Health & Fitness

6 Common Mistakes People Make on the Keto Diet

The keto diet is one of the most challenging diet trends, especially for those who have never seriously dieted before. With many restrictions on your dietary intake, it’s easy to see how so many people have a hard time sticking to the regiment and consistently hitting ketosis. If you’ve been working to make the transition into the keto diet, yet haven’t achieved the results you’re looking for successfully, you may be making one of these common mistakes

1. Making Changes Too Quickly

When starting any significant change in life, sometimes its best to dip your toes in the water and gradually acclimate to what you’re trying to do. This means if you eat lots of carbohydrates, and then decide you’d like to start the keto diet and completely cut out carbs, your body will have a difficult time adjusting to the change. When starting your new diet, it’s a good practice to take small steps to meet your goal gradually rather than rushing the process and giving into tempting foods. 

2. Not Drinking Enough Water 

With the keto diet, you have a lot of factors to consider and think about throughout your day. It can be easy to forget about your water consumption when counting carbs and checking your fat content.

While on the diet, it’s especially important to focus on your water intake, as water and carbohydrates are stored within the same area of the body. As your body begins to burn off the remainder of your carbohydrate storage to move into ketosis, the fluids and water stored with the carbohydrates deplete with it. 

3. Eating the Same Meals Over and Over

Eating the same food for every meal will get boring quickly and can make it hard to stick to any diet. If the keto diet is one you want to stick with, try finding a few essential recipes to master. Have these quick and easy recipes ready to go, and it will help you diversify your weekly menu. The more interesting you can make your meals, the easier it will be to stick to your diet. 

If you’re worried you’re not getting enough healthy fat in some meals, one of the great benefits of using MCT oil is that it’s odorless and tasteless, making it an easy ingredient to add to just about anything. 

4. Forgetting To Count Your Vegetables

When you start cutting back on carbohydrates, it’s hard to think of vegetables for their carbohydrates. Foods like spinach and iceberg lettuce all have carbohydrates, and if you’re not careful about your portion size, you may be setting yourself up for excessive carbohydrate intake. 

Eating vegetables is essential to any healthy diet, but it’s necessary to monitor how many carbohydrates you take in, including your vegetables and fruits, when trying to achieve ketosis. 

5. Not Focusing on the Quality of Your Food

The quality of your food is another crucial part of any diet and the best way to ensure you get the nutrients you need. When you’re already limiting so many options from your food intake, it’s equally important to make sure the food you do consume is the very best that you can get. Snaking on whole foods and avoiding gimmicky keto-friendly processed snacks is the best way to go about the diet. When you choose real foods rich in omega 3, local, grass-fed, or organic, you’re giving your body the very best for a healthy diet. 

6. Eating Out Often

While the Keto diet is undoubtedly growing in popularity, finding keto-friendly options on your favorite restaurants’ menu can be difficult at best. When you’re starting to make the switch to a keto diet, it may be a good idea to avoid eating out frequently. Since finding keto-friendly options can be challenging and may require special requests to the chef, it’ll increase the temptation to break your new diet with all the other options available. Find a few great recipes to learn, and cook at home; the reward will be a successful transition into the diet.

Small Steps to Big Results

If you’re starting the keto diet, you already know the significant changes and steps it takes to get all the great benefits a high-fat diet can provide. By staying focused on your goal and making small yet substantial changes will significantly impact your outcome. As always, consult your doctor before making any significant changes to your diet, and follow your body’s signals.