Low Carb High Fat Keto Approved Foods

An Introduction to The Ketogenic Diet

The Ketogenic diet is a diet that is rising in popularity due to its reputation for weight loss success among those that follow it strictly. Originally, this diet was made popular by its success in treating children with epilepsy. The Ketogenic diet is known for its role in boosting brain function, which is part of the reason it is used to treat epilepsy. When you eat a Ketogenic diet, your body enters what is called “ketosis”. This state of ketosis leads to a decrease in the frequency of seizures among the epileptic.

Benefits of Keto

Though the Ketogenic diet is extremely relevant to the medical community for its seizure-treating qualities, that’s not the only great thing about Keto. It has also become a popular diet for those looking to lose weight and gain numerous other health benefits that come as you adapt your body to function on a Ketogenic diet. Among these are decreased risk for numerous diseases and increased muscle growth, endurance, and weight loss. The Ketogenic diet has been taking the world by storm, but it can be a little bit of a tricky subject to navigate.

The Ketogenic diet requires constant monitoring of what you eat and what nutrients are going into your body. It is through this understanding of the composition of your food that you are to make changes to allow your body to enter ketosis. With the heightened awareness of what goes into your body also comes more caution and attention that leads to an overall healthier lifestyle and body function. Though the benefits are undeniable, people have trouble understanding exactly what is happening in your body when you are on a Ketogenic diet and how it benefits you directly and indirectly.

The Concept of Keto

The entire idea of the Ketogenic diet is to reduce the amount of carbohydrates that you take in to your body. This is the beginning of the diet and the basic concept for the shift in the way you eat. When you consume carbohydrates in a regular diet, your body converts those carbs into glucose to be transported throughout the body and used for energy. The glucose is very important in fueling the brain as well as several other areas of the body.

Your body typically likes carbohydrates because they are easy to break down and become excellent, plentiful sources of energy that your body can draw upon any time it needs energy. While carbohydrates are liked by the body for their energy efficiency, doctors lately have been coming to a less favorable conclusion about carbohydrates—that we should be eating less.

All About Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates, while great sources for energy, have turned out to be a bit of a menace in the Western diet. We may have outdone ourselves and started consuming too many of the energy-packed Macro. This diet has led us to overeat too much energy that is getting stored as fat. There are many doctors that believe carbohydrates are the main source for our current obesity problem. Dr. Robert Atkins, the creator of the Atkins diet, is one of carbohydrates’ biggest critics.

Philosophy of Low-Carb Diets

Atkins says that carbohydrates have become too central to our American diet and the overconsumption of carbohydrates is causing us to become more and more obese as our body opts to burn carbohydrates, the easiest source of energy that it can find. This may not be as big of a problem is everyone in America got adequate exercise, but unfortunately exercise is not made as much of a priority as it ought to be with busy schedules and hectic lives.

It’s precisely because of this hectic lifestyle that a lot of people have chosen to pursue weight loss through a dieting plan rather than traditional exercise. The most common destination are low-carb diets like the Ketogenic diet. The Ketogenic diet offers a new way for the dieter to have complete control over the Macros they eat and still experience weight loss no matter their activity level.

The Ketogenic diet tells us that in order to achieve weight loss, we can eat less carbohydrates. By eating less carbs, you are depriving your body of an easy, on-hand energy source that is very plentiful in your diet. In the absence of carbs, your body opts for the next best sources of energy: fats. When there are no carbs, your body will draw upon stored energy like body fat to fuel the processes that it needs to. It’s because of this natural adaptation that low-carb diets can help you lose weight.

As you can surely guess, the Ketogenic diet centers around monitoring and reducing your carbohydrate intake and instead focusing on increase your other important Macros. On the Ketogenic diet it’s important to monitor three main Macronutrients: carbs, protein, and fats. By adjusting your intake of these three Macros to the appropriate ratio, you can gain control of your diet and your weight loss.

About Ketosis

When your body doesn’t have access to carbohydrates to use for energy, the body begins to burn your stored fats. This puts your body in a state of ketosis. In ketosis, the liver starts converting your fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies to be used for energy throughout the body. The ketone bodies are spread through the blood stream and used for an alternate source of energy. The brain feels the most benefits from ketosis and as pointed out earlier, ketones being used in the brain can actually lessen the effects of epilepsy.

Almost half of people with epilepsy who used a Ketogenic diet saw the number of seizures drop by at least 50%. This gives extreme merit to the Ketogenic diet as a treatment for health disorders aside from weight loss benefits.

Aside from epilepsy treatment, the Ketogenic diet has dozens of other health benefits. Some of these benefits are felt immediately while others can take place decades down the road. We are only just beginning to uncover the potential of the Ketogenic diet. Everyone from soccer moms to professional athletes is interested in Keto and its revolutionary structure and health benefits.

Keto: A Lifestyle

The first thing that anyone should know about Keto before going on a Ketogenic diet is what exactly it’s going to mean for your everyday eating habits. While very beneficial, the Keto diet comes with costs. Those costs are mainly time and dedication that will both invigorate your enthusiasm for your health and sometimes annoy you. A well-executed Ketogenic diet requires extremely diligent record-keeping and Macro tracking. While this can be time-consuming, it is fortunately not very difficult at all to achieve this and experience actual results.

There’s an easy way to know how much of each of the three Macros you should be consuming each day. The general rule of thumb is that for your total amount of calories, you should get 60-75% of them from fat, 15-30% from protein, and 5-10% of your calories from carbohydrates. As you’ll notice, the numbers provided are ranges. This is because these numbers can vary based on several factors like your height, weight, and activity levels. The Macro ratio of, for example, a short, obese man who sits all day at a desk will be much different than a tall, athletic woman that does bodybuilding for a living. You should be adjusting your ratio based on what works best for you and your lifestyle/body type.

Indirect Benefits of Keto

A Ketogenic diet is known to help reduce your appetite. Some people struggle with staying on diets due to the appetite that they’ve grown used to and the habit of overeating. A Keto diet that is low in carbs tends to curb hunger and make people feel fuller. This leads to a reduction in the amount of calories that you are eating and a boost in your weight loss.

At the beginning of a Keto diet, your weight loss will be more rapid. If you can keep the pounds off, this is a huge benefit. The reason for the increased velocity of weight loss on Keto is that a low-carb diet helps to reduce water in the body. As we all know, water is heavy and also can make you feel bloated and heavier than you really are. Purging some of this water weight will bring your weight down significantly and quickly than you would be able to on other diets that are not low-carb.

When you do lose weight on the Keto diet, it tends to come from the abdominal cavity more than anywhere else. This both helps improve your appearance and general health. This fat that is in your abdominal cavity can be a serious health hazard and has a way of lodging itself between your organs. On a Keto diet you can burn some of this fat off quickly and greatly reduce your risk of heart disease and type II diabetes.

You can also significantly bring down your triglycerides by adopting a Ketogenic diet. High levels of triglycerides are connected to a high risk for heart disease. When you consume a lot of carbs your triglyceride levels tend to be much higher. When you begin to cut carbs out of your diet, your blood triglycerides will see a vast reduction.

Cholesterol is another area that is positively impacted by the Keto diet. On Keto, you can expect your HDL (good cholesterol) levels to increase and your LDL (bad cholesterol) levels to decrease. This lowers your risk for heart disease and other health conditions. This effect is also felt by your blood sugar and insulin levels. Both of these are regulated by the Keto diet and can reduce your risk for diabetes.

Finally, Keto is good for the brain. The benefits to people that suffer from Epilepsy are apparent, but it also extends to other conditions. Many neurological disorders can be improved by sticking to a Keto diet. There are now studies being done on the possible benefits to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease patience. Ketosis is great for the brain and boosts function, memory, and focus as well.

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What Foods Are High in Fat but Low in Carbs?

If you are looking to increase your fat intake but keep your carb intake low to continue enjoying ketosis, we have some tips to help you up your fat intake as well as some high-fat, low-carb Keto-friendly foods that you can enjoy to help you reach all your Keto goals.

Fat gets a bad rap in the media, but natural fat can actually be very good for you and it’s great on a Ketogenic diet. Foods that are higher in fat will be more filling and make it easier to adhere to your eating restrictions while on Keto. In addition to all this, foods that are high in fat taste better than those that aren’t! Fat enhances the flavor of your dishes and makes you forget you’re eating healthy.

Before we go into some of the specific high-fat foods that you can include in your Keto diet, we want to give you some general tips to save time and hassle trying to include fat into your diet. The first thing you’ll want to do if you’re trying to increase your fat intake and find high fat foods to include in your diet is stop buying low-fat items. This includes anything that comes in a reduced fat form like peanut butter, milk, sour cream, etc. This is an easy way to include more fat in your diet without changing the items that you’re eating. Your shopping list won’t change, but your Macro intake will!

Tips for Including Fat

Another thing that you can do is start cooking your food with fats. Most commonly, this will take the form of butter. Cooking vegetables, chicken, or other items in butter will give it a great crisp flavor and increase the amount of fat that you’re consuming. This is a very simple adjustment that is easy to make but can be quite effective—and tasty!

While you’re cooking with butter, you might as well add it as a topping, too! Using fats for flavoring is an easy way to incorporate more high fat items into your diet. Put healthy fats on top of veggies to start experimenting with different flavors and increase your fat intake.

While we’re talking about toppings, we also want to point out that you can add oils, dressings, or sauces to your dishes as well to increase the meal’s fat content easily and also allow you to add a great taste profile to your dish without being worried about the nutrition. You can also add garnishes to your existing dishes to make them higher in fat. Good examples are adding things like cheese, more fruit, meta, seeds, or nuts into your dishes.

Eating more snacks can increase your fat intake as well. You still want to make sure that you eat healthy but eating fruits or other healthy items that are high in fat will taste good, increase your fat intake, and tie you over until your next tasty Keto meal. If you’re a frequent coffee drinker, you can include fat in your daily coffee, as well. Simply melt butter or put some coconut oil into your coffee can make you feel more full and give you a nice boost of healthy fat.

Be creative with your desserts! You can include desserts into your diet to increase your daily fat content. As always, you should still be conscientious of what you’re eating and if it could endanger your state of ketosis. Healthy desserts like whipped cream with raspberries are a great option. Use this tip with great care!

High Fat Foods for Your Shopping List

Now that you have some tips for making smaller changes to your diet that will increase your fat intake, you are ready to start looking at specific foods that you can start including in your meal plans. These foods are high in fat and other nutrients but low in carbs to avoid getting you kicked out of ketosis. The list is long, so you should take it step by step and take great care when you are introducing new foods to your diet. Your body is a finely tuned machine on Keto and a wrong move can set you back. But don’t get discouraged! This is all about trial & error and finding out what’s best for your body.

The first item on our list is eggs. Eggs are healthy, packed of nutrients, and one of the most versatile cooking foods available to us. The yolk of an egg is extremely nutritional and very beneficial to include in a Ketogenic diet. The yolk itself contains thirteen essential vitamins and minerals and can help with eyesight, reduce the size of LDL, make you feel fuller, and regulate blood sugar levels. Eggs are truly a super food and a great way to introduce more fat into your diet while also keeping it Keto-friendly!

Next up we have olives and olive oil. While these two food items are not necessarily centerpieces of a dish, they are definitely valuable additions to a meal plan on a Ketogenic diet. They have a lot of health benefits and it’s very easy to include olive oil into your diet for that extra high fat content. They are also anti-inflammatory by nature which can help alleviate the symptoms of a good deal of diseases.

If you are looking to add more fat and protein to your diet while keeping the carbs down, meats, poultries and seafood are great things to include in your daily diet. They are a great source of proteins and fats and they even contain essential nutrients that sometimes can’t even be found in fruits and veggies. Vitamin B12 is a good example of this. Healthy meats can positively affect your cholesterol levels as well. For best results, you should enjoy meat somewhat moderately and make an effort to consume meats that are raised responsibly. This is not only a moral issue, but meats that were pasture-raised have been found to contain more nutrients.

Another great source of fats with low carbs are high fat dairy products. This includes cheese, butter, cream, and more. The fats in these food items also help promote healthy cholesterol levels and can even reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. You’ll also find protein, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids in high fat dairy that all carry numerous health benefits. These high fat dairies also promote muscle strength and mass, which is why a lot of active weightlifters love these foods. Cheese is one of the most popular foods in America because of its taste. On the Keto diet, you can eat pretty much as much cheese as you want because while it is high in calories, it is very low in carbs and rich in other helpful vitamins and nutrients. Cheese lovers rejoice!

Dark chocolate has long been storied to be actually quite a healthy food. Dark chocolate has been found to decrease blood pressure, risk of heart disease, and insulin resistance. It also has tons of antioxidants, courtesy of the cocoa. You can definitely enjoy the benefits of dark chocolate on Keto, but don’t go overboard. It has enough carbs to put you in danger of losing Ketosis time. It’s a great treat for the occasional dessert.

Last, but not least, we have nuts and seeds. Nuts and seeds are generally seen as healthy on pretty much any diet. Consuming nuts frequently has been linked with reduced risk for heart disease, cancer, depression, obesity, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s also a great source of fiber, which can help you feel fuller for longer and lead to less calories entering your system. This assists in weight loss. Nuts and seeds will give you a nice boost of fats as well as other nutrients that help you along on your path to enhanced nutrition. They’re great add-ons in any dish or just as a quick snack!

How Much Fat Should I Eat on Keto?

It’s recommended that you eat as much fat as the Macro ratio allows. The ideal Ketogenic diet will have 60-75% of your total daily calories coming from high fat foods. So, the amount of fat that you eat will depend on how many calories you are eating each day and what foods you are choosing to consume.

If you are eating a 2000 calorie diet and you want 75% of your calories to come from fats, you should be getting 1500 of your daily calories from your fatty foods. With that knowledge in mind, you should plan your diet accordingly and structure your food intake in a way that makes sense and allows you to meet all your Macro guidelines as set by the Keto Macro ratio.

Finding A Balance

However, it is important to keep in mind that these are just guidelines. What this is really about is finding a balance that works good for you. If you are gaining weight, you will want to decrease your fat consumption and make adjustments in your diet to reflect the results that you are seeing. It’s also going to vary depending on how active you are, as well.

To figure out how much fat you should eat on Keto you should try adhering to the Macro ratio guidelines and adjust from there to find optimal success. Keto is a series of trial and error, but once you figure out the best combination for you, it’s smooth sailing until the finish line. It would be a good idea to find a Keto community to join so that you can get advice from your peers and see what other people with the same body type and activity levels did to achieve success.

How Do I Get More Fat In My Keto Diet?

Before making the steps to include more fat in your diet, you should get an understanding of what fats are good on a Keto diet and which fats are bad. Not all fats are created equal and some can contribute to premature death or a large number of diseases. This is part of getting a better understanding of what is going into your body and then optimizing that information to achieve weight loss and general health improvements, which is really what Keto is all about.

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Good Fats

The good fats that are safe to consume are saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. These fats are naturally occurring and despite being a “fat”, they can actually have numerous health benefits to both your general health and your Keto journey. Some examples of food that are high in saturated fats are coconut oil, cocoa butter, eggs, butter, cream, palm oil, red meat, lard, tallow, duck fat, and pili nuts. Foods that are high in polyunsaturated fats are fish, olive oil, walnuts, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and flax seeds. Monounsaturated fats are also fine for you to eat and those include olives, olive oil, avocados, lard, duck fat, macadamia nuts, and macadamia nut oil. You should still monitor these items’ nutritional content before including them on your Keto diet.

Bad Fats

Trans fats, on the other hand, are completely different. Trans fats have been chemically changed and are most often found in processed, boxed, and fast foods. They are modified so that they extend the shelf life of the food that contains them. They’ve also been found to raise LDL (bad cholesterol) levels and lower HDL (good cholesterol) levels. Trans fats should be avoided at all costs because they are extremely detrimental to your health.

Now that you know how to tell what fats are good for you and which ones are not, you can start to select foods to include them in your diet. If you are looking to make a subtle increase to your fat intake, you can start including sauces and toppings that are high in fat into your already existing dishes. This can give them a nice taste and boost your high fat intake to just where you need it.

If you are looking to make more of a drastic increase in your fat intake, you can start rebuilding your daily diet altogether to consist of foods that are naturally high in fat like eggs and fatty meats. This is a more direct approach and requires a little more research and preparation as well. No matter which avenue you pursue to increase the amount of fat in your diet, you should always be cautious and deliberate to make sure that you don’t ruin your ketosis when introducing new things into your diet. When adding fat into your Keto diet, move slowly and add a little at a time so that you can see what the effects are.

Benefits of eating High Fat for Keto

There are numerous health benefits to increased fat and fatty acid consumption on the Ketogenic diet. One of the main benefits as it relates to the Ketogenic diet is that you will be able to fulfill your Macro ratio for the day. Achieving this balance is critical to the success of your Ketogenic diet. If you don’t eat enough fats, fatty acids, or fatty foods, you may be endangering your potential for ketosis and therefore your weight loss. Media has portrayed all fats as being bad for you, but if you consume them the right way within the bounds of the Ketogenic diet, they will help you achieve ketosis and some even make you feel fuller for longer.

It’s also important to remember to eat the right fats when on Keto or even when you’re not on the Keto diet. Most fatty acids and fats like polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fats are good for fulfilling your daily meat intake. The fats that you need to stay away from are trans fats. While some other fats have been linked to long term health benefits when eaten correctly and in moderation, trans fats come from processed foods and are not good at all for you. Trans fats should be avoided at all costs.

As with all things, fats are great for your diet in moderation. You should consume fats daily in accordance with your Macro ratio and adjust your intake as needed. You now know everything there is to know about fats and fatty acids on Keto.

Good luck and have fun, Keto community!