Keto Diet for Beginners

Many of us make new year resolutions, and it may not be incorrect to assume that you might be one of those who made one too this year. Among the most common resolutions is starting a diet to lose weight. It is also one of the toughest resolutions to live up to. Our ketogenic diet for beginners will help you complete your resolution. For, as humans, we enjoy doing things in a certain way, eating certain foods, and if any of that doesn’t happen, we become unhappy and grumpy. And let’s not forget that the biggest comfort when we are feeling down is food… sugary, deep-fried, heavenly delicious food. So, how does one keep a diet resolution in any case? 

The problem with resolutions is that it’s pretty easy to be charged up and promise yourself to do something new or different; however, when it comes to actual implementation, this is where our willpower to start and stay on course with our resolution gives way to an easier life that we have always been used to. But what if someone told you that you could easily go on a ‘real’ diet without having to give up eating tasty food? 

That’s exactly what a keto diet allows you to do… instead of harping on food to avoid, that traditional diet plans do, it actually focuses on letting you continue eating what you enjoy, and still lose those pounds. Sounds like a dream? Well then, you may call it a dream diet if you wish. And make your dream of losing weight and looking ravenously ravishing come true.

What exactly is keto diet?

For the past so many decades, we’ve constantly been told that our worst enemy when it comes to our body weight and health is fat. Consumption of fat is likely to contribute to a variety of diseases like obesity, coronary disease and various other ailments. Like all news that debunks something that we’ve been used to doing, this also spread fairly fast and fairly wide, and the worldwide view among the healthcare industry became that fat is detrimental to our health. 

All this time, food companies came up with low-fat “diet” products, often full of sugar, as our best buddies in watching weight. This is a major blunder that not just coincided with the obesity epidemic worldwide but may actually have contributed to it. This is where keto diet comes in as the saviour. 

Keto diet is a low-carb diet that is low in carbohydrates (primarily found in breads, pasta and desserts & other sweet dishes containing sugar) and, instead, relies heavily on fat. Because of this, keto is also called a low-carb, high-fat (LCHF) diet. It is similar to low-carb, high protein diets like Paleo and Atkins, which are also sometimes referred to as ketogenic or "keto" diets. However, a true keto diet focuses only on fat instead of protein to provide nourishment & energy to the body. 

The keto diet simply alters your meals to reduce carbs, using food items that you enjoy eating to help your body lose weight, while still providing your body with enough nutrition and energy. Additionally, neither does it make you eat unappetizing meals nor does it starve you to lose weight.

How does keto diet work

Why avoid those carbs – they add a lot of flavour to our food & taste to our tongues, and we love them so much that almost all our meals are made up of them, right from our butter toast or bread omelette at breakfast, to our roti-subzi at lunch & dinner, and not to forget the lip-smacking kheer at night? That is exactly where the weight problem sits heavily – inside the sugar-rich carb-diet that we eat every day. 

The preferred source of fuel for the human body is sugar (glucose), which comes from carbohydrates (such as grains, legumes, vegetables, and fruits). If we wish to lose weight, we need to reduce the sugar intake and, instead, use something else that works equally well for the fuel needs of our body. Hence, sugar-rich carb-filled breads, buns, and starch-filled root vegetables like potatoes, carrots, etc. are the foods to avoid in keto diet. Smoothies, juices & fruits, howsoever tempting, are also best avoided since they tend to contain a lot of sugar. 

The goal of a keto diet is to help us lose weight quickly and more efficiently by making our body burn fat (instead of carbohydrates) for fuel. Therefore, instead of using sugar as the body fuel, the keto diet works on reducing carbs consumption while increasing calories from fat. And that is precisely how it helps us lose weight without losing our energy, or our resolution of losing weight.

The keto diet relies heavily on fat to supply as much as 90% of our daily calories. By limiting our carbs intake to just 50 grams per day, it helps our body enter a normal, metabolic state ketosis. This occurs because our body doesn't have enough carbs to burn for energy and has to rely on an alternative fuel source. In ketosis, the body burns fat to provide fuel for our body by breaking down stored fat into molecules called ketones, which it releases into the bloodstream to generate energy.

Keto Diet myth busters

• Keto diet is only for non-vegetarians. While it is true that keto diet is heavy on red meat, fish, and eggs, it has its fair share of other items and actually encourages people to eat according to their likes. The keto food list is also perfect for vegetarians as it contains a fairly exhaustive list of items including butter, cheese, oils, gram flour (besan), nuts (like almonds, walnuts, cashews), and seeds (like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds). You can also eat certain fruits (usually berries), and vegetables including cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, onions, garlic, cucumber, bottle gourd (ghiya), round gourd (tinda), brinjal (baigan), beetroots (shaljam), and spinach (palak), all of which are all extremely nourishing foods which aid in rapid weight loss.

• High-fat diet can make you fat. That is, simply put, is old hat thinking. While on the face of it, it might seem logical that eating a high-fat diet will make you gain weight, this is far from reality. In fact, there is enough scientific evidence to prove that healthy fats from olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, nuts and seeds can actually help you trim your waistline. 

• Keto diet is unsafe. While keto is surely an appetizing way to lose weight, like other diets, the keto diet has its pitfalls that may include constipation, and potential kidney & liver problems. And, if you're not eating a wide variety of fruits & vegetables, you may suffer from nutrient deficiencies. And yet, the keto diet can be very nutritious, and can provide your body with the required vitamins and minerals if you follow it properly.

Sample Indian keto diet plan

Here’s a simple, 1-week long sample keto diet plan for Indians, that will help you lose weight while still enjoying a variety of dishes. You can choose from the below mentioned options for the entire week.

Week 1:

Breakfast

• Cheese pakora (fried in peanut oil/coconut oil)
• Cheesy egg omelette with lots of cheese (cooked in olive oil and butter)
• Cheesy scrambled egg with lots of capsicum (cooked in olive oil and butter)

Lunch

• Simple salad (spinach, capsicum, mushrooms, stir-fried in olive oil and butter, sometimes with chicken, sometimes with eggs and sometimes only veggies topped with lots of cheese)
• Cream of paalak soup with stir-fried mushrooms/broccoli
• Sol-kadhi and baked French beans (whole) with cheese
• Cauliflower curry in coconut milk and coconut oil

Dinner 

• Baked spinach with cheese and cream
• Lemon chicken stew
• Fried Paneer pakora
• Stir-fried mutton with spices of choice

Week 2:

Breakfast

• Bullet Coffee (Coffee/tea mixed with coconut oil, cream, and butter mix )

Lunch 

• Simple salad (spinach, capsicum, mushrooms, stir-fried in olive oil and butter, sometimes with chicken, sometimes with eggs and sometimes only veggies topped with lots of cheese)
• Spiced, fried paneer pakora
• Red chana salad
• Lemon chicken
• Soya nugget curry
• Stir-fried Ladysfinger with peanuts (Maharashtrian style)

Dinner 

• Stir-fried French beans with cheese topping/cheese fondue
• Cauliflower cooked in coconut milk and coconut oil
• Cream of mushroom
• Chicken stew
• Cheese Pakora

Week 3:

Breakfast

• Bullet Coffee

Lunch 

• Fasting, just keep on sipping water and sugarless green tea/lemon water with pepper

Dinner 

• 6-8 soaked Almonds every day for this week
• Chicken in pesto sauce with paneer and spinach leaves stir-fried   in olive oil
• Paneer Chilly
• Chicken barbecue with spinach and cheese salad
• spinach egg omelette with lots of cheese

Week 4:

Breakfast

• Black tea/lemon tea/peach tea (without sugar)
• Black coffee

Lunch 

• Green tea ( Without sugar)
• Lemon water (without sugar )
• Lots and lots of water

Dinner 

• Stir-fried Green beans with coconut and peanut
• Schezwan chicken
• Spinach cooked in milk, cream, and cheese
• Stir-fried veggies with spices and cream dressing
• Chicken stew
• Thai chicken
• Lemon chicken
• Stir-fried paneer with spinach and bell pepper
• Almond flour pancakes

You can find a comprehensive range of really lip-smacking Indian keto food products on ketofy.in.Like all diets, keto diet also works differently for different people. What works wonders for someone may not be so great for the other. To make sure that you are ready for the keto diet and are on the right plan, you must ideally consult a doctor or a dietitian before starting on the plan.