How to Start a Ketogenic Diet for Weight Loss?

Starting the keto diet is the hardest part of the keto diet.

Why?

Because you’ve probably been eating a ton of garbage all your life, and your body won’t know what to do with itself when you stop eating total crap.

Have you looked at the back of a bag of chips?

What is that “maltodextrin” thingie in there listed at #3 and shamelessly advertising itself as corn??

Well, that maltodextrin compound on the bag of chips is killing your body.

A teaspoon of maltodextrin has about 15 calories and 3.8 grams of carbohydrates, and that’s about it. It’s so highly processed that it’s devoid of all nutrients. While it can spike blood sugar levels and promote the growth of harmful bacteria in the gut, there are no health benefits that come with the consumption of maltodextrin. – Learn more about Maltrodextrin from Dr. Axe

Think about it, your body has been so used to eating garbage like this, that changing your eating habits is going to be rough if you jump right into the keto diet.

This all brings us back to the original question: How to start a ketogenic diet for weight loss?

I highly recommend a weaning process for starting the keto diet.

Wean yourself off the foods you normally eat for about 30 days.

Start replacing those bags of chips you munch on at lunch, dinner, and tv time with healthier versions of themselves.

If you are used to throwing back a bag of Doritos or Funyuns (one of my guilty pleasures) while playing video games or while watching Chip and Johanna remodel Waco, sub in some healthy, homemade chips that don’t have chemical binders and fillers which will spike your blood sugars and destroy your body.

Not only do you need to replace chips and other junk foods with healthy versions of themselves, you should start to re-balance your dinner plate.

Re-balance Your Plate

If you are used to eating a high carb dinner at an all you can eat Italian food joint with unlimited breadsticks, (not naming names), start ordering smaller portions of pastas, eat more veggies and forego the white bread, please.

Make your plate greener and focus on eating more protein. Move toward a 2/3 plate of greens with a smaller portion of meat and try giving up desert if you can.

The goal for getting yourself ready for the keto diet over a month is to adjust your body in baby steps before you take the plunge.

When you start the keto diet for real, there is a 3-7 day period where your body will react to the lack of carbs from garbage foods – especially if your body is not used to getting real foods in its cells.

Shopping for the Keto Diet – Abandon the Aisles!

Finally, if most of your meals come from going out to eat, a great way to prepare yourself for the keto diet is by shopping for groceries – from the edges of the store.

If you are like most people, you’re usually meandering the middle aisles and avoiding the edges of the store where veggies, fruits, meat, dairy, and other healthy foods live.

Start shopping from the perimeter of the store and abandon the aisles!

Most food in boxes or packages is made from stuff like the maltodextrin listed above.

Food in boxes is not natural, not good for you, and the reason you are interested in losing weight in the first place – it’s caused your body to suffer and is killing you with every bite.

If you are like most people, you’ve eaten boxed and pre-packaged food all your life, and it shows. It shows in your cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels, in your body where you’d prefer it not show, and also in your mental health.

Eating bad food is bad for your emotions. All that “emotional eating” is actually hurting you in ways you can’t imagine. It’s time to stop!

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the inner workings of your digestive system don’t just help you digest food, but also guide your emotions. – Harvard

To kick off a keto diet, start learning how to prepare your own food.

Guides like “Breakfast in 5” from Trylowcarb.com are a great way to learn how to make healthy food choices.

It’s important that you prepare yourself for the weight loss and health benefits you need from the ketogenic diet.

Now that you know how to start a ketogenic diet for weight loss, take a look at these keto diet books which will help you come up with meal plans and recipes for the keto diet.

Our Keto Flu article will help you learn what to do in the first week or so as your body reacts to a new way of life on the ketogenic diet, and see how long it takes for your body to enter ketosis.

It’s not all doom & gloom. Being healthy after years of eating garbage is liberating… trust me!

Disclaimer: I’m not a dietitian or nutritionist, but a health enthusiast, clean eater and ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting partaker. I started this website because I love the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting lifestyle. My favorite way of eating is to eliminate as many carbs as possible from my diet, eat lots of greens, and real food, forego anything that comes in boxes or is manufactured or produced in a factory or made from chemicals that mean absolutely nothing to the average person. I’m recommending products in this article that have affiliate links and will pay me a small commission if you purchase something to help you along with your keto diet. I always recommend products I think will be beneficial, based on other people’s reviews of the products or my personal research on the efficacy of the product, for your ketogenic diet journey.