Thousands of people are going on the Keto diet. It has been proved to bring about amazing results to your body.
However, many people still cannot reach their target, some even give up after one or two weeks of restricting carbohydrates.
What’s the reason? Scroll down and you’ll know the top 15 most common mistakes on the keto diet that might ruin all of your efforts:
#1. Not preparing for the Keto flu
A lot of women didn’t research carefully before being on keto, and of course, they never know the existence of the so-called “keto flu”.
Then, when they confront scary symptoms like muscle cramps, nausea, aches, and fatigue, they start to think keto is not for them.
The fact is, as your body transitions from a carbohydrate burner to a fat burner, most likely you will experience the above symptoms. This is quite normal to many people.
However, it doesn’t happen to everyone. You need to prepare yourself for this feeling, and you may try eating foods rich in potassium, magnesium, and sodium, as well as keep your body hydrated to ease the symptoms.
But don’t worry, the Keto flu won’t last long. It only takes about 2 weeks then your body will get used to the diet!
#2. Not drinking enough water
This is one of the most common mistakes when you’re on a keto diet. Normally, people tend to focus too much on the list of daily food but forget about hydration. That’s not the right way.
Actually, staying hydrated is important no matter what diet you follow. However, it would be even more important during a low-carb journey. Once you start restricting carbohydrate intake, you will confront several side effects, including dehydration.
The reason for this is that carbohydrates are responsible for holding water and sodium in your body.
Therefore, when you restrict carbs, they are excreted, which means you retain less water and need to supplement more water.
Otherwise, it’s gonna lead to headaches, fatigue, dry mouth, and flu-like symptoms.
#3. Not eating enough fat
Keto is not simply all about low-carb, it’s also a high-fat diet.
To keep your body stay in ketosis and promote fat burn as well as minimize carb cravings, you must maintain your daily meal including 75% of the calories coming from healthy fats, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbs.
#4. Not sleeping enough
Good sleep is extremely important, no matter whether you’re going on a diet or not.
But during a diet, especially when being on ketosis, getting enough sleep is crucial. Otherwise, your body will be put under stress, leading to less effective metabolism and your body will tend to store fat for support.
Many people just care about what they eat but still keep their bad habit to stay up late every night. If you are one of them, you had better get enough sleep from now on.
#5. Eating Too Much Protein
A lot of people are making this keto diet mistake. You might think eating protein as much as possible is good for your health, but actually, it’s not.
When your body has too much protein, the excess amount will be converted into glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis.
This is a natural process by which the body will convert energy from proteins and fats into glucose when glucose is not available.
When you are on a low-carb or keto diet, this process needs to occur at some rate to maintain body function. It takes time for your body to switch from running on glucose to running on fat.
That’s why in the first several weeks when you just start with keto, your body tends to burn any extra glucose made through gluconeogenesis, instead of burning fat for fuel.
If you eat too much protein at this period, it may take you more time to get into ketosis.
#6. Eating Hidden Carbs Without Realizing It
Sometimes you think you have minimized successfully the amount of carbs intake, but you don’t know that there are a lot of hidden carbs in some foods, for example, condiments, sauces, and salad dressings (tomato sauce, ketchup, etc.)
Although they are not the main dishes, you are still eating them every day. Therefore, always check the nutrition information before trying new food.
It wouldn’t take much time, you just need to scan the label of each product, and the result may be different.
#7. Cutting Carbs and Increasing Fat Too Much Too Quickly
A standard keto diet requires eating under 50 grams of carbs per day (normally recommended only 20 grams).
However, when you start going on a keto, your body may need time to adapt, especially when you have been familiar with eating cereal, sandwiches, or pasta. 20 grams of carbs may come from a medium apple, so it would be a drastic change for your body.
So, consider changing step by step before actually getting on ketosis!
#8. Not Salting Your Food Enough
I know some people don’t like salty foods. But if you don’t consume enough salt during your keto journey, you are not going on the right track.
This is one of the biggest mistakes on the keto diet that you might not be aware of.
The reason why you need to salt your food is that when you’re on a keto, the clearance of ketones causes the body to lose sodium.
And since you have kicked out the top source of salt from bread, chips, crackers, or cookies, you will get much less table salt (comprised of 40 percent sodium and 60 percent chloride).
So, start seasoning your meal with salt!
#9. Not paying attention to the vegetables
Vegetables may be good for your health, but they do have carbohydrates. It means you will have to keep an eye on how much you eat – even lettuce.
Otherwise, you could overconsume carbs, and get kicked out of ketosis.
The vegetable is necessary for your body because they contain fiber that helps to prevent constipation, but you need to control the amount of carbs intake from it.
If you feel that’s too complicated, you can try going for nonstarchy options like leafy greens, cucumber, tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, and asparagus.
#10. Forgetting about food quality
People usually emphasize too much carb counting, but forget about food quality. This is a keto diet mistake that anyone might make.
The fact is, focusing on higher-quality products when the budget allows will also help to improve your health.
You can do it by choosing foods rich in omega 3, such as wild salmon, grass-fed, local, or organic meats, and snacking on whole foods rather than processed keto-approved treats.
#11. Not asking your doctor before going on a diet
This might be a serious problem if the keto menu is not suitable for your health condition. Remember that keto is not a diet for everyone.
It can help to treat some kind of illness or even cancer but you need to ask your doctor before following along, especially when you are using the medicine.
#12. Eating Too Much Dairy
When you talk about keto, you automatically think about consuming as much fat as possible and eating dairy every day can be a key.
However, dairy contains not only fat but also protein, and carbs (from the naturally occurring milk sugar, and lactose).
Therefore, if you are eating cheese for its fat content, you’re also getting a dose of protein and carbs along with that fat.
So, pay attention to the amount of dairy you consume every day!
#13. Overeating calories
You might not care about the amount of food you eat, since you think the fat content is more important.
Yes, it’s true that fat should account for 75% of calories per day, but if you take in more calories than your body actually burns, you’ll only gain weight, no matter what you eat, since excess calories are stored as body fat.
Therefore, you must also watch your calorie intake based on your gender, height, and activity.
#14. Eating Too Many Keto Sweets
A lot of people only look at the information on the net carb of snacks and then think it’s okay to eat keto cookies and brownies full of sugar substitutes.
However, you’re still consuming lots of calories, and constantly eating sweet foods may increase your cravings for carbs.
So, don’t eat too many sweets in your daily meals!
#15. Snacking too much
When we talk about the keto diet’s common mistakes, we cannot ignore excessive snacking. Of course, there are a lot of great snacks for keto followers like seeds, cheese, avocado, and nuts.
However, snacking too much may sneak excess calories into your diet while also giving your body an easier fuel source to burn body fat.
Remember, snacks should only be used between meals when you feel too hungry, don’t eat too much!
That’s it! I hope the above information is useful for you to maintain your keto journey for a better future!
Try to be patient, especially in the first several weeks and the ketosis in your body will automatically be switched on!!!