What is the Keto Diet? A Beginner’s Guide

Welcome to Keto Diet 101! This beginners guide to the Ketogenic diet will give you the knowledge you need to get started on the keto diet and start losing weight.

Now, the keto diet isn’t the most straightforward to adhere to, especially for beginners. Lots of the guides I’ve read over the years go into so much fine detail from the start, that it can be a little overwhelming and feel like you need a science major just to get started.

So in this guide I’m going to do my best to avoid using too much jargon and going into too much detail on the science of the diet. Instead I’m going to focus on the simple steps you need to take to make sure you’re doing the diet properly and will be able to achieve your goals.

In order to help you understand what’s going on in your body on this diet there will be a little science but I’ll try to keep it minimal, and focus on what you need to do. If you don’t understand something or want a little more clarification, feel free to send me an email or pop your query in the comments section!

With that little intro, let’s jump in and get you started on your keto diet journey!

The Keto Diet. Turning you into a Fat Burning Machine!

The Ketogenic Diet is a way of eating that will completely change the way your body gets energy from food, and done properly can lead to rapid fat loss.

The diet is high in fat, moderate with protein and very low carbohydrate, sometimes referred to as a Keto Diet or a Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) diet.

Your aim is to reach the state of Ketosis, where your body stops using sugar for fuel and instead starts to burn your body’s stored fats alongside those in your diet as it’s primary fuel.

This change in working can lead to a range of benefits, like avoiding the post-lunch slump after a sugar high, improved mental clarity throughout the day and an increased sense of consistent energy.

The diet has been around since the early 1900’s, but it’s only recently that people have come to see this as one of the most effective ways to lose weight fast. Read on to learn everything you need to know to get started on the Ketogenic Diet.

The Sugar/Fat Dilemma

The Keto diet is built around the theory that your body is better designed to burn fat than it is to burn sugar. But for most people in the modern world, sugar and carbs are the main fuels we use to power our bodies.

For many years we’ve been told to avoid fats, to eat low fat cheese, skimmed milk and fat free ice- cream. We’ve avoided the fats but still find ourselves with a growing obesity epidemic? Why is that?

When you eat a high-carb meal, your body works to break those carbohydrates down into it’s favourite source of energy – Glucose

It then needs to get that glucose around your body and use it, so your body produces the hormone – Insulin .

Insulin tells your body that it should burn the sugar and carbs you’ve just eaten first, which makes sense. The problem is that while your body is using that sugar, it doesn’t need any of the fats you may have just eaten, so it stores the fat for later!

In fact with enough sugar in the blood stream your body will start turning the sugar into fats too! through a process called Lipogenesis.

Your body gets so reliant on this glucose for energy that it can’t go long without a top-up. This leads to hangry office workers and reaching for the snacks.

So what’s the alternative?

When you reduce the amount of carbs and glucose coming into your body, it has to start looking for an alternative energy source. Enter all that fat that it’s been storing away all this time! Your body undergoes changes in the transition onto a Keto Diet, and eventually enters the metabolic state called Ketosis.

Ketosis is a natural function of your body, where fats become the main energy source instead of sugars. Your body produces ketones from the stored fat, which can fuel the brain and body.

This is a survival trick for when food is scarce. Our ancestors needed this ability for hard times, but we can use this trick to lose weight without the starvation, by only limiting the carbs. Most people have enough fat on their bodies to live off ketones for weeks without food!

Reaching ketosis doesn’t happen overnight, but our bodies are extremely adaptive. When we take away carbs and load up on the fats, it will soon turn to producing ketones for fuel. Optimal ketones can lead to rapid fat burning, improved mental performance and steady energy levels.

Read on for more detail on the Keto Diet, use the contents menu below to jump ahead if you wish:

Contents

• Benefits of Ketogenic Diet

• What to eat on a Keto Diet

• Keto macros

• How to get into Ketosis

• How to check you’re in ketosis

• What’s going on inside your body

• Side effects of a Keto Diet

Why go Keto? The benefits:

Getting into a state of ketosis can bring lots of benefits for just about anyone. Weight loss is often the first thing that comes to mind with the Keto diet but there are plenty of other reasons you may want to try eating a low-carb, high-fat diet.

Weight Loss

This is the big one, why most of you are here. The Keto Diet is about turning your body into a fat burning machine.Dropping insulin levels by swapping carbs for fats stops your body from storing new fat, burning it instead.

It can be hard getting into full ketosis, but once there fat should come off steadily. Studies have found that low-carb diets can be more effective than low-fat diets, even over longer time periods

Mental Focus

Ketones are a brilliant, steady source of energy for your brain.

The mental clarity and consistent focus is one of the main reasons I like to follow a ketogenic diet. Lots of people choose the keto diet specifically for this reason.

With ketones fuelling your brain you avoid the highs and lows that come with sugar consumption and blood spikes.

Controlling Blood Sugar and Diabetes

The Ketogenic Diet can be a great way of controlling and preventing Type 2 diabetes. Studies have shown that the keto diet can be more effective than a higher carb approach.

Keto lowers blood sugar levels and can help your body improve insulin sensitivity, with some people able to stop taking medication for their condition.

If you’re pre-diabetic or have type 2 diabetes a ketogenic diet could bring real benefits!

Control of Your Appetite and Energy Levels

With a more stable energy source to fuel them through the day, many people find that a ketosis diet takes away the regular hunger pangs many experience on a carb based diet.Your body can only store a limited amount of glucose, when it starts to run low it’ll let you know about it for sure!

Your body has a huge supply of fats though, even the skinniest of marathon runners will still have enough fat on them to last weeks! The steady energy levels are one of the most appealing reasons for starting a Keto diet for many people

Cholesterol and Blood Pressure

Ketogenic diets have been shown to improve Triglyceride levels and LDL cholesterol levels associated with arterial build up. Why is this a good thing?

Less buildup in your arteries allows better blood flow throughout the body. Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) diets can also lead to significant reductions in LDL (bad cholesterol) and increases in HDL (good cholesterol)

The weight loss associated with keto diets also leads to improvements to cardiovascular issues associated with being overweight

What should I eat on a Ketogenic Diet?

The key to getting into Ketosis is to make sure your body is using fats for energy instead of carbohydrates. That pretty much sums up your main guideline for eating! You’re going to want to really cut out any sugars and starchy carbohydrates from your diet, and replace these calories with those from fats.

High numbers of carbs are found in plenty of foods, not only junk food. Fruit in particular is a tricky subject as they contain lots of sugars. Up your intake of green vegetables to replace some of the vital nutrients you might otherwise miss out on from these.

What to Avoid

• Refined Carbs – bread, pasta, cereals etc.
• Grains – wheat, rice, oats, corn etc.
• Sugars – honey, agave sugar, maple syrup, soda etc.
• Fruits – apples, oranges bananas etc.
• Legumes – lentils, beans, chickpeas
• Tubers – potatos. yams etc.

What to Eat

• Meats and Fish – pork, lamb, poultry, shellfish etc.
• High Fat Dairy -cheese, butter, cream etc.
• Nuts and Seeds – walnuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds
• Leafy Greens – spinach, kale
• Cruciferous’ Vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower, arugula
• Avocados and berries (in moderation) – raspberries, blackberries etc.
• Sweeteners – erythritol, stevia
• Other fats – olive oil, coconut oil, eggs etc.

Most of your meals should consist of a moderate amount of protein, ideally some green vegetables and plenty of fat!

It’s a good idea to stock up on keto friendly foods at the start of your keto journey, check out this list of keto friendly store cupboard snacks.

Know your Macros

What is a macro? They’re the 3 main parts of your diet – Fats, Carbohydrates and Protein. Getting the right balance between these three is the key to getting into Ketosis.

The ratio you will be aiming for is 70% Fats, 25% Protein and 5% Carbohydrates. It’s important to remember these are the ratio of Calories you want to consume, not the weight! As fats contain more calories that the other two macros the 70% figure is less scary than it might seem at first.

It’s also important to keep an eye on your protein consumption whilst on keto. Your body is pretty clever at finding easier ways to get energy, and eating too much protein can lead to ‘Gluconeogenesis’. This is where your body starts turning that excess protein into glucose! This can push some people out of ketosis, slowing down fat loss.

The usual recommendation when you first start out with Ketosis is to limit your ‘Net Carbs’ to a max of 20 grams. This forces your body to start using the fats for fuel quickly.

What is a Net Carb? Well, sugar is a carbohydrate, but technically so is fibre, which unlike sugar doesn’t affect your blood glucose. When you read a food label and see total carbs listed that includes fibre, to find the net carbs you just need to subtract the fibre figure from the total carbs figure.

Eg: If you see “Total Carbs = 20g, Fibre = 5g” then the net carb count would be 20 – 5 = 15 net carbs.

This can make a huge difference to figuring out what you’re eating as many people who don’t understand this point restrict themselves too much avoiding all carbs. Fibre is really important for your bowels so don’t try to cut this out too much.

How to Get Into Ketosis

Getting into Ketosis doesn’t need to be complicated. The first few days will be the hardest as you adapt so it’s best not to try to do too much at once. Follow the below steps, listed in order of importance.

If you don’t feel up to exercising in the first week for instance don’t worry about it. Energy levels will bounce back to new heights once you’re fully in Ketosis. For further tips on starting the keto diet check out these 7 research backed tips for starting keto

1. Cut out your carbohydrates. 

   This is by far the most important move as your body won’t shift to Ketosis whilst there’s carbs coming in. In the first days try to limit net carbs to under 20g. This really isn’t a lot and can be a shock at first. If you need a few days to ease down to this number that’s fine, that sugar really can be addictive!

2. Increase your Fat intake. 

   This is your main energy source from now on, so make sure you’re getting enough! Many people cut their carbs but forget to add enough fat back in, this isn’t supposed to be a starvation diet!

3. Monitor your Protein Intake. 

   Too much protein can inhibit Ketosis so you want to be aware of how much you’re eating. If you’re aiming for weight loss try for 0.6g – 0.8g of protein per pound of lean body mass. This is an important distinction for people coming from an Atkins Diet with no protein limits.

4. Drink A LOT of water.

   Ketosis is a diuretic process so you’re going to be making a lot of bathroom breaks in the first few days. Try to drink a gallon of water a day (3-4 litres), spread out, to keep hydrated

5. Consider Fasting. 

   Fasting can be extremely effective for quickly getting into ketosis. Fasting has a whole host of other benefits, but is a great tool especially after days where you’ve given into temptation!

   We have a really in depth guide to intermittent fasting you should definitely check out. This really is a great weight loss tool that goes really well with the keto diet.

6. Introduce Exercise. 

   Start off easy in your first weeks of eating a ketogenic diet, as your body won’t be ready for intense exercise immediately. Make sure you’re walking at least 30 minutes a day to control sugar levels. If you want to start increasing you workouts down the line you’ll need to look at your macros more carefully before and after workouts, perhaps introducing more protein and carbs.

   Check out our guide to exercise on the keto diet here.

7. Extra supplementation? 

   This isn’t strictly necessary with a ketogenic diet, but there are products to boost your ketosis and weight loss.

For more information on how to get into an optimal state of ketosis, try these six steps for optimal ketosis and weight loss.

Am I in Ketosis? Ways to find out

There are a few different ways to find out if you’re in Ketosis. When first starting out your body may give you some signals that it’s metabolism is changing:

• Dry Mouth: 

  Your body will be expelling a lot more water than usual, which can lead to mild dehydration and dry mouth. This is your body asking for more water and electrolytes. Make sure you drink at least 2 litres (65 Oz) of water a day, preferably more, and salt your food well.

• Bad Breath: 

  Great right? This is partly due to the dry mouth but also due to the production of Acetone. This is a type of ketone being produced by your body, some of which will get excreted in your breath. This goes away in the long run, so chew some gum for now.

• Increased Urination:

  If you find yourself taking more toilet breaks than usual that’s a great sign of ketosis taking place. Your body produces the ketone Acetoacetate from the fats in your body, which is excreeted in the urine. Drink plenty of water when starting out on keto!

  Reduced Hunger and Increased Energy: 

  It may take a few days when first starting out, but a notable reduction in hunger is one of the best indicators of being in a keto state. Once your body stops relying on glucose your reserves of fat come into play, and suddenly the feeling of hunger falls away.

There are plenty of other ways of checking whether you’re in ketosis for sure if you want to measure further. These include urine strips and blood test strips, but can be expensive, though some people really enjoy tracking the data side of things. For more detail on the signs and symptoms of ketosis and how to check, read our detailed guide to ketosis symptoms.

What’s going on inside my body?

Up until now chances are your body is a sugar burner. It’s always been a sugar burner and has adapted to be really really good at using glucose for energy. Your body has built up enzymes and gut bacteria etc for dealing with sugar, and very few for dealing with fats.

When you switch to a Ketogenic Diet your body suddenly finds itself badly equipped for the task, and needs time to adapt. This means building up the correct enzymes to process the new energy source.

The problem is, until your body is fat adapted, it won’t be able to get all the energy it needs from the fats you eat, and will soon use up any remaining glucose in your system.

It’s this transition period that people find most difficult, and where most of the side effects associated with a keto diet appear. People often report headaches, mental fog, dizziness and bad moods in these first few days. These are all symptoms often associated with low blood sugar, as well as dehydration, this is the infamous Keto Flu!

Making sure you drink plenty of water, and replace electrolytes in these first days is key to minimising these side effects. Add salt wherever you can these first few days to help with water retention.

Fortunately these side effects should all subside quickly once your body reaches a keto state (though keep up drinking plenty of water for general health). In fact, once adapted people find there energy levels, mental clarity and mood all improve beyond their old sugar adapted selves.

Side Effects with the Keto Diet

Listed below are some other common side effects to be aware of, most of which occur during the transition phase at the start of your keto journey. Drinking plenty of water, approximately a gallon (3.7l) a day, and ensuring you’re getting a healthy range of minerals and vitamins in your diet (lots of green veg!) should deal with most of these. Please speak to your doctor if you are concerned about any side effects you’re experiencing, especially if they are persistent.

Constipation

This is usually due to the combination of dehydration, and a reduction of fibre in your diet. Drinking the recommended gallon (3-4l) a day and eating plenty of green vegetables should help with this. Getting enough fiber is really important on this diet so consider trying some Psyllium Husk powder and probiotics if  constipation continues.

We’ve got an in depth guide here on eating more fiber on the keto diet and high fiber keto foods.

Heart Palpitations

This sounds more scary than it may be. Some people do notice their heart beating harder and faster than normal. If this persists ensure you are drinking enough water and consuming enough salt. It may be worth taking a potassium supplement daily to alleviate this too.

Cramps

Leg cramps in particular are fairly common when starting a keto diet. They’re generally a sign of mineral deficiency as a result of losing electrolytes and salts. Drink plenty of water and get electrolytes in your diet using salt or an electrolyte supplement.

Magnesium in particular can be the cause for this so if this persists consider a magnesium supplement.

The Keto Flu

This sounds scary, but is basically a feeling of tiredness/sluggishness amongst other things. The good news is this is totally preventable if you take the right measures. Check out our detailed keto flu guide for more info.

What are the Dangers of a Keto Diet?

There is some perception in the public that a ketogenic diet can be dangerous. The good news is that for the majority of people this is highly unlikely.

Ketosis is often confused with something called Ketoacidosis. This is a condition where ketone levels in the blood reach dangerously high levels and can be very dangerous. This is a condition associated with those with type 1 diabetes mellitus, though it can occur in some with type 2 diabetes and some other at risk groups. For an otherwise healthy individual ketoacidosis is extremely unlikely.

Those with type 1 probably shouldn’t try a Ketogenic diet due to this risk. If you have any concerns please do consult your doctor prior to starting this or any other diet.

Exercising on a Keto Diet

A common misconception around the keto diet is that it will leave you weaker, and less able to perform physical activity because you’re using fats for energy instead of sugars.

In the short term, there is some truth to this as your body is not yet able to use it’s fat stores efficiently. During this time vigorous exercise is probably best avoided, if you do do any exercise be sure to drink plenty of fluids and electrolytes.

Once the adaptation process has occurred however, performance should return, and in some ways may improve. There is a growing trend within the athletics community to use the ketogenic diet approach, in particular amongst endurance athletes. Studies show that these athletes are able to perform as well as their high carb competitors, whilst retaining comparable muscle mass.

Short, intense exercises may suffer from a strict keto diet, as explosive movements such as sprinting require immediate energy from glycogen. For those considering this type of exercise a portion of carbs prior to exercise can give you the boost needed.

If you’d like to learn more about exercising on the Keto Diet, you can read more with our beginners guide to exercising with keto,

Other Types of Keto Diet

A typical ‘strict’ keto diet with very minimal carb intake is a great tool for fat loss. But many people ask the question whether they will lose muscle mass, or not be able to gain muscle when eating a keto diet. The short answer is that if done correctly there’s no reason why you would lose muscle mass. The key is to ensure your protein intake is in the correct range to rebuild muscle.

There are situation however where a more flexible diet strategy is required for those who want to gain muscle, or undertake more vigorous exercise. For these situations you can follow one of the two alternative approaches:

• A Cyclical Ketogenic Diet: This is mainly intended for bodybuilders and those wanting to gain muscle. A strict keto diet is followed for the majority of the week, with a carb refeeding window perhaps one day a week to restock glycogen stores in the muscle. If you are looking to gain muscle on a keto diet a range of 1g-1.2g of protein per pound of lean body mass should be your daily target.
• The Targeted Ketogenic Diet: This is intended for those who follow a regular exercise regimen, and undertake intense exercises such as sprinting or strength training. These exercises require an immediate supply of glycogen as a fast burning fuel for short, intense movements. Consuming some fast digesting carbs prior to your workout should give you this energy boost, and help to preserve muscle mass.

Getting Started on Keto – The First 2 Weeks

Now that you’ve got a basic understanding of the diet, and how to do it, I think it’s time we talked about how to start the keto diet. The keto diet is a very different way of eating from the typical western diet and the first few weeks can be the hardest part.

A lot of people fall off the wagon at this point as it can be a struggle to transition, but I want to set you up for success with these steps for your first fortnight on a keto diet. This brief guide should get you on the right track at the start of your keto journey. Read on to learn about how to do your first 2 weeks transitioning onto a keto diet.

Week 1 – The Pre-Keto Primer

The first week isn’t actually going to be full on keto as I want you to transition gradually into eating a low-carb high fat diet. I find that if I try to change too many things in my lifestyle at once the whole thing can just collapse.

So, for this first week before going full keto we’re going to try to achieve three things:

1. Eat one keto, low/zero carb meal per day
2. Increase our water intake to at least 2l per day
3. Expand the period of time in the day when we’re not eating (a mini-fast) to around 12 hours

So, step one, the keto meal! For this first week I want to keep things as simple as possible, we’ll save the more complex meal prep for later as we only want to replace one meal per day this week with a keto meal.

For me, breakfast is the simplest meal of the day to transition to keto, and it’s one of the worst culprits on a standard diet for high levels of sugar and carbs (cereals, pastries etc.)

This first week I’m going to give you a few keto breakfast options, go with whatever is simplest for you, and feel free to make substitutions if you don’t eat any particular ingredients (just be sure to refer back to the what to eat section of the guide!)

• 2 x Scrambled eggs, 1/2 x avocado and 2 rashers of bacon – this is one of my go to breakfasts as it’s so simple and can be ready in under 10 minutes. To get some extra fat into this add a knob of butter to the scrambled eggs, and chop up the avocado and drizzle over with some extra virgin olive oil (and a pinch of salt for flavour!) I’ll often sprinkle some chill flakes or other flavors over the avocado too!
• Make up a Keto friendly smoothie for breakfast. I personally like to make up this green smoothie if I have enough green veg in the house. Or else I go for this slightly more indulgent chocolate almond keto smoothie. Smoothies are great as they’re ready in seconds, and you can pack them in a bottle to take to work. As you’ll see in a minute, we want to start eating breakfast later and later so I’ll actually prepare my smoothie at home and wait til 10-11am to break the fast. For smoothie ideas and recipes check out this keto smoothie guide.
• Some quick coconut flour and cream cheese pancakes like these with some heavy cream and a few blueberries or raspberries.

Our second step this week is going to be introducing a mini fast, by extending the gap between dinner and the next days breakfast.

Fasting is the quickest way to push your body into ketosis and so we’re going to use this as a tool to begin to adapt your body to burning fat for fuel. Combined with a keto breakfast this could mean you’re spending 18+ hours per day this week without carbs.

To spread out your eating window you can take two approaches: firstly, you can eat your dinner earlier. This is quite achievable but I find there is a higher risk of snacking at the end of the day if you’ve had an early dinner. I don’t know about you but I tend to graze in front of the tv in the evening so I don’t often take this approach.

The alternative is to eat your breakfast later. At this point you’ve been asleep for 7-8 hours and therefore fasting (unless you’re a sleep eater!) so what I like to do is hold off eating breakfast until a little later in the day, around 10am usually.

I’d suggest experimenting with both this week. Maybe have your last meal of the day an hour or two earlier than usual, and push back breakfast by the same in the morning, whatever works best for you.

We’re aiming to achieve at least a 12 hour window of fasting by the end of the week, so try gradually increasing until you reach this. What this means is that for instance you have your last meal around 8pm, and have breakfast at 8am, not too unrealistic!

Ultimately as you become more fat adapted and begin eating a full Ketogenic diet you may find going for longer periods without eating gets easier. Lessened cravings and hunger are one of the great benefits of a keto diet, which can make fasting much easier. I personally like to skip breakfast althogether, fasting for around 16 hours per day to ensure I’m well into ketosis regularly.

The third step of our ‘pre-keto’ week is going to be improving our hydration by drinking more water. Many people are chronically dehydrated, and rarely manage to drink 2l of water per day. On a keto diet, especially the first couple of weeks, your body chemistry is going to be going through changes and the transition to fewer carbs is going to affect your hydration.

That’s why it’s important to get into the habit of drinking more water, it’s great for your health in general but especially here.

Aim for at least 2l – 4l of water per day, during this period, you may find you need more once you start on keto fully.

My trick to making sure I drink enough is to make drinking a pint of water (0.5l) the very first thing I do in the morning when I wake up. This way I’m a quarter of the way to my minimum target before I’m even fully awake. I’ll then also make sure to fill up a half litre water bottle the minute I get into the office in the morning, and have it in front of me at my desk to sip throughout the morning. A top up at lunch, and another pint when I get home in the evening and there’s 2 litres right there.

Any liquids you drink count but if possible, avoid diet sodas etc. And try to stick with water, and perhaps tea or coffee (no milk and sugar!) Green tea in particular is great for those on a diet to aid with weight loss, I’ll often drink a cup or two during the day at work.

By the end of the first week you’ll be fasting for 12 hours per day, and going for perhaps 16 hours per day without carbohydrates. This should have set the wheels in motion for your body to start adapting for ketosis. Try to keep up this eating timing going forward, as fasting will help ensure you stay in ketosis once you get there.

Week 2 – Going Full Keto

Going into the second week, we’re now going to transition fully onto a keto diet, and that means cutting out the carbs entirely! We want to get to a point where you’re eating less than 20g of carbs per day during this period to ensure you properly get into ketosis.

Keep drinking plenty of water as before, this week is where your body is really going to start changing and experiencing some of the early symptoms of ketosis. Think about adding some electrolytes to your morning glass of water during this week for rehydration.

You’ll be shifting your lunch and dinner to keto meals now. Again I recommend focussing on simplicity at this point in your keto journey to make things as easy as possible to adhere to. Have a look through these 10 really quick and easy keto dinners as a starting point to plan what you’ll make this week. Use a meal planner or write down in advance what you’ll eat each day to take away the risk of bad decisions later on in the week.

Snacks! The first few weeks on keto, you may still find yourself getting hungry. In the first few days this can be especially strong. Therefore I recommend stocking your cupboard with a couple of keto friendly snacks from this list, for when hunger strikes.

Towards the end of this week, I want you to try introducing some very light exercise in the form of walking or light jogging depending on your fitness level. Personally when I’m trying to get back into ketosis I just walk as much as possible, aiming for 10,000 steps per day. This light exercise will use up any excess sugar left in your body to make sure your body is shifting to using fats.

Just remember to take it easy this first couple of weeks on keto, so no sprinting or heavy weight lifting this week please! Be sure to read the keto workout guide before advancing to more intense exercise.

At the end of this second week, you’ve hopefully started to lose some weight, you may or may not have been experiencing some of the keto side effects and most importantly you’ve hopefully started to reset your relationship with carbs! (I personally think this is one of the most important benefits of trying a keto diet)

It’s likely you’ll have lost a lot of weight, fast in this first couple of weeks, which is great! But it’s important to manage expectations and to understand realistically how fast you’ll be able to lose weight with keto in the weeks and months to come. Perfect Keto has written a great article, how fast you can expect to lose weight on the keto diet, I recommend giving that a read and using the macro calculator on the page to tailor the results to your own scenario.

The good thing to know is that the hardest part is likely over, and some of the real benefits of eating a ketogenic diet should start to become apparent. For me it was the mental clarity and sustained energy I experienced once I’d got past the initial fog and keto flu. Weight loss once fully fat adapted (4-6 weeks) can be quite easily sustained when you’re a full on fat burner!

Once you’ve made it to the end of that first week, take a deep breath, look back at the progress you’ve made and think of the progress to come. From now you just need to keep going, perhaps start to add new keto recipes to your repertoire, I try to cook one new dish each week to keep learning. Start to introduce exercise, read up some more on the finer details of the diet and keep on going!

Let me know if you’ve given this 2 week keto primer a go, and how you’ve found it. Drop me a message or a comment below!

So that’s the beginners guide to the keto diet. I hope you’ve learnt enough about this alternative diet to feel confident starting out. Got any questions, leave them in the comments below!

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Where to next on your keto journey?

1. Learn more about working out on the keto diet with our keto exercise guide

2. Find out how to get into a deeper state of ketosis with our 6 steps for optimal ketosis

3. Discover the signs and symptoms to know for sure when you’re properly in ketosis

4. Check out these tips and tricks to save money and lose weight with our keto on a budget guide

5. Stock up your keto cupboard with this list of ready to eat keto snacks

6. Keto in a hurry? Make one of these keto friendly smoothies to fuel your day