom keto diet for you.
Many keto plans and products available today do nothing more than push the simple idea of increasing fat and reducing carbs. While this general approach could technically help you achieve and maintain ketosis, if your goal is to lose body fat while optimizing your health, you want to be in a state of nutritional ketosis. To be successful, you need to find a plan that not only meets your macros, but also keeps an eye on your overall nutrition. That’s exactly what the ShiftSetGo program does.
The ShiftSetGo program is a diet low in carbs and low in fats with a moderate protein intake. This allows the body to produce ketones to be used as energy while burning its own fat stores (rather than the fat from food). The combination of perfectly portioned ShiftSetGo meals and expert one-on-one coaching is what makes our approach so successful.
If you’re looking for help with developing a nutritional keto plan that will help you lose weight and feel great, we’re here to help. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our expert coaches to learn how the ShiftSetGo program can help you find success on your personal weight loss journey!
