6 Dieting Mistakes Keto Newbies Almost Always Make

Keto comes with a huge learning curve.
Are you making one of these 6 dieting mistakes?

No one likes to make mistakes.

Mistakes can be humiliating and send your weight-loss efforts packing.

When new to keto, however, there are simple mistakes that almost everyone makes. Don't let them get you down. There is a huge learning curve when it comes to changing your lifestyle, so you can't expect yourself to get everything right the first time.

However, you don’t have to be new to a low-carb diet to make one of the following 6 mistakes. They are just as common among those who have been dieting for a while as they are among newbies.

As time goes on, you might become more relaxed and less mindful of the amount of carbs and calories you are eating. You might forget to drink your water or get so caught up in your latest project that you forget to eat.

It is also not unusual to misplace the basics, so whether you’re new to the low-carb lifestyle or you have been on this ketogenic journey for several months, here are the top 6 dieting mistakes you’ll want to avoid.

1. Not Eating Enough Salt

To keep your electrolytes balanced,
you need to eat plenty of salt.

This mistake cannot be stressed highly enough because it is the foundation for the low-carb myth that the Atkins Induction Flu is about detoxing from carbohydrates or sugar.

It’s not.

When you begin keto, the body loses most of its glycogen stores. Since there is 3 or 4 grams of water attached to each gram of glycogen, you are going to lose a ton of water in the first few days.

Sodium and potassium get flushed out with the water, along with all of that water, and that will throw your electrolytes out of balance.

Electrolytes are:

• calcium
• magnesium
• potassium
• and sodium

They have to remain balanced for you to feel well. If you are eating most of your Atkins Induction carbohydrates in the form of vegetables, potassium levels will probably be replaced.

If you are not heavily salting your food, or drinking a salty chicken broth with your meals, you’re going to get dehydrated.

Dehydration will make you feel:

• sick
• nauseated
• dizzy
• and give you other flu-like symptoms

If this happens, simply up your salt intake, and you should begin to feel better right away. You don't have to sit around suffering with the Atkins Flu.

2. Not Eating Enough Protein

If you are eating LCHF, make sure you are
getting enough protein

If you have been reading posts on several of the low-carb diet forums, or you have been following some of the high-profile ketogenic blogs, you might have heard about the latest tend called Nutritional Ketosis.

This low-carb diet asks dieters to limit their protein to 15 to 25 percent of their calories, but you might not be doing it that way. Many dieters have reduced their protein intake to just above, or just below, the amount of protein the body needs to repair itself on a daily basis.

Some of the women who have stopped by this blog have told me they are only eating 40 to 50 grams of protein per day.

That's on the verge of starvation mode.

If this is what you're doing, you're severely limiting your protein intake. Most believe they are doing it, so the body can't convert any excess protein to glucose.

However, amino acids not oxidized or used for body repairs are converted into glycogen, the storage form of carbohydrates. They are not immediately turned into glucose.

All glucose on a low-carb high-fat diet goes to feed the brain first, so glucose is nothing to be afraid of.

The brain needs about 120 to 130 grams of glucose per day. Part of that requirement can come from ketones, but 20 percent of what the brain needs cannot. Since the brain can't burn fatty acids for fuel, the missing 20 percent must come from glucose.

Most of those who have chosen to use Jimmy Moore's version of Nutritional Ketosis have been dieting for quite a few months or years now, and they have stalled part way to their goal weight. They are using this high-fat, reduced-protein plan in combination with Intermittent Fasting to try and kick-start their weight loss.

A 15-percent protein, 5-percent carbs, and 80-percent fat diet is not appropriate for newbies. These macros were created for endurance athletes on maintenance.

The official Nutritional Ketosis diet created by Dr. Stephen Phinney counsels you to eat a minimum of 20 percent of your maintenance calories in protein. He has also publicly stated that for those who want  to lose weight, must eat less, as part of the 80 percent recommended fat intake must come from your body fat stores. And not your diet.

If you’re just starting a low-carb diet, you don’t want to limit your protein.

Until you adapt to the state of ketosis, your brain needs 120 grams of glucose every day to function properly. A

lthough, the body can convert the protein you eat into glucose, if you don’t eat enough protein, your body isn't going to go without. It will simply get the amino acids it needs from your muscles instead. There is no way to avoid gluconeogenesis if that's what the body needs to stay alive.

In The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald, he recommends you eat a minimum of 150 grams of protein for the first three weeks, just until the brain adapts to using ketones for its energy needs.

Once the body switches to using fatty acids and the brain begins to use ketones for up to 80 percent of its fuel, your glucose requirements will go down. As that happens, protein requirements drop as well. You don't eat 150 grams of protein throughout the weight loss phase.

However, there isn’t a set amount of protein that works for everyone.

Most keto specialists trained in nutrition recommend about 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you are following any type of heavy exercise or weight-lifting program, you need up to 1.5, so use these numbers only as a rough guide.

Adjust the amount of protein you eat later on, as needed.

3. Not Eating Enough Food

Give yourself time to adjust to the diet.
Don't restrict portions for a few weeks.

We tend to enter into dieting, any type of dieting, with the mindset that we have to eat less and move more in order to lose weight.

While this is true, the first three to four weeks of keto are not about losing weight. It’s about encouraging your body to switch from predominantly burning glucose for fuel to burning fatty acids and ketones instead.

You don’t do that by eating less food. You do that by making your body feel secure.

One of the top complaints I hear from beginners is that they’re hungry. This will generally happen once the body begins to run out of glycogen. As your glycogen levels go down, the body will begin to demand you replenish them.

It does that by kicking up your hunger quite a bit.

When you are on the verge of making the switch, eat plenty of zero-carb foods to satisfy your appetite. A can of tuna mixed with plenty of mayonnaise is the best thing to eat when hungry.

Yes, you’ll be eating a lot of calories, and a lot of food until your body makes the switch, but you can worry about portion sizes later on.

Generally, this excess hunger only lasts for a day or two because most people who follow a low-carb diet find their hunger significantly goes down once they enter the state of ketosis.

Until that happens, don’t be afraid to eat!

4. Not Understanding Which Foods Contain Too Many Carbohydrates

Grapefruit is not allowed on Atkins Induction

I see this problem quite a bit.

You may be using the misinformation you saw on the web to create your own personalized keto diet plan. If so, and it's not working out, you might be wondering why you aren't losing weight.

So far, all of the people who have given me sample diet meals to analyze for them have been eating foods that are not typically eaten during the beginning of a low-carb diet.

Fruit and nuts seem to be the largest offenders, but if you’re sensitive to wheat or gluten, keto-friendly foods, such as low-carb tortillas and breads, Atkins shakes and bars, or other low-carb products can prevent you from entering the state of ketosis.

So will typical low-fat diet foods.

Take the time to learn which foods are acceptable on a low-carb diet, and which foods are not.

While a carb is a carb, and there’s nothing magic about which foods you actually choose to eat, provided you stay within your own personal carbohydrate level of tolerance, ketogenic programs are designed to help the body quickly lower its insulin levels.

Meat, eggs, cheese, and vegetables are the fastest way to do that.

Granted, a half a cup of cooked rice and 2 cups of cooked vegetables will provide you with about the same amount of glucose, but if you have Insulin Resistance or pre-diabetes, your body won’t react the same way to each of those foods.

There will be plenty of time later on to experiment. For now, it’s best to stick with low-carb foods.

5. Not Drinking Enough Water

You must replenish the water
that's shed with glycogen

Dr. Atkins recommended drinking at least 8 cups of water daily to help the body flush out incompletely burned ketone fragments.

Those 8 cups are 2 quarts of pure water.

However, most nutritionists and diet experts recommend you drink more than that. The current recommendation is to drink about one-half of your current body weight in ounces.

At 200 pounds, that would be 100 ounces of water for me.

Others recommend drinking 64 ounces, and then add an extra 8 ounces for each 25 pounds that you are overweight. For me, that would be about 88 ounces or so.

Whichever formula you choose to use, the important principle is that this is only talking about pure water. It doesn’t include your:

• morning coffee
• diet sodas
• low-carb soft drinks
• unsweetened tea

Just water.

You need the water to process your stored body fat.

The liver uses water to break down your fat stores and convert those triglycerides into fatty acids and ketones. It doesn’t just flush them out of the body.

If you don’t drink enough water, the liver will have to help your kidneys filter out excess toxins and other stuff that’s common in today’s food supply. When helping the kidneys do their job, the liver won't be able to do its own task of mobilizing your fat stores.

Metabolism will go down. You’ll feel tired, cranky, and weight loss will be extremely slow, and possibly even stop completely.

While it can be difficult to begin drinking water if you’re not used to it, water is as important to the body and fat-loss process as getting enough protein is.

By nature, a low-carb diet is dehydrating, so make sure that you’re drinking enough.

6. Not Following the Rules of Your Low-Carb Diet Plan

No matter which keto diet you choose,
read the book and follow the plan.

Each low-carb diet program comes with its own rules.

Whichever program you have chosen to follow, make sure you give the rules of that particular plan a chance to work before you begin tweaking your keto diet.

Weight loss won’t be linear, and sometimes, the body freaks out if you’ve lost a large amount of water during the first week or two. That can cause fat loss to be masked.

Don’t expect to see a lower number on the scale every week, and especially not every day.

For those who are brand new to the low-carb lifestyle, you’ll find this diet works extremely well. The body has never used this pathway before and there is a large learning curve for becoming proficient at burning fat for fuel.

Often, the body will mobilize more fat stores than it needs, and dump a ton of unused ketone fragments into the urine. You’ll be able to initially eat more, make several dieting mistakes without suffering any repercussions, and lose weight at a fairly quick pace.

Sometimes, much quicker than others.

However, it’s always extremely important that you follow the rules of your keto diet plan because your body remembers your dieting patterns and prepares to protect itself against future famines.

If you choose to leave the low-carb lifestyle and then decide to return to it later on, keto won’t work as well as it originally did. While the program will still work, it will take longer and require much more effort to succeed.

Stick to your low-carb diet plan, and if you need to take a break, move into maintenance during periods of turmoil or when you’re in a situation where you don’t have any control over what you eat. Expect the program to work more slowly when you return.

It’s having the diet not meet your unrealistic expectations that causes most low-carb diets to fail. Follow the rules, and you’ll do fine. This is a lifestyle change, and not a diet. Treat it with the respect it deserves and you'll get results.

Additional Articles to Help You Do Low Carb Correctly:

Are You Falling for One of These Three Low-Carb Lies?
What to Do if the Atkins Diet Isn't Working for You
Easy Low-Carb Diet Templates to Help You Plan Your Meals
How to Do the Atkins Diet Correctly
Advice for Those Brand New to Low-Carb Diets
31 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight on Low Carb