Keto for Women: How To Lose Weight & Start the Keto Diet
There are so many health benefits of the Keto Diet for women such as sustainable weight loss, but you maybe unsure of what should you eat on a keto diet, and what foods to avoid I’m going to answer all those questions, plus provide you with a free downloadable 7 day Keto weight loss plan to help you get started.
BENEFITS OF THE KETO DIET FOR WOMEN
The big question, is the Keto diet effective for women? Let’s dive deeper into the Keto Diet benefits for women, how to start a Keto Diet and how to best fuel your body to make a permanent lifestyle change.
Keto and weight loss for women
The short answer is on Keto you are burning stored fat for energy…bye bye body fat! Naturally women have a higher percentage of fat due to hormones, reproductive needs and its essentially for regulating your menstral cycle. Your first thoughts maybe “Oh great”, but this is the exact reason that a keto diet will be your best approach to weight loss.
To simplify it, after about a week of following the Keto Diet your body will have used up all of carbs in your body and you’ll enter a state of ketosis. This forces your body to use stored body fat for energy instead.
If you are currently overeating carbs it’s causing your body to retain water, making you feel even more bloated, but when you stop over eating carbs your body will no longer be retaining water which will cause you to lose weight and feel leaner within a few weeks.
When you start following a nutrition plan higher in fat and sufficient protein you’ll also notice that you feel more satisfied and less likely to have those pesky cravings for carbs and sugars..
More Mental Clarity when following a keto diet
Have you noticed issues remembering things, focusing or just feeling “brain fog” like your brain isn’t working today no matter how much coffee you drink? On Keto your brain uses healthy fats to make new brain tissue. Ketones are a clean fuel source for your brain cells(*), which will reduce inflammation in your brain improving cognitive function and may also improve symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Better Mood and Less Irritability
You’re not crazy, ok maybe a little BUT you have a good excuse. Blood sugar imbalances cause quick changes in your mood and cause irritability. The Keto diet will help stabilize your blood sugar and insulin levels. This way your brain has a stable source of energy and will leave you in a better mood.
Increased Energy
As a wife, mom or whatever you do you need energy to keep up. There is a misconception that your body needs a high carbohydrate diet to fuel your body, when in fact, your body runs more efficiently when using fat as it’s main fuel source. Ketones help your body produce far more energy than glucose (carbs).(*)
Stop Sugar and Carb Cravings
This is how it goes: you eat sugar your blood sugar sky rockets, dopamine is released to your brain(*), insulin is produced to help your body lower blood sugar levels. This sends a false signal to your brain that your starving and need food. The key to stop these cravings is to use the Ketogenic diet to turn your body into a fat burner instead of a sugar burner!
Improved Fertility
There have been many studies on showing significant improvements in fertility (*) after following a low carbohydrate diet, in fact, I’ve had clients who have struggled to get pregnant that were able to conceive after following a Kete Diet for 60 days. While the results are promising.
Keto is also Anti-Aging
A recent study found that Ketones produce more metabolic energy and less free radicals than glucose (carbs).(*)
Now that you know the amazing benefits a Ketogenic lifestyle will have on your, energy, brain function and overall well being, you probably want to have a clear guide to getting started on the Keto diet.
How to Start The Keto Diet For Women
The traditional American diet causes your body to be dependent on high- carb and sugary foods, which causes inflammation, rapid weight gain, not to mention these foods are what feeds chronic diseases.
The main problem is when you consume high-carbohydrate and high-sugar meals it causes a fluctuation in blood sugar which ultimately depletes your energy, causes irritability and impacts your brains ability to think clearly.(*)
And if you haven’t noticed sugary and starchy carbohydrates have an addictive nature that cause you to have irresistible cravings for these foods that are potentially causing chronic illnesses.
Adopting a Ketogenic Lifestyle will transition your body from relying on glycogen (carbs) for fuel and train your body to burn fat (ketones) for fuel. (*)
GIRL FRIEND, you can end the cravings, have more energy and end this marry go round struggle to lose weight.
PHASE 1: START WITH THE BASICS (for at least 2 weeks)
When trying to adapt to a new lifestyle the amount of information is overwhelming, so don’t overcomplicate it or add more stress to your body by trying to track your macros or do extended fasting. Over stressing your body will cause more fat storage than fat burning! Your weight loss resistance has a lot more to do with gut health, inflammation and hormone imbalances not the number of calories or carbs you are eating in a day.
What should a woman eat on keto?
Just focus on:
Eliminating Sugar- Now-a-days sugar is hidden in literally everything, so be diligent about checking all ingredients lists on nutritional labels. Also look out for Sucralose, maltodextrin and dextrose, which are artificial sweeteners like Splenda. EW.
Eliminating processed foods- Basically anything packaged is processed, so to determine what things to avoid, look at the nutrition label, if there are a bunch of ingredients you can’t pronounce avoid it!
Eliminating starchy carbs & grains- pasta, rice, potatoes, quinoa, oats etc.
Don’t always trust that foods are healthy options just because they say “Keto friendly” or “Natural” on the packaging. ALWAYS read the ingredients list, if there are a bunch of mystery ingredients you have never heard of chances are its processed and has a bunch of filler junk that out ways any health benefits they claim to offer.
Resources that will help:
14 Easy Keto Meals That Don’t Require a Recipe for easy meal ideas
13 Keto Friendly Restaurants and What to Order, so you can make better choices when you go out to dinner
What’s the difference between a clean Keto diet VS the dirty keto fad diet?
2. Foods to Eat on the Keto Diet
When following a Keto Diet you don’t have to give up dessert or your favorite recipes, you just have to use Keto friendly Ingredients.
Instead of sugar —> use monk fruit or Stevia
Instead of White flour —> use almond or coconut flour
Instead of bread crumbs —> use pork panko
Resources that will help:
How to stock your Keto Pantry + Discount codes for all the top Keto Brands including; condiments, sauces, syrups, chocolate, monk fruit sweetener, almond flour, coconut flour and so much more to stock your pantry with some of my favorite Keto Approved Brands.
21+ Keto friendly snacks you can buy, If you know you are a snacker, be prepared, grab Keto friendly snacks to keep on hand
Keto Friendly Recipes that the whole family will love and won’t even know they are Keto unless you tell them.
Complete List Of Foods You Do And Don't Need To Buy Organic On A Budget
3. Start Moving Your Body Every Single Day
Ideally you want to get in 10k steps a day and strength train for a minimum of 3 days a week for 30 minutes a session to boost your metabolism, lead to improved reproductive function and will result in faster weight loss.
BUT it’s important to set realistic expectations and not over stress your body. Start with going for a 20-30 minute walk 2-3 times a week and gradually add more to your schedule as you go.
Once you work up to more intense workouts, keep in mind that lifting weights is the fastest way to burn fat, in fact, will burn more fat than cardio, so stop spending all your time slaving on the elliptical and pick up some heavy weights.
Resources that will help:
• Download this 7 Day workout plan
• How to plan your own workouts + printable workout planner
*Stick with Phase 1 for at least 2-3 Weeks before moving on to Phase 2!
PHASE 2 LEARN HOW TO FUEL YOUR BODY (for at least 2-4 weeks)
After the first two weeks you should better understand what foods you should eat more of and what foods you should avoid.
Now it is important to be sure you are eating the right balance of carbs, protein, and fat to get into ketosis, maintain ketosis and turn your body into a fat burning machine!
1. Learn How to Balance a Plate of Food & Get Fat Adapted
Don’t focus too much on how many calories you should eat of the Keto Diet and just get familiar with building balanced meals. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are the components of food that make up your dietary calories, macronutrients. (AKA Macros)
Obviously on a Keto diet you want to eat a whole food based diet that is high fat low carb, but the biggest mistake people make on Keto is neglecting the quality of the food they are eating in effort of eating high fat and low carb.
However, the goal of Keto isn’t to eliminate carbs. The goal is to eliminate low quality carbs like sugar, processed foods and refined carbs that cause inflammation, gut health issues and hormone imbalances and increase quality healthy fats to essentially train your metabolism to burn fat from the food you eat and stored body fat for energy instead of relying on this low quality carbs.
At every meal you want to make sure you are incorporating:
Protein (about 4-5 ounces)
Fats (1 tablespoon of a healthy oil, grass-fed butter, 1/2 avocado, etc.)
high fiber carbohydrate (non-starchy veggie like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, Brussel sprouts, etc)
The best way to be sure you are properly fueling your body is to plan ahead. Pick out your meals for the week ahead of time and even meal prep your breakfast and lunches so they are already to go each day. Make the healthy options convient!
Resources that will help:
• Download my free Approved food list - which puts all the foods into categories so you know what proteins, carbs, and fats to fill your plate with!
• 5 Easy Ways To Increase Fat Intake On Keto - Learn how to add healthy fats to your diet without eating excessive amounts of meat and cheese
• 4 things that ruin the benefits of a keto diet
2. Monitor your Ketones and Glucose
You can usually determine if you are in Ketosis based on how you feel, plus you don’t have to be in Ketosis all day every day to reap the benefits of a Keto lifestyle, but testing your ketones and glucose is the best way to optimize your fat burning and overall health.
When you use a blood testing meter like the Keto Mojo you will get three main readings, glucose, Ketones and GKI. This will really help you understand is your body producing ketones, how well is your body processing carbs and if you are in a fat burning state!
It’s beneficial for everyone to do blood testing, but especially if after several weeks of Keto if you are still struggling with Keto Flu symptoms; headaches, fatigue, cravings and brain fog testing Ketones can really help you uncover something you’re eating that you don’t realize is throwing you off.
Resources that will help:
• How to Tell if You’re in Ketosis & How to Avoid Keto Flu Symptoms
• The Basic “How To’s” of testing Glucose & ketones
• Buy a Keto Mojo Started Kit for under $50
• 7 Easy Tricks - How To Get Into Ketosis Fast Without Keto Flu
3. Consider Adding Keto Friendly Supplements
The Keto Diet alone offers incredible health benefits for women, and when combined with the right Keto supplements you can completely transform your lifestyle, control your appetite, have more energy and fuel your body in the best way possible.
Nutrients should always come primarily from food, but there are some essential things our we need that our bodies can’t actually produce on its own and must be supplemented.
Even other non-essential supplements may help fill any nutritional gaps that you aren’t getting enough of from your diet alone.
Plus the support of supplements can help naturally enhance results and your quality of life, so they are worth looking into.
Some of the Suggested Keto Friendly Supplements are :
Fish Oil or Krill Oil
Probiotics
Electrolytes
Magnesium
Pre- Workout/ performance enhancements
MCT Oil
One of the most important things when adding supplements is finding high quality brands that don’t use fillers and artificial sweeteners like Sucralose or Maltodextrin
Check out the recourses below for a full list of the best Keto supplements, their benefits and determine if it’s something that may help you along your your journey to a healthier YOU.
Resources that will help:
• Best Keto Supplements For Women’s Weight Loss, Energy And Anxiety- Brands that I have tried, love and use daily
PHASE 3 WHAT TYPE OF KETO IS BEST FOR YOU LONG TERM?
Now that you are fat adapted it’s time to figure out the best Keto lifestyle for you. Strict Keto isn’t always the best long term solution.
If you are feeling energetic, mental clarity and still getting great results you should absolutely stick with it.
However, if you ever get to the point where your energy decreases or you hit a plateau you may want to consider trying out other Keto options:
Free-Style Keto
Ok I made that term up, but counting MACROS long term isn’t for everyone. If you don’t enjoy counting MACROS, you feel like it doesn’t fit your lifestyle or you feel like you’re starting to develop a negative relationship with food you should back off of macro counting.
You can still eat Keto and use what you have learned about portions to eat more intuitively. You can always go back to tracking macros every once in a while just to be sure you are still on track.
Play Around with Ratios
The text book Keto Diet is about 20-30g of carbs ( 75% fat, 20% protein and only 5% carbs), but if you feel like that isn’t working for you try gradually increasing net carbs to up to 50g Net Carbs and see if your body is still able to maintain ketosis.
If you are working out 4+ days a week and still feel hungry all the time you may want to consider increasing your protein. Try 60% fat, 35% protein and 5% carbs.
Every woman’s body is different and it’s important to find what works best for you.
Cyclical Keto/Carb Cycling
Following a low carb diet for long periods of time may cause your thyroid hormones to drop causing you to become less sensitive to insulin and potentially cause a stall in your Keto success.
Carb cycling will optimize your body’s metabolic needs. The goal is to become metabolically flexible, meaning you can incorporate higher carb days into your diet to benefit hormone levels, workout performance and weight loss, but be able to easily get back into ketosis to maintain reduced inflammation long term.
Plus I’m not going to lie it’s really nice to be able to incorporate big bowls of pineapple, huge salads and baked sweet potatoes back into your diet.
To carb cycle you will simply alternate periods of strict Keto and higher carb days. I suggest doing strict Keto (same macros used in phase 2) for 6 days and on every 7th day have a high carb day ( basically flip flopping your carb and fat ratios for the day)
On high carb days it’s still important to avoid grains, sugar, pasta and other processed carbs. Instead, eat more nutrient dense sources of carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, pumpkin, carrots, legumes, fruit, beets, and larger amounts of leafy greens.
Resources that will help:
• Easy Guide To The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet For Women's Weight Loss & Hormones
Final Thoughts
Though Keto for Women may take a bit more strategy to figure out the best Keto lifestyle to balance hormone levels and still reap the amazing anti-inflammatory, improved cognitive function and weight loss benefits of ketosis, it can be a life changing decision.
Following these 3 Phases are just the surface of the things I help my clients breakthrough in my 8 week program, Permanent Lifestyle Reset. If you want to break through weight loss resistance and make a permanent lifestyle change in the next few months head here to get more details on everything included inside the program!
PLR has transformed the lives of women who, like you, have tried all the fad diets, will lose a few pounds, but just as quickly end up right back where they started. Before joining Permanent Lifestyle Reset, they are frustrated and just wish they knew what to do to breakthrough weight loss resistance for good with out having to trial and error any longer and you should see them now! Go check out their “after” photos.
