4 Reasons You May Not be Losing Weight
If Your Keto Diet Doesn't Seem to be Working...
The ketogenic diet has been proven to be a very effective method of weight loss. Thousands of people all over the world have tried it and the results have been amazing.
It’s not as stringent and unforgiving as the paleo diet, but it’s also not as lenient as the Mediterranean diet. There are a few rules to follow with the ketogenic diet to ensure that you lose fat.
Usually when people face setbacks with the keto diet, they’re probably flouting one of the rules without realizing it. In this article, we’ll look at a few reasons why your weight loss is not happening even though you’re on a keto diet.
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1. You’re not in ketosis
This is probably the most obvious reason and also the one most overlooked. Ketosis is a situation where the body is burning fat for fuel instead of glucose. That’s what makes this diet so powerful.
People who are not on the ketogenic diet usually need to cut their carbohydrates and adopt other methods such as intermittent fasting in order for the body to burn its fat stores.
With the keto diet, since most of your diet will be fat, your body will realize that it has no shortage of fat, and it will burn off your fat stores more readily. You should always check if you’re in ketosis to ensure that your body is in fat burning mode.
2. You’re at a caloric surplus
This is another common slip up. Even with the best diet on the planet, if you’re eating more calories than you expend, you will gain weight, or you won’t see any change on the scale.
You must be at a daily caloric deficit of 500 calories. Once you do this, your body will shed the fat fast.
The best way to ensure that you're in a caloric deficit is to exercise. To really accelerate your weight loss and increase your fitness level, get my new book 4 Minute Keto. It's published on Amazon, but you can get it for immediate download.
3. You’re eating too much carbs and/or protein
The keto diet is a fat-based diet. The majority of your calories have to come from fat. This is not as easy as it sounds. Most people are so used to diets high in carbs and protein that making a switch to a diet high in fat is quite a challenge.
Sneaking in a small bit of carbohydrates or protein can affect ketosis. Trying to achieve a state of ketosis requires a few conditions to be in place. Even a slight error on your part can take you out of ketosis and halt your fat loss. So, you must be aware of what you’re eating.
Aim for 20 grams of carbs per day, and only 20 percent of your calories should come from protein. The rest of the calories come from fat. This is the general requirement to achieve ketosis.
4. Leptin resistance
This is a condition that can be fixed by getting sufficient sleep, de-stressing, reducing inflammation by cutting out sugar and so on. It’s just a matter of giving your body time to adjust to the keto diet.
Once your leptin sensitivity is restored, your body will know how much to eat, and how much fat to shed and so on. It just needs time to adapt. So, be patient.
Most issues related to failing with the keto diet can be traced back to one of these 4 issues. Analyze why you’re not losing the weight before you think of quitting.
Track your foods, measure your food portions, test and see if you’re on ketosis and give your body time to get used to the diet before it starts torching the fat.
“Patience and persistence are an absolute must as you pursue ketosis.” – Dr. Eric Westman
Does Keto Make You Look Younger?
The short answer is YES.
And there are sound scientific reasons for it.
(Quite aside from the fact that Halle Berry, who's 50 but looks 30, is a keen advocate of the Ketogenic diet.)
New research from the Gladstone Institute for Virology and Immunology in San Francisco suggests that following a Ketogenic diet could slow aging.
In fact, following the low-carb, high-fat ketogenic eating plan may prevent age-related conditions, such as heart disease, Alzheimer's and even cancer, according to the researchers.
During carbohydrate 'starvation', the body releases a chemical, known as β-hydroxybutyrate (βOHB), which protects cells from 'internal stress', the study found. And such stress is linked to genetic damage in cells, which can cause ageing.
Study author Dr Katerina Akassoglou said "These findings could be relevant for a wide range of neurological conditions, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, autism and traumatic brain injury. These diseases afflict millions of people and there are few treatment options."
The Keto diet forces the body to burn fat, rather than carbohydrates, for energy, which effectively starves it of carbs but not calories. Long touted as the ideal weight loss diet, it would now appear to have many other benefits as well, including anti-aging.