Guide to Ketosis: The Keto Diet

What is Ketosis?

Ketosis is a metabolic process that involves your body getting more energy from burning fat instead of carbohydrate sugars. Your body normally functions by burning glucose sugars for energy and delivering it to cells throughout the body. However, when you are starving, fasting, or on an extremely low-carb diet, the body opts to burn fat instead of sugar as there is an extremely minimal amount of sugar in the body to burn.

On the ketosis diet, you drastically reduce your carbohydrate intake, limiting your consumption to about 20-50g a day. So, your body quickly burns through that limited glucose and turns to burning through your stored fat for energy instead. This is why it is known as a weight-loss diet, as your body will burn excess fat more quickly. This is why the keto diet is a high-fat diet, as that is your body’s main source of energy.

Ketosis is a diet-centered weight-loss program that is incredibly well known, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come with cautions. Many who go on the keto diet experience the ketosis flu, which is a variety of flu-like symptoms that lasts for a few days as your body enters ketosis. If your symptoms last longer than a week, head to the doctor to get your carbs, protein, and fat levels checked.

Because you are essentially cuing your body into starvation mode, the keto diet is not a permanent diet, as you do not want to be in ketosis for prolonged periods of time. This diet’s purpose is to help you lose weight and then to adopt a rounded, healthy diet and lifestyle to maintain your weight loss.

Continue reading about the pros and cons of ketosis here.

Ketosis Diet

The keto diet itself involves eating foods that are low in carbohydrates and high in fat, because when in ketosis, fat is the body’s main source of fuel. The keto diet limits your carbohydrate intake to 20-50 grams per day. To compensate for the lack of carbs and to maintain ketosis, you must consume a large amount of healthy fats and a moderate amount of protein. This means following an extensive list of can- and cannot- eat foods that are low-carb, high-fat.

Protein

The best protein-packed foods for the keto diet are cuts of meat that are unprocessed and high in healthy fats. There are meats that are high in protein but don’t have a large fat content, so for your keto diet journey to be the most successful, pick certain cuts of meat for your high fat and protein meals. For example, if you like chicken as a protein source, choose chicken thighs because dark meat has a higher fat content than light meat. Here are some keto-friendly meat cuts that contain a moderate amount of protein and a high fat content.

Rib-eye steak
Ground beef (higher fat content beef such as 80/20 or 70/30)
Pork Belly
Beef Brisket
Chicken Thighs
Lamb chops
Venison
Beef Liver
Duck breast
King salmon

Produce

Produce can be tricky when you are on the keto diet as there is some produce that is extremely low-carb and others that have a high carbohydrate content. To fit into the keto-friendly category a fruit or vegetable must have low net carbs, low GI index, and be extremely nutrient dense. This is required because you want to minimize blood sugar spikes and have a sufficient amount of fiber. Not all produce is keto-friendly, so here is a handy list of all the non-keto and keto-friendly produce.

Non-Keto Carbs: These foods are all either high in carbohydrates and/or have a high starch content that can also lead to a high amount of sugar.

Root Vegetables- potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips
Legumes: chickpeas, green peas, lentils
Bananas
Grapes
Apples
Oranges
Pineapples
Corn
Beets

Keto-Friendly Produce: The best produce for the keto diet is low-carb and nutrient dense produce such as:

Avocados
Berries
Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Green Beans
Spinach
Zucchini

Dairy

Again, the best dairy options are ones that are high in fat and low in carbohydrate sugars, as when your body is in ketosis it will need high fat foods to burn for fuel. Keto-friendly dairy products include:

Hard cheeses
Cottage Cheese
Plain Greek Yogurt
Butter
Heavy Cream
Sour Cream

Non-Keto Friendly Foods

These foods all contain a large amount of carbohydrates and /or sugar. These two components are about as anti-keto as you can get. Eating foods containing a lot of carbohydrates will prevent your body from entering ketosis.

Bread
Pasta
Rice
Processed Snacks
Grain-based alcoholic drinks
Fruit juice
Desserts/sweets
“Low-fat” products

The Keto Diet and Diabetes

If you start exploring the keto diet or have already adopted it, you might notice that a large number of keto diet recipes are also diabetic-friendly. Folks with diabetes have to watch their b lood sugar and one of the best ways to do this is to consume sugar strategically. The keto diet makes this easier to do as all keto recipes contain as little sugar and carbohydrates as possible. So, if you are diabetic, the keto diet might be something to consider, but even if you aren’t interested in a restrictive diet change, following some keto recipes can help keep your diabetes under control. However, please talk to your doctor before making any major diet changes.

Keto Diet Tips and Tricks

Here are a few of our best articles for tips and tricks answering all your questions about the Keto diet, from where to start, to what eat, and the benefits of being in ketosis.

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Keto Recipes

The keto diet can be hard to follow as there are lots of foods you can and cannot eat on the diet. It can get tricky to remember and prepare regular keto-friendly meals so here are some recipes and tips to help you cook and plan your keto compliant meals.