Can You Still Have Carbs and Maintain a Keto Diet?

If you’ve decided to start on your weight loss journey, you’ll likely find yourself trying out the keto diet. It’s risen to popularity over the last 10 years, taking the world by storm. While it’s controversial, it does have its rightful place amongst diet and weight-loss culture. So, what exactly is keto, should you try it out, and what can you actually eat while on the diet?

What is Keto?

Keto, or the ketogenic diet, is a low-carb, high-fat diet that shares many similarities with the Atkins diet and other low-carb diet options. To do the keto diet, you’ll have to dramatically decrease the number of carbohydrates you’re taking in each day and replace those carbs with fats.

In order for keto to be successful, you must enter a metabolic state called ketosis. When your body enters ketosis, it becomes efficient at burning fat for energy. In the liver, fat is turned into ketones, which provide energy to the brain.

Increased ketones have many health benefits, but forcing your body into ketosis can be dangerous, resulting in really low blood sugar and insulin levels.

How Many Carbs Can You Have on the Keto Diet?

If you’re just starting the ketogenic diet, you’re probably asking yourself, “ just how many carbs can you have on keto?” This is a very common question and one that’s incredibly important. If you consume too many carbs while attempting the keto diet, your body will never enter ketosis, which is the whole point of doing the diet in the first place.

In order to send your body into ketosis, you need to have between 15 to 30 grams of net carbohydrates each day or approximately 5-10% of your total calories.

You can calculate your net carbohydrates by taking your total carbohydrates and subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols from them. There are many apps and websites that can help you monitor your carbohydrate intake while on the keto diet. Using these apps will make the entire process easier for you.

What Carbs Can You Consume on Keto?

You should avoid any highly processed carbohydrates while on the keto diet, including fruits, pasta, potatoes, candy bars, donuts, soda, candy, juice, bread. rice, and more. However, there are some carbohydrates that you can still enjoy in moderation. Those carbohydrates include:

• Dark chocolate
• Low-carb vegetables
• Avocados
• Berries
• Shirataki noodles
• Olives
• Cauliflower

If you aren’t a fan of eating lots of vegetables and protein, the keto diet may not be an option that works for you.

Read Also: What Nuts & Seeds Are Best For A Keto Diet?

Should I Do the Keto Diet?

The keto diet is not for everyone. Because there are health risks involved, you should always talk to your doctor before starting a new diet. Here’s a list of people who should not do the keto diet:

• Pregnant women
• Breastfeeding women
• People who have digestive disorders
• People with osteoporosis or people who are at high risk for osteoporosis
• People who tend to yo-yo diet
• Diabetics

Because the keto diet can make you lose weight really fast, some people may take the success of the diet and return back to their normal life, gaining all the weight back, repeating this process over and over again.

The point of the keto diet is to get you started in the right direction. If you find success with keto, the point is to move onto something that’s more sustainable in order to maintain the wait that you lost while on keto.

Unfortunately, keto isn’t sustainable and may cause people to regain weight afterward if they aren’t careful with their dieting. When switching off of keto you should re-introduce foods back to your diet slowly to prevent the rapid regaining of weight.