1 of the most famous diets out there at the moment; the keto diet. People who might want to start a keto diet are often full of questions.
One of the most frequently asked questions is how many carbohydrates you can eat during a keto diet. This is of course often asked because the keto diet is a very low-carb diet.
We will answer this question in this article and we also give examples of foods with carbohydrates that you can eat!
Table of Contents
- What is a keto diet?
- How many carbs can you eat on a keto diet?
- What foods with carbohydrates can you eat?
- The benefits of a keto diet
- Tips to stick to the keto diet
What is a keto diet?
A keto diet, short for the ketogenic diet, is a diet in which you consume very few carbohydrates.
Now you may be wondering; if you eat almost no carbohydrates, what CAN you eat during a ketogenic diet? We will give a few examples of foods that are very suitable in a moment, but in general, you get your calories mainly from fats.
This may sound a bit strange to many people; a diet in which you get a lot of your calories from fats, that’s why we explain this a little more.
In your body carbohydrates are broken down into glucose. Glucose is a very important substance for your body; you can think of this as your body’s fuel, it provides your body with energy. So if you eat few carbohydrates, you will also have little glucose in your blood.
However, your body obviously needs energy. To get this energy, your body will burn fatty acids. As a result, your body will generally lose fat and you can lose weight. We deliberately use the word ‘can’ here because you will only lose weight if you consume fewer calories than your body burns. The idea behind this diet is that this will be easier due to the mechanism just discussed.
So it sounds contradictory; eat more fat to lose fat, but that’s exactly how this diet works.
How many carbs can you eat on a keto diet?
The ketogenic diet is a very low-carbohydrate diet, the key question is of course how many carbohydrates you can eat per day.
We will start right away with the limit, the so-called carb rule is to eat a maximum of 50 grams of carbohydrates per day. At first glance, this may not seem like very little, but you should realize that with a normal diet, with 2000 kcal per day, you eat about 200 to 350 grams of carbohydrates.
It now makes sense to ask yourself; why is there such a strict limit and can’t you gradually reduce it first? This has to do with the mechanism just discussed in which carbohydrate burning switches to fat burning.
In the beginning, you mustn’t go too fast and take bizarrely few carbohydrates. This will lead to you giving up quickly; start with a carbohydrate intake of 30 to 50 grams per day. Once you are used to the low amount of carbohydrates, it is possible to lower your carbohydrate intake towards 10 to 20 grams.
What foods with carbohydrates can you eat?
Despite the fact that you can only get very few carbohydrates, it is important that you get a small amount of them. That’s why people often ask; which foods with carbohydrates can I eat?
It is therefore important that these foods do not contain too many carbohydrates. That is why we indicate below how many carbohydrates it contains per food.
| Food | Grams of carbohydrates (per 100 grams) |
| Broccoli | 0,8 |
| Raspberries | 4,5 |
| Cucumber | 1,3 |
| Cauliflower | 1,8 |
| Paprika | 3,8 |
| Mushrooms | 0,4 |
| Onion | 6,3 |
| Asparagus | 3,0 |
| Brussels sprouts | 5,0 |
| Lettuce | 0,8 |
| Blackberries | 5,1 |
The benefits of a keto diet
If you are considering starting a ketogenic diet, it is very important to determine why you are doing this. We will now give an overview of the most important benefits that can motivate you to start a keto diet.
- A keto diet promotes rapid weight loss.
- The process of burning fatty acids reduces the feeling of hunger.
- More energy, because fats are a huge energy source for your body.
In addition to these benefits, there are many other positive health effects that occur when you follow a keto diet. However, these are quite specific for certain conditions such as Parkinson’s and Diabetes. We will not discuss these benefits in this article.
Tips to stick to the keto diet
It’s important to also honestly recognize that the keto diet is a very tough diet to stick to. Especially at the beginning, the low amount of carbohydrates can take a lot of getting used to for your body. That’s why we now give you some tips that will certainly help you!
- Give it time : Don’t expect huge results within a week. Your body first needs time to get used to the low carbohydrate intake. Know that the results will come if you persevere!
- Count on extra fatigue at the start : We just discussed that a keto diet will lead to more energy, so this may sound contradictory. Ultimately, a keto diet will lead to more energy, but in the phase that your body is going to switch from carbohydrate burning to fat burning, you can actually feel more tired / drowsy.
- Make an overview of your diet : It is very important that you make an overview of the foods you can eat and which you cannot eat. In addition, make sure that you make a schedule for exactly what you are going to eat in a week. For example, make an overview every Monday for what you are going to eat that coming week.
- Track your process : This is especially something that can greatly increase your motivation. If you see that you are losing weight a little bit every week, this can be very motivating (if you could use some extra motivation click here). If your goal is to lose weight, weigh yourself often.
Lifestyle coach [5+ years of fitness experience]