Flavorful, rich foods paired with creamy, hearty sauces help you lose weight!It sounds absurd at first glance, but a low-carb, high-fat diet is an excellent way to enjoy eating and lose weight at the same time.
Keto diet - a fat fight in the name of slimness
Fat is a unique flavor enhancer that makes our food especially appetizing.After all, how can a dry chicken breast compare with a juicy piece of pork in cheese sauce?Same thing.
If you eat enough fatty foods, keeping your carbohydrate intake to a minimum, dietary nutrition will open up for you from a new side - tasty, juicy and nutritious!
Very soon we will move on to the TOP 10 methods, but for now let's briefly look at the principle of the keto diet - how it works, forcing the body to lose weight, but at the same time eliminating the feeling of hunger and bad mood that are so typical with dietary restrictions.
The basis of the ketogenic diet is food with a high fat content, an optimal amount of protein and a minimum amount of carbohydrates.The portion of the latter should not exceed 25 g per day (the optimal amount is in the range from 20 to 25 g).
The easiest way to produce energy for our body is glucose, the source of which is carbohydrates of all types (like an apple containing two dozen carbohydrates, as well as buns and candies).But as soon as the supply of this substance is limited, our system begins to use ketones, which are produced in the liver, as fuel.
Ketosis is triggered, a natural process within the body that usually comes into play during extreme hunger.For example, if even the smallest piece of food does not appear in the stomach for several days, the body begins to experience a lack of glucose (the energy source has dried up), so it recruits ketones to work.
In this way, the keto diet helps you lose weight, not due to hunger, but due to the low supply of carbohydrates to the “processing workshop”.As soon as the body has switched to using fats as a source of energy for life, it begins to actively “eat” fats from food, as well as those that “decorate” our sides, stomach and other parts of the body.
Therefore, on a keto diet, it is important to remember the main thing: your diet should contain as much fat as possible - they will lead the body to slimness.Contrary to the prejudices (fat makes you fat, it is harmful, etc.), do not be afraid of fatty foods, because as part of a low-carb diet, it will be extremely beneficial for the body.
On a ketogenic diet, you will always feel full, cheerful and in a great mood, because fatty foods satisfy your hunger perfectly and for a long time, and the pleasant creamy taste of food does not allow you to feel deprived of delicious dishes.
This is exactly what happens on other diets with a strict restriction on the amount of cheese, for example, or a complete ban on juicy kebab from a fatty piece of pork.
TOP 10 – we eat fatty and tasty!
In some cases, the keto diet can be problematic for people who are not used to eating a lot of fatty foods.Therefore, we are talking about 10 ways to eat more natural fats, receiving comprehensive benefits - both the pleasure of eating and effective weight loss.
1. Start with whole foods rich in fats
It's time to say goodbye to low-fat or low-fat foods.Clear your refrigerator and kitchen cupboards of dried egg mixtures instead of real eggs, artificial cream and low-fat peanut butter.Now your breakfast, lunch or dinner will be truly delicious!
Get rid of any foods labeled “light” or “diet”—they have no place in your stomach on the keto diet.Replace skim milk with the fattest, enjoy heavy cream 20% or higher, eat cottage cheese with a fat content of 9% and enjoy the delicate creamy taste of food.
By the way, if you can’t find full-fat milk or yogurt in a store nearby, feel free to buy a low-fat product, because you can increase the fat content yourself.For example, add a few tablespoons of heavy cream or sour cream to 1% drinking yogurt.
Review your entire shopping list.Your goal is to stock your refrigerator with whole foods high in fat, including avocados and chicken eggs.
When preparing dishes, try to add natural fats to them, and not avoid them out of old habit.Fry eggs in melted butter, eat your favorite high-fat hard cheeses.
In a word, do not deny yourself the pleasure of eating tasty and fatty food!By the way, you can easily make natural ice cream from cream - just whip it and put it in the freezer.In an hour, your delicacy will be ready.Use strawberries or apricots as a sweetener - they contain minimal carbohydrates (5 g for half a cup of strawberries and 8 g for 2 large apricots).
From now on, give preference to fatty meats.In addition, it is more aromatic, tender and inexpensive, unlike its low-fat counterparts.Include fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines in your diet - they are rich in fat, so they will be an excellent addition to your menu.
2. Cook with added fat
Don't be afraid to pour so much oil into the pan that the pieces of food are literally swimming in it.There is no longer any need to steam vegetables or bake dry chicken breast without a drop of fat in foil.Cook low-carb vegetables, fish, meat or eggs with natural fats.
This will make your food even more appetizing and nutritious.Use only as much fat as needed to prepare the dish.You can always throw away the leftovers—there’s absolutely no point in eating them with a spoon.
3. Use different fats - this will diversify the taste of food
Fats can easily change the taste of food, and this is a great way to expand the range of taste sensations for each day of the ketogenic diet.The easiest option is to boil green beans and season them with a piece of butter to get a pleasant aftertaste.
Do you like it fatter?Then fry the beans in oil, and finally drizzle with sesame oil - you will get a wonderful dish.It is not forbidden to sprinkle the beans with a spoon of sesame seeds (this will enhance the taste and add a little more fat, which will help the body lose weight).
Experiments are welcome!Don't be afraid to try new combinations of foods and natural fats to see which foods you like best.Make a healthy supply of several types of fat at once, which can be stored in the refrigerator or in the kitchen cabinet:
- vegetable oil;
- olive and coconut;
- lard (in any form);
- sesame oil;
- avocado and peanut oil;
- pumpkin seed oil;
- nut oils (macadamia, almond, etc.);
- chicken, duck fat and other types of animal fats.
Use oil everywhere - on a sandwich, in salads, when boiling, stewing or frying foods.
4. Stock up on a list of low-carb recipes
It's not at all difficult as it seems.Write down a dozen simple recipes in a separate notebook so that you don’t have to rack your brain every time about what delicious thing to cook for breakfast or dinner.The most important thing is that there are practically no carbohydrates in the dishes.
Here are a few first ideas for your dishes:
- Chicken casserole with feta cheese and olives.Only 6 g of carbohydrates, and cooking is as easy as shelling pears - mix the ingredients and bake until golden brown, not forgetting to coat the chicken in spices and butter.
- Meat cutlets in creamy tomato sauce with a side dish of stewed cabbage(in butter, of course).Only 10 g of carbohydrates against the charming taste of a fried cutlet with a fragrant, hearty sauce.
- Keto Pancakes with Roast Pork.Only 8 g of carbohydrates and a mind-blowing delight of tastes!Use heavy cream and almond flour to prepare these pancakes, and don’t forget to season the finished dish with melted butter.
- Hamburger with an airy egg bun, fried meat, cheese, vegetables and herbs.This dish will replace any fast food, and will bring only 7 g of carbohydrates!By the way, the “bun” itself is very easy to prepare: just beat the yolks and whites separately, then mix into a single mass and bake in the oven.You probably already know how to fry meat.Bon appetit!
Low-carb recipes will help you eat deliciously, and most importantly, consume plenty of fat, which is so necessary for losing weight on the keto diet.
5. Cover prepared foods with oil, sauce, or rich dressing.
Do this with everything you eat.There is no need to gobble up olive oil with tablespoons, but adding it to a vegetable salad is your sacred duty.Even avocado, known to be a very fatty food, goes well with an oil dressing.
There are countless options for sauces:
- pure vegetable oils mixed with herbs and seasonings;
- cheese and cream sauces, as well as their combinations (tomato, mushroom, etc.);
- melted butter or everyone’s “cursed” mayonnaise.
Always add natural fats to your food, as this is the basis of the keto diet.
6. Pretty food = fatty food.Decorate your dishes with fatty foods!
For some reason, when we hear the word “fat,” our minds draw clumsy pictures of an unsightly piece of lard or, even worse, fat on our own body.So now is the time to turn your thinking in the opposite direction, because fat sometimes looks great, not to mention tastes!
See what you can use to decorate your dishes:
- fatty cheeses;
- avocado slices;
- olives and seeds;
- jerky;
- chopped macadamia nuts;
- roasted sesame, almonds;
- puree of avocado, tomatoes and herbs;
- slices of bacon or brisket;
- pine nuts.
These simple foods add variety to the flavor of your food, provide your body with nutrients and, of course, plenty of fat!They can be added to almost any dish and are a great support for your keto meal plan.
7. Check the snacks - are they sure they contain fat?
Snacks and various appetizers are best avoided on any diet, but sometimes they are great for curbing hunger, allowing you to feel full until your next meal.If you happen to be hungry, choose fatty snacks.It could be cheese, nuts or hard-boiled chicken eggs.
8. Always keep a stock of cheeses in the refrigerator
Because cheese is the best addition to any food.It works great as a snack and can be eaten for breakfast or as a snack.Use cheese as a topping - it works great both as a stand-alone dish (for example, a spicy cheese topping in the form of tightly rolled cutlet balls) and as an aesthetic touch to the main dish (in the form of sprinkles).
Prepare amazing creamy desserts based on cheese and enjoy the taste for breakfast or dinner.Choose any type of fatty cheese with minimal carbohydrate content - this high-calorie product will quickly fill your stomach, leaving you feeling satisfied with your meal.
9. Add fat to drinks
Your tea, coffee or hot milk will sparkle with an inimitable taste if it contains a spoonful of aromatic fats.For example, melt some butter or coconut oil in a bowl.It will take no more than 30 seconds, but the aftertaste of the drink will delight your taste buds for another 15 minutes.
Heavy cream or thick country sour cream from farm stores goes well with hot drinks.And if you add butter to a glass of hot milk, you can not only lose weight, but also forget about seasonal colds.Such a simple snack will solve two problems at once: quench your thirst and fill your stomach.
While you are carried away by fatty foods and dreaming of a slim body, do not forget about a reasonable approach to business.After all, an excess of fatty foods in some cases risks giving the opposite result - stopping the process of losing weight or sharply raising cholesterol levels.
Especially if you drink the drink on a full stomach, supplying the body with tons of excess energy.This tool is powerful - use it wisely.
10. Which dessert to choose on a keto diet?
The first tip for all diets is to skip dessert.But, as in the case of snacking, sometimes it’s difficult to deny yourself the little pleasure that is so lacking when losing weight.
If you're determined to treat yourself to something delicious, choose recipes that are high in fat and low in sugar, including artificial sweeteners.Unsweetened whipped cream (30% fat or more) with raspberries is an ideal choice for a keto dessert.
You can diversify the menu of those with a sweet tooth with fat bombs with vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom.These “sweets” go well with tea or coffee, invariably lifting the mood of those who are losing weight.By the way, such “bombs” contain only 0.4 g of carbohydrates.Write down the recipe, because they are prepared simply and very quickly!
What you will need:
- 85 g butter (preferably unleavened);
- 0.5 grated coconut (no added sugars);
- 0.5 teaspoon ground cardamom (green);
- 0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract;
- 0.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
How to cook:
- Warm the oil to room temperature.
- Fry the coconut flakes until golden brown.
- Mix the butter, most of the chips, spices and place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
- Once the mixture has hardened slightly, form it into small balls, roll in the remaining toasted coconut and enjoy!
This dessert can be conveniently stored in both the refrigerator and freezer (the shelf life is the same as the oil you used).
How to enhance the weight loss effect on a keto diet?
Fat makes our life tastier, healthier and easier in the truest sense of the word, but moderation is important in everything.At each meal, eat moderate portions, do not overeat.The best advice is to leave the table slightly hungry, because the feeling of fullness comes a little later than the end of the meal.
If it turns out that you are hungry, this can always be corrected with a small portion of fatty food, but if you overeat, the diet can be considered failed.Watch your diet: be sure to have a lot of fat and few carbohydrates.Do not deviate from the designated course, because this is the basis of the keto diet.
If you want to achieve maximum results, take a look at some useful tips below.
1. Make onboarding easy.
At the beginning of a carbohydrate-free journey, fatty foods run the risk of seeming too rich in fat to the body - this is normal, so your task is to wait out the “storm”.When switching to a new food system, the body and taste buds begin to adapt gradually, you just need to give them a little time (on average 2-4 weeks).
During this period, try to eat more neutral fatty foods (for example, avocado, cheese and meat fried in a small amount of oil).A smooth transition to more high-fat foods will relieve you of hunger and allow your body to get used to a new source of energy without unnecessary stress.
Once you achieve balance on the path of addiction, the feeling of hunger after a “light-fat” diet will decrease.From the body’s perspective, this indicates that adaptation has been successful, and access to the processing of fat as fuel is completely open (there is no longer any supply of glucose accumulated from carbohydrate foods).
2. Watch your appetite
If you have adapted more than perfectly to the keto diet, but your stomach has become overly demanding about the volume of food, then it’s time to experiment: try reducing the amount of natural fats added to food (at the cooking stage or in the finished dish).
When you're hungry, still choose high-fat foods instead of carbs.The latter will reduce your efforts to lose weight to nothing.Eat exactly as much food as you need to satisfy your hunger - let your body burn its internal fat reserves, not an extra spoonful of butter from your plate.
3. Add more fat to your diet as you lose weight.
As soon as you achieve the result - the desired number on the scales, for which you gave up carbohydrates, there are no more fat reserves left inside the body, which was used day after day as an energy source.
During this period, it is important to listen to the body, tune in to the same wavelength with it in order to learn to read the signals of physical hunger.This is the period when the amount of fatty foods should be gradually increased.Until you “find” balance, that is, the ability to maintain weight without feeling hungry.
Don't worry that you may not hear your own body, and there will be excess fat.During your weight loss process, which will take at least 2 months (depending on your initial weight), you will gain good communication skills with your stomach.
The body itself will tell you how much food is enough for it to be satisfied.To hear the hint, all you need to do is keep your appetite in hand and resist the temptation to overeat.
4. Eat enough protein foods
Protein foods are responsible for effectively suppressing hunger.If you eat a lot of fatty foods, but still remain hungry, check to see if enough protein is getting into the “processing department”?Lack of protein can slow down or stop weight loss.
Make sure that your daily diet contains an average of 1.5 g of protein per 1 kg of body weight (the amount of protein can reach 1.7 g depending on weight, so the calculation is always individual).If you do fitness or go to the gym to get ripped muscles, you should increase your protein portion a little more.
How much fatty food can you eat on a keto diet?
The ketogenic nutrition system does not provide for strict restrictions on caloric intake, so the key rule is: eat until you are slightly full, choose standard portions (or focus on the volume of a 200-gram glass - eat as much as it fits).
Have dinner before 8 pm - this will make the work of the whole body easier.Don't think your stomach will be happy with a meat patty in cheese sauce an hour before bed.Like you, he wants to rest at night, and not at all work on processing the incoming provisions.
Eating well during the day will allow you to calmly survive a 12-hour break without food (evening + night sleep).As a last resort, eat a piece of cheese or drink a glass of milk with a small spoon of butter.
This will allow you to sip your hunger and fall asleep feeling full.And remember, even light physical activity like walking will significantly enhance your weight loss results.
Eat deliciously and lose weight with pleasure!