A beginners Guide to the Keto Diet

What is the Keto Diet

The Keto Diet is a specialized way of eating that allows your body to switch from burning glucose for energy, to burning fat for energy.

The Ketogenic Diet (aka Keto Diet) is becoming one of the go to diets for diabetics. Developed in 1924 as a treatment for epilepsy, the diet has been proving to help diabetics reduce their blood glucose levels, lose weight, decrease the need for insulin and reduce blood pressure.

The diet works by switching the body from burning glucose for energy, to burning fat for energy using a high fat, very low carb diet. The main thing that sold me to try the diet was people talking about how their food cravings went away. One of my biggest problems with any diet has always been food cravings, especially carbohydrate cravings. That possibility alone was enough for me to give it a try.

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Average American Diet versus Keto Diet

Pay attention to what the average plate of food served in a restaurant contains. We all know fast food is huge servings of potatoes (carbs), your burger is on a bun (carbs) and chances are, your drink is filled with sugar, (still more carbs).

McDonalds Big Mac, large fry and large coke contains 1340 calories, 189 carbs. Switch to a small fries and small coke and it cuts down to 910 calories and 115 carbs

Burger Kings Whopper, large fry and large coke contains 1600 calories, 247 carbs. Switch to a small fries and small coke and it cuts down to 1190 calories and 157 carbs.

Think Chicken is better? A 10-piece fingers, plain at Zaxby’s is 1010 calories and 35 carbs. An order of tater chips is 690 calories and 68 carbs. Large coke is 510 calories and 140 carbs. That is a net of 2210 calories and 243 carbs.

For the majority of people the Zaxby's meal alone is more than a full day's supply of calories and about 5.4 times as many carbs as you need in an entire day.

Sure, there less caloric and less carbs choices available. If I am out doing errands and need something to eat, I often get a house grilled Zalad, hold the Texas toast and the fried onion, with an unsweet tea. (I carry Stevia in my purse) That is a reasonable 330 calories and 17 carbs. But most people who eat out, are not there to eat a healthy meal. Sitting in a restaurant with dozens of people eating food you would love to have is not conductive to staying on a diet.

What should diabetics eat?

Most Dieticians for Diabetics allow you 15 grams of carbohydrate per meal and between 1200 and 1500 calories per day. That is just 45 carbs per day. How many foods on the above list are well above the suggested levels? Perhaps a better question would be, are there any choices that fits our needs?

What about a little more upscale restaurants’?

Chili’s offer what they call their Lighter Choice meals. The Lighter Choice Margarita Grilled Chicken has 610 calories and 65 carbs. That is much better than the fast food joints, but more carbs than a diabetic should have in an entire day.

Humans are sometimes too smart for their own good. In the past few years, most restaurants have added a few healthier choices, but when 95% of the menu is junk food that costs less than the healthier choices, it gives people the wrong impression.

Ok, the sales pitch is over, let’s answer some common questions

Do I have to count calories on the Keto Diet?

Yes & No. Calories are not the main part of the diet. Carbohydrates and fat tracking are much more important. Most of us track the calories as well simply because if you ever hit a plateau, tweaking your total calorie intake a little can get you back on track to losing weight.

How do I know how much carbs and fat to eat?

There are many different variations on how to compute your macros, as they are called. You need numbers for total daily calories, fat calories, carb calories and protein calories.

Computing these numbers can be a little hard for those for whom math was their worst subject, but we’ll get you through it. Just hang in there. If all else fails, you can come to our new forum sign up for a free account, then private message me and I’ll compute it for you.

You probably already know this, but here is a reminder because these numbers are needed to compute your macros.

1. Fat has 9 calories per gram
2. Carbs have 4 calories per gram
3. Protein has 4 calories per gram

The only other number you still need to know is how many total calories per day is right for you. Most people have their own little tweaks they have done to the formulas, but for most people needing to lose weight, 1800 to 2200 calories per day is allowable on the Keto diet. Thankfully, the days of doctors telling you to eat 1200 calories per day are over!!!

There are A LOT of websites that provide calculators to tell you what their version of the diet says your numbers should be. Most of them I looked at told me I could have between 2100 or 2200 calories per day. I have a hard time getting 2000 a day in. I just rarely get hungry and when I do, small portions are all it takes to get my engines revving. So, for this example, we’ll use 2000 calories per day. That is the number I shoot for.

Run the numbers

Before we can run the numbers, we need to know what percentages you have decided to use. Again, this is an area where everyone tends to play around with the numbers, the original diet said 70% of calories from fat, 25% of calories from protein and 5% of calories from carbs. If those number ever stop working, I’ll adjust them, but I am liking them as is.

That means on a 2000 calorie diet you would get

2000 x .70 = 1400 fat calories
2000 x .25 = 500 protein calories
2000 x .05 = 100 carbohydrate calories

Now we break those numbers down to how many grams of each macro we get.

1400/9 = 155.5 fat grams
500/4 = 125 protein grams
100/4 = 25 carbohydrate grams

Here’s a free downloadable spreadsheet

Heres an easy spreadsheet. You can give it your maximum calories per day and the percentages you want to use. It will compute the number of grams of fat, protein and carbs you can have.

Plus, there is a daily intake calculator. You can enter what you eat for the day and it will tell you how many of each macro you can still have.

How do I determine my Calories per day?

There are numerous calculators online that will tell you what the site owner considers to be best. My best advice is to check out several and decide which fits you best. Try it, if you are not losing weight, or losing it too quickly, tweak the numbers a little and keep trying.

What sort of foods can I eat?

You can eat anything you want to IF the total of each of your macros is less than your daily totals. In other words, it is possible to sneak an occasional piece of cake. Every person is different, but I was a major carb addict before the Keto diet. I don’t crave carbs like I use to, UNLESS I try to eat a little.

Learn the difference between a craving, an addiction and giving yourself a little treat. You may find that the little treat isn’t worth the effort if it makes the addiction kick into high gear.

You need healthy carbs

Many people think the only foods with carbs are grains and starchy foods, like wheat, rice, potatoes, etc. a lot of vegetables contain carbs too. Much less than the grains and starchy foods, but still enough that the carbs must be counted in your daily totals.

I suggest you build a list of the foods you prefer and list the macros for each. Then you can tweak recipes to ensure they come close to your numbers. Your diet also needs to ensure you get the right nutrients to give your body what it needs. Luckily, there are some low and/or no carb vegetable that can fill your needs with ease.

All the basics are here

You now have the very basics of the diet. You can compute your macros, you’ve got a spreadsheet to help you track your them, and you understand that the purpose of the diet is to switch your body from burning glucose (sugar) for energy into burning fat.

All you need at this point is recipes that fit within the 70% fat, 25% protein and 5% carb guidelines. Rarely will you find recipes that fit perfectly into those numbers but try to keep it close to those numbers and you will do fine.

Where can I get recipes?

We are building a growing list of recipes in our directory. Just click the Keto Diet & Diabetes link on the main page.

If you need help tweaking a recipe you love, you can join our forum where members can help each other tweak recipes, give support and help each other reach our goals.
Of course, there is always Google. This diet is a BIG DEAL and there are 1000’s of websites and probably millions of recipes out there.

One word of caution

Never accept the macros listed on a recipe are correct. ALWAYS, run your own macros as you are making the meal. Everyone makes mistakes. Hitting the wrong key on a calculator can move a recipe’s macros from balanced to off the charts.

Also, products made from different companies can vary GREATLY. Most varieties of cream cheese I have seen contained about 8 carbs in an 8-ounce package. I saw one brand that had over 40 carbs in an 8-ounce package because of added sugars. So, using a different brand than that used by the recipe’s author can make a major difference also.

It sounds like a lot of effort

In the early stages it can seem to be a lot of effort. If you keep a spreadsheet of the macros for each food you eat, it is not as big of a big deal. Once you get your basic list in place, you will only occasionally have to research an ingredient that you have never used before.

I keep a spreadsheet with all the foods I prefer listed, along with the portion sizes and the macros for each. A separate page of the spreadsheet has the same calculator I included on the downloadable spreadsheet. Each day you simply zero out the prior days totals and you are set to go!