Keto seems to be the latest craze among the “diet” community.  Everywhere you turn you’ll have a different answer on what is or isn’t keto.  Because of this, I wanted to lay out how I personally understand and use the ketogenic lifestyle.

Keto Foods

I believe there are no keto and non keto foods. Shocking…I know. The “keto police” will come after you in every Facebook group there is about carrots not being keto.  Ketosis is a state the body enters when carbs/glucose aren’t available to burn for energy.  There are items that will kick you out of a ketogenic state which should be avoided if being in ketosis is your goal.  What are those foods? It can be different for every person based on how your body processes them.  Typically, any food with a high net carbohydrate count with kick you out. It doesn’t make those foods “non-keto;” it simply makes them a poor choice to keep you in ketosis.

How many carbs?

Many people will stay between 20-30 net carbs while others can eat up to 50 and stay in ketosis.  Every body processes carbs differently. Testing on a blood monitor can help you determine if you are or are not in a state of nutritional ketosis.  I have never taken this approach.  When first starting out I used urine ketone stripes to determine if I was in a state of ketosis.  However, they aren’t accurate when determining the level of ketones you are producing like the blood monitor can do.  My opinion here is that they are like a pregnancy test. Either you are or you aren’t, and there are no false positives (unless you are using ketone supplements which I’ll get to in a minute). I can tell now by my body if I’m in or out of ketosis for the most part.  One of the greatest things about this journey is how much more in tune with my body I’ve become.

Real Food

Now you can eat low net carb processed foods and be in ketosis, but that’s not how I like to play this game.  Don’t get me wrong; as a working mom of two, I’m all about convenience when I need it.  My goal since starting this hasn’t been to simply lose weight.  It has been to get healthy & there is a big difference.  I could have lost the 70 pounds I did with a different type of diet, but I didn’t want to malnourish my body, restrict it, or abuse it. I wanted to find a healthy way to do it, and I don’t think filling my body with chemicals, preservatives, and additives is the way to do it.  Now, you will find me with a Kirkland protein bar or Premier Protein shake on occasion when I’m running errands on the weekend with the kids.  I use these type of things to avoid making a worse move like going through a drive thru.  Ideally, I prefer to use REAL food. Raw, Clean, unprocessed foods used together to make a meal.  I’m also not a fan of ketone drinks. Your body benefits from making ketones. Naturally made ketones are made in the liver from the breakdown of fats. I’d like all the ketones in my body to be a product of my butt getting smaller. 😉

Macro Counting

Takes a LOT of time.  Because of this, I don’t do it daily.  When I find myself in a stall or feeling like crap and intuitive eating isn’t working, I will think about what I’m eating to try to find the culprit. If nothing is sticking out to me, I will log for a few days.  It really helps me get back on track.  I do find that it is VERY helpful when first starting out in order to find the SNEAKY hidden carbs. I recommend it for at least 2-3 months.  Personally, I use MyFitnessPal because I’ve used it for years even prior to starting keto.  Carb Manager though seems to be a favorite of many keto-ers.  Do your research and find what works for you. Things I like about MyFitnessPal: barcode scanner, graphs for progress, can build recipes, friends can follow. Things that could be improved: need to manually calculate net carbs, food database is sometimes incorrect on macros or missing macros.

How do you keto?