Dirty, Lazy Keto: How Well Does it Really Work?

It's been 5 months since I adopted a dirty, lazy, low-carb lifestyle, and I'm shocked at the results.

What took me over a year to do before (by reducing calories) has only taken me 20 weeks this time.

I'm below where I was when we first moved to Texas.

Part of the success is because I'm doing things differently this time around.

I'm staggering my carbs and calories, to keep the body from adapting too quickly, and also de-carbing our current lifestyle, rather than trying to start with Atkins 72 and build on that foundation.

This has enabled hubby to continue his current lifestyle, with a few additions, and solves the problem of having to come up with tons of cheap food ideas to keep him from getting bored.

Dirty, lazy Keto, for us, is maintenance without so many carbs.

To be fair, I don't like the terms “dirty” and “lazy.”

But those words are what people – wanting to know if dirty, lazy Keto will work for them – are going to call it. So I'm just going to go with the fad this time and explain how to implement a simple low-carb lifestyle that works great!

First, lets start with some definitions. 

What is Dirty Keto?

I think the clean Keto phenomenon came from the Paleo community who strongly advocates for eating 100% grass-fed meats. While improving the nutritional value of what you eat is always beneficial to your health, it's very expensive to stick with grass-fed animals and organic produce.

Not everyone can afford to do that.

However, clean isn't better than dirty when it comes to weight loss. Both types of low-carb diets, dirty keto and clean keto, will work well.

Dirty Keto simply means you are not limiting yourself to a whole-foods diet. You're eating whatever you want to eat within your carbohydrate sensitivity level. And that includes sugar substitutes and dairy products.

Focus is on carbs that will help you maintain ketosis and shed those excess pounds without a lot of work.

Where those carbs come from doesn't matter very much on dirty Keto.

For example: chaffles.

I now use my homemade gluten-free flour mix, instead of the almond flour called for in the recipe, because it's less rough on my digestion, and I'm still losing weight doing that.

The flour mix contains finely ground white-rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, and cornstarch. Foods that are NOT considered “Keto-friendly” by most low-carb dieters.

Dirty Keto steps over the line and allows you the freedom to incorporate foods that are not necessarily healthy.

If it fits your macros, it's fine.

Those chaffles (low-carb waffles) weigh in at a little over 8-1/4 net-carbs each, due to the flour mix, but they are not hard to work into a 35-net carb day.

Plus, some chaffle recipes, like those that include peanut butter or unsweetened cocoa, don't require any flour at all.

What is Lazy Keto?

Dr. Atkins was always a fan of simplicity.

The low-carb plans that he created over the years started with a simple Induction diet, and then after 1 to 2 weeks, they allowed you to add to that foundation the carby foods that you missed the most.

These Induction diets didn't come with a lot of counting.

You didn't have to weigh and measure most of the foods you eat.

You measured your vegetables and salads, and a few incidentals like lemon juice or sour cream, but you didn't have to keep tract of fat grams or calories.

The focus was on ridding your diet of excess carbohydrates, so that's what you pay attention to on Atkins.

The Keto Diet over at the Reddit forums is very strict. They weigh and measure everything they eat. This is why they hardly ever stall.

In addition to keeping track of carbohydrates, at 20-net carbs per day, you also have a protein gram target that you need to hit and a fat-gram ceiling to make sure that you're eating at a calorie deficit. Most of them also track their electrolyte intake.

Those who do not want to go to this extreme are labeled “lazy.”

However, lazy Keto isn't looked down on over there.

Lots of beginners can lose weight just fine by only concentrating on carbohydrates. Most of the forum participants are perfectly fine with that.

It's only after you reach equilibrium, where your food intake matches your energy output, that you might have to adopt a tighter food plan that is more strict than the one you'd been following.

How Well Does Dirty, Lazy Keto Work?

I fit into both of these groups: dirty Keto and lazy Keto.

This is because I don't stick with strictly clean Keto foods and I'm not counting much of anything. I've been doing low carb for so long now that I can pretty much estimate how many carbs I'm eating.

At least, when I'm paying attention to them.

Breakfast right now is pretty much zero carb, unless we have sausage. Lunch is also pretty much zero carb, less than 5 grams. I eat a lot of baked chicken, tuna salad, leftover ribs, and cheese omelets.

Dinner is where most of my carb intake comes from, so I can work on making our evening meal as close to our past lifestyle as possible.

For example, when I make burritos, I eat just the filling and give hubby the tortillas. When I make sandwiches, I use sliced cheese for the bread. Dinner is grilled or baked meat and a side dish, such as vegetables, a salad, diet jello, or guacamole with pork rinds.

My focus?

Maintenance.

Yep, right now!

Maintenance isn't something I intend on figuring out when I reach that part of the path. I'm working on incorporating that type of mindset right now.

I believe this is why de-carbing our meals, rather than adopting a strict dieting mindset, with a brand new maintenance plan further down the road, will be more beneficial and sustainable long-term.

Each change is permanent.

The idea is to let our diet evolve into something we can just keep on doing once I reach goal weight. Kind of like coasting into the size I want to be.

And so far, that has been working beautifully!

Over the past 5 months, I've lost 34 pounds.

Before, counting calories, it took me over a year to lose 40 pounds; so, I'm very, very happy with my Keto success to date.

Yes, dirty, lazy Keto works; but it works because I'm making small changes that are a permanent part of the new me. I'm looking at our current lifestyle and subtracting carbs where it won't be painful.

I cut the carbs that don't matter much to me.

Plus, I've stretched out my higher carb days and limited my maximum carb intake for a meal to 30. Eating this way, I have indulged in:

• CarbSmart ice cream (mostly chocolate)
• homemade cheesecake
• chaffle bread for hamburger buns
• battered and deep-fried chicken strips
• sugar-free cornbread
• diet gelatin with canned fruit cocktail and whipped cream

And have still lost 34 pounds so far.

In addition, I eat to my blood glucose meter. This is why some of the items on the above list are not strictly Keto-approved.

A diabetic diet is a bit different from Keto.

What you can or cannot have depends on your metabolic defects and your blood glucose response to the things you're eating.

So far, I've been good with a maximum of 35-net carbs per day. With most days, closer to 20 or 25. Sometimes, much, much less.

Pattern is random so the body doesn't catch on. The body will adapt to anything that is consistent.

Plus, I want our eating style to feel more normal.

Final Thoughts

Some people have described Lazy Keto as just being Atkins Induction, and in a sense, they're right. On Atkins Induction, you limit your carbohydrate intake to 20-net carbs per day.

Nothing else is counted.

Likewise, Dirty Keto doesn't have to be a ton of unhealthy foods. It's just called that by those who hold up their squeaky clean lifestyle as a badge of honor.

What's important is whether your style of eating is giving you the results you're after. For me, that's hunting down recipes and food ideas I can enjoy for the rest of my life.