Today we will look at how to lose 10 pounds in a month on keto diet and whether that is reasonable and healthy.
Keto diet is very popular right now…more popular than Vegan and plant-based and there are good reasons for that.
We will explore some of them and I will help you get started on Keto if that is what you want. Let’s dig in.
Hello and welcome to Fearlessly Holistic.
My name is Irma and I want to share my journey to improved health by eating whole foods, moving my body and eliminating stress as much as possible.
It is my hope to inspire you to make daily changes. Why? Because eating fresh, seasonal food, getting some sunshine, and purging unhelpful thinking is the best way to increase longevity. But you do not want just a long life.
You want a quality long life, and you want to look and feel your best while you live it.
Ready to start keto? Grab my KETO FOOD GUIDE and start eating better today. Keto diet, and especially clean keto which I advocate for, it healthy and delicious and nourishes your body which encourages healing and weight loss.
My blog posts are my opinion and the results of things that I have tried that either worked for me or didn’t. My opinions are for informational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. Medical advice should always be obtained from a qualified medical professional for any health conditions or symptoms associated with them. As well, there may be affiliate links in this post. Read more here.
How Keto Diet Works
By now almost everyone has heard about or even tried the ketogenic diet for one reason or another.
This low-carb way of eating is the most searched diet on Google for good reason…everyone can succeed on Keto.
When the ketogenic diet was first created it was meant to help children with epilepsy, which it did very effectively.
Nowadays, the keto diet helps anyone.
You may have to tweak it for current food intolerances, but it does work because it is the diet people have been eating for centuries.
At its heart keto is a clean food diet that encourages eating foods in their whole form, free of additives.
Keto diet limits the amount of carbohydrates you eat
Carbohydrates increase the glucose in your blood (blood sugar). The current food guidelines suggest eating often to maintain a steady flow of energy from sugar (carbs).
When your blood sugar rises, your pancreas emits insulin to bring it back to normal.
Eating 3 meals + 3 snacks a day means that your pancreas is constantly at work to lower your blood sugar.
If this process goes on for years, your pancreas cannot handle the load and you end up with Type II diabetes.
A better solution is to eat foods that provide energy but do not tax your pancreas and immune system.
Keto diet is low in carbohydrates, but higher in fat and protein
When carbs are limited, your body must switch to another source of fuel…ketones.
Ketones are produced in the liver by the breakdown of fat cells.
Essentially, the body is burning fat for fuel in ketosis.
A Ketogenic diet has been a perfect system for millenia.
And is the main reasons that humans have survived during droughts, plagues, and other reasons for food scarcity.
The food is satiating so it lowers blood sugar; you eat less often, your blood sugar is stable and your pancreas is not constantly working to keep up.
The higher amount of good quality fat feeds your brain what it needs to work optimally.
Once ketosis has been achieved, as long as you maintain it you can easily live on less food, as long as the food you do eat is high quality.
Is Losing 10 Pounds in a Month Healthy?
Most diet “professionals” will tell you that you should aim for a 1 to 2 pound weight loss per week, which is 8 or 9 pounds in a month.
So 10 pounds is a realistic goal.
The best way to do this is to:
- Make a plan
- Create a menu for the month
- Choose your recipes
- Shop for your food
- Get rid of any tempting foods, snacks or unhelpful items that can de-rail your success
When you set yourself up for success, you make the outcome completely realistic and easier to achieve.
Be sure to sign up for my weekly newsletter of tips for keto diet and get a shopping list with quick start tips so you have an idea of what you need to do.
Some people will lose more than 10 pounds in a month
The initial weight loss that most people get when changing diets comes from water and the food currently in the digestive system.
A lot of ingredients in fast food and processed foods are created in a lab. They are not real food, even though they may be made from ‘natural’ ingredients or are allowed by the FDA.
These items take longer to digest because they are foreign (not real food) and must be processed as such. Once they are gone, weight loss stabilizes.
The rise in Type II diabetes and obesity is clearly tied to diet
And our diets changed forever in the 1970’s when processed foods started taking over grocery store aisles.
This gets ramped up year after year due to consumer demand, as people drift further away from eating true natural foods.
When you switch your diet to clean, whole foods you automatically lose weight.
You will see plenty of videos on TikTok and YouTube on why people who switched to a Vegan or plant-based diet started feeling better right away and lost weight.
What you do not see in those videos is how hard it is to maintain health when you have to use processed foods to create complete proteins.
You trade one type of poor health for another.
Foods Essential to Healthy Weight Loss
The science is very clear in this area: our bodies require certain nutrients to fuction optimally and those are protein and fat.
Fat and protein both contain ‘essential’ components.
They are essential because they are required for life.
I will explain this section in basic terms, because the science is actually very detailed.
Protein
Protein contains essential amino acids and there are nine of these. FYI all nine are found in animal products.
There are a total of 20 amino acids, but the non-essential forms can be made by the body.
We get our essential amino acids from food sources.
Essential amino acids are used to build protein in your body.
If you do not eat enough protein, your body will take it from your muscles causing them to weaken or otherwise degrade.
People who are deficient in essential amino acids look like walking skeletons…skin over bones.
Fats
The worst thing that the 1970’s brought us was low-fat diets and fat-free foods.
When that happened food manufacturers started using the ultra-unhealthy ‘vegetable’ oils and tons more sugar, because you have to use something to make baked goods taste good once they stopped using butter.
Our health requires natural fat foods
You can find natural fats in coconut, avocado, nuts and seeds, dairy products and of course attached to animal proteins
Quality fats are required for life. We need it for brain health and to create healthy cells as well as many other functions.
There are two types of essential fatty acids: Omega-3’s and Omega-6’s
A small amount of Omega-6 is good, but it should be balanced with a higher amount of Omega-3; find this in foods such as seafood and broccoli.
There are NO essential carbohydrates
I believe that this is because, for the most part, natural carbohydrates aka fresh fruit and veggies, grow seasonally in most parts of the world.
So no one fruit or vegetable would be naturally available to all people, all of the time.
This is why I advocate for a seasonal keto diet.
Humans are not meant to eat fruit and veggies every day, 365 days a year. It is quite unnatural.
We get a lot of sweet fruit later in summer to help us fatten up for a winter of lower calories and less activity.
We get the type of nutrients that we need progressively through the growing season.
If you start eating the fresh produce that is available to you locally where you live, you will get a huge boost of nutrients that feed your cells and your health.
If you eat enough meat to satisfy you, along with healthy fats and seasonal produce, you will get the nutrition your body needs.
How to Eat to Lose 10 Pounds in a Month
Sign up for a free food tracking app like Cronometer.
Input your height, weight and activity level to get a baseline for your macros. Macros is short for macronutrients, which are protein, fat and carbs.
This will give you the starting numbers based on your current health, so that you get the nutrients that your body requires to function optimally. You can tweak these as you lose weight.
A good rule of thumb for keto macros is: 70% of calories from fat, 25% from protein and 5% from carbs.
You can adjust the protein and fat, but keep the carbs at 5% daily if you want to lose weight.
Shop for keto foods:
- Fresh meat that you want to cook and eat; eggs; seafood/shellfish; poultry; and dairy products if you tolerate them.
- Healthy fat items, like avocado, nuts & seeds (watch out for seed oils in jarred/canned nuts), nut butters.
- Veggies; and if they are available to you, get some fresh berries
Your goal is to combine these items into meals that fill you up, keep you full until your next meal and improve health.
Here are some sample meal ideas.
The food is basic food combining, so the combinations are endless.
Note: You do not have to eat vegetables if you do not want them; they just create more variety and are visually appealing as well.
Day 1:
Breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled with some heavy cream and 2 slices of bacon
Lunch: grilled chicken with tossed green salad
Dinner: Stir fried shrimp with snow peas
Day 2:
Breakfast: 2 egg omelet with cheese, ham cubes, mushrooms, green bell pepper and diced onion
Lunch: Tuna salad (tuna with mayo and finely diced celery); wrap in large lettuce leaves
Dinner: Beef steak with sauteed onions and mushrooms and a side of slice tomato
Day 3:
Breakfast: Blueberry chia pudding
Lunch: Beef spaghetti sauce served over cooked spaghetti squash strands
Dinner: Bacon, Ranch and cheese baked chicken with steamed green beans
Conclusion
I have over 40 recipes in my Fearless Keto Diet Kit, so if you are looking for an all-in-one solution for starting keto diet, check it out.
It is not just recipes, but a more detailed shopping list, more info on macros, keto flu tips and planner to help you plan and track your keto success.
If you are not quite ready for that step, then I suggest grabbing my free keto food list and quick start guide…absolutely free!
Holism targets overall wellness, and when we are well, we only get better with age.
Eat the best food that you can afford to give your body the building blocks it needs for optimal health, longevity, and looking good for as long as possible 😉
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Until next time, here’s to our health!
-Irma
