No, not at all. Many people confuse ketosis with ketoacidosis and they are not the same at all. In addition, your body fluctuates throughout the day and can be in and out of ketosis. With the ketogenic diet, the purpose is to achieve and maintain a state of ketosis, and that is not dangerous.
“Regular” Diets Focus on Calories and Exercise
The ‘regular’ way to lose weight over a long period of time is to reduce the number of calories you take in and increase the number of calories you use as fuel in your daily activity. Science has discovered that this actually doesn’t work as well as we would like it to, and that is because calorie counting does not address cravings nor does it offer guidance on what type of food to eat for long-term weight loss. Additional science has taught us that carbohydrates and sugar foods are what need to be removed from our diet, or greatly reduced from our diet, for long-term weight loss.
The key to a keto diet is to build ketones. And, the key to building ketones is a mixture of fasting and a diet with at least 65% of your food intake being from fat. This leaves you with about 30% proteins and the last 5% can be an additional 5% of fat or 5% of dark green low carb vegetables like dandelion leaves, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, etc.
On any low-carb diet, you will be reducing your net carb gram intake. It is important that you understand how to actually count net carbs. First, net carbs are simply the grams of total carbohydrates in a portion of food minus its grams of fiber. Because fiber is a carbohydrate that your body cannot digest, it does not raise your blood sugar levels or trigger an insulin response.
You are on the ketogenic diet. You are beyond the initial symptoms that come from transitioning into a new diet. You think you are in ketosis, but how do you know for sure?
There are many health benefits experienced by those on the ketogenic diet. The basis of the diet is that it is designed to get a certain response from the body. Those on the keto diet eat normal amounts of protein, higher amounts of fat, and they keep their carbohydrate intake very low.
Congratulations on taking control of your health! The most difficult part will soon be over. Any time we begin a new diet or habit we can expect a bit of discomfort. And, the keto diet is no exception.
A common misconception for those looking into or starting keto is that you won’t be able to snack. While it IS important to choose the right ones so they don’t knock you out of ketosis, you can in fact snack. There are also many great snacks that will cut your cravings and keep you satiated until dinner.
Snacking with keto isn’t what you were used to snacking on before keto. You’ll need to rethink what snacks are to you. Gone are the days of packages of cookies and bags of chips. Stick to low carb, high-fat options. There are many great ready to go snacks and some awesome recipes to keep you in ketosis, cut the cravings, and keep you from feeling deprived.
