When you begin a new diet, you are likely to have two goals in mind. You will be aiming to improve your overall health and fitness, and you will want to lose weight.
While it is always best to try and lose weight in a steady and sustainable manner, there are times when you want a boost at the start of a diet.
This can be particularly helpful to keep you motivated to continue the diet.
The keto diet has been praised for its ability to help people lose weight and regain control of their health.
There are certain things that you can do when you begin the keto diet that will help you to shift those extra pounds more quickly.
In this article, we will look at some of the things you can do to help you lose weight fast on the keto diet.
All of these tips and tricks can be implemented whether you are at the beginning of the diet or if you have been on keto for a while.
Figure Out Your Personal Macros
You can look up almost any diet online and find a general guide to what you should eat, how much, and what nutrients you should be consuming.
There are high protein diets, high fat diets, and low carb diets like keto. However, all of these descriptions are fairly vague which can make things a bit difficult.
The wonderful thing about our bodies is that they are all completely unique. This means that we all have different nutritional requirements.
This is where calculating your personal macros becomes important. When you figure out what your macros are, you can work out the number of calories your body needs each day.
You can also find out how many grams of protein, carbs, and fat you should consume to achieve weight loss.
There are plenty of free calculators available online that can help you to work out your macros so that you can tailor the keto diet to your specific needs.
When you are filling out the information for these calculators you need to make sure that you specify that your goal is to lose weight.
If you are using a particularly basic calculator, you should put your weight as your goal weight rather than your current weight to get a more accurate macros calculation.
Once you have calculated what your personal macros are, you can input this data into any apps that you use to track your progress and food intake.
This can help you stay on track more easily. It is important to note that to properly track your macros, you will need to invest in a scale to weigh your food.
Track Your Personal Macros
Once you have worked out your macros and have input the information into your chosen tracking app, you have to begin to track them.
It can be tempting to estimate a lot of your macros by eye-balling portion sizes and estimating ingredients when you are cooking.
However, it is very rare for people to be able to track macronutrients accurately in this way.
When you try to estimate rather than weigh your food and ingredients, you are likely to underestimate what you are consuming.
This can lead to stagnant weight loss or even weight gain in some cases. To avoid this and continue to lose as much weight as possible on the keto diet, you will need to weigh all of your food.
There are plenty of food scales available on the market to make this as easy as possible. You can even get measuring spoons that weigh and measure your food at the same time.
It is necessary to weigh your meals and your snacks and record them in your chosen tracking app to get an accurate understanding of what you are consuming.
Although it may seem inconvenient to have to weigh all of your food, it will soon become just as much of a habit as plating your food before you eat it.
If you eat the same meals regularly, you won’t have to measure it every time because you will know how much you can have to fit your macros.
Eat Within A 6-8 Hour Window
Although paying attention to what you are eating is important for losing weight quickly on the keto diet, it is also essential to pay attention to when you are eating.
In general, as long as you are eating within your macros, you will lose weight well. However, there is slightly more to weight loss than a simple calories in vs calories out calculation.
Eating within a specific window of time during the day can help boost your weight loss more than you might think.
If you have spent any time online looking at different ways to lose weight, you will have heard of intermittent fasting. This essentially controls when you are allowed to eat during the day.
There are two main benefits of adopting intermittent fasting alongside the keto diet in terms of weight loss.
First of all, giving yourself a specific, limited window of time to consume your macros encourages you to focus on the types of food and nourishment that your body needs rather than what you are craving.
The limited time window can also help avoid overeating by applying rules to when you can eat.
The other benefit of intermittent fasting is that it allows your body time to rest and process the food that you have consumed during your eating window.
The point of the fasting window is to allow your body to properly digest and process the nutrients you have eaten. This means your body can make full use of the nutrients in your food.
Studies have shown that when you implement intermittent fasting in your diet, your body can produce more of the growth hormone HCG which helps you to burn more fat when you are at rest.
This hormone also helps you to consume fewer calories during your eating window which helps to contribute to weight loss.
How To Create A Sustainable Fasting Window
Intermittent fasting is a great way to help you lose weight faster when you are on the keto diet.
However, the window for fasting and for eating needs to be sustainable for your lifestyle otherwise it can end up causing you to break away from the diet.
When you are trying to work out what your fasting window should be there are a few questions that you should ask yourself to make sure that the fasting will fit with your lifestyle.
Below, we will look at some of those questions to help you find the perfect fasting window.
One of the most important questions to ask yourself is when you generally feel most hungry during the day.
Do you have any periods throughout the day where you are at risk of becoming “hangry”?
If you do, it is not a good idea to plan to be fasting around this time. Instead, you can use this time as the end of your fasting period.
You should also think about your lifestyle. When are you busy during the day? Will this make it easier for you to fast, or will it put you at risk of feeling faint because of physical activity?
While losing weight might feel like the most important thing in your life at some points, it is important to consider your relationships when planning a fasting schedule.
Is having dinner with your family every night important to you? If so, you should make sure that this time will fall within your eating window.
Once you have answered these questions, you can find the perfect fasting window to easily fit into your life. It is also important to note that your fasting time can be flexible.
Although the goal should be to stick to your fasting window as much as possible, life doesn’t always fit into a neat schedule.
There are going to be times when social activities and get-togethers do not line up with your fasting window.
It is okay to break your fast earlier to spend time with your loved ones. It is unlikely to derail your weight loss progress.
Try To Avoid Dairy And Sweeteners
When you are choosing the food that you want to put into your body, it is important to think about the things that you want to avoid.
Everyone has preferences and foods they don’t like and will want to leave out of their diet. However, there are also things that should be avoided to help boost your weight loss on keto.
One of the types of food that you should try to avoid when attempting to lose weight fast on keto is dairy. Dairy foods are known for causing inflammation in the body.
This can lead to water retention and bloating which can hinder weight loss on the scale. Even if you are still losing fat from your body, retaining water can be demoralizing.
The inflammation and water retention can be side effects of consuming dairy products regardless of whether you are lactose intolerant or not.
This doesn’t mean that you can never indulge in some cheese or a milky coffee.
However, you should avoid dairy as much as possible and if you have an event or vacation coming up, cutting dairy can provide significant results in a short amount of time.
If you are concerned about water retention and bloating, you should also try to stay away from artificial sweeteners.
While it can be very tempting to use artificial sweeteners to curb cravings for sweet treats on the keto diet, they can actually cause gastric distress.
This leads to inflammation, bloating, and discomfort. It can even lead to craving more sugary foods which can risk derailing your diet.
One of the main issues with consuming artificial sweeteners when you are trying to lose weight fast on the keto diet is that it can trigger a vicious cycle of craving and consuming sweet foods.
This cycle can make it significantly harder to lose weight fast with keto.
Unless you have incredible levels of self-control, it is best to stay away from sweet treats when you are trying to lose weight, even keto-friendly ones.
Avoiding sweeteners and foods containing sweeteners is known as clean keto.
This is one of the best ways to lose weight quickly on the keto diet. It can also help to wean yourself off of sugar and sweetened foods.
Hire A Coach With Personal Experience
No matter how much motivation you have when you first start out on a diet, it often isn’t enough to sustain you long-term.
There are going to be times when you are extra stressed, extra tired, or just unmotivated. During these times, it can be difficult to stick to your diet without a sound support system.
While friends and family can provide some emotional support, unless they have been through what you’re going through, it might not be enough.
This is where professional support can come in handy. There are plenty of health and fitness coaches out there that will be more than willing to offer their services.
However, you should be discerning in the coach that you hire.
Qualifications count for a lot, a coach that doesn’t have them can offer the same support as your friends and family offer for free.
With that being said, no amount of qualifications outweighs personal experience.
There is something to be said for the additional compassion and knowledge that comes with having lost weight using the keto diet that you just can’t learn from a book or a course.
Seeing a coach that has successfully lost weight and kept it off with a healthy lifestyle is like the best portfolio of all time.
If they have done it themselves, they must know what they are talking about.
Of course, you should also make sure that they have earned qualifications in nutrition to back up their experience as this will keep you safe and healthy.
Get Plenty Of Exercise
This next tip is true no matter what diet you are following to lose weight. With that being said, when you are on the keto diet, exercise can be even more effective.
We have already mentioned the growth hormone HCG before when talking about intermittent fasting. This hormone is also increased when you work out.
The more of this hormone you have, the more fat your body burns naturally.
Another benefit to working out when you are on the keto diet is the glucose that is burned.
This is a natural side effect of exercise, but it helps you to get into ketosis and stay there which leads to faster weight loss results.
If you are new to exercising and are feeling a bit overwhelmed, you will be pleased to know that even the simplest exercise can help you lose weight fast on the keto diet.
All you need to do to make a difference is incorporate a daily walk into your routine. If you want to, you can work up to a gentle jog, or you can sign up for some fun fitness classes with a friend.
If you have a very busy lifestyle already, you can incorporate smaller bouts of exercise into your routine by taking breaks as often as possible to do some bodyweight exercises or take a 5-minute walk around your home.
Track Total Carbs Not Net Carbs
The keto diet places a significant amount of emphasis on the carbs that you ingest. It can be tempting to calculate net carbs in the same way as you might track net calories.
However, this can be a slippery slope that ends up hindering your weight loss.
When you track your total carb intake, you get rid of the guesswork that comes with calculating net carbs.
This means that you will be able to accurately see what your intake is and can adjust it accordingly to help boost your weight loss.
When calculating net carbs, you have to subtract the total carbs from the amount of fiber in the food you are eating.
The issue with this is that food companies are renowned for leaving out ingredients on their packaging. This means that there is no way to know how accurate your net carbs are.
Avoid Snacking Between Meals
This is a classic piece of advice for anyone who is dieting, no matter what diet you are following. Snacking between meals can be a slippery slope when you are trying to lose weight fast.
With that being said, if you are someone who snacks and grazes throughout the day, stopping your snacks can be incredibly difficult.
One of the best ways to avoid snacking between meals is to make sure that the meals you are consuming are nutritious and filling while staying within your macros.
This can help to ensure that your body has all the nutrients it needs to help curb cravings.
If you have years of snacking habits to undo, it can be a good idea to remove tempting snack foods from your home to help avoid temptation as this can significantly impact your weight loss in a negative way.
If you are attached to your snacking habits and think that a snack here and there won’t hurt, especially if it is a keto-friendly snack, think again.
Many keto snack foods are very high in calories, especially if you are sticking to cheese and nuts for simplicity. This can quickly tip your calories over your daily macros limit.
Drink Water Like It’s Your Job
This is another classic diet tip, but it is there for a reason. We all know that drinking enough water throughout the day is necessary to keep our bodies healthy and happy.
After all, we are made of 60% water. Not only does consuming keep our bodies working properly and efficiently, but it also helps with weight loss.
There are two main ways that consuming enough water throughout the day helps contribute to weight loss.
Firstly, water pushes water. This means that the more water you drink, the less water your body will hold onto.
This can help to reduce water retention which leads to a lower number on the scale.
Secondly, the more water you drink, the less hungry you are going to feel and the less likely you are to snack or overeat at meal times.
Although you should try to drink at least 2 liters of water a day, it is possible to consume too much water.
The best way to avoid consuming too much water is to keep an eye on your urine. If it is clear, you should dial back your water consumption a little bit.
Final Thoughts
Losing weight fast on the keto diet is achievable and can be as sustainable as losing weight more slowly.
This is because the keto diet helps to keep you in the ketogenic zone which encourages your body to burn excess fat.
