The Everything Big Book of Fat Bombs: 200 Irresistible Low-Carb, High-Fat Recipes for Weight Loss the Ketogenic Way - Viveca Menegaz (2016)

Chapter 2. The Ketogenic Diet

Now that you have a full understanding of how the body obtains energy and what ketosis is (a state during which your body relies on fat for energy instead of carbohydrates), it’s time to put all that information to good use. As the name implies, the ketogenic diet is a diet plan that puts your body’s innate intelligence to work by forcing your body to enter into a state of ketosis. Your body already instinctively knows how to do this when you don’t eat carbohydrates, but the point of the ketogenic diet is to force it to happen and keep it going for as long as you want. If you’re interested in starting a ketogenic diet, a qualified nutrition or healthcare professional can help you get started.

What Is the Ketogenic Diet?

The ketogenic diet encourages you to get most of your calories from fat and severely restrict carbohydrates. Unlike a typical low-carbohydrate diet, the ketogenic diet is not a high-protein diet. Instead, it’s a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carbohydrate diet. Although your exact macronutrient ratio will differ based on your individual needs, a typical nutritional ketogenic diet looks something like this:

· Fat: 60-75 percent of calories

· Protein: 15-30 percent of calories

· Carbohydrates: 5-10 percent of calories

These are just general guidelines, but most people on a successful ketogenic diet fall somewhere in this range. In order to figure what you should be eating, you’ll have to calculate your individual macronutrient ratios. As your diet progresses and your body begins to change, you may have to recalculate these numbers and make the proper adjustments to your diet plan.

Calculating Your Macronutrient Ratio

The first thing you need to do to calculate your macronutrient ratio is figure out how many calories you should be eating. There are several online calculators that can calculate this number for you, but to do it yourself, you can use a method called the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula, which looks like this:

· Men: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) - 5 × age (y) + 5

· Women: 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) - 5 × age (y) - 161

To make this explanation easier, let’s try using the equation with a thirty-year-old, 160-pound (72.7 kg) woman who is 5 feet 5 inches (165.1 cm) tall. When you plug this woman’s statistics into the Mifflin-St. Jeor formula, you can see that she should be eating 1,448 calories per day. Now you’ll use the estimated macronutrient percentages to calculate how much of each nutrient she needs to consume in order to follow a successful ketogenic diet plan.

Carbohydrates

On a ketogenic diet, carbohydrates should provide only 5-10 percent of the calories you consume. Many ketogenic dieters stay at the low end of 5 percent, but the exact amount you need depends on your body. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this, so you’ll have to do a little trial and error. You can pick a percentage that feels right for you and try that out for a couple of weeks. If you don’t see the results you want, you’ll have to adjust your nutrient ratios and calculate them again. Getting 7 percent of your calories from carbohydrates is a good place to start.

To calculate how many grams of carbohydrates this is, multiply 7 percent by the total number of calories, which, in the earlier example, is 1,448 and then divide by 4 (since carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram). The number you’re left with is the amount of carbohydrates in grams you should eat per day. In this example, the number is 25 grams.

Total Carbohydrates versus Net Carbohydrates

When counting carbohydrates on a ketogenic diet plan, you want to pay attention to net carbohydrates, not total carbohydrates. Net carbohydrates are the amount of carbohydrates left over after you subtract grams of fiber from total grams of carbohydrates. If a particular food contains 10 grams of carbohydrates, but 7 grams come from fiber, the total number of net carbohydrates is 3 grams. You count the 3 grams toward your daily total rather than the 10 grams.

This is a general rule that works for most people. In the case of diabetes or high insulin resistance you might have to start by counting whole carbs instead, as you might be sensitive to the fiber part of the carbohydrate.

Fat

After you’ve calculated carbohydrates, move on to fat. Again, the exact amount you’ll need depends on you as an individual, but consuming 75 percent of your calories from fat is a good place to start. To figure out the amount of fat you need in grams, multiply the amount of calories you need (in this example, 1,448) by 75 percent and then divide by 9 (since fat contains 9 calories per gram). The number you’re left with is the total grams of fat you need for the day. In this example, it’s 121 grams.

Remember that fat is what fills the caloric need on a ketogenic diet, so if your goal is to lose weight, you will be reducing the amount of fat you eat.

Protein

Once you’ve calculated carbohydrates and fat, protein is easy. The remainder of your calories, which equates to 18 percent, should come from protein. To figure out this number in grams, multiply the total number of calories by 18 percent and then divide by 4 (since protein contains 4 calories per gram). The number you’re left with is the total grams of protein you need for the day. In this example, it’s 65 grams.

As your body changes, your macronutrient ranges may also change. When following a ketogenic diet, it’s beneficial to recalculate your nutrient needs regularly—about once per month. If your needs change, adjust your diet accordingly.

Foods to Eat and Avoid

When following a ketogenic diet, some foods are strictly off-limits, while others fall into a sort of gray area. Regardless of whether foods are “allowed,” you still have to make sure that you’re staying within your macronutrient ratios. Just because a food is technically allowed doesn’t mean you can eat as much of it as you want. Use these recommendations as a guideline, but always make sure that you’re staying within your calculated macronutrient ratios.

The Meaning of Keto Paleo

You can basically eat a ketogenic diet and eat fast food every day. Ketogenic, after all, only means a certain ratio of macronutrients designed to induce ketosis. That would not be eating for your health, though.

If you want to maximize the benefits of eating a ketogenic diet, you should also choose whole, unprocessed, fresh foods as much as possible. Keto Paleo means eliminating all highly processed foods, artificial sweeteners, and dairy. Keto Primal includes dairy, which is a valid option if you do not have any food sensitivity or have no trouble losing weight.

Choosing the Best Ingredients

The quality of your food matters, especially when it comes to fat and protein sources. Ideally, you want to choose meats that are organic, grassfed, and pasture raised. Eggs should come from your local farmer or from pasture-raised hens whenever possible. Choose grassfed butter and organic creams, cheese, fruits, and vegetables. Eating conventional foods won’t prevent you from entering a ketogenic state, but high-quality foods are better for your body in general. After all, you are what you eat. Do your best to get the highest-quality food you can find and/or afford.

Fats and Oils

Fats and oils provide the basis of your ketogenic diet, so you’ll want to make sure you’re eating plenty of them. The ketogenic diet is not just a fat free-for-all, though. While following a ketogenic diet, there are certain fats that are better for you than others, although which ones fall into which category may surprise you. On the ketogenic diet, you should eat plenty of saturated fats in the form of meat, poultry, eggs, butter, and coconut; monounsaturated fats, such as olive oil, nuts, nut butters, and avocado; and natural polyunsaturated fats, such as tuna, salmon, and mackerel. Avoid highly processed polyunsaturated fats, such as canola oil, vegetable oil, and soybean oil. Homemade mayonnaise is also an easy way to add a dose of fat to every meal.

Proteins

Many of the fat sources mentioned previously—meat, poultry, eggs, butter, nuts, nut butters, and fish—are also loaded with protein and should be your main protein sources when following a ketogenic diet. Bacon and sausage are other sources of protein that also provide a significant dose of fat. When eating protein make sure to stay within your recommended grams for the day, since your body turns excess protein into glucose, which can kick you out of ketosis.

Fruits and Vegetables

When following a ketogenic diet, most fruits fall onto the “do not eat” list. Even though the sugars in fruit are natural sugars, they still raise your blood glucose levels significantly and can kick you out of ketosis. There’s not a hard rule that fruit isn’t allowed on a ketogenic diet, but you do need to limit your intake. When you do eat fruit, choose fruits that are high in fiber and lower in carbohydrates, such as berries, and limit your portions.

Vegetables are extremely important on a ketogenic diet. They provide the vitamins and minerals that you need to stay healthy and help fill you up without contributing a lot of calories to your day. You do have to be choosy about which vegetables you eat, though, since some are loaded with carbohydrates and do not have a place on a ketogenic diet. As a general rule, choose dark green or leafy green vegetables, such as spinach, broccoli, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, and asparagus. Cauliflower and mushrooms are also good choices for a ketogenic diet. Avoid starchy vegetables, including white potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and corn.

Dairy

Dairy products can be an easy way to add fat to your diet. If you have no history of food sensitivities and have no known insulin resistance, dairy can be a good option for you. Full-fat, organic dairy products are very suited to a ketogenic diet. Use butter, heavy cream, sour cream, cream cheese, hard cheese, and cottage cheese to help meet your fat needs. Avoid low-fat dairy products and flavored dairy products, such as fruity yogurt. Flavored yogurt is full of sugar; serving for serving, some versions contain as much sugar and carbohydrates as soda.

Beverages

As with any diet plan, when it comes to beverages, water is your best bet. Make sure to drink at least half of your body weight in ounces. Coffee and tea are also permitted on a ketogenic diet, but they must be unsweetened or sweetened with an approved sweetener, such as stevia or erythritol. Avoid sodas, flavored waters, sweetened teas, sweetened lemonade, and fruit juices. You can infuse plain water with fresh herbs, such as mint or basil, to give yourself a little variety.

Grains and Sugars

Avoid grains and sugars in all of their forms on the ketogenic diet. Grains include wheat, barley, rice, rye, sorghum, and anything made from these products. That means no breads, no pasta, no crackers, and no rice. Sugar, and anything that contains sugar, is also not allowed on a ketogenic diet. This includes white sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, and brown rice syrup. There are many names for sugar on ingredient lists; it’s extremely beneficial to familiarize yourself with these names so you’ll know when a product contains sugar in any form.

Starting a Ketogenic Diet

If you’re used to following a standard American diet—one in which most of your calories come from carbohydrates—a ketogenic diet is a major change. You have two choices: jump into it cold turkey, or slowly wean yourself off carbohydrates by increasing your fat intake until your macronutrient ratios fall within your goal. When you go into it cold turkey, you’re more likely to experience unpleasant carbohydrate withdrawal symptoms, so easing into it slowly is often the best bet for success.

Carbohydrate Guides

Carbohydrate guides are a helpful tool to use with the ketogenic diet, especially when you’re just starting out. Many books are available that provide a list of foods and their carbohydrate count (as well as their calorie, protein, and fat content). Some of these books categorize foods into high-carbohydrate, medium-carbohydrate, and low-carbohydrate lists. There are also several mobile apps that do the same thing.

Whatever method you choose, make sure you have your carbohydrate guide handy when you’re food shopping so you can double-check what foods are allowed on the diet and which foods aren’t. As you get the hang of the diet, you won’t need to check every single food before you purchase it, but it’s still handy to have the guides easily accessible for those once-in-a-while foods that you’re unsure about.

Prepare Your Kitchen

Once you’ve made the decision to start a ketogenic diet, you need to prepare your kitchen. This is a two-part process: You’ll need to remove off-plan foods, and you need to stock your refrigerator and pantry with the essentials. If you live alone or with others who are also following a ketogenic diet, removing off-plan foods is simple. Go through your pantry and refrigerator and take out all the foods that don’t fit into your diet plan. Don’t forget to check the labels on your spices and dried herbs. Sometimes these contain sugar, gluten, or other artificial ingredients that don’t belong on a ketogenic diet. Donate unopened items to your local food pantry and toss the open ones in the trash.

If you’re the only one in your household starting a ketogenic diet, this removal process is a little more complicated. Instead of donating or throwing out foods that are off-plan, divide the pantry up. If possible, put all ketogenic-approved foods in a separate cabinet and make it a point to only go in there and not even look in the off-plan cabinet. Dividing up the refrigerator might be even more difficult than dividing the pantry, but do the best you can to separate what you can eat from what you can’t.

The second part of preparing your kitchen is to stock up on all the essentials. It’s imperative that you always have foods on hand that you can eat. If you don’t, you’re more likely to get to the point of being so hungry that you’ll eat anything.

Ease Into It

When you’re excited about starting a new diet, it’s tempting to jump right in, but your body will thank you if you ease it into the ketogenic diet slowly. Doing so will lessen the severity of any of the “keto flu” symptoms you might experience and make the transition a little easier. Give yourself about three to four weeks from the time you commit to following a ketogenic diet to the day you actually start it 100 percent.

Although artificially sweetened beverages are allowed on a ketogenic diet because they don’t contain any carbohydrates, they are not Keto Paleo and they are definitively not good for you. Some research shows that even though artificial sweeteners don’t contain any calories, they can contribute to weight gain. Plus, part of the goal is to try to get rid of your sweet tooth, and drinking sweetened beverages won’t help you do that.

During the first week, cut out all sugary beverages. This includes soda, lemonade, sweetened teas, and flavored waters. If you put sugar in your coffee, scale back—use one teaspoon instead of two. After one week of this, remove all desserts and sugary snacks from your diet, including candy, cookies, cakes, muffins, chocolates, and ice cream. This might be a good time to start making some sweet fat bombs and using them as a substitute for sugary sweets, to ease your transition. Get in the habit of not having dessert after dinner. You want to train your body to stop craving sweets, so starting to substitute them for sugar-free sweets is an important first step. On your third week, cut out starchy carbohydrates such as pasta, pizza, bread, crackers, rolls, and potatoes. At this point, you may have already started to lose weight.

When you start week four, you’ll be ready to officially start your ketogenic diet. This is when you should start tracking your macronutrients to make sure you’re staying within the correct ratios. Limiting carbohydrates is important, but it’s not the only goal; make sure you’re also eating plenty of fat and moderate amounts of protein.

Years ago, unless you had the fancy, expensive software that nutritionists use, the only way to track your macronutrients was by looking up each food item; writing down its carbohydrate, protein, and fat content; and adding it all up. Nowadays, there are several apps that you can download on your phone that will do the work for you. Make your life easier by downloading one of these apps—a popular one is MyFitnessPal—and tracking everything you eat.

Stay Hydrated and Replenish Electrolytes

Staying hydrated is always important, but it’s especially vital when you’re starting a ketogenic diet. It’s not only about drinking water; you also want to replenish your electrolytes. When you start a ketogenic diet, you initially lose water, which takes electrolytes such as sodium and potassium with it. Aim to drink the equivalent of at least half your body weight in ounces. This means that, for example, if you’re 180 pounds, you’ll want to drink at least 90 ounces of water a day.

You can replenish your electrolytes by drinking a cup of homemade bone broth every day, by adding salt to your foods, and by adding a pinch of salt to your drinking water.

The soup stocks and broths that you get at the store are a lot different from the bone broth you make at home. To make an electrolyte-rich bone broth, get some high-quality soup bones from your local farmer or butcher. Put these bones in a pot and add enough water to just cover them. Add some salt and pepper, and some bay leaves if you prefer, and let the broth simmer for 12-24 hours. You can also make broth with a whole chicken and some herbs and let that simmer 8-12 hours.

Planning Meals for Long-Term Success

Planning your meals is vital to your long-term success on a ketogenic diet. There is a popular quote, most often credited to Benjamin Franklin, that goes something like this: “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It’s true. The best way to ensure success is to plan your weekly meals, prepare meals in advance, and always make sure you have ketogenic-approved snacks on hand, like the fat bombs contained in this guide.

Meal Planning

Take one night a week and write out everything you will eat all week. Plan your meals and your snacks and then compile a grocery list for what you’ll need in order to execute these meals and snacks. You may choose to make your meal-planning day your shopping day as well. Get everything you need in one swoop and then don’t stray from your plan.

Meal Prep

Once you know what you’re going to eat all week, you may decide that you want to cook each meal individually, or you may decide that spending a few hours prepping your meals makes more sense for you. If you choose the latter, pick a day when you don’t have any other commitments and spend a few hours in the kitchen preparing your meals for the entire week. You can make a quiche, a couple of ketogenic-friendly casseroles, and a big pot of soup. Divide each meal into to-go containers and store them in the refrigerator so that they’re ready to go when you are.

Being Prepared

When you’re on a specialized diet such as the ketogenic one, there is really no such thing as convenience foods. You have to be prepared at all times. You might have to take meals and snacks with you everywhere you go, but it’s a small price to pay for the way you’ll feel. Pack a lunch every day and keep nonperishable snacks like fat bombs, coconut shavings, nuts, and seeds in your car, in your desk at work, and in your purse or briefcase.

Don’t Make It Complicated

It’s tempting to want to create elaborate meal plans that feature a new gourmet entrée each night, but for most people that’s just not realistic. You have to make sure that your new diet plan can fit into your lifestyle; otherwise, you won’t be able to stick to it. Keep things simple by eating the same thing for breakfast three times a week and using leftovers from dinner for the next day’s lunch. You can double or triple recipes to prepare meals in bulk and then freeze them for another day when you don’t have the time to cook.

Starting a new diet is not easy; it takes dedication and preparation. You’ll have to do some fine-tuning and rearranging to figure out what works for you, but once you get the hang of it, it will become second nature.