I tried the keto diet for a month and lost nearly half a stone - this is what I ate
The keto diet landed as an interesting take on an otherwise gloomy concept. No longer were people expected to cut out everything they liked from dinner time, they were just asked to reimagine their plate without carbs.
I've tried so many fad diets over the years and none of them garnered noticeable results. Some helped here and there but for the most part, they were unmanageable.
Too many diets expect people to sacrifice the beauty of food in order to shed a few pounds. The keto diet flips the concept on its head with a high fat intake. Putting it simply, all you have to do is ditch the carbs and your body does the rest. However, it is worth noting that the diet is not recommended by the NHS or British Heart Foundation for weight loss.
READ MORE: Slimming World recipe which woman who lost 16 stone swears by
READ MORE: Slimming World friendly blueberry cheesecake you can eat for breakfast
What is a keto diet?
Your body uses glucose from carbs for the basic running of the body. When that energy source is removed, the body takes it from the liver and muscles. After three to four days when the reserves are exhausted, the body will then turn to stored fat and the liver converts the fat into ketones - a process which is called ketosis.
People will reach ketosis at different times depending on their BMI. To maintain ketosis, you should limit carbs to around 20 - 50 grams per day. On a 2,000-calorie diet, a keto diet will typically be composed of 55-60% fat, 30-35% protein, and only 5-10% carbs. In summary, drop the carbs and your body will burn fat because it has no other source of energy.
Expert commentary
For the British Heart Foundation, senior dietitian Victoria Taylor said: "It’s quite difficult to have a balanced keto diet, especially when it comes to getting enough fruit and vegetables and fibre, and it also contains more saturated fat than is recommended. With fewer foods to choose from, the diet can get boring, and doesn’t always fit with eating with friends and family. All of this means it can be hard to stick to.
"With limited research into the keto diet for weight loss, and few long-term studies, we wouldn’t recommend it. There are other diets that limit carbs, but not as much as the keto diet (typically allowing 50-130g of carbs per day) which have been found to be safe and effective in the short term, for example for people with type 2 diabetes. Or you could try a Mediterranean-style diet, which has benefits for heart health."
There is no advice for the keto diet on the NHS website for weight loss. The NHS recommends a balanced diet and has a dedicated section on its website with advice if you are trying to lose weight here.
What should you avoid on a keto diet?
For a keto diet, you will want to drastically reduce high carb foods such as:
White bread
Rice
Pasta
Potatoes
Beers have quite a high carb count and low nutritional value. Mixed drinks including vodka, gin and rum also contain high carb levels but this is typically due to being mixed with sugary sodas and fruit juices. Alchohol in general should be reconsidered on a keto diet.
Something I didn't realise would be an issue were sauces. The likes of ketchup and sweet chilli are packed with sugar and will take you straight out of ketosis. The same goes for "low fat foods" which typically hike up their sugar levels to compensate for the lack of fat.
In summary, refined carbs and sweet treats are your enemy. Take care to count the carbs and sugar levels on the packaging if you're trying keto. However, it's not all doom and gloom. You may be thinking all the good things in life have been ripped away from you but its far from the truth. You can still maintain ketosis while enjoying what you eat.
Keto diet replacements
The biggest issue I've faced following a diet is feeling unsatisfied. I don't want salads, I want something nice. Thankfully, I didn't have to cook several different meals at dinner time just to maintain ketosis. Below are a few things I substituted for dinner time:
Rice - Cauliflower rice
Mashed potatoes - Mashed cauliflower
Spaghetti - Courgette
Pasta - various vegetable substitutes
Chips - butternut squash
Tortilla - Lettuce leaf
The star of the show is cauliflower. Simply blending it up with a few spices means you can have "rice" with any dish. It's quick and effective and has the same consistency as cous cous so it's not worlds apart from its inspiration. If you want a Sunday roast with all the meat and vegetables, you can also slap a massive portion of "mashed potato" on your plate too. Simply blend the cauliflower and boil it to the perfect consistency.
Courgette means spaghetti bolognese is back on the menu. Simply put it through the mandolin and take the "spaghetti" to a boil for a few moments. You can also shred the courgette longways on a cheese grater for a lazier turnaround. If you don't want to do either, most large supermarkets stock a range of vegetable pasta alternatives.
Butternut squash can be cut into wedges to recreate chips and you can make burritos and tacos with a lettuce leaf. These two are furthest away from their source materials but work nonetheless.
Swap the sugary sodas for the zero sugar equivalent or grab some water if you're feeling thirsty. When it comes to the pub, you can still have a cheeky red wine or dry white as they typically boast fewer than 5g of carbs per serving.
There are also plenty of sauces you can still have to pack your meals with flavour. Hot sauces such as Tobasco and other vinegar-based sauces are fine, as are mustard and mayonnaise. You can also find a range of low-sugar variants in most supermarkets.
My keto diet menu
You can repackage your meals with new flavours and recipes every day. A few of my base meals on keto included:
Breakfast
Scrambled eggs and avocado
Fry ups (without toast and beans)
Omlette
Yogurt
Lunch
Salads
Soups
Chicken and cauliflower rice
Dinner
Curry and cauliflower rice
Courgette spaghetti bolognese
Courgette carbonara
Fish and cauliflower mashed potato/butternut squash wedges
Stuffed peppers with cauliflower rice
Fajitas with lettuce leaf
Burritos with cauliflower rice
Open burgers and butternut squash wedges
One month after keto
I want to preface this by saying I've tried quite a few diets and many I wouldn't recommend. I personally found the keto diet was the easiest for me to follow.
The worst part of any diet is feeling unsatisfied and hungry. It's the biggest telltale sign you'll crumble and run back to the fridge. Eating keto was like I was eating everything I typically would. There was everything from curries to tacos and fajitas. The only thing I did struggle with was the lack of sweet treats but the fewer of those the better, anyway.
Planning meal time wasn't a daunting task like many other diets. It was a simple question of, "What am I substituting this evening?" and cracking on with what I wanted. At the end, I found my stomach flattened because I was no longer bloating.
I didn't have to suck in my gut just to flatten my body in certain clothes. The bloating was gone and my confidence skyrocketed.
However, there were more benefits. By simply changing a few bits of my meals, I managed to lose 5lbs. I personally found that I ate what I wanted, but this might not be the same for everyone.
But the biggest change was how I looked in the mirror rather than how much I weighed. The fat around my body shifted (or disappeared) and suddenly I carried my weight better. After one month, the changes didn't warrant a before and after shot but I could tell, and I could feel it, which is all that matters.
I found that the keto diet is one of the easiest on the market that I've tried, but it is worth saying that it is not recommended by experts for weight loss.