Chapter 5: How Much Weight should You Expect to Lose on the Keto Diet?
Make no mistake, the keto diet works just as most other diets on the market work. Think about it.
If people did not lose weight after they buy a diet book and carried out its tips and tricks, that book will soon be out of print.
The great thing about the global market for weight-loss products (and all the other markets for that matter) is that it has a self-adjusting and self-policing internal mechanism.
This is called the “supply and demand.” If a particular product doesn't do what it claims to do, few people would buy it. The word will get out and people would stop buying that product.
This is why I could say with full conviction that the majority of weight- loss books out there work. Most of those programs do deliver.
The problem is there are two timelines involved. You can't just focus on the first timeline. I am, of course, talking about short-term weight loss. Sure, you go on a diet and within the first three weeks, you lose quite a bit of weight. Awesome! The problem is can you sustain it, so you keep the weight off for life?
Sadly, when the conversation turns in that direction, most people fail with most diets. There I said it! The reason is simple. A lot of us start to fight ourselves the moment we try to change ourselves. We're used to doing things a certain way.
We have certain food habits just as we develop certain life habits. We are the products of our habits. There’s no need to deny this because it's absolutely true.
We can make all sorts of excuses. We can make come up with all sorts of seemingly reasonable-sounding justifications but, at the end of the day, we are the products of our habits.
The great thing about the keto diet is that enables us to embrace these habits that we normally feel we should apologize for. If you like fatty foods, then you, like most other people, would probably be talking about feeling guilty that you eat certain things.
You might even try to sweep it under the rug. You might even try to distract people in discussions but, the truth is, you're entitled to that. That's part of your flavor preferences. That’s part of who you are.
The keto diet enables you to embrace that within a certain framework. As long as you stick within this framework, your love for fatty food or food that makes you feel guilty will actually help you lose weight.
Short-Term Weight Loss versus Long-Term Weight Loss
I can say with full conviction that you can lose quite a significant amount of weight on the short-term with the keto diet. Don't be surprised if you lose ten pounds, fifteen pounds or even thirty pounds or more. If you pair your new keto diet with a moderate-exercise program, expect even more weight loss.
What really excites to me about this diet is not the short-term weight loss. Let’s be honest with ourselves here. Most other diets are able to do deliver on this. Most other diets, as I have mentioned, won’t be in the market if they could not deliver some sort of initial short-term weight loss.
The keto diet is no exception to this. What makes it exceptional, on the other hand, is its ability to deliver sustainable weight loss. In other words, you lose weight and you keep the pounds off.
This is what makes it exciting and, on this count, I really cannot give you a range of how much weight you could lose. It really all boils down to whether you can commit to sustainable weight loss using the keto diet.
This plan enables you to fully prepare to maximize your chances of success with the keto diet. Please understand that, just like any other diet, if you go into the keto diet completely unprepared, chances are you will fail.
Again, we’re not talking ab out short-term weight loss. We’re not talking about the few pounds that you lose the first few weeks. We’re talking about the pounds coming back as you stumble and fall later on. That’s when the whole diet becomes unsustainable.
Thankfully, using our framework, you will get a bulletproof way of losing the weight and keeping it off. You have to get into the keto diet the right way, and this framework enables you to do that.
Intermittent Fasting With The Keto Diet
Intermittent fasting is becoming very popular in the United States.
Let’s face it. Diets contain the word “die.” There's something negative about a diet. You know it and everybody else who has gone on a diet and failed knows it.
The concept of dying is a negative concept. This is very easy to see. It means loss. It means getting left behind. It means disappearing.
People don't like that. They have a psychological aversion to lose such things, and it is no surprise that most people fail with diets.
It's not like they failed to lose weight. That's not the issue. Most diets do work at that level. They will help you shed a few pounds.
The problem is being able to keep the pounds off. In other words, it's all about sustainability and this is where most diets fail. The reason is because people feel that they are denying themselves.
They're supposed to eat certain foods and cut out other foods. It happened so quick and so abrupt that they don't have enough time to adjust.
In other words, the diet remains a diet. It doesn't become part of their lifestyle. They never fully accept it. They never really wrap their mind around it to transform their mind and change their lives. None of that happens.
Instead, it becomes just one Band-Aid solution on top of all the other failed Band-Aids that they have used in the past. I know this all sounds discouraging, but the truth is the keto diet is something different.
Keto Celebrates Fatty Guilty Food
If you love eating, you know full well that fatty foods make you feel good. They make you feel satisfied. They fill you up for a longer period. Your body sends less hunger signals in the course of a day thanks to all the fatty food you ate. But you are also racked with guilt.
This is why the keto diet has been embraced with open arms in America and Europe and elsewhere. It proclaims the good news that you can engage in your guilty pleasures and not have to apologize for them. You don't have to feel dirty. You don’t have to feel guilty. You don't have to feel like you are putting your life in danger
As long as you follow the keto diet rules, you will be fine even if you load up even you load up on fatty food. This is food that you’re not supposed to eat.
This is food that’s supposed to be off-limits to you. You've heard that for decades. Now, it turns out that fat is not the food demon that the scientific establishment has painted it out to be.
Turbocharge the Effect of Your Keto Diet
The downside with a keto diet is that involves a transition. You can graduate into it. You can ease into it. But it still requires a transition.
This is where the intermittent fasting protocol comes in. Intermittent fasting is so popular because it focuses on when you eat, not what you eat. You can eat like a pig as long as you eat within a certain timeframe. Sounds awesome right?
It is no surprise that people are getting on the intermittent fasting bandwagon like it's nobody's business. They really are.
Here is the good news. You can turbocharge the benefits that you get with the keto diet or intermittent fasting standing alone separately by combining them.
By going on a keto diet and eating within the specific timeframe prescribed by an intermittent fasting protocol, you will be able to stick to your keto diet and optimize its results. Isn’t that awesome?
It’s very easy to get excited by the keto diet. In fact, it's very easy to treat it just as another diet. However, let me tell you, if you treat it like any other diet, you are going to fail. By failure, I’m talking about your inability to keep the pounds off sustainably.
The bottom line is simple. It's not enough to lose weight. Anybody can do that. Almost any diet can help you do that. You have to aim for something higher. You have to aim for sustainable weight loss.
Here you are, all excited because you’re starting a new diet and are thinking just how great you’re going to feel now that you’re taking a directed approach to eating in a healthy way designed to help you lose weight quickly. But you're not feeling well. You're feeling worse than when you began.
Chances are you’re suffering from what’s called, ‘Keto Flu.’ Keto flu occurs to almost everybody to some extent about 3-5 days into the Keto Diet. And while some people might feel terrible, most people will experience only a few symptoms. The good news? You can make yourself feel better.
So, what can you do about? Thankfully you don’t have to suffer through.
Most Of The Symptoms Are Easily Treatable. How?
Start by drinking a lot of water – and adding in some salt. Why the salt? Chances are you're using the bathroom a lot more as your body goes into ketosis, so you're being depleted quickly.
So, drink more water – a LOT more water – and be sure to include some salt. That might mean drinking bullion. Or simply adding a teaspoon of salt into a glass of water and drinking that.
Increase your fat intake. As your body adjusts to taking your energy from fat, you're going to need a little more initially. This leads to another thing that might help – eat more. Don't worry about amounts initially, let your body be your guide.
Select items from your allowed food lists and enjoy them as much as you like. As your body adjusts to the changes, it will eventually want less food, and you'll find yourself cutting back naturally later.
Cut back physical activity. Because you have less energy, it's better to take it a little easier until your body gets used to things. Go with yoga, stretches, gentle exercise.
You will have more energy than ever before in a few weeks – you can challenge yourself to that half-marathon later. Right now – go easy on yourself.
Put the brakes on things. It might be that you need to add in a few more carbs in the first weeks to ease the transition. There’s nothing wrong with increasing them a little bit. But don’t go crazy. The whole point is to knock out those carbs, remember?
Keep in mind that keto flu doesn’t last forever. It’s just a phase you’re going through as your body adjusts to a new way of eating. Be patient and give yourself some time to get on track, and you’ll be feeling better than ever before you know it!