Going on diets are challenging. For people who have had no success with diets, it can get frustrating trying to find a way of eating and living that works. Heard of the keto diet? Many people are going on the keto diet to lose weight and get healthy. This high fat, low carb diet, which we further discuss in the Body Reboot book, can help improve one’s diet and stop diet errors from happening. Beyond just the keto diet, however, a person must implement positive habits that can correct diet mistakes. Here are some pointers to push you in the right direction:

Burn fat for energy

The keto diet burns fat for energy, and by implementing this type of diet, you can expedite weight loss and make healthier choices. If you’ve been on a high carb diet and aren’t achieving weight loss success, Perfect Keto recommends burning fat for energy.

When the average person eats a meal rich in carbs, their body takes those carbs and converts them to glucose for fuel. Insulin is then made to move that glucose into the bloodstream. Glucose is the body’s primary source of energy when carbohydrates are present.

However, things are different on keto. On the ketogenic diet, your carbohydrate intake is kept very low—so when those carbs aren’t present, your body must utilize another form of energy to keep things ticking.

That’s where fats come in. In the absence of carbs, the liver takes fatty acids in the body and converts them to ketone bodies, also known as ketones, as an energy source. This process is known as ketosis, and it’s the goal for those on a ketogenic diet.

Three ketones are made when fatty acids are broken down:

Acetoacetate (AcAc): created first during ketosis

Beta-hydroxybutyric acid (BHB): formed from acetoacetate

Acetone: created spontaneously as a side product of acetoacetate

The Benefits

The original purpose of the ketogenic diet was to prevent epilepsy in children. But since then, it’s been utilized for all sorts of reasons. Some of the best and most popular benefits of the ketogenic diet include:

Better mood

Better sleep

Satiety

Mental clarity

Fat loss

Better skin

Focus on food and not supplements

Eat This, Not That recommends focusing on getting the proper nutrition from food as opposed to supplements. Supplements can be useful, but getting nutrients from food is even better.

Americans may spend billions of dollars on dietary supplements a year, but according to a 2016 study published in the journal JAMA, many of these products show no benefit over placebo. Another surprising finding? Supplement users are apparently among the healthiest members of the population and likely don’t even need supplements. So, unless you have a nutritional deficiency and have been instructed by your doctor to take a supplement, you should look to get your nutrients from whole foods. Doing so will mean you’re getting more than just the vitamin you’re looking for; you’re also getting belly-filling fiber, muscle-building protein, and brain-powering healthy fats.

Get more electrolytes

Are you getting enough electrolytes? Perfect Keto recommends taking an electrolyte supplement (but remember, getting it from food is better), to combat weakness and brain fog. If you’re on the keto diet, you may experience the keto flu, which is what happens when you transition from being on a high carb diet to a low carb diet.

This also falls in the micronutrient department, but it gets its own section because it’s so important.

If you’re experiencing keto flu symptoms like fatigue, muscle aches and weakness, brain fog, and nausea, you might want to consider an electrolyte supplement.

Here’s why: When you first start the keto diet and your body is burning through stored glucose (aka, glycogen), you might find yourself urinating more. That’s because as you burn glycogen, you’re also releasing stored water.

An increase in urination is temporary, but it’s always a good idea to maintain your electrolyte levels, especially if you work out regularly.

HOW TO FIX IT

Electrolytes include the minerals:

Sodium

Calcium

Potassium

Magnesium

Ensure you’re getting enough of these by:

Adding a high-quality electrolyte supplement

Adding more nutrient-dense, low-carb foods to your day, including leafy veggies, grass-fed meats, nuts, and seeds

Add some high-quality sea salt to your morning water or drink lightly salted water before your workout

Stop focusing on the scale

Are you focusing on the scale too much? Sometimes, according to Healthline, focusing on the scale can do more harm than good. Instead of focusing on how much you’re losing, consider other benefits such as how much better you’re feeling and the inches you’re losing.

It's very common to feel like you're not losing weight fast enough, despite faithfully sticking to your diet.

However, the number on the scale is only one measure of weight change. Weight is influenced by several things, including fluid fluctuations and how much food remains in your system.

In fact, weight can fluctuate by up to 4 lbs (1.8 kg) over the course of a day, depending on how much food and liquid you've consumed.

Also, increased estrogen levels and other hormonal changes in women can lead to greater water retention, which is reflected in scale weight.

If the number on the scale isn't moving, you may very well be losing fat mass but holding on to water. Fortunately, you can do several things to lose water weight.

Additionally, if you've been working out, you may be gaining muscle and losing fat.

When this happens, your clothes may start to feel looser — especially around the waist — despite a stable scale weight.

Measuring your waist with a tape measure and taking monthly pictures of yourself can reveal you're actually losing fat, even if the scale number doesn't change much.

Create a meal plan

Having a meal plan is something else you should work on, and Perfect Keto recommends planning. If you’ve been making the mistake of not implementing a meal plan, you may want to consider doing that to improve your diet.

Maintaining a ketogenic diet is a lot easier with a little planning in place. Even having keto-friendly foods on hand is better than starting your week with an empty fridge.

This is especially important during the beginning of your keto journey when cravings are at their worst.

HOW TO FIX IT

Choose one or two days per week to go grocery shopping, prep your meals for the week and store them for later.

Having healthy food at the ready will keep you from ordering that pizza or running to the closest taqueria.

Focus on getting quality sleep

Health says you shouldn’t forget about getting quality sleep. If that’s a mistake you’ve been making, you can correct it by getting more sleep and focusing on consistently sleeping better throughout the week.

Sure, you need to log time at the gym, but to lose weight, you also need to log time in your bed.

Skimping on sleep, especially sleeping less than five or six hours a night, can slow your metabolism and cause hormonal changes that hurt your weight-loss efforts.

Being tired may also make you eat more. One recent study found that people who are sleep-deprived consume a whopping 500 extra calories a day.

Get a support system

Having a support system is critical when you’re on a diet, which is why Eat This, Not That stresses how important it is to find a group of people that can encourage you to stick with your diet.

You’ve decided to change your life—good for you! Now spread the news! When you share your mission with your close friends and family, it will help you to build a support system and you’ll have people who can keep you accountable to your goals. It’s easy to mindlessly scoop another spoonful of ice cream into a bowl, but you might think twice if you have to justify this extra portion to your family as you eat dessert together at the dinner table. Want to take it a step further? Find yourself a diet buddy! Dieters who have a weight-loss partner lose significantly more belly fat compared to those who try to slim down alone, according to a study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

Eat more veggies

Of course, Medium reminds us that eating more veggies can help a lot. If you’ve been making the mistake of not eating enough vegetables taking the time to eat more nutrient-rich foods can make a big difference.

A properly formulated ketogenic diet should be plant-based. Meaning, that the majority of your food should be green leafy vegetables.

All carbohydrates are not created equal. Green leafy veg like kale, spinach, swiss chard, bok choy, broccoli, and fermented foods like sauerkraut and kim chi all have an extraordinary amount of insoluble fiber.

Along with the phytonutrients derived from these vegetables, the fiber plays an important role in becoming fat adapted, or ketogenic.

Dr. Jason Fung describes fiber as an “anti-nutrient” and I love this as an explanation.

Insoluble fiber means that it cannot be broken down by the gut bacteria, and does not dissolve in water.

It is indigestible, an “anti-nutrient” if you will, because it does not break down and become part of you.

It passes through you, cleaning up the debris, sopping up excess hormones, and cleaning out the gut track like a pipe cleaner.

Fiber is also great at retaining a lot of water, thereby making stool bulky and softer.

Consuming fiber does not affect blood sugar levels and therefore will have a negligible effect on insulin.

Ready to lose some weight and stay on a diet that works? Stop making those mistakes and go on the keto diet — the Body Reboot book explains how to make that happen. If you want a free book help us cover shipping and visit this page to get your free copy today!

Sources: Perfect Keto, Healthline, Eat This, Not That, Perfect Keto, Health, Medium