If you’re constantly struggling to find your perfect weight, try considering going on a ketogenic diet. Whether you’re trying to lose or gain weight, keto can help you to find what’s best for your body. Keep in mind that while I stress the importance of bio-individuality, which is about taking each person as a unique whole and respecting the fact that no two people are ever exactly alike when it comes to their health, I do think that it’s ok to explore new things and see how they work for you. In this case, if you’re used to a high carb or typical modern diet, perhaps give keto a chance and see for yourself if it helps.

I personally do very well with keto- read all about my experience here– and have found it to be quite effective for my goals.

Here are some of the ways that keto helps with achieving one’s ideal weight:

It Removes Junk Food

Right off the bat, one of the most powerful benefits you will receive after going keto is getting off of processed foods. The sugary, addictive, blood-sugar spiking foods that surround us cannot be consumed not only because they’re unhealthy but because they’ll keep you out of ketosis after consumption. As refresher, a keto diet is low carb, high fat, with an emphasis on the carbs being low. There’s no way you can become a fat burner if you’re giving into eating burgers and fries. So you’re already ditching these foods for healthier choices, like avocados, broccoli, and salmon. As an added bonus, a lot of those former cravings for sweets and fast foods will soon go away. Like a mad scientist, you’ll be using keto to go back and re-wire your taste buds for craving the real good stuff.

You Feel Satiated

Don’t let the word ‘diet’ next to keto fool you. When done properly, a ketogenic diet is the complete opposite of starvation. First of all, you should be eating whole foods. So you’re eating for nutrition. Second, upon going keto, you’re teaching your body to go from burning carbs (sugar) to burning fat for energy. Many times before going keto, people are used to eating constantly throughout the day. They’re either eating too little, are an Olympic athlete, or have an unstable blood sugar that’s causing them to eat a lot to stay sane. With keto, don’t be surprised if you can go for hours before feeling hungry again. The extra fat takes time to digest too, so your body isn’t going to be looking for fuel anytime soon while it breaks down your last meal. That’s one of the side effects of going keto- you experience much less hunger.

Adjustability IS Possible

What if we have two people who are interested in going keto, but for different reasons? Person A wants to lose weight, and Person B is looking to gain weight. It’s not a common topic in the diet and fitness world- most people are trying to knock off the pounds, with very few people working very hard just to add some. That’s why keto is yet another option for both of these scenarios. The weight-loss-focused Person A is, without a doubt, going to have a good chance at reaching their goal with keto. Their hunger levels go down, their metabolism improves, and they lose cravings for junk food. As for Person B, getting extra calories in order to gain weight isn’t too hard. High fat foods like butter, olive and coconut oil come in handy and can be added to almost every meal. Fatty cuts of meat, dairy and nuts are other foods you can add. Just think of eating in a surplus. Either way, both ketogenic approaches can be tweaked according to your needs.

Fat Adaptation Makes the Body Flexible

Even if you decide not to maintain a ketogenic diet, doing it for some time and becoming fat adapted does some pretty awesome things. Since you used to mainly burn sugar/carbs, converting into a fat-burner makes you all the more flexible with your metabolism. Mark Sisson, Primal Blueprint founder and author of The Keto Reset Diet puts it very well, “Being fat-adapted and keto-adapted means that you can veer off the plan now and then and not tailspin into a monthlong sugar binge. When you have this esteemed metabolic flexibility, you can wake up the day after eating cake by the ocean, or even a bunch more stuff on a weeklong cruise, and get right back into the groove…. Adopting this lifestyle means freedom from sugar cravings, fatigue, and overstimulation of the fight-or-flight response from excess carbohydrates. What could be better than that?”

So if carbs aren’t working out as you’d hoped, then try going keto for a while. Keep note of all of these effects, and stick to it. There’s going to be an adjustment period, but once it’s over, you’ll be glad to have waited it out. And even with weight, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not shedding the pounds as rapidly as some people reportedly do. Everyone’s on a different journey, with very different circumstances and makeup than you. Please don’t get discouraged by the scale, and pay close to attention to how you feel. At the end of the day, you should be happy; not deprived. If anything, at least you’ve given something a good try, and can give a true opinion about it.

But tell me about you. Have you gone keto before? How has it affected your weight?  If you’re still on the fence, then try my Keto Meal Plan as a way of getting started! That way, you’ll have all the information and meal planning you’ll need in order to do keto effectively!