Ketosis is basically where your body uses fat and protein for fuel, instead of carbohydrates.

When you remove carbohydrates (or significantly reduce them) from your diet, your body has no choice but to start using fat and protein for fuel instead. By cutting out a major food group (carbohydrates) you will increase your bodies ability to burn fat and also reduce the overall number of calories you consume (which will lead to further weight loss).

Who Will Benefit From A Ketogenic Diet Plan? 

The people who benefit the most are:

1. Overweight Individuals – By following a structured and strict keto diet plan you will lose weight quickly.
2. People With Inflammatory Issues – If you suffer from joint pain, allergies, bloating, asthma, auto-immune diseases, etc then a ketones diet will help lower inflammation in the body.

How Will A Keto Meal Plan Help Improve My Health? 

If you are overweight then the obvious health benefit to following a ketosis food plan is weight loss. The heavier you are the more stress that you place on your vital organs: heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, stomach, intestines, etc.

Losing weight will reduce this unnecessary stress and help you to function more efficiently. A ketones diet also has a powerful effect on improving mental functioning (focus, memory, mood, etc)

Positive Effects of Ketogenic Dieting…

• Rapid weight loss – i’ve witnessed obese people lose anything upto 30 lbs in under a month from following the keto principles.
• Reduced Inflammation – less bloating, and puffiness around the eyes, less aches and joint pains, clearer mental focus, positive mood
• Increased Energy – after the 1-2 week break in phase, people tend to start feeling vibrant and energised.
• Reduced Hunger & Cravings – after a couple of weeks on a ketogenic food plan hunger tends to slow down and your body gets used to the high fat/high protein foods
• Clearer Skin – It’s common to experience improvements to your skin when switching to a ketogenic diet.

Negative Effects of Ketosis… 

• Headaches and mood swings – it’s not uncommon to experience fatigue, headaches and mood swings, especially during the first few weeks. This is largely down to your body adapting to the new keto foods and flushing toxins out of your system. From my own experience and from using a keto nutritional plan with hundreds of my clients the withdrawals typically last no more than a couple of weeks.
• Cravings – if your current diet is rich in fast food/carbohydrates then you will likely experience cravings (again usually lasts for a couple of weeks) when switching to keto. This is because your body is used to the sugars and stimulants, so when you remove them you experience a withdrawal.
• Poor Sleep – carbohydrates help us relax and release feel good hormones that promote good quality sleep. One of the side effects that can happen on a keto plan is experiencing poor sleep. It’s usually a temporary phase and there are supplements which you can buy to help you get a good nights sleep (magnesium, zinc and melatonin)

Celebrities and Keto Diets…

The keto diet has been hugely popular with image conscious celebrities, Holly Wood stars such as Kim Kardashian, LeBron James, Rihanna, Mick Jagger and Halle Berry are all strong supporters of the diet.

“I eat healthy fats all day long, avocado, oil, coconut oil and I use butter, but don’t have any sugar. So when your body gets trained to burn fats, it’s constantly on fat-burning mode—that’s the secret” – Halle Berry

How Long Does It Take To See Results? 

It varies from person to person but from my experience you notice positive results to your health within 4 weeks. In terms of weight loss effects are usually immediate, and it’s not uncommon to lose 5-10lbs in just 1 week.

Does the keto diet work for men and women? 

Yes, it works for both men and women and results are pretty consistent for both genders.

Why Keto Over Other Diets?

The keto diet is really an all or nothing approach, there’s no in between. You are either in ketosis or you aren’t!

Lots of other popular dieting systems e.g. Slimming World, Weight Watchers and the 5:2 diet advocate balance and moderation. They allow sins for example, which means you can have a certain amount of treats per day, etc. The trouble is that although this approach does work for some people, it’s often the very small majority. If you give somebody an allowance of food they will usually over step the mark and then eventually fall of the diet altogether.

In my opinion it’s always best to go for the super strict approach, especially when starting out, and a ketogenic diet is a great way to do this. It’s difficult, but if you can commit to a set time frame of 4-8 weeks and give 100% effort and follow the plan to the letter you will get great results.

Then after the diet is over you can look for a more sustainable, long term strategy. For example something like IIFYM – If It Fits Your Macros

What Foods Can I Eat on A Ketogenic diet? 

1. Protein & Fats – chicken, turkey, eggs, steak, mince, salmon, cod, haddock, tuna, mackerel, bacon, etc (basically all meat and fish)
2. Carbohydrates (restricted to 1-3 portions per week*) – strawberry, banana, orange, apple, pear, blueberries, raspberries, rice, new potatoes, sweet potatoes, porridge oats
3. Vegetables (2-5 x per day) – broccoli, green peas, sprouts, lettuce, asparagus, cabbage, onions, spinach, garlic, ginger, water cress, etc

*with carb choices i’d recommend having no more than 3 portions per week and split up i.e. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. For fruit it would be 80g per portion, for rice (40g), potatoes (125g) and porridge oats (60g) per portion.

Keto recipes…

Like with all diets, recipes can be as simple or as complex as you like. Personally (and because i’m no Gordan Ramsey in the kitchen!) I follow a very simple meal plan, it’s very plain but it’s nutritious and does a great job.

I’ll typically make meals with only 2-3 ingredients, for example for breakfast i’ll have scrambled eggs, cooked in butter, for lunch I have mince meat with vegetables (and throw some spices on top!). I like to keep things simple and basic.

That said there are some amazing recipes on the web, here are some great places to find more tasty recipes…

• 51 Keto Breakfasts
• 20 Keto Desserts

Are Keto Foods Expensive? 

To be honest It can be an expensive diet, meat and fish aren’t cheap! But that said there are things you can do to cut back on your shopping bill…

1. Shop at Discounted supermarkets – UK (Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Cosco) USA (Walmart)
2. Purchase meat from your local butcher – they will weigh your food out to the gram and it’s typically cheaper than a supermarket
3. Pick up Fish from the fish monger (same reasons as above)
4. Buy in bulk (cosco or at the butchers) freeze your meat and fish
5. Buy cheaper fish and meats (canned tuna, mince, etc)

When I follow a keto nutritional plan I typically spend anything from £25-40 ($35- $55) per week on food.

Is The Keto Diet Sustainable?

In my opinion, NO! I love my carbs too much! lol! and it’s difficult to sustain. I have worked with people who follow the plan continuously, but 8/10 will start to re-introduce carbs again. At most I can do a keto plan for around 8 weeks before I get bored. What the diet is good for is for those people wanting extremely quick results.

After a 4-8 week plan i’d advise slowly increasing carbohydrates to 3-5x per week and then re-assessing again 4 weeks down the line. If you do things properly you will not regain the weight you’ve lost.

For example here’s a strategy I use with clients…

• Weeks 1-4 = keto diet (carbs kept to 3 portions per week)
• Weeks 5-8 = keto diet (carbs upped to 3-5 portions per week)
• Weeks 8-12 = keto diet (carbs upped to 5-7 portions per week)

It all depends on how a client is feeling and the results they are getting as to how may carbs I will put in and take away.

Should I Still Exercise Whilst Keto Dieting? 

Absolutely YES! Providing there are no health issues or injuries holding you back I would recommend training at least 4x per week.

To improve your body shape i’d recommend doing weight training. You could also compliment the weight training with cardiovascular exercise like: running, cycling, swimming, rowing, etc

The exercise will help increase the amount of calories you burn, meaning more weight loss, and it will also improve your overall health. Just make-sure you are performing the techniques and exercise correctly. If you are hesitant then hire a personal trainer for a couple of sessions to show you how it’s done.

What happens if I eat carbs when following a keto food plan? 

Ketosis will only work if you are consistent, you can’t do one day on, one day off, it just wont work.

It can take anything from 2-10 days to go into ketosis and it can be easily reversed as soon as you go back to the ‘high carb way of living’! You’ve really got to be consistent and commit to a set period of time, which should be at least 4 weeks.

The devil is always in the dose! Some specialists will say you should have no more than 15g of carbs per day, which would mean that the only carbs you could have would be from green vegetables. Other people claim that you can stay in ketosis with 60g of carbs per day.

From my own personal experience and from working with clients, anything below 40g per day is effective. With the keto diet that I have designed and follow there are 3 days per week where I eat up to 40g of carbs per day, but then the other 4 days of the week I only eat 20g per day, meaning the average for the week is around 28g of carbs per day.

How To Eat Out Whilst Following Keto…

This is pretty easy to do, just choose the high fat/protein options. Here are some great keto food choices whilst eating out:

• KFC grilled chicken
• Lettuce wrapped burger
• Chicken wings
• Bacon, Sausage and eggs
• Meat/fish salads

Also check out these delicious low carb recipes on Pinterest for some more inspiration.

How Much Water Should I Drink?

As a bare minimum you should be drinking 2 litres per day (ideally 4!) The more you exercise and are active the more water you’ll need to drink.

Should I take supplements when following a ketones diet? 

It’s recommended to take 1x multivitamin each day. To help give your body a boost of vitamins. You could also pick up  a good probiotic and digestive enzyme supplement, to help you break down your food and help with digestion.

Video of My Own 28 day keto experience… 

How to Make the decision whether Keto dieting is for you…

There’s no doubt that the keto diet isnt for everybody. Before embarking on this diet ask yourself the following questions…

1. Do you want quick results?
2. Are you prepared to follow it religiously for at least 4 weeks?
3. Can you completely give up carbs (bread, pizza, pasta, chocolate, sweets, etc) for the next 4 weeks?
4. Are you prepared to experience some mental and physical withdrawals for a few weeks?

If you said ‘YES’ to the above then give it a shot.

Grab Your Own 28 Day Keto Challenge…

So after all the knowledge bombs and proof that the Keto Diet works, who wants to try it?

If you like you can follow the exact method that I used to lose 16lbs in just 28 days. I’ve also used this super successful strategy on hundreds of LEP members – but don’t just take my word for it go check out the hundreds of testimonials on my site!