After Following the Keto Diet for 10 Days, Here's What I Discovered

What if we told you that overindulging in butter, cheese, and steak might boost your energy levels, satisfy cravings, and reduce body fat by inches? Those are the grandiose claims made by the ketogenic diet, or simply keto, and the real results aren’t all that dissimilar.

This is a brief summary of how the diet operates: Your body can enter ketosis by consuming no more than 10% of its calories from carbohydrates, 20% from protein, and 70% from healthy fats. This leads the liver to create ketones, which are byproducts of breaking down fat for energy. (I used MyFitnessPal to track my macros consistently.)

Maintaining this high-fat, low-carb, moderate-protein diet enables your body to burn fat for energy instead of glucose, which is normally used as our body’s main energy source.
And who wouldn’t want that? I chose to give it a try since I sure did.

Critics said I would be grumpy, hungry, and would not make it through three days. But in spite of this uncertain outpouring, my will to reach the enchanted state of ketosis did not waver.

What I Discovered After Following the Keto Diet

Gained Energy

My energy really increased after reading endless blog postings about other dieters complaining of weariness and lethargy during the first few days. I felt like I had consumed three cups of coffee without any cream. The nervousness and restlessness were a little too much at one point. However, as the days went by, my energy levels stabilized, and I started to feel more focused and productive. Go away, brain fog!

Stomach Became Flatter

You know how it feels to wake up with your tummy visibly flatter and wish it could stay that way all day? That usually ephemeral feeling turned into something fairly lasting when on keto. After a few more days on the diet, my bloating went down, and I was positive that my abs would show—and it wasn’t all in my brain. Jim White, RD, ACSM, proprietor of Jim White Fitness Nutrition Studios, tells us that “reducing it can lead to less bloating if someone has GI issues from too much fiber.” Furthermore, one gram of carbohydrates retains one gram of water. You can achieve a flatter tummy by losing water weight when you cut back on carbohydrates.

The Myth of Bulletproof Coffee’s Magical Properties

clear glass mug with brown liquid on brown wooden table

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk about bulletproof coffee and how it can increase cognitive function and give you a sharper mind. Regretfully, I did not experience the miraculous benefits that Silicon Valley executives and Hollywood celebrities claim when I infused my morning cup of coffee with unsalted grass-fed butter and MCT oil. For me, the greatest advantage was that each sip of the beverage seriously moisturized my lips.

My Wants Stopped Existing

Out of all the negative effects, this one must have been the most noticeable. My once voracious appetite declined sharply. Enter: I stopped pouring cereal bowls after dark, I stopped eating nonstop at my desk, and I didn’t get hurt when my coworkers spooned new low-calorie Ben & Jerry’s ice cream straight in front of my face. It’s official—the self-proclaimed “Carb Queen” is no longer in power.

Meal planning is essential

Making your meals ahead of time is one of the most important strategies for staying in ketosis. You run the risk of losing ketosis if you let your willpower rule your eating choices when you’re hungry. This is because eating whatever you see could tempt you to eat anything. Remember to invest some time in meal preparation if you’re serious about following this diet and reaping all of its wonderful benefits, including weight loss.

Found a Whole Lot of New Foods

As I learned to carve out time for meal prep, I also came to love a few new foods. After all, I couldn’t survive on whole avocados and cheese and butter for ten days. I had to get creative in the kitchen to increase my daily fat intake, and low-carb and high-fat foods like House Foods’ tofu noodles (above) and Keto Carne—as well as high-fat snacks like Cacao Vita’s single-origin cacao nibs—became my go-to kitchen staples. For breakfast, I found myself scarfing down two squares of 90-percent cacao with some almonds or two tablespoons of Kite Hill Chive Cream Cheese Style Spread.

I usually packed a tofu scramble or had fried turkey and beef meatballs for lunch. Usually, dinner consisted of a two-egg omelet with cheese or a piece of salmon with vegetables. The hardest was definitely eating out. If you must visit your neighborhood sushi restaurant, order the Naruto roll, which is made by wrapping fresh fish in cucumber rather than rice. Recall that you can always request a change to your food from your server.

It’s still unclear if following a ketogenic diet is heart-healthy.

After eating so many animal products, I started to wonder if the ketogenic diet was bad for my heart. I talked to clinical cardiologist and Nano Health Associates co-founder Adam Splaver, MD, who assured me that “as long as you are consuming good fats, [the diet is] not a problem.” Conversely, “bad fats can promote atherosclerosis,” he stated, cautioning against hydrogenated fats and strongly endorsing healthy fats like monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats for keto. once again as I spoon-fed my way through a whole avocado.

It’s Difficult to Stay in Ketosis

I used ketone testing strips, which detect ketone bodies in your urine, to track how my level of ketosis changed with each meal and throughout the day. Regardless of their potential health benefits, I made a commitment to stay away from high-glycemic food because even half of a sweet potato would cause me to enter ketosis. I was in a deep state of ketosis by day seven, according to the strips, which meant that my self-inflicted carb restriction was undoubtedly paying off. I strongly advise getting test strips if you intend to try this diet in order to figure out your unique upper carb limit and gain insight into how different foods impact your levels of ketosis.

My demise came on day nine. I unfortunately overindulged in microwaved stroopwafels and chocolate frozen yogurt. The day after I reduced my net carb intake to 10 grams, I experienced increased moodiness and drowsiness. By the end of the tenth day, I gave in to all of my favorite carb-rich vices. Oh no.

Final Thoughts

I wasn’t sulking like a sailor or swooning over every whole-wheat loaf my buddies placed into the toaster during my first week on the keto diet. But near the end of my trial, I started to suffer an overwhelming amount of desires and hunger, which made me understand that this diet isn’t particularly sustainable.

“Any time you drop entire macro or food groups you once loved, you will start to crave it,” White tells us. “It’s best to be adaptable. I realize the whole point of keto is to enter ketosis, but if you want to modify it a bit and up the carbs, it won’t harm you. What good is it to embark on a diet that you know won’t last and you’ll eventually put all the weight back on?”

I will most definitely be switching to a low-carb diet going forward. For me, eliminating carbohydrates fully eliminated the occasional bloating and gastrointestinal pain I had and gave me sustained energy. This was especially true with processed, refined carbohydrates. And by the conclusion of the ten days, I had dropped a little over a pound and a half and a few centimeters from my waist—not enough to fit into my baggy AG pants, but enough to make me feel proud.

Are you ready to start your own ketogenic journey?

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Keto Diet Weight Loss: Everything I Learned From Going Keto For 10 Days (eatthis.com)

After Following the Keto Diet for 10 Days, Here’s What I Discovered

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