We all love a good fad diet. It’s entertaining to watch others undergo what we’re too scared to try. I’ve always been one to curse diets, I think it’s a culture that’s become fairly manipulative and toxic, as well as just plain unhealthy. That was, of course, until I gained my own fair share of weight. Suddenly it was summertime and I weighed way more than I ever had. I wasn’t able to eat like I had my freshman year in college, my metabolism had dropped to a slow crawl, and all those late nights downtown and skipped gym days really came with a heavy toll (no pun intended). So, I looked to the internet and friends for advice, trying to find an easy to fix to my now daunting problem. How could I, a busy girl with three jobs, find time to lose weight while keeping my sanity and not spend hours upon hours at the gym?
It took a bit of convincing from a few different people, but after a good cry in the car while listening to Adele, I decided to bite the bullet. I decided I would try the Keto diet.
This may seem fairly easy at first, isn’t it just not eating carbs? How hard could that be? Well, my naïve friend, let me explain to you a few rules and tips concerning Keto and then you can decide for yourself.
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You MUST stay below a certain level of carbs.
Quick biology lesson 101: Your body breaks down glucose for energy, which is provided through carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables and milk products. By creating a diet that consists of roughly 75% fat, 20% protein, and 5% carbs, your body will then use that surplus of fat to provide energy to cry over that useless boy in your life. These numbers will look different for each person, based on one’s personal BMI and how many calories they intend to intake on a given day. Since not only was I doing Keto but also cutting calories, my numbers looked a little something like this:
Caloric intake in a day: 1,400 (ish)
Fat intake in a day: 114 grams
Protein intake in a day: 75 grams
Net carbs: 20 grams
In all honesty, the average person is going to want to stay within a range of 20-25 carbs on a day-to-day basis, because it’s way easier to kick yourself out of ketosis versus getting your body to that state.
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Patience and planning is key.
Keto is tough! It’s confusing, frustrating, and honestly, not very fun the first few days. Your body is taking the time to adjust to the lack of carbs and having to find a new energy source, so most people, including myself, go through something dubbed the “Keto flu”. Headaches and slight nausea can occur, but nothing a little Gatorade doesn’t help take care of. But the key is to plan out multiple meals in advance and make sure that you understand what you’re getting yourself into. Walking in without a plan on what to eat or how to eat will make any sort or progress impossible, kind of like trying to meal prep without the actual prep part. What I found the most useful was going online and searching different “beginner Keto meals” and “what to do when I would rather eat bread made out of glass rather than another stupid piece of cheese ever again” You’ll find tons of examples to help supplement your diet. If you absolutely have to have some sort of bread replacement, there are multiple options utilizing almond and flax flour, which end up making pretty good bread. For sugar, Stevia is a zero calorie and carb option that can be use as a substitute in coffee and whatnot. You won’t be eating the meals of your dreams and most likely won’t be able to eat out anymore, considering most places use excessive amounts of sugar. But there are still multiple ways to get around having to change your intake of food and not being able to enjoy what you did before, the internet is a wonderful place that can answer a lot of your questions.
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I hope you like eggs and meat.
This. This right here is why I actually ended up stopping the entire process. Because the entire diet revolves around having to change to mostly fat and protein intake, eggs and meat become a fairly large factor in your meals. Along with that, lots of nuts and weird fatty foods like pork rinds become quick fat fixes that get you to your recommended amount. I often ate a lot of almonds for snacks and then fatty foods for dinner like BLT’s without the bread, but it’s not for those who are vegetarians or vegans. It helps to understand what food is bad, moderately good, and great to eat, so then you can switch up the days you want to eat more of one thing rather than the other. But staying within the specified macros is extremely important, our else all hell will break loose (joking, but you will kick yourself for falling out of ketosis and losing any progress you’ve made).
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This is not a permanent fix, at least not for a young socialite who enjoys having good times with friends and not trying to constantly worry about what they’re eating.
I was on Keto for two weeks and I won’t lie, I saw fantastic results. I lost ten pounds on Keto in that short amount of time, but that was also due to cutting my food intake at the same time (I was eating about 2,000-2,500 a day and completely dropped to 1,400ish). This wasn’t easy and not all would approve of it, to be completely honest, I don’t think I’m even on board myself. It’s having to restrict yourself on the joys of all different types of food and the fun of being able to experiment with what you eat. If done right, eating can be a really uplifting process. Our body deserves just as much love and care as anything in life and having to watch calories and macros while only eating certain types of food isn’t a sustainable way of living. That being said, it was a helpful start in the jumpstart of losing weight. A lot of it tends to be water weight but it had me feeling like I could finally go out in public again, something I’d stayed away from doing at the beginning of the summer.
Do I recommend Keto? Depends on how long you want to spend trying to figure it all out and how much you’re willing to give up. My mom tried it for two days and immediately quit, the lack of carbs had her feeling some type of way (and not a good one either). I lost the ten pounds I had wanted to lose and lost the next ten just eating healthier and in a less binge-like fashions. Honestly, the entire process really had me thinking more about what I put into my body and how it affected it, just because something was high in fat, didn’t mean it was going to agree with my stomach or make me feel like I’d had an energy drink. It was an interesting experience and I don’t regret trying it out, if I ever wanted to short fix a weight problem, that’d definitely be a way to go. But for long term, learning how to eat food that not only makes you happy but also helps heal your body is the best weight loss plan. So, to all you ladies who feel that this may be the diet for you, more power to you, girl. Just make sure to be keeping a healthy mindset, because a strong girl is a girl who knows how to love herself, no matter what weight she’s at.
If you are someone you know feels that they are less than, please contact your nearest counseling center for help and information on how to heal mentally and physically.
Cook Counseling Center Information:
Main Office:
Cook Counseling Center
McComas Hall, RM 240, Virginia Tech
895 Washington St. SW
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Phone: 540-231-6557
Fax: 540-231-2104
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