A friend decided to go on the Keto diet and was doing quite well. She had lost a lot of weight and was well on her way to reaching her goal.
She had started exercising regularly and at first, things were going fine. Then, as her workouts progressed, things began to stall.
We went over her keto program and how much she was eating. Everything seemed to check out, but she wasn’t losing weight.
We checked and sure enough, she was not in ketosis.
Finally, we came across the reason for the lack of progress; she was drinking a protein shake after her workouts.
It was indeed, very low carb, but it was also, much higher in protein than she was utilizing in her workouts.
Consuming too much protein can easily knock you out of ketosis.
Most people understand the Keto diet as little more than a “Low Carb” diet. Although they share a number of similar factors just eating low carb will not necessarily put you in a state of “Ketosis”.
Protein can also play a huge factor in your transition into “Ketosis”.
Your body will always need proteins as a building block, but it can also convert extra protein into glucose which can shut down production of ketones. That will keep your body from absorbing ketones as fuel and instead choose to go back to absorbing glucose.
Interestingly, if you don’t eat enough proteins, you can also drop out of ketosis, for but an entirely different reason.
Having plenty of fat but not enough protein can trigger a “starvation” state which will force your body to store fats, reduce your metabolism and actually cause weight gain!
So, when eating a meal, make sure that your ratios of fat and proteins are on track.
So how do you keep your proteins in the right ratios?
It’s not terribly difficult, but you do have to pay attention to what you consume.
The most common culprit is the protein shake. Many people think that because it is low carb, they can drink a shake to curb hunger or satisfy a craving. It’s so easy to grab a protein shake in the middle of the day or when you first get home, but a protein shake is just that, protein, which means you don’t have a reasonable ratio of fats.
I can’t tell you how many times a client came to me upset because they didn’t lose any weight this week only to find out they started making protein shakes either as a meal replacement or as a quick snack.
What is a good way to handle consuming protein? If you work out for building muscle mass, a lot of people will need to increase their protein intake so they can see substantial gains. One of the many mistakes people make is not consuming protein after a workout or taking too much protein after their workout since their bodies can only utilize a certain amount.
If you don’t workout or even if you do mostly cardio, keeping your protein ratios in check with your calorie intake is vitally important, especially if you are just in your early months of Keto.