Being on a Keto Diet means that your body gets its energy instead from your insulin (burned carbohydrates & sugar) from your stored fat resources & your food intake (mainly fat). This swap will only be possible, once you will dramatically will reduce your carb intake & increase your fat intake therefore.
You are start being in Ketosis as of 0.5 mmol/l. The ultimately aim during our 30-day reset is to maintain an optimal Ketone level between 1.00 & 3.0 mmol/l for at least 30-days to become Keto adapted. Results are simply not optimal between 0.5 & 1.0 mmol/l, as you will still be hungry and your body does not yet burn optimal, as it goes off ketosis when you eat carbs and then back. Meaning you will be in Ketosis but some hours of the day not, which stresses your body and is not optimal for your diet. Above 3.0 mmol/l you are in a so called “Keto-Starvation” which is recommend, if you are doing it for therapeutic reasons, such as cancer treatment or other medical treatments. However, a Ketone level above 3.0 mmol/l will not guarantee you a higher weight loss. Hence aiming for a level above 1.0 mmol/l is optimal!
Once you are Keto adapted, your body can deal also with some Carb hick-ups, once a while and you will therefore not fall of the Keto wagon immediately! But only once you are Keto adapted, keep that in mind! So the longer you are aiming for a strict diet, the easier it will be in a long term as your body will play along.
Now, here comes the twist. Yes, you still can lose weight the first weeks by only being in Ketosis. But once you like to start losing fat, your calorie and protein intake will play a major part of your diet. That is why, you have to closely manage them to stately lose weight! In addition, I recommend you a 1200 to 1500 kcal diet, regardless of how much sport you are doing (beside you are a triathlon athlete or marathon runner), we will cover this subject to a later point in time. In parallel you will also need to count your Carbs, Fat & Protein aka your Marcos to ensure that you get the best results and stay motivated to a maximum!
So today's first task is to calculate your Macros & get your tracking tool ready, so that you can use it as of day 1! Here two Marco calculators:
PERFECT KETO - My personal favorite
RULED.ME - Less strict on the calories
Below, two well known Apps to track your calories & Marcos daily. You also can do it old school by looking each ingredients up and write it down, I leave that up to you!
LOSEIT - My personal favorite
MYFITNESSPAL - Good, if you create a lot of your own recipes
When I do a reset, I do not track my calories the first days until I am on the right Ketone level. As my daily goal is to stay below 20g carbs per day (attention not Net Carbs), as this is much more important to me at the beginning than calories. Calories will kick in to a later point in time, but the first days you have to focus on your carbs to get as soon as possible into Ketosis. More to come the next days, but first things first! Welcome on board to the #ahealthystepclan!
