What is the keto diet?

what-is-the-keto-diet

We first heard of the keto diet when we attended Mark’s Daily Apple primal conference in California back in 2014. It’s the low carb diet, the low carb high fat kinda thing, the LCHF diet.

Ok so now… what is the keto diet?

In beginners guide language (aka Merry language), it’s when you eat a diet that forces the body to burn fats over carbs for energy.

Keto is the short name for ketosis and ketogenic.

When you follow the keto diet the goal is to put the body into ketosis. This is a metabolic state that happens when most of your energy comes from ketone bodies in the blood, instead of glucose (this happens when you follow a higher carb diet). 

When you follow a keto diet you become a fat burner. We get to the yes and no list below… but yes we can confirm you can eat avocado while on the keto diet (tick).

So the goal is to ‘get into ketosis’ BUT it’s super important to remember everyone’s body is different (crazy huh? Haha :P).

But apparently… as our sources say, it usually happens after 3-5 days of following a strict keto diet.

So after the 3-5 days your body goes into ketosis and you burn fat for energy rather than carbohydrates. So you’re eating enough good quality food, you are full BUT your body is burning fat over carbs/glucose and you therefore lose weight because of the fat burning thing.

We have to add a disclaimer. We actually did try low carb, a very loose non-counting type of the keto diet and we failed. We ate sweet potato on day 3. Whoooops. Ha! Another disclaimer… we’re not doing keto… we just want to discuss with you. 

But we’ve talked to a stack of people (mostly men) about the diet. They’ve told us that keto has helped them to lose weight, improve energy and focus, fight cancer (we actually met someone who was doing this, very sad but amazing story), reduce blood pressure and help with metabolic disease… and there’s probably a heap more. 

It wasn’t for us at the time. But maybe we will try again. Hmmm. 

What can you eat when you follow a keto diet?

You eat a lot of fat, moderate amount of protein and low amount of carbs. Think 75% of your daily calories from healthy fats, 20% from protein and 5% from carbs.

No high starchy veggies, pretty much no fruit, no to grains, gluten or sugar. Yes to good quality cuts of meats, yes to dark leafy greens, yes to butter, healthy oils, eggs, avocado… oh and yes to cheese (

Yes to good quality cuts of meats, yes to dark leafy greens, yes to butter, healthy oils, eggs, avocado… oh and yes to cheese (yesssss). 

Maybe we will just try again for the cheese factor. Haha. 

Also… this sweetener-free good fat cake is totally keto. Boom, get the recipe! Maybe just don’t add those delish looking strawberries if you wanna be strict-as keto. Oh and if you’re after 9 more healthy keto dessert recipes check out this epic recipe round up!

For us, the keto diet would never ever be a long term diet. Becuase we like corn chips every now and again and sushi and bananas and hello sweet potato. So yeah… nah.

We also hate the idea of having to count macros and the % of carbs and proteins etc. Urgh! But maybe we will test it out soon for the experimental factor.

Have you tried the keto diet? Let us know your experience!

We’re going to be testing out some keto recipes super soon (probs desserts because yum) so keep an eye out!

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

Feature image via Unsplash

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