You don’t have to know it all to start; you just have to decide to do it. Now, I know for me and probably every other human, that moment where you’ve completely had enough of being overweight or feeling unhealthy will hit you, but it has to be in your time. You have to decide you want this for you, not because someone else says you should lose weight (unless it is a doctor, then that should probably incentive enough).
You may have thought for a long time you are unhappy with your weight and perhaps it makes you feel low and unmotivated, which then becomes a vicious cycle. Well, the good news, this blog is here to help you and support you on your journey and I will endeavour to give you all the information you need, in one place to start and keep going.
First things first you need to have clear, realistic goals. Having an aim will help you stay on track.
1 – Goals: understanding weight
Do you have a specific weight or health goal you are trying to achieve? If you aren’t sure what the ideal weight for your height is, it is sensible to calculate it. BMI is a very crude calculation for overall health as it doesn’t take into account muscle mass, but you can use it as a guide. Calculate yours here: NHS England. Whilst being overweight is not ideal, neither is being underweight, so being clear on what is healthy for you is important. We are all different and low weight in itself doesn’t mean healthy.
If you are an active person, or you do a lot of weights or heavy lifting at work, you will likely have a good muscle mass. Muscle weighs more than fat. You will lose fat with keto, but not muscle. However, if you consume too few calories in a day then your body will go into starvation mode and retain fat, leaving you with those fat stores you may desperately want to get rid of.
If you are like me and an inactive potato for whatever reason, your muscle mass will be low. So once the fat is reduced, you will be lighter than your active counterpart. I will work on posts about how you can increase your muscle mass if you don’t like sports or “fitness” or you can’t do it. Maybe you want to do keto to feel healthier and gain more energy, so perhaps your goal might be something like being able to run or walk a certain distance. Whatever your goal is, be clear about it and revisit it along your journey to see if you need to rethink it.
2 – Goals: the major 3 macronutrients
CARBOHYDRATES / PROTEIN / FAT
Researching keto, it appeared to me that the best way to kick start ketosis was to limit my carbohydrates to 10% of my daily calorie intake. This is only achievable by cutting out all carbohydrate dense foods, for instance, bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. Don’t cry, yet! There is good news; you can enjoy your favourite meats, fish, cheese, salads and berries. You can use Keto Vidhi’s keto-friendly food search to see if your favourite foods can be incorporated into your new diet.
Use Keto Vidhi’s keto-friendly food search
Due to ketosis using your fat stores for energy instead of carbohydrates, a high fat intake will be needed to maintain this. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you won’t lose retained fat and excess weight if you follow it carefully. I aimed my daily fat intake to make up 70% of total calories.
Protein is made up of strings of different amino acids. Our body needs 20 amino acids in all, and can make 11 of them on its own.
Dr Michael Mosley – pg.48 The Fast 800 Keto (Amazon affiliated link)
The last nutrient in the major 3 is protein. I set this to 20% of my daily intake. Protein-rich foods, which will help our body make up the 9 essential amino acids it is missing, are eggs, fish, dairy products and meat.
3 – Goals: Calories
Watch this space! I am working on some posts about calories and how these are an important part of your weight loss journey. But, for now, this video is very informative but it is aimed at active people and the creator isn’t discussing keto:
