One of the most popular recipes on the site, these breakfast egg bites are perfect for meal prep at the beginning of the week. NET CARBS PER SERVING: 2.1G Carbs per Serving (5 servings): 2.8g Fiber: .7g FULL NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION POSTED AT THE BOTTOM OF …
Ceviche is one of my favorite dishes and it’s easy to make. The fact that it’s keto friendly is a huge plus. Consisting of pretty simple ingredients, it’s a great meal to eat on your own or serve as a party platter for friends that …
One of my favorite dishes at Outback Steakhouse, the Alice Springs Chicken can be easily turned into a great keto dish as long as the honey mustard is modified. Net Carbs per Serving: 1.1g Total Carb: 1.4g Fiber: .3g Recipe Explained According to Outback’s website, …
This Zucchini Au Gratin is a perfect substitute to the typical potato dish. I’m always looking for ways to dress up zucchini. I thought what better way than adding cheese? Not to mention I’m always searching for some more side dishes that aren’t so plain. …
If you don’t have a smoker or live in an apartment but still want some barbecue, don’t fear. There are still ways to make some nice pulled pork indoors. While sous vide and a broiler combination might make for the best meat, using a slow …
Originally a chicken rice casserole, it can be made keto friendly with only a few ingredient swaps. Switching the rice for cauliflower and creating our own crust topping cuts out almost all of the carbs. This chicken casserole is great for meal prep or serving …
Now that the summer is starting to come to and end, I thought it was time to break out one of my favorite cocktails. The raspberry daiquiri is a perfect summer drink, and not too complicated to make keto friendly. Nutrition Total Net Carbs per …
One of my favorite breakfast bites has to be sausage balls. Pairing these with something like our second most popular recipe, the keto breakfast egg bites will make for a flavorful breakfast that will surely fill you up. Egg bites, sausage balls, and black coffee. …
The Old Fashioned, created in the 19th century, is one of classic cocktails that has become a staple in bars everywhere. Personally this is my favorite non-vacation cocktail. How to make it Place one tsp powder stevia in a rocks glass or old fashioned glass. …
Jambalaya is an incredibly flavorful, simple dish. Great for meal prep, large groups, or just getting a healthy dose of heat, this one-pot dinner can easily be made keto by swapping a few ingredients. Nutrition Net Carbs per Serving: 7g Carbohydrates: 14g Fiber: 7g Keto …
Quick, easy, and full of flavor, these stuffed peppers are perfect for meal prepping a convenient lunch or dinner. Made with lean meats and lots of vegetables, it’s a health conscious dinner no matter what type of diet you’re on. Nutrition Net Carbs per Serving …
Like many other keto recipes you’ll find, it’s actually cauliflower that makes up these low-carb mashed potatoes. This easy, meal prep-able side dish is the perfect compliment to a variety of grilled meats. Basic Nutrition Net Carbs: 4g Total Carbs: 9g Fiber: 5g “Boil ’em, …
Originally, I wanted to do a fully traditional and time consuming ramen dish similar to what you’d find in a ramen shop. However, I just decided that since most Americans are accustomed to instant ramen, I would make something more similar to that: quick and …
Any time my weight loss came up and I mentioned keto, I’d always get the same question, “what?” It’s a diet that’s commonly misunderstood, but it’s more likely most people haven’t even heard of it. Truth be told, it’s been around for a while, but might have been under different names. For example, the Atkins Diet induction phase is basically a ketogenic diet. It’s something that can be a little difficult to explain and understand, so I’m going to try to hit the highlights with this article. The blog is called “Keto Smarts”, so let’s learn something.
The keto diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet.
Generally, while eating on the keto diet, you restrict your net carbohydrates to less than 50g a day, although it’s more effective when restricting to 20g. Net carbs being [carbohydrates – fiber = net carbs] because it’s still important to get fiber in your diet for healthy bowels.
Ketosis is basically the state your body goes into when your body switches from using glucose as fuel to utilizing ketone bodies. If you’re not on a low-carb diet, glycogen is essentially what’s providing your body with energy. When you stop providing the body with carbs, your liver will break down fatty-acids and turn them into a different fuel source: ketones. Ketones are another source of energy that can fuel the same bodily functions that glucose does. It might take some time for your body to fully adapt, but once it does, your body will be just as effective as it was on glucose. If you’re familiar with fasting and some of the health benefits associated with that, a lot of those benefits come from the body being fueled by ketones, as when you’re fasting, your body will enter ketosis.
This is where fat comes in. Fat is not evil, despite what you might have heard. I won’t even tell you carbs are evil. Carbs themselves are a completely normal and safe nutrient to consume. However, I will say that sugar isn’t good for you, and it’s responsible for a lot of the carbs in our foods today. In ketosis, you’re cutting out that specific source of fuel and the backup source takes over. Think of it like how a wired smoke detector works. If you lose power in your house, the main supply is cut from the detector, but the battery that’s in there will keep it functioning properly all the same. Once glycogen stops being the primary source in your body, your liver kicks in and starts creating the backup fuel, ketone bodies, out of fat. If you’re trying to lose weight, chances are you already have fat stored in your body, and when your body enters ketosis, it becomes more efficient at burning fat overall. That is essentially the entire thought process behind this diet.
There are numerous health benefits from the ketogenic diet. It was first created to treat epilepsy in children [Martin, K].
One of the biggest questions and concerns associated with the keto diet comes with asking this question. A lot of people might experience the “keto flu” when they first start adapting to a keto diet. I’ll go into more detail on that in a separate post, but one of the common symptoms is feeling lethargic. This tends to make people wonder if it will hurt their performance exercising or in sports. After all, one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle is exercise. The short answer is “no.” However, it really depends what you do. Are you a powerlifter, football lineman, or sprinter? It might not be for you [6]. Are you a runner, endurance athlete, cyclist [7], or just a general fitness nut? It’ll work for you. Basically it comes down to the efficiency of the energy source you’re providing for your body. Fat is more of a long term energy source, it breaks down slower and provides a more consistent stream of energy for the body. Carbohydrates, however, provide a short term energy supply meaning they’re better for faster, more powerful movements.
There are weightlifters/bodybuilders who utilize keto during weight cutting cycles (or pre-show carb cycling) and it might work for them, but every person’s body is different. Assuming that you want to give it a try, you’re the best judge of your own strength and energy levels in the gym, although I’d recommend not giving up within the first week wherein your body is still in the process of becoming keto-adapted.
If you don’t have control over the food you prepare and consume, keto might also not be for you. If you’re living with your parents and have to eat what they provide, then eating on a ketogenic diet might be difficult. It’s a pretty restrictive diet and most it’s going to be extremely hard to eat under 20g net carbs per day without the person who is cooking checking labels.
The success of keto varies from person to person. It might work out great for you, and it might not. I will never say that keto is the only way or the best way to diet. I stand by it because it’s what has worked personally for me. The truth is, you might not find it right for your lifestyle and it might not work as well for you. If you’re looking into different diets and are looking to lose weight, then I recommend checking out keto (that’s why you’re reading this, right?) and giving it a shot. However, I strongly encourage you to do more research.
Also, as a personal side note; if you’re recovering from an eating disorder, I would not recommend keto for you. Since it’s a lifestyle that revolves around restricting your diet, if you have had issues with things like counting calories in the past (or BN/Mia/EDNOS for example) I, again, would not recommend an exclusion diet for you.
As a final point, let me say that even though I’ve linked some studies in relation to low-carb diets, there still is not a general scientific consensus on it. It hasn’t been studied nearly enough, and the true long-term effects are still yet to be seen. If you’re interested in starting this diet, I strongly encourage you to take this information provided and research it further. I probably did casual research on it for a few weeks, if not a month, before deciding it was right for me and committed to it. Educating yourself on the diet and the processes your body will go through is an important first step to deciding if keto is right for you. It’s also recommended that you talk to a doctor or nutritionist before starting any kind of diet.
If you make the decision to jump on board with keto, I hope you’ll look back to Keto Smarts for recipes and some inspiration.
[1] Dashti, H. M., Mathew, T. C., Hussein, T., Asfar, S. K., Behbahani, A., Khoursheed, M. A., … Al-Zaid, N. S. (2004). Long-term effects of a ketogenic diet in obese patients. Experimental & Clinical Cardiology, 9(3), 200–205.
[2] Youm, Y., Nguyen, K. Y., Grant, R. W., Goldberg, E. L., Bodogai, M., Kim, D., . . . Dixit, V. D. (2015). The ketone metabolite β-hydroxybutyrate blocks NLRP3 inflammasome–mediated inflammatory disease. Nature Medicine, 21(3), 263-269. doi:10.1038/nm.3804
[3] Gunnars, K., (2017) 23 Studies on Low-Card and Low-Fat Diets, Healthline https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/23-studies-on-low-carb-and-low-fat-diets
[4] Martin K, Jackson CF, Levy RG, Cooper PN. Ketogenic diet and other dietary treatments for epilepsy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD001903. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001903.pub3.
[5] Ketogenic diet reduces mid-life mortality and improves memory in aging mice DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004 https://www.buckinstitute.org/buck-news/ketogenic-diet-improves-healthspan-and-memory-aging-mice
[6] Phinney, S. D. (2004). Ketogenic diets and physical performance. Nutrition & Metabolism, 1, 2. http://doi.org/10.1186/1743-7075-1-2
[7] Zajac, A., Poprzecki, S., Maszczyk, A., Czuba, M., Michalczyk, M., & Zydek, G. (2014). The Effects of a Ketogenic Diet on Exercise Metabolism and Physical Performance in Off-Road Cyclists. Nutrients, 6(7), 2493-2508. doi:10.3390/nu6072493