Top Reasons Why Your Keto Diet Isn't Working

Author: Erica Harris | | Categories: Carbohydrates , Carbs , Exercise , Fat , Fat Loss , Fats , Keto , Keto Diet , Ketogenic , Ketogenic Diet , Ketosis , Low Carb , Low Carb Diet , Nutrition , Protein , Sugar , Weight Loss

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Questions To Ask Before Quitting on Keto Diet

While there are many diets out there, no one can deny that the keto diet works for weight loss.

While there might not be conclusive scientific evidence to declare its benefits and drawbacks, a significant number of people have dedicated their time to prove its effectiveness in losing body fat.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everybody’s getting the same results.

A lot of people have posted reviews about how their efforts have been wasted along with weeks’ worth of time that they’re not getting back. It’s plausible that the weight loss benefits of ketogenic diets aren’t supposed to be for everyone, but does this mean that keto doesn’t work for fat loss?

Before we declare whether the diet is imperfect, here are some possible reasons why your keto diet regimen might not be working:

Are You Achieving Ketosis?
Perhaps the most common problem with beginners of the keto diet is achieving ketosis.

Ketosis is the prerequisite for a keto diet. This is a state of the body in which it starts running on fats instead of carbs.

As easy as it might sound, it’s very difficult to achieve. And sadly, most people who think they’re in ketosis aren’t. They could be close to attaining the state but they aren’t in it yet.

There are many reasons why you’re not entering ketosis including factors like an increase in fat, protein or carb intake, sugars, etc. You need to cut back on carbs enough to bring your total carb consumption to 5-10% of your daily calorie intake, in regards to grams, ideally 20 of less per day.

Even if you think you’re eating healthy carbs, chances are that you’re unknowingly preventing your body from entering the state of ketosis.

Are You Exercising Enough?

Though it’s true that 80% of any and every fitness regimen relies on your diet, you can’t rule out the 20% of exercise that is mandatory for keto dieters.

However, this doesn’t mean that your total effort towards exercise should be at 20% as well.

That 20% of your total regimen’s exercise requirement will be fulfilled when you give 100% to your workout routines during your keto diet. Exercising ensures that you burn calories and carbs at a much faster pace.

Not only do you immediately start burning calories when you breathe, but you also increase your metabolism and burn them at rest.

Eating Too Much Protein?

As stated above, eating a lot of protein means going against the principles of the keto diet. Proteins convert into amino acids as soon as our body runs out of carbohydrates to burn.

Amino acids are further turned into different types of sugar that can be burnt for energy.

Sure, you’re not running on carbs, but you’re not running on fats either, and thus, you’re not achieving ketosis.

Another important note to make here is that you need to run your body on fats and must, therefore, include 50-60% fats in your daily calorie intake. Compared with fats, you shouldn’t take in more than 35% protein in your calorie intake daily.

People with the misconception that dietary fats are what causes belly fat are very likely to be a bit extreme towards the idea of eating fats.

Inevitably, if you’re eating too much protein, you may not achieve your weight loss goals as quickly.

Are You Running On Carbs?

Running on carbs is against the idea of ketogenic diets.

You need to make sure that whether they’re healthy or unhealthy, the total amount of carbs in the body remain at a minimum, ideally 20 grams or less per day. This is something most people forget when they’re particularly excited about trying out the keto diet.

In this excitement, people usually end up exaggerating the recommended ideas of the diet, such as eating healthy carbs from nuts and dairy.

Some people take this a bit too far and end up consuming a lot of these foods. This inevitably also leads to preventing your body from achieving total ketosis.

Are You Measuring Your Calorie Intake?

Some people believe that unmeasured and measured caloric intake ultimately causes no change in the outcome of the diet. It’s true, the problems of successfully measuring your food intake are just too many.

Not only do you have difficulties knowing which calculator is telling you the accurate information for the particular food item, but you’re also never able to make your meals if you’re not doing everything to the letter.

This is where you need to do a little more effort than just dieting and exercising. Some calculators might offer variable information about different products. However, you can calculate a mean or average.

Once you know the items that you want to eat, and have a collection of food items verified and measured, you can easily toss them around in combinations and try variations on a daily basis. Just make sure that your total consumption in terms of carbs, proteins, fats, sugars, etc.

Snacking and Drinking

To run on fats, your body needs to have nothing other than fats for them to burn. This means snacking on even dry fruits and low-carb items will ultimately delay your ketosis.

Whether you’re trying to lose love handles or lose overall body fat, ketosis is necessary and will be delayed if you snack or drink. Drinking is a problem because while hard drinks might not have many carbs, they do come with a large number of calories. Calorie intake increase will inevitably delay your body’s fat-burning state.

Conclusion

To summarize, you need to make sure that all your efforts are directed towards achieving the state of ketosis, which is not that easily and quickly attained.

Moreover, with diet, you need to exercise while making sure your attempts at both are on point, sufficient, and calculated.

There’s a reason medical professionals recommend keto to people with diabetes and trainers recommend it to people trying to lose weight.

Before declaring the diet obsolete, make sure to try everything right.

Happy fat loss,

Tyron

 

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