Keto vs Low Carb. People often ask why we do keto and not just low carb? Well, first of all, what is the difference between low carb and keto? On a typical low carb diet, you get about 20% of your calories from carbs. 30% of your calories come from fat and about 50% of your calories come from protein. Most low carb diets recommend eating between 50 to 150 grams of carbs a day.
With keto, you take in 5-10% of your calories from carbs. Usually, people limit their carb intake to between 20 and 50 grams of carbs a day. You also take in 70-75% of your calories from fats. The rest of your calories are brought in with protein. In other words, instead of just lowering your carb intake, you are upping your fat intake to make up the difference.
Before you start comparing diets, it’s important to know that the food we eat is broken down into three main categories called macros. Carbs are things like fruit, vegetables, and starch. There are healthy carbs that are full of good vitamins and nutrients, like fruits and vegetables. Then there are not-so-healthy carbs like sugar and baked goods.
The second category is protein. This is mainly your fish and meats. There is also protein in dairy and nuts.
Finally there are fats. Fat has gotten a bad rep but we need fat in a healthy diet. Healthier fat comes from things like olive oil, nuts, and avocados. Then there is dairy, which is not considered quite as good, but we haven’t had any adverse effects from it. Finally there are trans fats (or artificial fats) like margarine and vegetable oils. These are the fats we avoid on keto.
How does all this come together? I’m a visual person, not a numbers person. So, let’s put it in graphics to compare them.
Keto vs Low Carb vs SAD
This diet is what is making us all fat. This is what Americans (and Canadians – we aren’t better) are actually eating. This is not what is recommended by anyone, but it’s what we are actually taking into our bodies. Most of our diet is made up of carbs and almost half of them are from refined sugar of one kind or another.
A low carb diet plate would look more like this:
Low carb tends to focus more on upping your protein levels. Protein takes longer for your body to process, so it helps you to feel full longer. It suggests healthy fats and carbs that do not include sugar. Low carb can work for a lot of people. It offers you a good variety of healthy carbs.
Then there is the keto plate. It would look something like this:
Keto vs Low Carb
The main benefit of being on keto instead of low carb diets is that you put your body into ketosis. What does that mean? It means that your body starts burning ketones made from fat instead of glucose made by carbs for energy. Why does that matter? When you are burning ketones, you have some benefits you don’t get from burning carbs. The biggest benefit for me is that you feel full. You have consistent energy without the high and low dips throughout the day. And you get to eat foods that are flavourful and delicious! That’s right, foods made with fats are so good!
Because keto limits your carbs so severely, many people decide to do low carb instead. They see keto as too restrictive. But this can put you in what Shawn Mynar from the “Keto for Women” podcast calls low carb purgatory. When you cut back on carbs, you need to fill that void with something else. If you don’t, you will be tired and lethargic because you are starving your body of energy. Without a significant increase in fat, your body keeps looking to carbs for fuel and if it doesn’t get enough of it, your body starts to go into panic mode and shut down.
We find that keto gives us so many benefits. Daily, we try to make sure that the carbs we eat are high in vitamins and nutrients, like broccoli, asparagus and avocados. In our experience we have seen so many benefits to eating keto. We have lost weight, and more importantly, we have gained our health. Also, we have energy to do things and according to my last blood test results, our bodies are chugging along at a great rate. Is it sustainable? Is it too restrictive? Well, we’ve done it for almost 2 years now, and we have no intention of ever going back!
Wendy
