frequently asked questions:
Keto Diet
All animal proteins are fine for keto — beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, bison, duck, venison, seafood, and eggs. Even lunchmeats (cold cuts) are fine if they’re low in sugar — opt for roast beef, pastrami, salami, or roasted or baked turkey rather than “honey baked ham” or “brown sugar glazed” cuts. Canned fish and rotisserie chicken are perfect budget-friendly choices, especially if you don’t like to cook. You can even get burger patties or grilled chicken from fast food joints – just skip the bun! It’s great to support local farmers in your area if you can, but your meats do not need to be organic or pasture-raised to get great results on a keto diet.
You don’t need to spend a fortune to get great results from keto. The main thing you need to do is keep your carb intake very low, so stock up when things are on sale. Buy ground beef or chicken thighs & drumsticks in bulk and put some in the freezer for future use. Stick to the non-starchy vegetables that are on sale each week. Look for markdowns at the store — buy meats and other proteins that are close to the “sell by” date and stash them in the freezer. And don’t forget eggs – the PERFECT budget keto food! You don’t have to buy any special fancy “keto foods” or devices. You don’t need to use MCT oil, collagen powder, or expensive supplements. You don’t have to buy only organic foods or shop at fancy health food stores. Keto is as budget-friendly as you make it for yourself.
Not sure if keto is right for you? Take our quiz to discover your own personal level of carb tolerance: https://adaptyourlifeacademy.com/carb-threshold-bonus/
BPC is short for “bulletptoof coffee” – a brand name for coffee doctored up with butter and MCT oil. But you do NOT need to drink fatty coffee to get results from keto. In fact, it often sabotages people and gets in the way of weight loss. There’s nothing magical about putting fat & oil in your coffee. It doesn’t make keto work better or faster. People were doing great on keto long before this trend got popular. Save your money for steak, chicken, and non-starchy vegetables!
It’s best to avoid drinking regular dairy milk on a keto diet because it contains lactose — “milk sugar.” (That’s carbs!) If you need something for your coffee or tea, consider using heavy cream or half & half, which are much lower in carbs. You may also use unsweetened nut or seed milks, such as almond or cashew milk, or a blend with coconut milk. Always be sure to buy the unsweetened variety — the package often looks almost the same as the full-sugar version. And you might find that you don’t need any milk on a keto diet because you’re no longer eating cereal, cookies, and other things you probably used milk for in the past.
Seafood is a great source of protein, healthy fats, and micronutrients (vitamins & minerals), so it’s perfect to include on a keto diet. All types of finfish are fine (cod, tilapia, salmon, flounder, catfish, trout, snapper, etc.). Most shellfish and crustaceans are great for keto but some are a bit higher in carbs, such as oysters. Any shellfish is still a much lower-carb choice than foods high in sugar and starch, though, so don’t worry too much about the carbs in shellfish. And canned seafood is a fantastic budget-friendly keto food. Since they’re shelf-stable, stock up on canned salmon, sardines, mackerel, and tuna when they’re on sale.
The number one thing that gets in the way of weight loss on keto is too many carbs. If you’re struggling to lose weight on keto, start there: make sure your carb intake is ultra low. (Ditch the keto ice cream, keto cereal, granola, and other treats. These are big-time stallers!) The second most common thing that stalls weight loss is too much fat. It’s true! Keto doesn’t mean you can have unlimited fat. If you overdo high-fat things like heavy cream, butter, cheese, and mayonnaise, then your body will get all the fat it needs from those instead of tapping into your stored body fat to use for fuel. Consider eliminating nuts if you’re stalled on keto and go easy on cheese and heavy cream.
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Remember, fruit is “nature’s candy.” No matter what fruit you choose, it’s going to be higher in carbs than most protein foods or non-starchy vegetables. But that doesn’t mean fruit is off-limits. The best fruits for keto diets are berries — strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and unsweetened cranberries. You might be able to have other fruits depending on your personal level of carbohydrate tolerance, but it’s always best to eat fruit in its whole form — no juice or smoothies. Avoid dried fruit, since the sugar is more concentrated. If you love fruit but need to keep your carbs especially low, choose fruit-flavored sugar-free items instead, such as sugar-free jello.
The best app is your own body! Apps to track your food are not needed to get great results from a keto diet. You can use an app to track your carbs, protein, fat, and calories if you want to, but why make things more complicated than they need to be? The best way to keep track of things is how you feel. Is your brain fog gone? Joint pain getting better? Heartburn or acid reflux improving? Are you less HUNGRY? Is your blood sugar getting better if you have diabetes? All of these things will tell you more about how things are going for you than punching numbers into your phone. Tracking isn’t wrong, though. If you enjoy it and you feel it gives you a sense of control, then it’s totally okay to use an app. But it’s not required. You can do totally fine without it.
The main reason people get kicked out of ketosis is too many carbs! That’s it – plain and simple. What makes your body get into ketosis is keeping carbs ultra-low, so if you’re not in ketosis, that’s the first thing to do: decrease your carb intake. It’s also important to know that your ketone level fluctuates throughout the day. It’s normal to go in and out and for the level to be higher or lower at any given point in the day. The good news is, you don’t need a high level of ketones to lose weight or get the other benefits of keto, so don’t worry if you’re not in ketosis all the time.
No. In fact, keto diets are excellent for improving measurements of cardiovascular health, such as triglycerides, blood pressure, and large, fluffy LDL cholesterol particles. Keto allows for eating butter, egg yolks, red meat, and other foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol, but the cholesterol and fat in your food has very little effect on the fact and cholesterol in your blood. Two of the biggest risk factors for heart disease are type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance — and keto is dynamite for reversing both of these.
Keto works for people of all ages. Older people tend to lose weight more slowly than younger people, but it will still happen if you follow the diet correctly. Post-menopausal women often need to be especially strict with the diet in order to get the best results, but thousands of older women have done fabulously on keto. Since older folks tend to be on multiple medications, it’s important for them to work with a knowledgeable medical professional so that doses can be adjusted safely as needed.
