Not Losing Weight With Your Low-Carb Diet? You Might Be Making Some of These 10 Mistakes
Sticking to a low-carb keto diet can be tough, and during that time, you will make mistakes, your keto progress will stall, and eventually, the weight will stop falling off.
If you’re new here, allow me to remind you just what the keto diet is quickly. On the keto diet, you’re only eating 20g of carbs per day or less. This is to place your body in a metabolic state known as ketosis, where you are using fat for energy instead of carbs and sugar.
It’s what we all dreamed of when we wished upon a star; we could simply eat all the fat we wanted, and our body would just burn it off naturally. Unfortunately, we have to relearn first what the best sources of fat are. Today, we’re going to look at 10 mistakes to avoid if you’re trying to lose weight on a low-carb diet.
10 Keto Mistakes That May Stall Your Weight Loss
PinI’ve been through every one of these mistakes myself, so I have added tips on how you can avoid these keto mistakes in your own diet. I have lots of these tips I gathered from the wonderful keto community on Instagram. I always love how supportive everyone is there and willing to share tips and recipes. If you find your weight loss is stalling, it may be due to any one of these 10 mistakes.
Being Afraid of Fat
PinAll our life, we’ve been told that fat is the bad guy in our diet, and we went all these years blaming the butter for what the bread did. We developed fat-free everything that uses lab ingredients instead of what mother nature offers, and now we’re in a diabetic and obesity crisis.
It’s going to be difficult to accept that fat is good. That we should eat fat to lose fat. That’s why I encourage you to read the science. Educate and inform yourself on the how and the why this diet works so you can make the best choices for you. Just know that fat is your friend, but it has to be real fat from natural sources. Let’s get into that.
Eating the Wrong Fats
PinThe best sources of fat for our bodies are clean fat from nature. You’ll want to load up on the below sources of fat to meet your daily recommended intake of fat to fuel your body:
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- avocados
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- nuts
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- eggs
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- fatty cuts of meat and seafood
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- bacon
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- all types of cheese
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- butter
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- ghee
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- olive and coconut oils
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- heavy cream
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- sour cream
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- cream cheese
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- full-fat yogurt without sweeteners
See, pretty clean list. Don’t be afraid of natural fats. They are not our enemy. Sugar and carbs are. But how much fat should you eat?
Overloading on Fat Bombs and Snacks
PinA question I get asked often is about the need to eat extra fat to lose weight since our bodies carry so much fat already, as most beginner keto dieters are overweight. This is an excellent question.
It’s important to understand that while you’re eating foods that are surely more delicious than when you’re on a low-fat diet, you’re still calorie counting. You need to burn more calories than you eat in order to lose weight. Fortunately, on the keto diet, this is easy because fat is so satiating that you’re often fuller for longer periods of time, and your hunger cravings are greatly reduced.
Trying to Replace All Your Favorite Foods
PinI get that. When you’re trying a new diet, you’re sort of in panic mode that you won’t be able to eat your favorite lasagna or dessert again, and so you spend loads of time trying to find hacks and copycats for your favorite foods.
While finding some copycats can be comforting to help you manage the transition, I encourage you to approach the keto diet with an open mind. There are loads of seriously delicious keto recipes out there that are so yummy they’ll completely knock your old faves out of the top spots.
Not Keeping Things Simple
PinThat said, it’s easy to get caught up trying all the new keto recipes in your new keto world that you get burned out quickly and rack up a high grocery bill. This will also cause you to become frustrated and want to give up.
Keep your everyday meals simple. This makes it easier to track your macros and also manages the day-to-day diet, so you won’t get overwhelmed with cooking fancy meals. If you have eggs, meat, veggies, cheese, and healthy fats around the house, you have just about everything you need to whip up delicious meals every day.
Eating Too Much Protein
PinThis is coming from a place where we once believed a high-protein, low-fat diet was the best way to lose weight.
While this is still one way to lose weight, it’s not very sustainable because of the caloric restrictions most people would have to follow. It doesn’t take one thing into perspective: healthy fats.
It’s important to eat protein on a keto diet, but you certainly should not gorge on extra protein unless you’re a bodybuilder. Protein can be broken down into glycogen just as carbs do, and will trigger an insulin response. The rule of thumb on the keto diet is that your calories should be coming from:
75% fats, 20% protein and 5% carbs.
Not Knowing Your Sugar Sources
PinSugar is everywhere. Sugar has been hiding in all our sauces, breads, snacks, canned goods, even our beloved bacon comes in sugar varieties. It can be hard to figure out where sugar is hiding because it goes by a bunch of different names in ingredient lists.
This is why I like to keep my meals simple so I know exactly what’s going into my meals.
I know it can sound daunting to give up sugar altogether but there are some great natural sources of sweet that you can incorporate into your keto diet whenever your sweet tooth attacks.
Not Drinking Enough Water
PinYou know already that you need to need lots of water, but this is even more important on the ketogenic diet. This is because this diet is naturally diuretic in nature, flushing out lots of your own water since carbs are what is used to store the excess water.
It’s why you lose so much weight on your first week of keto: it’s lots of water.
Dehydration is real on the keto diet. Keep a water bottle close to you at all times and sip from it throughout the day, making sure you get in your requisite 8 glasses.
Not Getting Enough Sodium and Other Electrolytes
PinSalt is easy to come by in the standard American diet so we’re actually used to avoiding salt to stay away from high blood pressure. On the keto diet, you’re eating more real foods most likely prepared at home so you’re not eating as much salt as you used to.
Salt contains sodium, one of the electrolytes that gets flushed out of our bodies along with excess ketones. You also need to ensure you get enough potassium and magnesium, the other electrolytes that can be hard to come by on the keto diet.
Salt your food and eat more green leafy vegetables or take a magnesium and potassium supplement to ensure your body has all the electrolytes it needs to function well.
Not Exercising
PinWhile it’s not completely necessary to exercise in order to lose weight on the keto diet, you should get some daily activity in for several reasons.
For starters, exercise is good for your heart and other organs. Getting daily activity supports your mobility and physical fitness.
Also, you may lose weight pretty quickly on the keto diet. What that usually leads to is a loss of muscle and sagging skin. To avoid that, hit the weights and encourage a toned physique to come through while you’re working on your weight. And now, please enjoy some scrumptious, drool-worthy keto recipes.
Keto French Toast With Strawberry Topping
PinWho says you can’t have French toast on keto? You sure can. And while you’re at it, sprinkle that with a wonderful strawberry topping!
Warm Black Cherry Crisp
PinYum. That’s all I can say.
Mexican Horchata
PinHorchata, a traditional Mexican beverage made from rice, cinnamon, and sweeteners, is a refreshing and delicious treat that is perfect for hot summer days.
Spicy Peach Salsa
PinThis Spicy Peach Salsa is absolutely delicious, especially with white fish recipes. Actually, it’s so good, you put it on whatever you want.
