At some point in your weight loss journey, the dropping pounds will stall. Maybe for a few days, a couple of weeks, or worse, for months. In order for you to continue your Keto progress and get the scale ticking down again, there are certain changes you need to do to your current diet.
Yes, even though you’re sticking close to the keto diet rules, there are specific food items that are initially great additions to your meals, but aren’t the best choices for when the weight loss stops.
Beware of “keto-friendly” foods that are easy to overeat
These food items are originally recommended for keto followers. But as they say, too much of a good thing can be bad. If you’re experiencing a keto plateau, you should trim these items out of your daily menu until your weight starts moving down again.
Cheese
Yes, cheese indeed has low carbohydrate content. Not only is cheese delicious, which could encourage overindulging, but it also contains whey and casein that raise insulin levels in the bloodstream. Some people are more sensitive to this effect than others, which could be the reason why you’ve hit a wall in your weight loss.
Why? That’s because insulin’s job is to usher unused sugar, fat, and protein in your blood into storage. A spike in insulin level means more of the fat you consume will get stored, which results in a plateau. So if you’re experiencing this road bump, limit or cut out cheese completely from your diet to get back on track.
Homemade Keto Snacks
Making your own food at home not only lets you control the quality of ingredients, it also lets you make the flavor exactly according to your tastes. It’s also cheaper than constantly buying pre-made snacks, but that also means having more to nibble on. Studies have shown that people tend to snack when they’re bored, which means you’re getting unnecessary calories. Hold off making these homemade snacks until you get your weight loss moving again.
Alcohol
When trying to lose weight, alcohol is always the first to go. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy an occasional drink, and by occasional, we mean a drink or two per week. Drinking more often than that would interfere with your ketosis, not to mention make you less wary of overeating.
Consume more whole foods rather than quick Keto treats
One of the reasons why the Ketogenic diet is so popular is because of its flexibility. As such, this resulted to more Keto-targeted product development to cater to today’s fast-paced lifestyle. Now, there are lots of Keto bars and ready-to-eat Keto meals for the busy person. They’re useful because of their convenience, yes, but some manufacturers take advantage of this “buzz word” and label their products as such while incorporating non-Keto elements like added sugar and unhealthy chemicals.
Sticking to whole foods will help you avoid these disguised weight gain landmines. Whole foods are also more filling, and you’d have to take time to prepare them, pushing you to be more aware of what you’re consuming rather than mindlessly reaching for a quick bite, which could result to overeating.
Create a calorie deficit
Even though Keto is an “eat until you’re full” kind of diet, at the bottom of it all is the tally of calories burned vs. calories eaten. The reason why Keto doesn’t promote calorie counting is because meals in this diet require large amounts of fat and moderate protein, which are very satiating and keeps you full for longer. Because of this, you don’t often feel the need to snack and have little to no cravings, effectively limiting the calories you consume.
But if you hit a Keto plateau, then you need to reevaluate your consumption and adjust accordingly to begin losing weight again. Here are two items commonly eaten in Keto but should be the first ones to go when your weight loss stalls.
Bulletproof Coffee
One popular food substitute on Keto is bulletproof coffee. It’s very satiating at 400 calories and is made of grass-fed butter and MCT oil mixed in with black coffee. While this is an effective meal substitute because it is satiating, it lacks many other essentials like vitamins and minerals.
Moreover, this study claims that our body perceives liquid food and solid food differently. It shows that liquid meals seem to not be considered by our body as “real” meals compared to solid food. This could lead to overconsumption, no matter how satiating the liquid meal is.
Nuts
These are delicious and easy to grab, and that’s where the danger lies. While they are excellent sources of protein and healthy fat and have low carb content, nuts actually are high in calories. In order to get the ball rolling again, consume no more than 28 grams of nuts each day.
Adding More Fat
One would think that adding more fat to Keto food is fine since you’re supposed to eat up to 80% fat anyway. By adding more fat, we mean slathering butter on salmon or drenching meats in oil. Don’t add more fat to food already rich in natural fat. If you do, then you’ll be burning the new fat you eat instead of your stored body fat, which could be the reason why you stopped shedding pounds.
Keep Your Keto Progress with a Keto Cleanse
Don’t let your mounting frustration derail your weight loss journey. It will likely be difficult to re-adjust your eating habits after you’ve worked so hard to accommodate a keto lifestyle. But this time around, you don’t have to go through such a drastic change. Simply leaving out the aforementioned food items would get you back on track.
If you need a little more help, why not reset and regroup with our Keto Cleanse? It features professional-grade supplements, numerous easy-to-cook Keto-friendly recipes, exercise videos, and expert support 7 days a week. This will help you re-calibrate your palate, adjust your eating habits, and ease you into a more structured Keto experience. At the end, it will push you over the Keto plateau until you achieve your goal.
