How to Start a Keto Diet?

If you’re new to the keto diet, where to start can be the most confusing question of all.

There is so much complicated—even contradictory—information out there that it can be difficult to know which advice to follow.

We’ve created this guide for keto diet beginners to help you navigate the world of low-carb diets.

The first point to make, as you’ll see when you read on further, is that all keto is low carb – but not all low carb is keto. We’ll start by showing you how to tell the difference between the various low-carb and keto diets so that you can make informed choices.

Then it’s all about the keto diet—where to start, what to eat (and what to avoid) and some of the challenges you might encounter along your journey to a keto lifestyle.

Low-Carb Diets

What is a low-carb diet?

A low-carb diet is one that limits the amount of carbohydrates you eat.

These carbohydrates come mainly from sugary and starchy foods that are eaten as part of our daily meals. Staples like regular pasta, white rice and bread made from cereals such as wheat are all high in carbohydrates. As are processed foods like sweetened yoghurts and chocolate.

While there’s no official definition of what qualifies as a “low carb” diet, when you start one, the recommendation is to cut right down on these foods. We recommend that you stay at 20g carbs to stay in ketosis, under 50g carbs for weight loss, and under 100g for weight maintenance.

While the benefits of a low-carb diet are many, lowering blood-sugar levels and weight loss are two common motivations for people starting a low-carb diet.

💻 RELATED: If you're considering a low-carb diet, we've created an article dedicated to why and how to go about it 👉 What is a Low-Carb Diet

You can also find a huge range of products that are suitable for a low-carb diet in our shop. They’re all clearly marked with the Low Carb symbol. 

What is a keto diet?

A ketogenic diet (“keto” for short) is simply a very low-carb diet.

The aim of the keto diet is to put the body into a state of ketosis. This is a process where—starved of sugar as fuel—your body uses fat instead. To reach a state of ketosis, you need to eat less than 50g¹ of carbohydrates per day.

That doesn’t mean not eating at all. Quite the opposite! You’ll need to keep up your protein intake and increase your fat intake to 30g–40g a day². 

Many beginners use a keto diet to start weight loss before they move on to a low-carb diet. And vice versa: keto can also be used to restart your metabolism if you feel like you’ve stopped losing weight on a low-carb diet.

All of the products in our shop that are suitable for people following a ketogenic diet are clearly marked with the Keto or Clean Keto symbol.

What is a paleo diet?

The paleolithic or ‘paleo’ diet (sometimes also called the stone-age diet) takes low-carb eating back to the very basics.

The paleo diet is all about eating as we did as hunter-gatherers. Which is simply as naturally as possible. A paleo diet isn’t always low carb. In fact, it doesn’t focus on how much fat, protein or carbohydrates you should eat³.

Instead, the emphasis is on eating whole, unprocessed foods like grass-fed meats and organic vegetables, including starchy foods that aren’t included in low-carb and keto diets, such as potatoes.

We have many products that work with a paleo diet and, as with every product we sell, they are clearly marked so it’s easy for you to choose what’s right for you.

Starting a Keto Diet

Keto…or clean keto?

Starting a keto diet can be as simple as cutting out the sugar and starches in your diet from foods like rice, flour, grains, potatoes and bread.

To take this a step further, many people who start the keto diet also choose to limit the processed food they eat. This diet is also sometimes referred to as ‘clean keto’. 

Part of clean keto is using no artificial sweeteners to replace sugar. 

You might struggle with your sugar cravings when your keto diet starts. Many people use sweet substitutes like chocolate sweetened with Erythritol and Stevia (two natural sweeteners) to help control cravings. However, they will keep your taste for sugar alive and kicking.

As overcoming your body’s addiction to sugar altogether is vital to succeeding with your keto lifestyle, we recommend that you avoid any sweeteners that can trick your body into thinking it’s still being fed sugar.

Instead, the focus of this kind of keto diet is on eating whole foods from quality sources such as grass-fed meat, free-range eggs and wild-caught seafood. 

Following a clean keto diet will mean cooking most things from scratch using specially adapted keto recipes. Although this is the best option for everyone, we all lead busy lives and need convenience sometimes. 

To help you on your journey, we’ve worked with nutritionists and chefs to create all-natural, pre-prepared keto meals. Cooked in small batches and nutritionally balanced, they are ideal for days when you’re pushed for time and need a healthy meal…fast.

All the clean keto products on our website have been carefully vetted by our nutritionists, and are clearly marked so that you know they fit your dietary requirements.

For some people, starting on a clean keto diet can be a great way to discover any undiagnosed food intolerances. You can always start with a clean keto diet, and then introduce these products back into your diet one by one. 

The benefits of the keto diet

The idea of the keto diet is to convert your body from a sugar burner to a more efficient fat burner. Starving your body of sugar has numerous benefits. 

✅ Weight loss—If you’re trying to lose weight, then a keto diet is one of the most effective ways. It uses your body fat as fuel to give you energy, rather than relying on the sugars that come from carbohydrates.

✅ Anti-inflammatory—For your body, fat is a cleaner, healthier way of fuelling your metabolism. The science behind this is that burning fat releases fewer free radicals, which can damage your cells causing illness, ageing and inflammation⁴. By eliminating sugar you are decreasing the risk of developing chronic inflammation throughout your body.

✅ Increases insulin sensitivity—Eating carbohydrates causes a rise in your blood sugar, which leads to a spike in your insulin. This can lead over time to insulin resistance and ultimately type 2 diabetes⁵. In a study published in Nutrition and Metabolism, researchers found that diabetics following a ketogenic diet needed less diabetic medication—and even reversed their condition in some cases⁶.

✅ Better mental clarity—Ketones are a great fuel for your brain. According to studies cited by diabetes.co.uk, they increase the amount of ‘energy factories’ in your brain that boost the energy levels in certain areas⁷.

Day one on the keto diet

As we’ve said before, all you really need to do to start your keto diet is cut out sugar and all starchy food. 

But you do need to eat some carbohydrates. Recommendations vary but the PCH suggests as little as 20g a day⁸. These carbohydrates can come from vegetables that grow above ground, such as broccoli, bell peppers and courgettes. Some berries, like blueberries and raspberries, are also lower in carbohydrates.