The Harvard School of Public Health reports that the ketogenic diet has proven to result in a significant mean of 10% weight loss with no weight regain at one year. This was after a study on obese adults that successfully compared the effects of the low-carb keto diet to the normal-calorie Mediterranean diet.
This just goes to show that the keto diet actually works!
Admittedly, however, some people have a harder time achieving success with keto than others. That is why we’re going to go over the 5 most common beginner keto mistakes that you need to avoid below!
MISTAKE #1 — Not Planning
Starting Keto without a plan is no good! It’s too easy to fall into temptation when your fridge is empty or when you’re scrambling to look for an actual 100% keto-friendly recipe.
And, as mentioned before… The diet is too highly dependent on creating a perfect low-carb, moderate-protein, and high-fat diet balance to allow for any carelessness meal-planning wise.
Thankfully, there are tons of pre-prepared keto meal plans that you can find on the internet that you can try out! An example of which is Dr. Harlan Kilstein’s Speed Keto® program.
With keto programs like Speed Keto, you can enjoy the convenience of pre-planned daily meals, grocery shopping lists to help you shop for keto-friendly ingredients, ready-to-make 100% keto-friendly recipes, calendars for tracking your progress, and so much more.
MISTAKE #2 — Incorrectly Calculating Macros
This is an easy beginner mistake to make when trying out Keto. It’s especially frustrating if you want to cook all your meals by yourself — which involves very carefully measuring every single thing that goes into your recipe to ensure that you’re staying true to your macros.
An easy way to subvert this is, again, to try out a pre-prepared Keto meal plan like Speed Keto® — which will provide you with recipes that include detailed macronutrient calculations and meal plans that were already designed to follow the keto macros standard.
Of course, if you’re adamant about customizing your entire keto diet, you can also try out macronutrient calculators or apps — which can be found relatively easily online nowadays — that can help you keep track of those calculations.
MISTAKE #3 — Not Increasing Electrolyte Intake
Keto naturally forces the kidneys to excrete essential electrolytes. This can disrupt a lot of your bodily functions and may even result in the dreaded ‘keto flu.’
To avoid making this mistake you need to make sure that you are supplementing to make up for those excreted essential electrolytes — which include sodium, potassium, and magnesium — either in your diet or through supplement powders and pills.
MISTAKE #4 — Eating Hidden Carbs
Another natural beginner keto mistake is eating hidden carbs.
As we’ve said time and time again, the keto diet is incredibly delicate, and even just a little bit of extra carb-intake may knock you out of ketosis and stop you from progressing with your weight loss. That is why it’s important that you educate yourself on things like hidden carbs — as it might just be the one thing that’s holding you back from actually losing weight with keto!
As a tip for dealing with this mistake, find a grocery shopping guide for keto — like the ones offered in keto diet programs like Speed Keto. Those should help teach you what kind of ingredients may be hiding hidden carbs (as the nutritional facts on the back of those boxes aren’t always accurate!)
MISTAKE #5 — Over-Stressing About Your Weight Loss
Losing weight is the goal of a large majority of those that are trying out keto for the first time. That’s perfectly fine, of course. The diet has proven itself quite capable in that regard.
However, try not to stress too much about it!
Keep away from the scale or the blood ketone meters, and just avoid thinking too much about results. Check your progress as needed, but don’t punish yourself by doing it constantly!
A lot of people quit keto because they put too much emphasis on their weight loss — which kills all their motivation! Which, suffice it to say, should be avoided at all costs!
